As many of us gradually upgrade our devices, Wi-Fi 6 is becoming the mainstream wireless standard in homes, making it a recent necessity to update our routers. However, just as we are considering Wi-Fi 6 routers, news of Wi-Fi 7 has emerged, with the potential to hit the market in two years. This raises the question: should we still opt for Wi-Fi 6? Will Wi-Fi 7 render Wi-Fi 6 obsolete immediately, leaving us in a dilemma?

First, let’s address this concern: there’s no need to worry. Firstly, consider the pace of Wi-Fi 6 adoption. Even after Wi-Fi 7 is released, Wi-Fi 6 will remain the mainstream standard for a considerable time. Secondly, Wi-Fi 7 is likely to be based on the IEEE 802.11be EHT (Extremely High Throughput) standard, which, as the name suggests, continues the 802.11 series technology, ensuring functional continuity and device compatibility.

Now, let’s look at its key features. These include the 6GHz band, up to 320MHz channel bandwidth, 4096-QAM modulation technology, Multi-RU mechanism, Multi-Link multi-link mechanism, and 16×16 MU-MIMO functionality. Does this sound familiar? Indeed, most of these are enhancements of features already present in the Wi-Fi 6E standard, such as the 6GHz band, which is identical to Wi-Fi 6E.

Another characteristic of Wi-Fi standards is their downward compatibility. For instance, 4096-QAM is compatible with Wi-Fi 6/6E’s 1024-QAM. Therefore, using Wi-Fi 7 devices on a Wi-Fi 6E network is perfectly fine, and vice versa, possibly even resulting in Wi-Fi 6 devices performing better in a Wi-Fi 7 network.

Lastly, Wi-Fi 7 has a hidden feature that could safeguard your investment: improved management of Access Points (APs). This is somewhat akin to the efficient multi-AP management technology MESH used in Wi-Fi 6 routers, which is far superior to previous bridging modes. Notably, MESH is not part of the Wi-Fi 6 standard and was developed by vendors. Wi-Fi 7 seems to be formalizing this, meaning that future upgrades could allow Wi-Fi 6 routers to serve as efficient expansion APs, continuing to be useful.