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’ve got pushed an

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

iPhone 16 Pro
— the truth is, I generally suppose 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 sluggish to improve is my Wi-Fi community. Whereas I would encourage you to leap to Wi-Fi 6 or 6E in case you’re nonetheless utilizing a Wi-Fi 5/802.11ac router — it may make an enormous distinction, significantly in case you’ve acquired loads of

smart home
equipment — there’s actually no motive to improve to Wi-Fi 7 but, so far as I am involved. Certainly in case 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 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 a great 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 may get some profit out of Wi-Fi 7 when you have a multi-gigabit web plan, however even 2Gbps speeds are uncommon, not to mention 5Gbps or greater. And naturally, you may should pay excessive triple-digit ISP payments every month, which in all probability is not value it even when everybody in your house is streaming 4K video concurrently. At 1Gbps, 4K streams aren’t a difficulty, and plenty of smaller file downloads are instantaneous, even with the lowered bandwidth out there to particular person gadgets.

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2

Most gadgets do not help Wi-Fi 7

First, you want an on-ramp to the Autobahn

A rising variety of telephones, laptops, and different gadgets 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 likelihood that you have plenty 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 will 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, gadgets merely cannot benefit from Wi-Fi 7’s bandwidth. Even in case you do wait till then to improve, you may nearly actually be working a mixture of Wi-Fi 7 and 6/6E merchandise. That is high-quality — it isn’t like a Wi-Fi 6E laptop computer goes to develop into outdated anytime quickly.

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3

Entire-home Wi-Fi 7 methods are nonetheless costly

Endurance will repay

When you stay in an condo or bungalow, and you are not particularly choosy, yow will discover a mediocre-to-decent Wi-Fi 7 router for underneath $150. However if you need one that may help many gadgets concurrently throughout a number of flooring, count on to pay a great 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 value 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 must be commoditized sufficient that you could get an honest mesh system for underneath $300, and a stable (if unspectacular) solo router at that $150 value level. We’ll see — the tariff scenario and different financial elements might conspire to maintain costs inflated. In any case, I simply cannot see any motive 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 private home community

No have to lay our a fortune

Pocket-lint / Canva

It is a straightforward mistake to suppose the one resolution to enhancing your private home community is to improve your router(s). Like I mentioned, it is in all probability value shopping for into Wi-Fi 6 or 6E in case 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 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 gadgets, and shopping for add-on routers (or extenders) if some gadgets are nonetheless too distant. With any router, you may get a sooner, extra dependable connection for gadgets in case 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 in all probability overkill until you demand most Wi-Fi speeds all over the place in your house.

Typically, there are answers that do not value any cash in any respect. You may be capable 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 remember to haven’t any pointless background apps working — seeding a bunch of torrents goes to sap any community.