2024-01-08 15:03:02
Wi-Fi 7 is officially here, ushering us into the next generation of wireless internet and bringing significantly faster Wi-Fi speeds and better connectivity than ever before.
The Wi-Fi Alliance officially announced Wi-Fi 7 at CES 2024, and while many specifications of the new Wi-Fi standards have been circulating online, the Wi-Fi Alliance announcement finally clarifies what we can expect the latest and greatest Wi-Fi technology.
What is Wi-Fi 7?
The Wi-Fi Alliance unveiled the Wi-Fi 7 standard on January 8, 2024, at CES 2024, officially launching the latest version of Wi-Fi to the world.
Wi-Fi 7 was always planned to launch in early 2024, so its January launch isn’t unexpected, but it does mean that hardware makers and consumers can start properly using the new technology Wireless.
Wi-Fi 7 brings significant improvements to Wi-Fi technology, including the Wi-Fi speeds you can expect to use at home and away, as well as improvements in bandwidth and overall quantity of data that can be sent to multiple devices simultaneously. The improvements that Wi-Fi 7 brings include:
- Faster Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 7 is designed to deliver maximum speeds of 40 Gbps and 46 Gbps [PDF]more than three times faster than Wi-Fi 6 (9.6 Gbps).
- 320 MHz Wi-Fi Channels: Wi-Fi 7 will support wider channels, up to 320 MHz, compared to a maximum of 160 MHz for Wi-Fi 6. This allows for more efficient data transmission and increased significant in flow.
- Multi-Link Operation: MLO allows devices to transmit and receive data on multiple frequency bands simultaneously, improving reliability and reducing latency between devices. MLO is one of the most exciting developments in Wi-Fi 7, as it will significantly increase the amount of data processing available between your router and your devices.
- High-order modulation: Wi-Fi 7 will come with quadrature amplitude modulation (4K QAM), an improvement over quadrature amplitude modulation (1024-QAM) used in Wi-Fi
Other Wi-Fi 7 improvements, such as 512-compressed block-ack and uplink-triggered access, will also increase Wi-Fi 7 network capacity and reduce latency.
How does it compare to Wi-Fi 7?
In terms of speed, Wi-Fi 7 will be up to four times faster than its predecessor, Wi-Fi 6E, which launched in 2021.
Wi-Fi 7 can transmit data at a maximum speed of around 40 Gbps, but it should be noted that this is a maximum speed obtained in the laboratory and not what you will get at home. Still, the increase in overall Wi-Fi speed will be noticeable, especially if the other devices in your home all use the same Wi-Fi 7 technology.
Additionally, Wi-Fi 7 uses the “new” 6 GHz Wi-Fi band, which provides greater bandwidth to your home network.
The 6 GHz Wi-Fi band was introduced with Wi-Fi 6E and is designed to reduce network congestion on the traditional 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands. The extra band and increased speed of Wi-Fi 7 should give your entire network a boost.
Switching to 4K QAM will also allow your Wi-Fi network to be faster than before.
The Wi-Fi 6/6E bands both use 1024 QAM, while the Wi-Fi 7 band uses 4096 QAM to deliver up to 20% higher data transmission rates. Additionally, the number of spatial streams is doubled from eight to sixteen with Wi-Fi 7, further increasing data throughput.
It’s not always easy to determine the speed of Wi-Fi 7 and compare it to Wi-Fi 6/6E, as it also depends on your internet connection. Still, the overall improvements brought by Wi-Fi 7 should give your devices a faster internet connection.
Is it worth buying a Wi-Fi 7 router?
Right now, there’s no need to rush out and buy a Wi-Fi 7 compatible router. While the Wi-Fi 7 specs are great on paper, the official launch of the new Wi-Fi standard has just taken place, and there aren’t many devices compatible with the new technology.
For example, the TP-Link BE19000 Wi-Fi 7 router and ASUS RT-BE96U Wi-Fi 7 router have been available for months. But until you have other devices on your network that can actually leverage Wi-Fi 7, it’s best to stick with your current Wi-Fi router.
Likewise, some smartphones already support Wi-Fi 7, like the OnePlus 12, Vivo S18 Pro, and ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro, but will need an update to work properly.
Right now, there’s no point rushing out to buy new Wi-Fi 7 routers, smartphones, and laptops, but if you’re regarding to upgrade and want to protect your hardware for the future, it’s certainly worth thinking regarding.
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