Wi-Fi 7 is an exciting standard that promises faster, smarter wireless connections. Its hallmark feature, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), lets devices use more than one frequency band at a time to reduce latency and boost throughput.
However, not every new router is a true Wi-Fi 7 device, and even those that are might not deliver the performance marketing suggests.
What Wi-Fi 7 actually means and why the wording matters
Not all Wi-Fi routers are created equal
To help you understand the problem at hand here, we first have to go over what Wi-Fi 7 even is. It’s the marketing term used for the IEEE 802.11be set of protocols set by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization that owns the “Wi-Fi” trademark—remember this, it’ll matter in just a moment.
Wi-Fi 7 introduces several improvements over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, such as 320MHz channels (double the previous 160MHz max), enhanced OFDMA, and 4K-QAM, which increases throughput by about 20% by encoding 12 bits of data in each symbol instead of 10.
However, all these little improvements pale in comparison to MLO, which lets a compatible device connect to multiple bands simultaneously instead of switching between them.
In theory, your phone could connect to a Wi-Fi 7 router using all three available bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz) and use them simultaneously to minimize latency and interference while maximizing available bandwidth.
MLO is a required feature for a router to be labeled Wi-Fi 7, but there’s a catch—a Wi-Fi 7 router doesn’t have to support simultaneous MLO (STR/Simultaneous Transmit and Receive Operation) using Enhanced Multi-Link Multi-Radio (EMLMR).
All the router has to support to be called a Wi-Fi 7 router is alternating MLO (NSTR/Nonsimultaneous Transmit and Receive Operation), which is exactly what it sounds like—instead of connecting via multiple bands, the device has only one radio active at a time but can rapidly switch to a different band as needed.
The technology relies on Enhanced Multi-Link Single-Radio (EMLSR). Its ability to switch between bands in microseconds is impressive in its own right, but it’s still a far cry from what MLO was originally envisioned to deliver.
As you can imagine, the majority of Wi-Fi 7 routers rely on alternating MLO rather than simultaneous MLO.
In fact, RTINGS has conducted thorough testing of MLO and found that no modern routers support true simultaneous MLO, even among Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 devices that have gone through the Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification program.
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Please stop using your old Wi-Fi 5 router when Wi-Fi 6 is this cheap
Some brands sidestep the Wi-Fi 7 standard with “WiFi 7” marketing
A WiFi router isn’t actually a Wi-Fi Router?!
If a router markets itself as “Wi-Fi 7,” it’s generally safe to assume its hardware is based on the IEEE 802.11be wireless networking standard, even if it isn’t officially certified and omits some optional features such as 320 MHz channels, the 6 GHz band, or simultaneous MLO.
But what if a brand decides to take the alternate route by omitting the hyphen and marketing its routers as “WiFi 7” or “WiFi7”? You might expect this kind of chicanery from no-name imports on Alibaba, but some of the biggest computer networking brands in the world also market their routers as “WiFi,” likely to avoid having to follow the exact branding rules set by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
The first brand that does this is Netgear.
Admittedly, the brand somewhat implies that its WiFi 7 routers are based on the IEEE 802.11be standard in a post, even going so far as to list requirements like MLO, 320 MHz channels, and 4K-QAM—but it doesn’t change the fact that the brand avoids using Wi-Fi Alliance terminology. And that entire post focuses solely on the theoretical benefits of Wi-Fi 7 anyway.
I went through several of Netgear’s WiFi 7 current offerings and, suspiciously, I couldn’t find a single mention of MLO on any of its product pages.
This is a huge red flag, especially considering that most of Netgear’s equipment is priced on the higher end of routers. It’s no surprise that Netgear’s forums are filled with complaints from customers discovering that their routers don’t support the feature they paid hundreds of dollars for.
I don’t know why Netgear does this—even my new $50 Mercusys MR25BE BE3600 Wi-Fi 7 router supports (alternating) MLO, whereas Netgear’s expensive WiFi 7 routers don’t have to promise inclusion of actual Wi-Fi 7 features. This naming game seriously hurts consumer trust, and I wish more brands were transparent about what their Wi-Fi 7 routers actually deliver.
Another brand that uses the same shady tactics to circumvent the official Wi-Fi branding is ASUS.
However, the key difference between Netgear and ASUS is that ASUS still explicitly mentions compliance with the IEEE 802.11be standard on product pages. Even the brand’s cheapest WiFi 7 router, the ASUS RT-BE58U, supports MLO and all the other mandatory Wi-Fi 7 features.
ASUS and Netgear aren’t alone in this practice. Some other brands that don’t use the official Wi-Fi branding are Ubiquiti, Linksys, and, I kid you not, TP-Link, although admittedly the vast majority of TP-Link routers use the hyphenated Wi-Fi branding and follow the standards.
Still, the very fact that the brands avoid the hyphen at all implies that they could theoretically release a non-compliant router in the future, and consumers who don’t read the fine print wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Should you even buy a Wi-Fi 7 router?
A pointless upgrade
Between the empty promises of MLO and the use of “alternative” names for Wi‑Fi 7, it’s hard to determine if you should even waste your energy on buying a Wi‑Fi 7 router. The truth is that, outside of a few minor efficiency improvements, Wi‑Fi 7 hardly offers anything worth upgrading to, especially if you already have a decent Wi‑Fi 6 router. Plus, there’s a good chance that most or all of your devices don’t support Wi‑Fi 7 anyway.
In my opinion, one of the biggest recent developments in wireless technology is the 6 GHz band, which is, weirdly enough, the defining specification on Wi‑Fi 6E routers but optional in Wi‑Fi 7 routers.
- Wi-Fi Bands
- Tri-Band
- Supported standards
- 802.11ax
If you want a great Wi-Fi 6e router but don’t want to spend a whole lot of money, check out this one from TP-Link.
6 GHz has poor wall penetration, but it can provide faster speeds, lower latency, and less interference, which makes tri-band Wi‑Fi 6E and Wi‑Fi 7 routers worth considering if you rely heavily on a Wi‑Fi connection and are always near your router—or if you want to fix your home network situation, like my colleague Corbin.
This Is How 6GHz Wi-Fi Fixed My Home Network
I can’t run cables everywhere, but Wi-Fi 7 and 6 GHz can fill in the gaps.
