If you have questions about the ins and outs of Wi-Fi 6, be sure to check out CNET’s full explainer on the standard and what makes it better than the Wi-Fi of yore. In the meantime, I’ll post answers to any commonly asked questions below.
“:”What makes Wi-Fi 6 faster than previous standards?”,”answer”:”
Wi-Fi 6 introduced a host of improvements that make it faster than previous generations of Wi-Fi standards. The most significant one is the introduction of the 2.4GHz band, which allows your router to send data through an additional frequency. 2.4GHz has better range but slower speeds than 5GHz, which Wi-Fi 5 and previous generations use exclusively. That means you can expect much stronger signal strength with a Wi-Fi 6 router.
Another notable upgrade is 1024-QAM, which stands for quadrature amplitude modulation. With the 1024-QAM feature on Wi-Fi 6 routers, you’ll also get a 25% increase in the amount of data it can transmit at once. Additionally, OFDMA, or orthogonal frequency division multiple access, allows Wi-Fi 6 routers to send data to multiple clients within a single channel at once.
“,”quickTake”:””,”canCollapse”:”true”,”collapseOnPageLoad”:”false”,”canTruncate”:”true”,”truncateOnPageLoad”:”false”},{“question”:”Do I need to replace all my devices to benefit from Wi-Fi 6?”,”answer”:”
If you’ve purchased a new device in the past several years, it almost certainly works with Wi-Fi 6. But even if it doesn’t, Wi-Fi 6 is fully backward-compatible, so earlier Wi-Fi devices will still be able to connect to them and get online. They just won’t be able to take advantage of the new Wi-Fi 6 features that speed things up for current-gen devices.
“,”quickTake”:””,”canCollapse”:”true”,”collapseOnPageLoad”:”false”,”canTruncate”:”true”,”truncateOnPageLoad”:”false”},{“question”:”What’s the difference between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E routers?”,”answer”:”
Wi-Fi 6E is a special designation for Wi-Fi 6 devices that are equipped to send signals “\” data-id=\”97792c66-1c2d-4d95-802f-5072042c24b2\” href=\”https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/wi-fi-6-is-the-fastest-yet-but-wi-fi-6e-will-be-even-better-6-ghz/\”>in the ultrawide 6GHz band, which is something that routers couldn’t do until 2020 “\” data-id=\”97792c66-1c2d-4d95-802f-5072042c24b2\” href=\”https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/the-fcc-voted-6-ghz-wi-fi-6e-here-we-come/\”>when the Federal Communications Commission voted to open that 6GHz spectrum for unlicensed use. Wi-Fi 7 routers also use the 6GHz, which makes the distinction between Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 a bit complicated.
\”Whenever I spoke with the Wi-Fi Alliance, they always tried to make people forget that Wi-Fi 6E even existed,\” said Nicholas De Leon, a reporter covering routers for Consumer Reports (no relation to CNET’s Samantha De Leon). \”It was kind of a stopgap, Band-Aid solution while on the road to Wi-Fi 7.\”
For more, I recommend “\” data-id=\”97792c66-1c2d-4d95-802f-5072042c24b2\” href=\”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG6UrVhEJkM\”>this video, where former CNET writer Ry Crist explains the difference between the two in three minutes.
“,”quickTake”:””,”canCollapse”:”true”,”collapseOnPageLoad”:”false”,”canTruncate”:”true”,”truncateOnPageLoad”:”false”},{“question”:”Is Wi-Fi 6 good enough or should I wait for Wi-Fi 7?”,”answer”:”
If you don’t have a lot of connected devices on your network at once — more than 10, say — Wi-Fi 6 is definitely still good enough. Typical activities like streaming TV or videoconferencing don’t require much more than 5Mbps internet speeds. Wi-Fi 6 routers can theoretically transmit data at 9.6Gbps, which is far more than most people pay for through their “\” data-id=\”f55381ea-5d1b-47e2-be0f-a396d121635c\” href=\”https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/best-internet-providers/\”>internet provider. That said, if you’ve purchased a new laptop or phone that’s compatible with Wi-Fi 7, you may want to upgrade your router to take full advantage of its new features. But in my opinion, most people won’t notice the difference.
One exception is online gaming. If your main objective when shopping for a router is to have the best gaming experience possible, you’ll benefit from the ultralow latency features that were new to Wi-Fi 7.
“,”quickTake”:””,”canCollapse”:”true”,”collapseOnPageLoad”:”false”,”canTruncate”:”true”,”truncateOnPageLoad”:”false”},{“question”:”How many Ethernet ports do I need on my Wi-Fi 6 router?”,”answer”:”
It all depends on how many devices you want connected directly to your router. I’d recommend at least two Ethernet ports, which all of our top picks have. This lets you connect priority devices like “\” data-id=\”b44ad491-d040-41d7-a677-63e05be6d12d\” href=\”https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/best-tv/\”>smart TVs, “\” data-id=\”b44ad491-d040-41d7-a677-63e05be6d12d\” href=\”https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/best-streaming-device/\”>streaming devices and gaming consoles directly to your router, which provides faster and more reliable speeds than you’d get through Wi-Fi.
“,”quickTake”:””,”canCollapse”:”true”,”collapseOnPageLoad”:”false”,”canTruncate”:”true”,”truncateOnPageLoad”:”false”}]” ng-block=”{“id”:”k2ybxoan2xg672i”,”type”:”faq”}” edition=”us”>