4 causes I am not upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 (at the least not but)

Usually, I attempt to keep as present with the newest tech as I can, each for journalistic causes and since I perceive the advantages it may deliver. As soon as you’ve got pushed an

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

iPhone 16 Pro
— actually, 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 persistently 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, significantly when you’ve bought quite a lot 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 may nonetheless be higher off getting a Wi-Fi 6E unit.

1

Most ISPs do not provide practically sufficient bandwidth

Like driving a Geo down the Autobahn

Pocketlint / Google Retailer / TP-Hyperlink

In idea, 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 gadgets more likely to prime out at 5.8Gbps — however even that is doubtless far quicker than the web you are paying for. In my own residence, I pay a premium simply to get 1Gbps on a very good day. So even the 9.6Gbps community capability of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E is greater than sufficient, irrespective of if somebody is streaming a film from our

Plex server
concurrently I am updating my iPhone.

You may 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 larger. And naturally, you will must pay excessive triple-digit ISP payments every month, which in all probability is not price 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 accessible to particular person gadgets.

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2

Most gadgets do not assist Wi-Fi 7

First, you want an on-ramp to the Autobahn

A rising variety of telephones, laptops, and different gadgets do assist 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 larger than Wi-Fi 6. There is a respectable probability that you’ve various Wi-Fi 5 merchandise in your house, nonetheless — like an older video doorbell, or that hand-me-down pill your baby makes use of.

It’ll be at the least a 12 months or two earlier than Wi-Fi 7 turns into de facto in most shopper electronics. And with out compatibility, gadgets merely cannot benefit from Wi-Fi 7’s bandwidth. Even when you do wait till then to improve, you will virtually definitely be working a mixture of Wi-Fi 7 and 6/6E merchandise. That is nice — it isn’t like a Wi-Fi 6E laptop computer goes to grow to be outdated anytime quickly.

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3

Complete-home Wi-Fi 7 programs are nonetheless costly

Persistence will repay

For those who dwell in an house or bungalow, and you are not particularly choosy, yow will discover a mediocre-to-decent Wi-Fi 7 router for beneath $150. However in order for you one that may assist many gadgets concurrently throughout a number of flooring, count on to pay a very good 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 needs to be commoditized sufficient you can get a good mesh system for beneath $300, and a stable (if unspectacular) solo router at that $150 worth level. We’ll see — the tariff state of affairs 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 own home community

No have to lay our a fortune

Pocket-lint / Canva

It is a simple mistake to assume the one resolution to enhancing your own home community is to improve your router(s). Like I stated, it is in all probability price shopping for into Wi-Fi 6 or 6E when you’re nonetheless utilizing Wi-Fi 5, however as soon as you’ve got reached that threshold, there are issues you are able to do to reinforce speeds with out making a expensive funding.

For those who’re utilizing a mesh system like my Eero Professional, as an illustration, you might be able to enhance efficiency by positioning your routers nearer to connecting gadgets, and shopping for add-on routers (or extenders) if some gadgets are nonetheless too distant. With any router, you will get a quicker, extra dependable connection for gadgets when you can join them utilizing Ethernet cables. Some individuals will even go to the difficulty of utilizing an Ethernet backhaul (router-to-router hyperlink) for a mesh system, though that is in all probability overkill until 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 may have the ability to throttle gadgets that do not really want the bandwidth they’re consuming, or disconnect ones you are now not utilizing that a lot. In your laptop, just be sure you haven’t any pointless background apps working — seeding a bunch of torrents goes to sap any community.