Currently we can buy routers and Wi-Fi Mesh systems with the Wi-Fi 6E standardthe latest standard available right now while waiting for the future wifi 7. Many people wonder if it is worth spending money on a new Wi-Fi 6E router compared to Wi-Fi 6 models, since the additional money outlay to buy one with the latest standard is up to 50 % higher than other previous model, and you may not know or be able to take full advantage of it. Today in RedesZone we are going to indicate in which cases it is worth it, and in which it is not worth it at all.
What does the new Wi-Fi 6E bring me?
The new Wi-fi 6E standard only allows us to use the new 6GHz band to connect wireless clients, the rest of the features, options and theoretical (and real) speed are exactly the same as the Wi-Fi 6 standard. The advantages of using this new standard, therefore, is the possibility of using the new band 6GHz, which gives us all this:
- we will have no interference with other neighboring WiFi networks, since it is in a completely different frequency band.
- We can use 160MHz channel widths and make the most of the WiFi network.
- DFS channels do not exist that might not be available, such as the 5GHz band (and the Wi-Fi 6 standard).
- Here we can connect the fastest WiFi clientsmaking the wireless network work globally much faster.
Another point in favor of this standard is that it is the use of the WPA3 encryption protocol is mandatory, it does not allow you to configure WPA or WPA2. Therefore, both WiFi Mesh routers and systems, as well as wireless clients, will use WPA3 to communicate securely. This is a point in favor of this new standard, because it “forces” to use the best WiFi encryption that currently exists.
It’s worth it in these cases
Buying a Wi-Fi Mesh router or system with the Wi-Fi 6E standard will only be worth it in certain cases and not always. You must assess whether you really need to connect to the new 6GHz band or not, because the initial investment in equipment can be quite large, especially if you decide to go for medium-high range models where exceeding €300 for a single router is the most usual.
- exist many 5GHz Wi-Fi networks from neighbors where you liveand the performance you have in this frequency band is very bad, both for speed and for WiFi coverage.
- if you already have various WiFi clients supported with the new standard. The latest upper-middle-range smartphones, tablets and computers that hit the market usually incorporate this type of connectivity with support for the 6GHz band.
- If you think connect with your devices in relatively “close” places to the router, otherwise you should know that the coverage will be less than the 5GHz band and much less than the 2.4GHz band. This is completely normal since we are using much higher frequencies.
- If you use Windows 11 or Linux systems you will be able to connect, remember that the new Wi-Fi 6E standard is not supported by Windows 10so you should keep it in mind.
As you can see, only if you meet certain assumptions will it be worth buying a new device with the standard that allows us to connect to the 6GHz band, otherwise, we believe that it is better that you continue using Wi-Fi 6 because it is much cheaper by having been with us much longer, and there are models of all ranges and prices.
What will happen when the new Wi-Fi 7 comes out? Well, this standard is scheduled to come out later this year, ASUS has already presented its first router recently, however, you should know that they will be much more expensive than Wi-Fi 6E. It is possible that when the new Wi-Fi 7 is released, equipment with Wi-Fi 6E will drop a lot in price, so it could be a good opportunity to buy the previous generation.
