The first ones routers Wi-Fi 7 are announced by network hardware manufacturers. And even if the performance is promising, you will still have to be patient to benefit from it, while our terminals massively adopt this new wireless communication standard (IEEE 802.11be).
As expected, 2023 is the year of the big debut of Wi-Fi 7 in products marketed to the general public. This new generation of the wireless connectivity standard brings, among other things, even higher speeds and better exploitation of the 6 GHz frequency band, whose channel width is doubled.
TP-Link shoots first
The main players in the market are starting to get serious, with high-end devices which will not allow the democratization of Wi-Fi 7 given their costs, but which have the merit of paving the way for this technology.
One of the first to draw is TP-Link, with its Deco BE85. Mesh compatible, this tri-band router on 12 streams can reach a theoretical throughput of up to 19 Gbps, including 11.52 Gbps on the 6 GHz band alone, which is not (yet) subject to congestion problems.
The Deco BE85 also stands out for its complete connectivity including two 10 Gbps Ethernet ports, additional 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN sockets as well as a USB 3.0 interface. This Wi-Fi 7 router is already available for sale at a price of 1,199 euros (in a pack of 2).
27 Gbps at Netgear, who says better?
More recently, Netgear and Amazon have entered the Wi-Fi 7 router segment. The former is banking on its range of mesh networking equipment with the Orbi 970, which can reach a maximum speed of up to 27 Gbps. It is equipped with 12 powerful internal antennas for extensive, 360-degree coverage. Its little extra? It combines a dedicated 5 GHz band and a 6 GHz band, to double the connection speed between the base and the satellites. The Orbi 970 router will be available in November from 1,699 euros (pack of 2, a base and a satellite).
Amazon is not left out. Its eero Max 7 goes up to 9.4 Gbps and has two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet sockets. This router supports mesh technology and is capable of covering an area of up to 232 m2with a system composed of three units.
According to Amazon, its router would “ download a 4K movie in 10 seconds or a 50 gigabyte video game in less than a minute “. Provided, of course, that you have a sufficiently powerful internet connection.
Likewise, it would accept the simultaneous connection of up to 200 devices as well as the Matter, Thread and Zigbee home automation protocols.
The eero Max 7 will be priced at 699.99 euros in the coming weeks on the Amazon website.
Finally, a little clarification: smartphones, computers and other connected devices are currently not compatible with Wi-Fi 7. The first models supporting the standard should however arrive in the coming months.
Sources: Press releases from Netgear, TP-Link and Amazon
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