WiFi 7 is here. The latest & greatest standard, offering lots of wondefulness.
Should you upgrade? Probably not. If that sounds a bit killjoy, let me explain. For most people (at home or in the office) their perception of computer speed is governed primarily by the responsiveness of their PC when accessing the Internet. Websites, email, social media – it’s all delivered via ‘The Internet’. And the thing is that the delivery pipeline is a chain – and it’s only as fast as the slowest link. I know people are going to say ‘it’s not all about speed’. And they’re correct. Thing is though that – for 99% of the people 99% of the time – it IS all about speed. And here’s the inconvenient truth: it’s great that the new WiFi7 has a data-rate of 46Gbps (which it does) – but if your broadband feed is only 0.5Gbps. then 45.5Gbps of your WiFi capacity is going unused. In addition it’s unlikely that any of your current equipment (laptops / PCs) support WiFi7, so it’s a complete waste of time.
Or is it?
There are, of course, people for whom this upgrade does make sense. One of the most useful improvements is the increased performance when sharing the WiFi with many devices in the office. Generally the performance for everyone degrades rapidly when the bandwith cake starts getting sliced too thin. WiFi7 promises to be more generous here.
And there are a bunch of intereting & usefull – if somewhat technical – improvements here as well But (and it’s a big but) – it’s expensive. The 3-pack in the image is £1000. Yes, a grand. You have got to be really sure it’s going to enhance your life before splashing that much cash!