Wi-Fi 7 is finally here. After more than a year of development, and with many products using “draft” Wi-Fi 7 standards already on the market, Wi-Fi 7 received its certifcation from the Wi-Fi Alliance on Monday ahead of CES 2024, which makes it the official current version of the ubiquitous wireless networking technology.
Like all major Wi-Fi versions, Wi-Fi 7 is backwards-compatible, so it will work with your existing Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 devices. However, if you have a Wi-Fi 7 phone or laptop connected to a Wi-Fi 7 access point (like a home router or mesh network), you’ll in theory be able to experience once-unimaginable speeds and signal reliability.
That’s thanks mostly to a new wireless connectivity protocol known as Multiple Link Operation (MLO), exclusive to Wi-Fi 7. Unlike many esoteric, jargon-filled wireless standards, MLO is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Instead of your phone connecting to your router over a single link (2.5GHz or 5GHz, for example) as it currently does, it can connect using both links simultaneously and transmit data over whichever one is currently the fastest. This advancement has the potential for increased throughput, reduced latency, and improved reliability compared with earlier Wi-Fi versions, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the main industry group that certifies Wi-Fi standards.
Other advancements include support for 320MHz channel bandwidth, double the width of the widest currently available Wi-Fi channel. That can further increase throughput and support multi-gigabit speeds, the Wi-Fi Alliance said, although it may not advance reliability as much as MLO will.
Many Wi-Fi 7 devices are already for sale or have been announced, from mesh routers like the Eero Max 7 to flagship phones like the OnePlus 12. The Wi-Fi Alliance expects more than 233 million individual Wi-Fi 7 devices to hit the market this year. Many of them will support all of the official Wi-Fi 7 protocols (including MLO and 320MHz channels), but Wi-Fi 7 certification is voluntary, so not every manufacturer will implement every feature. If you see a device with the “Wi-Fi 7 Certified” logo, that’s your best bet that you’re getting a product with the future-proofed wireless standards.
Qualcomm, the California silicon giant that makes much of today's Wi-Fi circuitry, said that more than 200 Wi-Fi 7 client device models like phones, PCs, and VR headsets have launched or are planned using its FastConnect 7800 Wi-Fi 7 chipset. Meanwhile, more than 250 Quaclomm-powered access point models like mesh Wi-Fi systems have launched or are in development, according to the company, which sees MLO in particular as a revolutionary advancement.
(Credit: Wi-Fi Alliance)“The client can use all of the bands simultaneously, rather than using whatever initial band it connects to until that fails,” said Andy Davidson, a Qualcomm engineer and member of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s board of directors. That’s a big advantage in crowded spaces like convention centers or airports where wireless congestion is rampant, Davidson said.
What Does 'Wi-Fi 7 Certified' Mean for Consumers?
So what can you expect to change now that we’re officially living in a Wi-Fi 7 world? Other than the logo appearing on more products, not a whole lot, actually. That’s in part because many of the benefits that Wi-Fi 7 offers are exclusive to Wi-Fi 7 devices. Even if you have a Wi-Fi 7 phone, it can’t take advantage of MLO or 320MHz when it’s connected to your Wi-Fi 6 router, for example.
Another limitation is regulatory snafus that limit the potential of the 6GHz band, which is not exclusive to Wi-Fi 7 (a variant of Wi-Fi 6 known as Wi-Fi 6E also supports it), but is required to take advantage of 320MHz channel width. Nearly every router and mesh system PCMag has tested so far has shown far more limited range at 6GHz than at 2.4GHz or 5GHz. That could change once the US Federal Communications Commission approves a feature known as Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC). Until then, many devices will transmit and receive at lower power on the 6GHz channel, negating much of the benefit unless you’re in very close proximity to the router—essentially in the same room.