Though it’s been a fully approved standard for some time, actually seeing or buying a Wi-Fi 6 router has been both rare and expensive until recently. Now that we’ve passed the mid-point of 2020, however, routers supporting Wi-Fi 6 are starting to appear en masse, which not only gives you a wider selection, it’s also driving down prices.
Wi-Fi 6, or as it’s otherwise known, 802.11ax, offers significant improvements over the current 802.11ac standard (now dubbed Wi-Fi 5 by the Wi-Fi Alliance). Faster throughput speeds, better battery life for clients, and less bandwidth congestion are some of the most obvious reasons for upgrading to the new standard, but there are some important things to consider before you run out and buy a Wi-Fi 6 router.
What Is Wi-Fi 6?
A lot has been written about Wi-Fi 6 up to this point, but here’s a brief rundown on what to expect from the newest wireless standard. (For more history, check out our explainer.) Wi-Fi 6 routers employ several new technologies that are designed to boost overall performance by offering increased throughput speeds (nearing 10Gbps, theoretically, compared with max speeds of around 3Gbps for 802.11ac).
In addition, Wi-Fi 6 aims to relieve network congestion, provide greater client capacity, and reduce client power consumption. For example, Wi-Fi 6 uses Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) modulation, which allows up to 30 clients to share a channel at the same time, thereby improving efficiency by boosting overall capacity while reducing latency. Long story short, OFDMA assigns time intervals to clients that allows them to better parse out available network channels. For example, if one person in your home is streaming a movie and another is checking social media on a phone, OFDMA allows a router to assign channels to each device based on when it needs it most.
Wi-Fi 6 also uses Target Wake Time (TWT), which allows devices to determine when they will normally wake up to begin sending and receiving data. This extends the battery life of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as battery-powered smart home devices such as security cameras and video doorbells. The new standard also takes advantage of previously unused radio frequencies to provide faster 2.4GHz performance, and it uses refined bandwidth management to provide enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) options. Additionally, Wi-Fi 6 offers eight-stream uplink and downlink Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), which streams data simultaneously rather than sequentially, allowing a more equitable sharing of bandwidth among connected MU-MIMO enabled clients. Wi-Fi 5 MU-MIMO topped out at four streams.
So Should You Upgrade Now?
The short answer is likely “yes” if your current router is more than three years old. Notebooks that support Wi-Fi 6 are becoming more common, including both higher-end models, like the Editors’ Choice-winning HP Omen 15, as well as lower-priced units such as the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go. The same goes for newer tablets and smartphones, like the Amazon Fire HD 8 and the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G.
Even if your devices are still operating on 802.11ac, it’s still worth the trouble to consider a Wi-Fi 6 router upgrade now. Prices are coming down on both standalone Wi-Fi 6 routers as well as Wi-Fi-6-compatible wireless mesh systems. Among mesh systems, the most recent and notable examples include the Amazon Eero 6 and Eero Pro 6. Both these platforms support Wi-Fi 6, though the Eero Pro 6 is a tri-band system that supports faster throughput and speedier Internet connections.
Both platforms also have a Zigbee smart home hub built into the core router and both are being offered at between $100 and $200 less than most of the current Wi-Fi 6 mesh competition, which almost lets them qualify as budget routers. With prices dropping this steeply 2021 id more likely to produce new Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems than third-party, Wi-Fi 6 range extenders.
Is Wi-Fi 6 Finalized?
The Wi-Fi Alliance started certifying devices in mid-September 2019, so we’re over a full year into the process, which is why devices and routers are starting to become cheaper and more common. The advanced connectivity features delivered in these devices make them significantly superior to Wi-Fi 5, so if an upgrade is in your budget, now is definitely a good time to pull the trigger.
Aside from the capabilities mentioned above, Wi-Fi 6 also offers features like beamforming, which transmits Wi-Fi signals directly to clients rather than over a broad spectrum. All Wi-Fi 6 devices can also handle WPA3 encryption, which is the newest iteration of Wi-Fi security that’ll use features like robust password protection and 256-bit encryption algorithms to make it harder for people to hack into your network. Your network will also run faster due to background networking improvements, like support for 1,024-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), a method that allows more data to be packed into each signal for increased throughput. This can deliver up to 25 percent more capacity than the 256-QAM method used in most Wi-Fi 5 routers.
All this jargon is a lot to unpack, but rest assured that any device you get that supports the final Wi-Fi 6 standard will have all these features in place.
Upgrade One Step at a Time
If you’re panicking at the number of network and client devices you need to upgrade, relax. There’s no need to replace every Wi-Fi 5 device and network component simultaneously. Wi-Fi 6 routers will support Wi-Fi 5 devices just fine, though the latter will run at their rated 802.11ac speeds. Similarly, Wi-Fi 6 devices can still talk to a Wi-Fi 5 router, though again, their throughput will be constrained and most of the advanced features mentioned above will be disabled until they can find supporting devices. If you’re a gamer, you might start with a Wi-Fi 6 gaming router and then move on out to supporting devices. If, perhaps, work dictates certain high-performance clients, you can start there and work inward.
Bottom line: you can upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 one step at a time, which will definitely make things easier. You’ll not only save your wallet from a sudden pummeling, you’ll also be able to configure and master one device at a time instead of finding yourself frustrated with a slew of new features and documentation.
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