Wi-Fi 7 is here, and it’s a massive upgrade — but it has one big problem

Stroll into any electronics retailer right this moment, and you will notice them: packing containers adorned with aggressive fonts, futuristic angles, and worth tags that rival a used automobile. Wi-Fi 7 has arrived. The advertising guarantees are seductive—speeds that beat wired Ethernet, latency so low it’s imperceptible, and the power to deal with a sensible dwelling with 100 related gadgets.

Technically talking, the hype is actual. Wi-Fi 7 is wider, faster, and smarter than something now we have seen earlier than.

However there’s a catch. Truly, there are three. Whereas Wi-Fi 7 is an enormous improve to the know-how, it’s at the moment an underwhelming buy for most people. It’s a Ferrari caught in a college zone, and for the overwhelming majority, shopping for one in 2026 will likely be a waste of cash.

The three Wi-Fi 7 bottlenecks that imply you should not trouble

You may’t make use of it, so what is the level in upgrading?

Wi-Fi 7 is full of amazing new tech, upgraded speeds, and so on. But when it is so good, why is it nonetheless not value upgrading to?

ISP bottleneck

Relating to a lot quicker web, Wi-Fi 7 has you coated, with a theoretical most throughput of 46 Gbps. That is a loopy quantity of web.

The one downside is that when you referred to as your ISP and stated, “I would like a 46 Gbps connection, please,” they’d snort you out of city. As whereas a Wi-Fi 7 router is likely to be able to pushing 40 Gbps wirelessly, however your ISP is capping you at no matter pace you pay for.

And whereas there are some 10Gbps dwelling community connections, they’re few and much between. The truth is, there are some 50Gbps fibre plans, however as you may guess, they’re tremendous costly and accessible in even fewer places than the 10Gbps connections. For instance, Ziply’s 50 Gig plan will set you again a whopping $900 per 30 days—and it’s a must to present your personal router.

In that, although, shopping for a Wi-Fi 7 router for a 500Mbps connection is not going to automagically convey you quicker web. That is simply not the way it works.

Your system would not assist Wi-Fi 7

Credit score: Gavin Phillips / MakeUseOf

Gadgets manufactured for the reason that middle-to-end of 2024 might assist Wi-Fi 7. However any {hardware} manufactured earlier than that point is unlikely to assist Wi-Fi 7, interval. That is as a result of Wi-Fi 7 only officially launched in January 2024, and it took some time for producers to start transport gadgets with upgraded Wi-Fi playing cards that allow them to play properly.

Shopping for a Wi-Fi 7 router will not drive your older gadgets to make use of the brand new wi-fi commonplace. The variety of Wi-Fi 7-enabled gadgets has expanded massively all through 2025, however most hardware still uses older Wi-Fi standards.

Associated

I don’t need as much speed as my ISP tries to sell me, and you don’t either

Do not spend on pace you by no means use.

A great Wi-Fi 7 router nonetheless prices just a few hundred bucks

In the event you head to Amazon and begin looking for Wi-Fi 7 routers, you may be in for a nice shock. Regardless of how superb this tech is, you may decide up a shiny new Wi-Fi 7 router for underneath 100 bucks!

Fallacious.

Do not be tricked by the advertising on these sub-$100 Wi-Fi 7 routers, as they’re lacking one of many new Wi-Fi requirements’ finest options: the 6GHz band. These cheaper choices are solely dual-band, and do not ship the upgraded capability you are most likely most concerned with.

Meaning you additionally miss out on one other of Wi-Fi 7’s finest upgrades, Multi-Hyperlink Operation (MLO), which mainly bonds the 5GHz and 6GHz bands into one thing a lot better. As an alternative of utilizing both 5GHz or 6GHz, your gadgets can join throughout a number of bands concurrently. Your cellphone can ship information over 5GHz and 6GHz on the similar time. If one band will get interference, the info immediately flows by means of the opposite. This leads to a connection that’s extremely resilient and has near-zero latency.

Equally, with out the 6GHz band, you may’t use Wi-Fi 7’s a lot bigger 320MHz Wi-Fi channels, once more negating one of many key factors of upgrading.

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So… is it actually safe to use a TP-Link router today?

The main router model within the US is underneath assault.

Wi-Fi 7 will likely be a tremendous improve—when it is really value utilizing

Wi-Fi 7 brings some undeniably implausible upgrades to Wi-Fi. The three primary pillars of Wi-Fi 7, MLO, channel width, and density, are spectacular and would be the core of dwelling networking for years to return.

It isn’t simply the pace, thoughts. Wi-Fi 7 has some specific security upgrades that additionally make it value upgrading to… when the time comes.

For me, within the UK, fibre speeds are restricted. The utmost I can get within the little nook of Cornwall is a 2Gbps connection, so it makes little sense for me to purchase a Wi-Fi 7 router, and it is most likely an identical case for you, too.