What’s new in Wi-Fi - and does it matter to you…

TL;DR - if your existing Wi-Fi system works fine, don’t upgrade. The main benefits for home users are: 1) better for when you’re wandering around the house; 2) better responsiveness for gamers; and 3) faster than previous Wi-Fi standards.

With new tech, we’re often asking ourselves ‘so what?’. Partly because we’re curious, but mostly because we want to have answered that question before our clients rightly ask it.

Usually that means translating specs or jargon into whether something has meaningful benefits for home users.

Which is where we’re at with Wi-Fi 7. It’s newer, more expensive and has a bigger number than 6; but the important two questions are ‘why should we care?’, and ‘should we replace what we have with this one?’

Like many upgrades in tech, the main improvement is speed: how ‘fast’ is your Wi-FI? In our view, unless you know you’re having speed issues (which aren’t caused by the speed coming to the house) or your Wi-Fi isn’t as fast as you’d like it, you don’t need to upgrade to this one.

We have noticed one detail, however, which is worth bearing in mind if you are upgrading or installing a house Wi-Fi system for the first time. Wi-Fi 7 allows for better ‘roaming’ - wandering around the house and making sure your phone or laptop connects to the strongest Wi-Fi booster quickly, so you stay connected to your FaceTime or WhatsApp video calls.

For online gamers who rely on a Wi-Fi connection, Wi-FI 7 improves latency (response times), so you can be confident you’ve dodged that bullet.

There are plenty of other behind the scenes improvements, but these were the highlights for us. Remember that any specifications you read are results from lab testing; homes never allow us to replicate the lab environment. We’ll work with you to understand what’s best for you. Get in touch to find out!