In recent years, Wi-Fi technology has advanced rapidly. The next generation of Wi-Fi called Wi-Fi 7 has already been announced by Qualcomm, which is still in the preliminary stages of adoption of Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 7 is designed to provide low-latency performance along with extreme speeds, according to Qualcomm. Before learning about their differences, let’s give a brief summary of these two Wi-Fi’s.
What is WiFi 6?
The Wi-Fi 6 follows IEEE 802.11ax standards that were introduced in 2019. Wi-Fi 6 devices are now commercially available based on the corrected standard. As compared to its previous version, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 offers 40% faster data rates. There are two frequency bands supported by the device: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. With Wi-Fi 6E, you can use Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band. As the suffix “E” implies, “Wi-Fi 6E” is an “Extended” version of Wi-Fi.
What is WiFi 7?
According to a tweet published by Qualcomm.
802.11be is the series of specifications being developed by IEEE for Wi-Fi 7. With this version, bandwidth will be doubled and spatial streams will be higher than with 802.11ax. A data rate of 40 Gbps will be supported by Wi-Fi 7. The launch is expected to take place in 2024. EHT working group of IEEE 802.11be is developing it
Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6: Key differences
- It’s been proven that Wi-Fi 7 is both quicker and more energy efficient than its predecessors, Wi-Fi 6. MediaTek claims Wi-Fi 7 will deliver twice the speed of Wi-Fi 6. It is estimated that Wi-Fi 7 will have a maximum speed of 46 Gbps compared to 9.6 Gbps in Wi-Fi 6 (which is fast, to be fair).
- With WiFi 7, transmission speeds can reach up to 30GHz, compared to 9.6GHz with WiFi 6
- Next, channel widths are increased. People complain about not having enough bandwidth to accomplish tasks. This concept was derived directly from wireless, which allows for more data to be moved. With the new spectrum in the 6 GHz band, the channel bandwidth of the 5 GHz band will be 320 MHz wide instead of 160 MHz in Wi-Fi 7.
- Last but not least, QAM has increased. A radio signal is encoded using quadrature amplitude modulation. As of Wi-Fi 6, there is 1024-QAM, and 4096-QAM is expected in Wi-Fi 7.
Does it make sense to upgrade router from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 7?
You should consider upgrading your router to a Wi-Fi 7 model based on the equipment you currently own. The upgrade will definitely be worth it if you have an older Wi-Fi 5 router. However, you may want to wait before updating if you already have a router that supports Wi-Fi 6E.
Introducing new Wi-Fi standards has many advantages, including backward compatibility with existing standards. Thus, to save money on a new Wi-Fi router, for example, you might want to hold off upgrading until Wi-Fi 7 devices become available.