Its Wi-Fi 7 or 802.11be, to its friends.
Lower latency, too, which should better serve ping-averse gaming types (hi).
Thus, Wi-Fi 7 aims to make a greater stride forward.
Neat, no?.
All appealing notions, so why has Wi-Fi 7 not blown up already?
To see how it can improve my networking life, the RS700 is going up against two other routers.
One, the ZTE H298A, is just a basic Wi-Fi 5 box that Hyperoptic gave me for free.
Ive also got a TP-Link Archer AX1500 (no relation) to rep Wi-Fi 6.
Lastly, just to be extra-extra-indicative, Ive ran each test under both light and heavy load conditions.
This will show us how Wi-Fi 7 fares against its predecessors in a torturous, multi-user household scenario.
Several hours of testing and one writing tense change later, here are the results.
Nevertheless, an advantage it remains.
You do have to go for a full set of the hardware, though.
Im not sure why, but it happened too consistently to be a mistake.
Nay, to switch to Wi-Fi 7 really means updating your devices and the router both.
As it stands, thats quite the investment.
More like 2000, with rare exceptions like the1549HP Omen Transcend 14.
The possibility of a service that comes anywhere near Wi-Fi 7s on-paper 46Gbit/s limit seems further away still.
Verdict: Should you bother with Wi-Fi 7?Not yet.
I say that with a pang of sadness, because who doesnt like faster Internet?
I like faster Internet.
And not have to worry about slowdown because my fiancees on an Interior Design Masters binge.
It happened to Wi-Fi 5, after all.
Better for Wi-Fi 7 to bide its time.
