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The headline says it. It’s totally fine that you feel attached to that 5-year-old Wi-Fi 6 router. In fact, it’s the best Wi-Fi standard for at least the next five years, possibly longer.
The gist is that, practically, it’s now an excellent time to invest in the best top-tier Wi-Fi 6 hardware you can find. That’s, of course, if you don’t already have one or have the right reasons to replace your current router.
Let’s dig in!
Three reasons to use Wi-Fi 6 in 2024 and beyond
In case you’re new, I wasn’t born yesterday. I know Wi-Fi 7 has been on the market. In fact, since late 2023, I’ve somewhat prematurely stated that Wi-Fi 6 was “on the way out,” and it indeed is a “dated” standard in many aspects.
However, after a year of wrestling with Wi-Fi 7, I find it evident that Wi-Fi 6 is the best for the time being despite being not the fastest nor the most advanced.
Why are you hating on Wi-Fi 7, Dong?
Hating? It doesn’t have to be black and white like that, and it sure is untrue in this case. I have been getting and using routers, dozens and dozens of them, of all relevant standards. I tend to think of them in terms of application, not Wi-Fi revisions.
While not the best for the time being, Wi-Fi 7 is indeed the way of the future, and it doesn’t hurt to get into it today. If you’re dead set on the latest and greatest, I have below the current top five routers among those I’ve tested.
Top 5 best Wi-Fi 7 routers
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| Name | Asus GT-BE98 Pro’s Rating | Asus RT-BE96U’s Rating | TP-Link Archer GE800’s Rating | TP-Link Archer BE550/Archer BE9300’s Rating | Netgear Nighthawk RS700S’ Rating |
| Price | – | – | – | – | – |
| Rating | |||||
| Description | |||||
| Statistics | |||||
| Buy this product |
Here’s the deal, though: For compatibility reasons, Wi-Fi 7 requires you to have new clients of the same standard to shine, especially if you choose to use the MLO feature. But you don’t have all Wi-Fi 7 devices, do you?
Nobody does. Even if you’re willing to buy all new hardware today, the new standard is not yet used in many types of devices, such as printers, IP cameras, doorbells, etc. In fact, many new high-end computers, tablets, and phones still come with Wi-Fi 6 or 6E. In that case, you’ll likely use your new cutting-edge and shiny Wi-Fi 7 router fully or partially like a Wi-Fi 6 one anyway. You have to.
But let’s say you do have all Wi-Fi 7 clients and can get them connected at super-fast speeds. What are you going to do to appreciate the new standard in all of its glory other than speed-testing all day? And is that how we generally use Wi-Fi or the Internet?
And that brings us to the first reason why Wi-Fi 6 is awesome. But before that, let’s address the elephant in the room: Wi-Fi 6E.
How about Wi-Fi 6E?
By definition, Wi-Fi 6E is not a standard of its own but only an extension of Wi-Fi 6. It’s basically Wi-Fi 6 plus the support for the new 6GHz frequency band. Everything else remains the same.
In Wi-Fi 6E, the support for this new frequency is somewhat disjointed. For one, in most cases, you can’t lump it with the other two—the good old 2.4GHz and 5GHz—in a “Smart Connect” setup. This new band generally has to have its own SSID with a different name from the one used for the other two.
Most importantly, the 6GHz range is very short and, despite being fast at a close range and within a line of sight, has proven in my many reviews to be borderline useless in homes with walls, which, unfortunately, is the case with all homes.
It’s not until Wi-Fi 7 that the use of this band is properly sorted out via AFC and MLO. But then we have the issue of compatibility, as mentioned above.
Finally, the adoption of the 6GHz band varies significantly around the world due to local regulations, forcing networking vendors to make different hardware versions for different regions. In fact, to simplify things, some of them have decided to forgo this band entirely in some of their Wi-Fi 7 hardware lineups, such as Asus with its RT-BE88U.
How the 6GHz band is regulated around the world
The 6GHz band has a total width of 1200MHz, ranging from 5.925GHz to 7.125GHz, and is divided into 59 channels of 20MHz each. These channels are grouped to create “sub-bands,” which also vary from one region to another.
In the U.S., the FCC has designated four sub-bands across the entire spectrum, including U-NII-5, U-UNII-6, UNII-7, and UNII-8, for Wi-Fi use, though portions of the band may be reserved for other applications. The E.U. Commission, on the other hand, allows only the U-NII-5 equivalent part of the frequency, or 480MHz in width, for Wi-Fi.
The use of the 6GHz frequency is complicated. Generally, Wi-Fi 6E needs a 160MHz channel to deliver the best performance, and Wi-Fi 7 requires double that, 320MHz. Due to spectrum availability and other reasons, real-world hardware tends to use narrower channels in most cases.
The table below shows its current adoption worldwide. The “Considering” potion is generally slated to be finalized by the end of January 2025.
| Country | Status | Spectrum |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Andorra | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Argentina | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Australia | Adopted Considering | 5925-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Austria | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Bahrain | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Belgium | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Brazil | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| CEPT | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Canada | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Chile | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Colombia | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Costa Rica | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Dominican Republic | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Egypt | Considering | 5925-6425 MHz |
| El Salvador | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| European Union | Adopted | 5945-6425 MHz |
| Faroe Islands | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| France | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Germany | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Gibraltar | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Guatemala | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Honduras | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Hong Kong | Adopted Considering | 5925-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Iceland | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Ireland | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Isle of Man | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Japan | Adopted Considering | 5925-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Jordan | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Kenya | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Liechtenstein | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Luxembourg | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Malaysia | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Mauritius | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Mexico | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Monaco | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Morocco | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Namibia | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Netherlands | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| New Zealand | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Norway | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Oman | Considering | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Peru | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Portugal | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Qatar | Adopted Considering | 5925-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Russian Federation | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Saudi Arabia | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Singapore | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| South Africa | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| South Korea | Adopted | 5925-7125 MHz |
| Spain | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Switzerland | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
| Thailand | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Togo | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Tunisia | Considering | 5925-6425 MHz |
| Turkey | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| United Arab Emirates | Adopted | 5925-6425 MHz |
| United Kingdom | Adopted Considering | 5945-6425 MHz 6425-7125 MHz |
The gist is that Wi-Fi 6E is Wi-Fi 6 at heart. While it doesn’t hurt to have the 6GHz band, it’s also completely fine if you ignore it since it tends to complicate things. So, if you find a great Wi-Fi 6E router, like one of those on the list below, look at it as an excellent Wi-Fi 6 one.
Top 5 best Wi-Fi 6E routers
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| Name | Asus GT-AXE16000’s Rating | TP-Link Archer AXE300’s Rating | MSI Radix AXE6600’s Rating | Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300’s Rating | Linksys MR7500 AXE6600 Hydra Pro’s Rating |
| Price | – | – | – | – | – |
| Rating | |||||
| Description | |||||
| Statistics | |||||
| Buy this product |
With that, let’s go back to the first reason why Wi-Fi 6 is awesome.
1. Wi-Fi 6 has best support for existing and new clients
During decades of Wi-Fi testing, I’ve noted that in Wi-Fi, on the receiving end, from a client’s perspective, newer is not always better: A Wi-Fi broadcaster (a router or an access point) works better—in performance and compatibility—with clients of the same standard than a broadcaster of a higher standard. The farther away they are —the higher the standard on the broadcasting side, that is—the worse it gets.
Specifically, a 5GHz Wi-Fi 4 client generally gets a faster connection speed from a Wi-Fi 4 router than a Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 router of the same tier. By the time you get to Wi-Fi 7, the broadcaster generally doesn’t support Wi-Fi 4 devices at all.
Generally, it’s tricky to make a broadcaster work with a device that is two generations behind. So, if you have a Wi-Fi 7 router, chances are many Wi-Fi 5 devices will no longer be supported—for those that are, you’ll need to create a special SSID for them, which causes the router to no longer be purely Wi-Fi 7.
However, the other way around is fine and dandy. You can connect a Wi-Fi 7 client to a Wi-Fi 4 (or even older) router at the fastest possible speed of the latter’s standard without any problem. In other words, the backward compatibility issue is only on the broadcasting end and not on the receiving end.
And that put Wi-Fi 6 in the best spot. It’s the middle, mostly-one-gen-apart-in-either-direction dual-band standard that has the best support for clients of Wi-Fi 4 (available mainly on the 2.4Ghz band) and Wi-Fi 5 (available only on the 5GHz band). Additionally, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 clients can always connect at Wi-Fi 6’s maximum speed.
A quick refresher: You’ll have problems using a Wi-Fi 6 router with clients older than Wi-Fi 4, such as those using the obsolete 802.11g, 802.11a, or 802.11b standard, but chances are you don’t have those devices anymore. The cabinet below includes quick details about all Wi-Fi standards.
Wi-Fi standards in brief
| Standard (name) | Debut Year | Channel Width (in MHz) and Theoretical Speed (in Mbps) per Stream (rounded numbers) | Max Number Streams Used in Clients (Max Speed Theoretical(•) /Real-word) | Security | Bands | Status (in 2024) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 802.11b | 1999 | 20MHz/11Mbps | Single-stream or 1×1 (11Mbps/≈6Mbps) | Open WEP | 2.4GHz | Obsolete |
| 802.11a | 2000 | 20MHz/54Mbps | 1×1 (54Mbps/≈30Mbps) | Open WEP | 5GHz | Obsolete |
| 802.11g | 2003 | 20 MHz/54Mbps | 1×1 (54Mbps/≈35Mbps) | Open WEP | 2.4GHz | Obsolete |
| 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) | 2009 | 20MHz/75Mbps 40MHz/150MBps | Quad-stream or 4×4 (600Mbps/≈400Mbps) | Open WEP WPA | 2.4GHz, 5GHz, Dual-band | Legacy |
| 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) | 2012 | 20MHz/108Mbps 40MHz/217Mbps 80MHz/433Mbps | 4×4 (1732Mbps/≈1000Mbps) | Open WPA WPA2 | 5GHz, Dual-band, Tri-band(••) | Common (Phasing out) |
| 802.11ad (WiGig) | 2015 | 2.16GHz/multi-Gigabit | n/a | Open WPA WPA2 | 60 GHz | Obsolete |
| 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) | 2019 | 20MHz/150Mbps 40MHz/300Mbps 80MHz/600Mbps 160MHz/1200Mbps | Dual-stream or 2×2 (2402Mbps/≈1500Mbps) | Open WPA WPA2 WPA3 | 2.4GHz 5GHz Dual-band, Tri-band(••), | Common |
| 802.11axe (Wi-Fi 6E) | 2021 | 20MHz/150Mbps 40MHz/300Mbps 80MHz/600Mbps 160MHz/1200Mbps | 2×2 (2402Mbps/≈1500Mbps) | OWE WPA3 | 6GHz, Dual-band, Tri-band, Quad-band(••) | Common |
| 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) | 2023 | 20MHz/225Mbps 40MHz/450Mbps 80MHz/730Mbps 160MHz/1.45Gbps 320MHz/2.9Gbps | 2×2 (5800Mbps/≈3000Gbps) | OWE WPA3 | 6GHz, 5GHz, 2.4GHz, Dual-band, Tri-band, Quad-band(•••) | Common (Latest) |
| 802.11ah (Wi-Fi HaLow) | 2024 | 1MHz 2MHz 4MHz 8MHz 16MHz | (85Mbps to 150Mbps) | OWE WPA3 | 900MHz | Emerging |
(•) The absolute best theoretical speed of a real-world connection in an ideal connection before interference, signal degradation, and hardware incompatibility are taken into account. Among the mainstream standards, depending on the number of streams and channel width in use, this theoretical ceiling speed is lower, often by half. In any case, you need to discount this ceiling number by another 30% or 50% to get the real-world sustained rates.
(••) The 5GHz band is split into two portions as sub-bands.
(•••) The 5GHz or 6GHz band is split into two portions as sub-bands.
So, if you have a Wi-Fi 6 router, chances are you’ll have no problem getting your home of mixed devices (old and new Wi-Fi standards) connected at the (close to) best possible performance.
Speaking of performance, that brings us to the second reason why Wi-Fi 6 is great for the time being.
2. Wi-Fi 6 has exactly the speed you want
On paper, Wi-Fi 6 can deliver up to 600Mbps to a quad-stream (4×4) Wi-Fi 4 client, up to 1.7Gbps to a 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 client, and up to 2400Mbps to a 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7 client. Depending on Wi-Fi specs, distance, and overhead, the actual rates are generally lower, but that’s still plenty fast.
A quick refresher: Starting with Wi-Fi 6, on the receiving end, there are only 2×2 clients, the speed of which depends on the channel width. For Wi-Fi 6, the top 2402Mbps requires clients to operate at 160MHz. At 80MHz, the ceiling speed is cut in half (1201Mbps). The cabinet below includes additional information.
Wi-Fi Bands vs. Channels vs. Streams
Wi-Fi uses three frequency bands, including 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. The width of each band is measured in MHz—the wider the band, the more MHz it has.
The 6GHz band is the widest of the three and has 1200MHz in total width, ranging from 5.925GHz to 7.125GHz. Depending on the local regulations, only a portion or portions of this entire spectrum is available for Wi-Fi applications.
In real-world usage, each band is divided into multiple portions, called channels, of different widths. Depending on the Wi-Fi standards and hardware, a channel can be 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, or 320MHz wide. The wider a channel is, the more bandwidth it has. Depending on the channel width, the number of channels in each Wi-Fi band varies, but there can be only so many.
The 6GHz band has enough space for three 320MHz channels or seven 160MHz channels.
Data moves in one channel of a particular band at a time, using streams, often dual-stream (2×2), three-stream (3×3), or quad-stream (4×4). The more streams, the more data can travel at a time. Thanks to the ultra-high bandwidth per stream, Wi-Fi 6 and later tend to have only 2×2 clients.
Here’s a crude analogy:
If a Wi-Fi band is a freeway, channels are lanes, and streams are vehicles (bicycles vs. cars vs. buses). On the same road, you can put multiple adjacent standard lanes (20MHz) into a larger one (40MHz, 80MHz, or higher) to accommodate oversized vehicles (higher number of streams) that carry more goods (data) per trip (connection).
A Wi-Fi connection generally occurs on a single channel (lane) of a single band (road) at a time. The actual data transmission is always that of the lowest denominator—a bicycle can carry just one person at a relatively slow speed, even when used on a super-wide lane of an open freeway.
Below are the charts of various Wi-Fi 6 routers’ real-world sustained rates when hosting clients of different standards with one Wi-Fi 7 router as a reference.
As shown, other than the 2.4GHz band, which has always been slow, the speeds of these Wi-Fi 6 routers on the 5GHz bands, which range from 300Mbps to Gig+, are more than fast enough for all online applications.
Most importantly, you’ll note that the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro, currently the best Wi-Fi 7 mesh router, didn’t do that much better (and was actually worse in a few cases). The only time it was decidedly faster was when it hosted Wi-Fi 7 (BE) clients, of which, as mentioned above, none of us have plenty, if at all.
Here’s the thing: most of the time, anything faster than 100Mbps is enough, and generally, starting from the 300Mbps or 500Mbps mark, faster speeds yield no benefits unless you need to copy a large amount of data between computers locally.
Coincidently, 300Mbps to 500Mbps is the range of popular fast residential broadband. If you have a Gigabit-class Internet connection, a high-end Wi-Fi 6 router with a couple of Multi-Gig ports is all you need to enjoy it in full.
Top 5 best high-end dual-band Wi-Fi 6 routers
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| Name | Asus RT-AX89X’s Rating | Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000’s Rating | Asus RT-AX88U Pro’s Rating | Synology RT6600ax’s Rating | Netgear Nighthawk RAX120’s Rating |
| Price | – | – | – | – | – |
| Rating | |||||
| Description | |||||
| Statistics | |||||
| Buy this product |
That said, Wi-Fi 6 has the best performance yield in terms of return on investment. And that brings us to the last reason why Wi-Fi 6 is the go-to standard today.
3. Wi-Fi 6 hardware now costs precisely what it’s worth, possibly even less
Since early 2023, the cost of Wi-Fi 6 routers has progressively gone down, and by now, most of them are excellent deals. The standard has reached the point of being underrated.
The Asus RT-AX88U Pro, which is one of the best multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 routers, for example, can be had for only around $250. On the other hand, if you want to go with the Wi-Fi 7 version, the sans-6GHz RT-BE88U costs close to $400. Want a full Wi-Fi 7 experience? The RT-BE96U will set you back some $650. (Compare these three on Amazon!) Here’s the thing: all three will likely give you the same experience in daily usage. I speak from experience.
If you pick another brand, such as Netgear, the cost of Wi-Fi 7 is even more ridiculous.
The point is that Wi-Fi 6 is currently the standard that gives you slightly more than what you need at a reasonable cost. It features Gig+ wireless speeds and advanced security, yet also natively supports the many lower requirements for Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4 legacy devices.
For the time being and the foreseeable future, Wi-Fi 6 is the sweet spot of local wireless connectivity. It’ll take Wi-Fi 7 five or even a decade to replace Wi-Fi 6 the way Wi-Fi 6 is slowly replacing Wi-Fi 5 today. And that’s just the way it is.
Just to be clear. I’m in no way saying Wi-Fi 7 is bad or has a slow adoption rate. It’s just that the latest standard’s ultra-high speeds and fancy features, when attainable, are pure luxury—they are optional. On the other hand, we need to keep our existing devices—most use Wi-Fi 6 and older standards—connected with ease.
And maybe that’s why, since mid-2023, there have been numerous significant new Wi-Fi 6 hardware releases. They simply make sense.
The takeaway
You’re reading this on a webpage, and as long as the page loads fast enough—which I’m pretty sure it does—it makes no difference what type of connection you’re using, be it cellular, Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7, or via a network cable. And nobody cares. The point is that getting connected is a practical matter at hand that carries no badge of honor, a mark of shame, or anything in between.
The only things that matter are the information you exchange and how much you pay for the privilege. Having the equipment that can exchange an enormous amount of information at a time does not mean you’ll automatically have more to give or get. Often, beyond a certain amount, you’re done for the day.
For the time being, Wi-Fi 6 is the standard where you get the best combo of speed, compatibility, and cost.
Sure, Wi-Fi 7 is clearly faster, but it’s pretty hard for you to experience the new speed grade. When you can, you’ll realize it doesn’t do you much more than a bit of bragging right in return for possibly forcing you to finally say goodbye to some of your beloved but dated devices. And it’s totally fine if you want to pay extra for that.
Thanks for this article, Dong! I have to say, you really understand how the “But I need to upgrade!” mind works, lol, and you’ve exposed that my “need” to upgrade to WiFi 7 is actually just a “want” in search of a reason to do it–and I can’t find one after reading this! On the brighter side, I’ll save a bunch of money by getting years more use out of my Asus AX-86U, which has been a superb and bulletproof router
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Great article Dong! I was grappling with upgrading my WiFi 6 Orbi to their new WiFi 7 970 version… but your points on compatibility have helped make up my mind to wait a bit.
Another point I struggle with is the benefit of WiFi 7 when utilizing a 1 gig internet plan. My current plan is 1.2 Gbps… so WiFi 6 with its 9.6 Gbps speed can deliver everything my 1.2 gig connection can offer. Moving up to WiFi 7’s 46 Gbps wouldn’t offer any tangible speed benefits right? Other than the bigger channel width, intra-network transfers, etc… but wouldn’t really translate to additional speed as WiFi 6’s 9.6 Gbps already maxes out my 1.2 gig connection. Am I thinking about this right?
You got it, Sean.
The FIOS branded Wifi 6E router is one of the best deals going. It can be had for ~$100 used on eBay and it has 2 10G ports (1 LAN+ 1 WAN) and 2 2.5G LAN ports. Yes, it works anywhere, not just on FIOS (although I am using it there).
Only thing is there are no real VPN settings, but the rest is there.
That’s interesting! I think they subsidize those and don’t intend to sell them to the general public. Thanks for sharing, Eric.
What an excellent article! I like the way you write, Dong. informative, clear, with a natural flow.
And you’re right about Wi-Fi 6. I got my Asus RT-AX86U a few years ago thanks to your review and it’s been phenomenal!
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