4 causes I am not upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 (a minimum of not but)

Sometimes, I attempt to keep as present with the most recent tech as I can, each for journalistic causes and since I perceive the advantages it may carry. As soon as you have pushed an

electric car
, it is powerful to return to one thing as noisy and fuel-hungry as a gasoline car. I did not essentially want an

iPhone 16 Pro
— in reality, I generally assume I ought to’ve gone with the bottom iPhone 16 as an alternative — however I do make full use of its always-on show and 5x telephoto lens.

One space the place I am constantly gradual to improve is my Wi-Fi community. Whereas I might encourage you to leap to Wi-Fi 6 or 6E when you’re nonetheless utilizing a Wi-Fi 5/802.11ac router — it may make an enormous distinction, notably when you’ve acquired plenty of

smart home
equipment — there’s actually no cause to improve to Wi-Fi 7 but, so far as I am involved. Certainly when you’re shopping for your first-ever Wi-Fi router, you would possibly nonetheless be higher off getting a Wi-Fi 6E unit.

1

Most ISPs do not supply almost sufficient bandwidth

Like driving a Geo down the Autobahn

Pocketlint / Google Retailer / TP-Hyperlink

In principle, a fully-equipped Wi-Fi 7 router helps speeds as much as 46Gbps throughout its community. Single-band speeds are capped at 23Gbps, with particular person units more likely to high out at 5.8Gbps — however even that is possible far sooner than the web you are paying for. In my own residence, I pay a premium simply to get 1Gbps on an excellent day. So even the 9.6Gbps community capability of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E is greater than sufficient, regardless of if somebody is streaming a film from our

Plex server
similtaneously I am updating my iPhone.

You would possibly get some profit out of Wi-Fi 7 you probably have a multi-gigabit web plan, however even 2Gbps speeds are uncommon, not to mention 5Gbps or greater. And naturally, you may need to pay excessive triple-digit ISP payments every month, which most likely is not value it even when everybody in your house is streaming 4K video concurrently. At 1Gbps, 4K streams aren’t a difficulty, and lots of smaller file downloads are instantaneous, even with the decreased bandwidth obtainable to particular person units.

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2

Most units do not help Wi-Fi 7

First, you want an on-ramp to the Autobahn

A rising variety of telephones, laptops, and different units do help Wi-Fi 7, together with my iPhone 16 Professional. However many are nonetheless restricted to Wi-Fi 6 or 6E, such because the MacBook Air or iPhone 16e, and also you’re fortunate if a TV or add-on media streamer helps something greater than Wi-Fi 6. There is a respectable probability that you have a variety of Wi-Fi 5 merchandise in your house, nonetheless — like an older video doorbell, or that hand-me-down pill your youngster makes use of.

It’ll be a minimum of a 12 months or two earlier than Wi-Fi 7 turns into de facto in most shopper electronics. And with out compatibility, units merely cannot make the most of Wi-Fi 7’s bandwidth. Even when you do wait till then to improve, you may nearly definitely be working a mixture of Wi-Fi 7 and 6/6E merchandise. That is positive — it is not like a Wi-Fi 6E laptop computer goes to develop into outdated anytime quickly.

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3

Entire-home Wi-Fi 7 programs are nonetheless costly

Endurance will repay

When you dwell in an condo or bungalow, and you are not particularly choosy, you’ll find a mediocre-to-decent Wi-Fi 7 router for underneath $150. However if you need one that may help many units concurrently throughout a number of flooring, anticipate to pay an excellent chunk of change. Even Amazon’s entry-level Eero 7 mesh system prices $350 for a three-pack, and the higher solo routers from corporations like Asus and Ubiquiti price upwards of $200, generally properly past that. Netgear’s top-of-the-line Orbi 970 mesh system begins at $1,500 for a two-pack.

Fortunately, router costs are inclined to drop fairly predictably — and the Wi-Fi 7 spec is comparatively new, with certification having solely been opened in January 2024. In a 12 months or two, Wi-Fi 7 routers ought to be commoditized sufficient that you could get a good mesh system for underneath $300, and a stable (if unspectacular) solo router at that $150 worth level. We’ll see — the tariff scenario and different financial elements may conspire to maintain costs inflated. In any case, I simply cannot see any cause to improve my Eero Professional 6E setup, which I spent a fortune on three years in the past, so I would not have to fret about upgrades for some time.

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4

There are sometimes smarter methods to improve your property community

No must lay our a fortune

Pocket-lint / Canva

It is a simple mistake to assume the one resolution to enhancing your property community is to improve your router(s). Like I stated, it is most likely value shopping for into Wi-Fi 6 or 6E when you’re nonetheless utilizing Wi-Fi 5, however as soon as you have reached that threshold, there are issues you are able to do to boost speeds with out making a expensive funding.

When you’re utilizing a mesh system like my Eero Professional, for example, you could possibly enhance efficiency by positioning your routers nearer to connecting units, and shopping for add-on routers (or extenders) if some units are nonetheless too distant. With any router, you may get a sooner, extra dependable connection for units when you can join them utilizing Ethernet cables. Some folks will even go to the difficulty of utilizing an Ethernet backhaul (router-to-router hyperlink) for a mesh system, though that is most likely overkill except you demand most Wi-Fi speeds in every single place in your house.

Typically, there are answers that do not price any cash in any respect. You would possibly be capable to throttle units that do not really want the bandwidth they’re consuming, or disconnect ones you are now not utilizing that a lot. In your pc, just remember to have no pointless background apps operating — seeding a bunch of torrents goes to sap any community.