With the growth of bandwidth, Wi-Fi 7 will jump to the forefront, allowing data transmission to enter a new era belonging to Wi-Fi 7, and transmission speed to a new height in history. Virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) will play a role in applications such as shopping and travel locations and physical processes in remote devices. Plus, games will become more realistic and fast-paced, so fasten your seat belts because the latest Wi-Fi is about to change your online world.

What is Wi-Fi 7?

Wi-Fi 7, the latest Wi-Fi technology for routers and modems, is four times faster than Wi-Fi 6. This massive throughput supports virtual reality (VR), low-latency gaming, and higher-quality streaming. While it will change the way you use the web, it won't be fully available until 2024. The Wi-Fi 7 naming standard is IEEE 802.11be. Wi-Fi 6 is IEEE 802.11ax (identical except for the last two letters) and Wi-Fi 5 is IEEE 802.11ac. The name change is minor, but the spec change amounts to a complete redesign, designed to support a whole new type of internet usage.

Wi-Fi 7 will hit speeds of up to 46 Gbps, while Wi-Fi 6 is already super fast (9.6 Gbps), but it also brings other game-changing upgrades. You'll be able to connect more devices from one router, each using massive throughput and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for a more efficient wireless connection.

How is Wi-Fi 7 different than Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 7 is much faster than the Wi-Fi 6 you're using now, and more data is piped to more devices, all without affecting each other's experience. When you want to watch a game upstairs while your partner is playing a movie in the den and the kids are playing Star Wars with a VR headset in the bedroom, you'll also have no buffering issues with these syncs.

Wi-Fi 7 specific advantages and features:

① Faster

It's hard to imagine Wi-Fi 7 having such a drastic speed upgrade. Because the jump from a top speed of 9.6 Gbps to a quadruple speed of 46 Gbps is theoretically extreme. Secondly, the current stage of Wi-Fi6 is relatively able to meet the current transmission needs, why would such a high-speed version of wireless technology be launched?

② lower latency

Wi-Fi 7 has much lower latency compared to Wi-Fi 6. While quadrupling the speed is a big leap, the increase in speed has a big domino effect on latency, which is the delay you experience when meeting, gaming, and streaming. According to Microsoft, you'll see 100x lower latency in general and 15x lower latency on VR devices, which drastically reduces loading and buffering times.

③Multi-link function

While Wi-Fi 6 can serve multiple devices like laptops, phones, and tablets at the same time, this signal sharing is convenient, but it creates latency issues. Wi-Fi 7 is clearly better in this regard. That's because Wi-Fi 6 uses MU-MIMO technology and supports up to four devices at a time. MU-MIMO technology splits a single signal into smaller ones, which means multiple devices share the same signal.

④Higher data transmission quality

Wi-Fi 6 relies on 1024-QAM to use radio signals more efficiently to send and receive more data. This 1K QAM architecture enables Wi-Fi 6 to be 25% faster than Wi-Fi 5. In a massive upgrade, Wi-Fi 7 uses 4K QAM, which is four times faster than Wi-Fi 6e.

Wi-Fi 7 isn't just a step forward in internet speed, it's an exponential leap that supports a sea change in the way we use the web. VR, XR, meetings and gaming will all be faster, with fewer hitches and stops, and more vivid and immersive experiences.