Seriously, if you want to buy a high-end router now, you can really look directly at Wi-Fi 7 routers. So what exactly is the strength of Wi-Fi 7? In this episode, we will explain it clearly at once. Hi, welcome back. I am a donkey. The next generation of Wi-Fi is about to debut in Taiwan in large numbers in 2019. In 2019, we took you to see Wi-Fi 6 in detail, and this year, 2024, we are going to take you to it. Look at Wi-Fi 7. Wi-Fi 7 can be said to be the most important update in the history of Wi-Fi. Thanks to Wi-Fi 6, many infrastructure problems have been solved. This also gives Wi-Fi 7 the opportunity to be more complete. Let’s start with The two key points of Wi-Fi 7 are the first MLO network , which can be said to be the most important update of Wi-Fi 7. In the past, our mobile phones could only connect to one frequency band when connected to the router , such as 2.4GHz or 5GHz. 6E can connect to 6GHz , but it connects to one frequency band at a time . Even the smart network is actually one frequency band at a time . With MLO, the mobile phone can connect to the three frequency bands of 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz at the same time . Then the adjustment space is as big as imagination. It’s great. For example, you can connect to the three frequency bands of 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz at the same time. You can also automatically switch between the three frequency bands to enhance the stability of the connection. Or you can reduce the delay through a 5GHz + 6GHz dual-band connection. Wait , through MLO multi-connection technology , it can be said that the shackles of frequency bands have been released. Now it can be freely scheduled among multiple frequency bands. Naturally, there are many more ways to play and solve it. Second, the total data volume of Wi-Fi 7 can reach 46Gbps. MU-MIMO has also been upgraded to 16x16. Compared with Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, Wi-Fi 6 can only achieve 9.6Gbps. Wi-Fi 7 has directly doubled it by 4.8 times. The total is basically Thunderbolt level speed. So you said you are only now looking at Wi-Fi 7? It’s not too late , not at all. In fact , both Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 are inseparable from a common topic , which is that consumer Wi-Fi has joined the 6GHz frequency band for the first time, which also makes 6E and Wi-Fi 7 from In the past, the 2.4GHz / 5GHz dual-band we were familiar with directly came to the 2.4GHz 5GHz and 6GHz triple-band designs. But now the problem has arisen. Taiwan’s 6GHz has always been a controlled frequency band. If the regulations are not relaxed and the 6GHz frequency band is released, then Wi- The 6GHz frequency band in Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 can only be sealed forever. The biggest focus of Wi-Fi 6E is 6GHz. If 6GHz is not open , why don’t I buy Wi-Fi 6? It’s better and cheaper anyway. It does not use 6GHz , and as long as 6GHz is not open, mobile phones , tablets and laptops that originally support Wi-Fi 6E can only be sold in Taiwan by sealing 6GHz . Yes , this is the development trend, and 6GHz has not been open for a long time . As a result, Taiwan's router market can be said to have directly skipped the 6E generation Wi-Fi 6E. It was probably at the end of August last year that some frequency bands were officially opened. Until the end of September, TP-Link took the lead and launched a large wave of 6E models. I was very happy at that time. Ah, Taiwan has finally launched 6E. Everyone is celebrating . Then Wi-Fi 7 is coming right away . It’s coming right away . Look at this photo from the TP-Link Taiwan launch event in September last year. The one on the left blocked here is 6E. I'm very happy that 6E has finally been activated. On the right side is Wi-Fi 7. It's really coming right away. It's no exaggeration. This is why I said that instead of buying a new 6E machine , it's better to go directly to Wi-Fi 7. At this time, you will definitely ask a question: What about 6E? There will always be a price advantage over the 7, right ? The answer is none at all , because the 6E was launched too late. Basically, the introduced models are very rare, which also makes it difficult for the price of high-end 6E to come down at all. At the same time, the 7 models are either under agreement or The hardware is much better than 6E. For example, the price of high-end routers in the Taiwan market in the past was about 15,000-20,000 per unit. On 6E , now you can buy TP-Link Archer AXE200 Omni with tri-band 10.8 The maximum speed of Gbps, one 10GbE port, one 2.5GbE port, four 1GbE ports, Wi-Fi 6E communication protocol, and even a mechanical structure that automatically adjusts the antenna direction. If you just look at the specifications, you can say that AXE200 Omni is It’s very luxurious. The official price is 19,999. But don’t worry, let me show you what real luxury is. With a budget of 20,000, if you see a Wi-Fi 7 model, you can go straight to Archer GE800, which is also a router positioned for e-sports. Archer GE800 It has a tri-band 19Gbps and the maximum speed is twice as fast as 6E. Then the super luxurious Archer GE800 actually comes with two 10GbE connectors . Yes, two 10G and even one of the 10GbE can be switched to a professional Switch. Commonly used SFP+ connectors for consumer machines It's really a bit fierce to directly plug in SFP. What's even more awesome is that Archer GE800 completely abandons the 4 LANs next to 1GbE. All of them are 2.5GbE jacks. It really has a luxurious wireless protocol. Of course, the latest Wi-Fi 7 has all New advantages include the ability to successfully connect to the 6GHz frequency band network, enable 320MHz doubled bandwidth 4096 QAM , and of course Wi-Fi 7, the most important MLO network. And the most important thing is that the official price of this machine is only 18,999. So this is why I say that for high-end people, please go straight to Wi-Fi 7 because I looked around. The Wi-Fi 7 generation is not just an upgrade in the Wi-Fi protocol. At the same price, the connectors and hardware specifications are obviously improved. It only gives four 2.5GbE, which is already very luxurious. It also gives two 10GbE, one of which can be switched to SFP+. It’s really super ridiculous. And I looked at it and it’s not just the gaming model that is positioned as luxurious. I even borrowed Wi-Fi. The Mesh unit of Fi 7 is Deco BE85. You see, this is really a super connected Mesh model. There are two 10GbE models with two 2.5GbE connectors. Even 10GbE also has SFP+ Combo , and not only the host has three I have all of them. I don’t know which luxury this is, but it’s really luxurious , so I’ll make a small conclusion. The reason why Wi-Fi 7 looks so good now is that it’s 6E. It’s really too late. Anyway, if you have a budget of 10,000-15,000 or more , or even 6-8000, it is really recommended to look at the current Wi-Fi 7 models to see if there is a better choice, because it may be significantly better than 6E and even cheaper. Ah , well, now that we have got Archer GE800, a high-end router , we are here to help you update the 2024 Router Buying Guide. The focus is on Wi-Fi 7. What upgrades are there? If you are ready, let’s get started. First, let’s first Let’s talk about the most important question: What is Wi-Fi 7? What is the strength of Wi-Fi 7? To put it simply, since the emergence of Wi-Fi technology, it has been divided into 802.11 a, g, b, n, ac, ax and the latest be, a total of seven generations of communication protocols. Among them, the concept of Wi-Fi is mainly in the ax generation , which is Wi -Fi 6 appeared at that time, so pushing forward ac is Wi-Fi 5 n is Wi-Fi 4 and the latest code is called be, which is Wi-Fi 7. So as long as you see BE on the product model, the beginning is basically Wi- The Fi 7 model is correct and Wi-Fi is backward compatible, so you can go straight to the latest Wi-Fi 7. Of course, it will also support Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 4, etc. This analogy applies to all. The previous generation of Wi-Fi 6 has actually solved many problems , including greatly improving the connection speed, greatly increasing the number of connections , and solving the problem of signal interference between Wi-Fi. In addition, in recent years, mainstream network supply Shangli recommends Wi-Fi 6, which is quite popular , so I actually like the feeling that Wi-Fi 6 was launched on the market at that time, because it not only changed a name , but really solved many big problems and laid the foundation for the next generation. Wi-Fi is ready , and now Wi-Fi 7, which is closer to complete, has finally arrived after a long wait . Let’s focus on comparing the differences. Wi-Fi 7 The most important thing about this generation is that in addition to the previous 2.4GHz In addition to the two major frequency bands of 5GHz, like 6E, there is also a 6GHz frequency band that can be used . Therefore, in the Wi-Fi 7 generation, most services will be provided in the three frequency bands of 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. If we look at Wi-Fi based on the theoretical limit of wireless connections, 7 can reach a maximum transmission speed of 46Gbps. Compared with Wi-Fi 6, it will be 9.6Gbps. Wi-Fi 5 is 3.5Gbps. I’m really not kidding. According to this pace , in the next few years , there will be consumer-grade routers with a total speed faster than Thunderbolt. However , at the same time, such a high transmission speed also consumes more heat than before. So one of the changes in the Wi-Fi 7 generation is that most high-end routers have become heavier and the heat dissipation inside is full. Even the Archer GE800 we have has a built-in cooling fan. However, in my current experience, the goal of this fan is not to achieve extreme cooling but to assist in temperature control. Therefore, it will be used without a large amount of transmission. Keep it running at low speed and it's pretty quiet when playing. I don't hear any sound when I put it at a distance of about 1.5 meters. In fact, there are already a lot of fans inside for heat dissipation. They are not the main means of heat dissipation , but I think the speed improvement In fact, it is not Wi-Fi 7. The biggest focus of this generation is more important . What problems does Wi-Fi 7 actually solve? From this specification sheet, we can see that Wi-Fi 7 not only quadruples the speed , but also quadruples the bandwidth. The previous maximum 160MHz has doubled to 320MHz. This improvement is very easy to understand. It is the same as the width of the road. Now the width has doubled from 160MHz to 320MHz. And don’t forget that the AC generation is generally still at 80MHz , so Wi-Fi 6 is already very fast to 160MHz. It is enough for ordinary families, and Wi-Fi 7 has doubled again to 320MHz, which not only meets the needs of high usage and the future, but also has a strong meaning. Then another big change is the upgrade in modulation specifications. Simply put, the transmission method of wireless signals can I saw that both Wi-Fi 6 and 6E generations use 1024-QAM OFDMA , while Wi-Fi 7 can reach 4096-QAM OFDMA. Many manufacturers will label 4096-QAM as 4K-QAM , which is the same thing . The two terms before and after To put it separately, 1024 and 4096-QAM are actually the difference between 10bits and 12bits. 4K-QAM can probably be understood as a way of stuffing things into packages. If you look at the diagram, you can see that 4K-QAM uses 12bits, and the density is obvious. Higher, this also allows 4K-QAM to have a 20% improvement in transmission efficiency compared to 1024-QAM. Note that it is 20%. This also helps scenes such as game streaming to be smoother . The OFDMA technology behind the specification table just represents transportation. For example, if you want to load three packages into a truck and send them to three places, you can only drive to one place at a time , so even if there is only a piece of paper in the package, you have to complete one trip. However, OFDMA can do it all at once. Goods loaded into three places can be delivered to three places with just one trip. Therefore, with the addition of OFDMA, the speed and efficiency of truck delivery have been greatly improved. This is also the foundation laid since Wi-Fi 6. What follows? The number of MU-MIMO has also increased significantly, from 8x8 MU-MIMO to 16x16 MU-MIMO. I believe that everyone who has watched Bonnie’s reviews for a long time is familiar with MU-MIMO. Simply put, MU-MIMO allows a router to provide more In the past, the transmission channel technology under Wi-Fi 5 could only allow multiple users to download and transmit, but in the Wi-Fi 6 generation , simultaneous downloads and simultaneous uploads are OK. The 8x8 written here can support the highest This means that 8 devices can upload and download at the same time. The latest Wi-Fi 7 generation has been directly upgraded to 16x16 MU-MIMO , which means that 16 devices can transmit at the same time. This also allows Wi-Fi 7 to achieve higher overall performance. There are also two small technologies for transmission speed called Multi-RU and Preamble Puncturing. These two technologies are to solve the problem of channel resources not being fully used. For example, before Wi-Fi 6, each RU is each transmission unit. Can only be used by one user Wi-Fi 7 has Multi-RU, which allows the same user to use multiple RUs at the same time to improve efficiency . Preamble Puncturing solves the problem of channel waste. The system will automatically detect and open unused channel space to improve transmission. The final efficiency is Wi-Fi 7. The most important and important improvement is MLO. The full name of the network in English is Multi-Link Operation. In Chinese, it can be called multi-link mode. Simply put, with the past Wi-Fi connection technology, you can only connect to one frequency band at a time . For example, you Connect to a 2.4GHz network. Connect to a 5GHz network or a 6GHz network. Even if the router provides the smart connection function , you are actually just connected to one of the frequency bands . With the MLO network, Wi-Fi 7 devices There are many ways to play , such as STR NSTR or Single Radio Multi Radio MLO eMLSR, etc. Many terms represent different frequency band combinations and modes. But the goal of this episode is to make your grandma understand it, so in a simple way, there is MLO. Now we can freely schedule all frequency bands . Different combinations of frequency bands can achieve different functions and gameplay. For example, we can connect to 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz at the same time to achieve higher transmission throughput , or we can automatically switch between three frequency bands. Switching between frequencies enhances the scheduling and stability of the connection , or we only connect to 5GHz and 6GHz to reduce latency as much as possible, etc. To sum up, the biggest advantage of MLO is that in the past, you could only connect to a certain frequency band, but now you can connect to multiple frequency bands at once. In fact, you need to connect four frequency bands , such as one 2.4GHz, two 5GHz and one 6GHz. You can also do it . With MLO, the brands of these routers have a very, very large room for adjustment and imagination in system resource scheduling. You can change it through The advanced algorithm allows the resources of all frequency bands to be dynamically adjusted. This is currently one of the main functions that I recommend to go straight to Wi-Fi 7. However, it should be noted that MLO requires a router and receiver, such as a mobile phone, which must also support the MLO network before it can be enabled . It’s another future-proofing feature , but the most common one right now is that except for the iPhone, almost all flagship phones of most brands this year have been equipped with Wi-Fi 7, so the follow-up speed of each company should be very, very fast. The above is Wi-Fi. The main updates of Fi 7 and the key points that you must know have been simplified as much as possible. You must understand it. After talking about Wi-Fi 7 and the current market situation, I will take you to the key points of Archer GE800. However, due to limited time, this article The rally focused on testing. The exterior design of Archer GE800 is really gaming- friendly and very bold. The first thing that attracted me at first sight was the RGB configuration of GE800. It is also very luxurious. If I remember correctly, this should be the first TP-Link model with large Products with area RGB lamp beads are very good in terms of RGB brightness and uniformity, especially the smoothness of the rainbow lighting effect. Not only do they have RGB on the front and sides of the body, but they also have RGB configurations that provide a downward reflection mixed light effect. It is also full and full enough. It is really well done for the first time to make a product with a lot of RGB. The mental buff when gaming is about 98% bonus. In addition , through the Tether App of TP-Link, there is also a very complete RGB lighting effect that can be switched. Of course, you can also customize it . When you set it on your mobile phone, the RGB of GE800 will change instantly, allowing you to preview and adjust more accurately. If you insist on it, it is probably just that you have not connected to each company's RGB control. The panel is innocuous, but the Archer GE800 actually hides eight antennas on both sides of the bold wings , and through the 1376Mbps 2.4GHz + 5760Mbps 5GHz and 11520Mbps 6GHz tri-band, a total of 18656Mbps ultra-high total transmission speed is achieved in the system. MU-MIMO and OFDMA can also be successfully enabled in the GE800 . According to the official specifications, the GE800 can achieve 4x4 MU-MIMO support. The Wi-Fi 7 functions mentioned earlier include MLO 320MHz large bandwidth 4K-QAM Multi-Rus are also supported on the GE800. And the wireless signal options of GE800 are very rich , including you can turn on the traditional 2.4 + 5GHz smart switching network for use by devices before Wi-Fi 6 , or you can turn on the independent 6GHz frequency band for 6E and 7 , and then turn on the MLO network. It is provided for Wi-Fi 7 devices that support MLO network. In addition, TP-Link also has a dedicated IoT network. You can turn on independent 2.4GHz and 5GHz IoT networks to separate and manage smart appliances at home. The best thing is GE800 There is a device isolation function. You can add smart home appliances so that they can be isolated from the intranet to prevent IoT from being used as a springboard to directly attack other devices on the intranet. Finally, you can also open a guest network , so it includes 2.4GHz and The 5GHz smart network has one set of 6GHz, one set of MLO, and one set of IoT. It can have one set each of 2.4 and 5G, and then you can also open a total of three sets of guest networks for each frequency band , so if you open them all, you can see a beautiful whole There are a total of 8 groups of SSIDs in rows 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. They can be connected to the IoT separately or can be isolated independently. It is very, very complete, but it is not necessary to open them all. After all, each SSID is needed. Cut a channel and use the specifications section. Archer GE800 is equipped with Qualcomm's latest tri-band Wi-Fi 7 solution Qualcomm Network Pro 1220 SoC. It has a 2.2GHz quad-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. You can also directly see the CPU and RAM usage , and as mentioned before, the GE800's connector configuration is quite luxurious, including two 10GbE physical connectors. The available space is very large and can be used to connect a Switch or a small studio to build a 10GbE intranet connection to a 10GbE NAS. It is very practical , and you can also see the 10GbE SFP+ Combo jack next to it , so you can choose RJ45 or SFP+ for the 10GbE connection below . In addition, the four LANs next to it are all 2.5GbE jacks. The materials are not used at all. The 2.5GbE connector in the upper left corner is the Gaming Port. If you are a gaming friend, The main machine is connected to this jack. After the connection is successful, you can see in the game center of the App that the game LAN port has been connected to the console. When playing the game, you can get the highest transmission priority. I think the only thing that is a little pity. At present, the WAN can only switch among the three 10GbE sockets on the right. If the next generation has the opportunity to switch the WAN to a certain 2.5GbE and leave the two 10GbE sockets free, the imagination space for intranet construction will be huge . It can meet the needs of small studios. In addition, the physical power switch, Reset button, USB 3.0 jack and power jack are also on the back side. What is special is that Archer GE800 also has a physical quick control panel on the front side , so you can switch modes. One-click switch Wi-Fi, one-click acceleration switch light effect. Next, we will focus on measuring the wireless connection performance. As you can see from our screen, it can be used on Galaxy S24 Ultra ROG Phone 8 Pro Zenfone 11 Ultra Xiaomi 14 Ultra and so on. Identify and connect to Wi-Fi 7. Almost all Android camps have a dedicated icon with the number 7 added to Wi-Fi 7. PCs such as MSI Claw can also connect to Wi-Fi 7 normally and display 802.11be network . In terms of connection speed, we We also brought together all the mainstream flagships to test the connection speed of Wi-Fi 7. Our actual measurements included Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Asus’ ROG Phone 8 Pro, Zenfone 11 Ultra , Xiaomi’s 14 Ultra, and vivo’s X100 Pro , which was 1.5 meters away from the GE800 . When connected to the 6GHz frequency band , it can reach the current top speed of 5764Mbps at the receiving end, which is super super fast! The earlier models that support Wi-Fi 7, such as the Google Pixel 8 Pro, can only reach 2882Mbps , but MLO and MU-MIMO are still supported. In addition, there are two details about Wi-Fi 7 that can be shared. MLO is very popular with routers. The system will also automatically switch to different connection modes depending on the connection status with the mobile phone. For example, if the system always insists on connecting to 2.4 + 5GHz at the same time, the maximum speed will be around 3000Mbps depending on the protocol. Only by switching to 6GHz can the top speed of 5764Mbps be reached . The second detail is that the current speed display of Windows 11 for Wi-Fi 7 is abnormal. The current maximum connection speed can only display 1469Mbps. But in fact, taking the MSI Claw Intel Killer BE1750x we tested as an example, this is a high-end BE network card that can reach 5.8Gbps. However, this only shows that the abnormal speed is far beyond that. Here, you can also run 6GHz at will. The intranet speed test can reach at least 3000-4000Mbps or above. The models that support 6E include Xperia 1 VI S23 Ultra Xperia which has not yet activated 7. 1 V iPhone 15 Pro Max, etc. will display the Wi-Fi 6 or 6E icon according to different brands , but they can successfully connect to the 6GHz network . On the PC side, we used ROG Ally to demonstrate that the Wi-Fi 6 or 6E icon can be successfully connected to the 6GHz network. The system will display Wi-Fi 6, which is 802.11ax. The speed test table under 6E is also provided for your reference. The 6E model can also reach a top speed of 2401 Mbps after actual testing. In terms of space speed test, Bonnie also provides floor plans below . Bonny placed the console in the living room and paired it with the ROG Phone 8 Pro that supports Wi-Fi 7. The three modes of 6GHz 2.4+5GHz smart switching and MLO were tested separately. In Bonny's test, it was one meter away from the console. The connection speed can reach 6GHz's top speed of 5764Mbps under both 6GHz and MLO . Under 5GHz, it can also reach top speed of 2882Mbps. Then, starting from the office area separated by a wall, the difference between MLO and independent connection 6GHz begins to appear. The connection speed Under 6GHz, it can reach up to 3459Mbps. Under MLO, although it occasionally jumps to 6GHz , the system mainly chooses 5GHz to enhance the stability of the connection , so the top speed is 2882Mbps. Smart switching also reaches a top speed of 2882Mbps at 5GHz and then further. The 6GHz speed in shooting room A dropped to 2305Mbps , so under MLO the system also chose the more stable 5GHz connection speed, which can reach 2882Mbp. Smart switching is also 5GHz 2882Mbps. Then we went to the balcony GE800, which has the most stringent signal. The connection speed is still very strong. In the previous Wi-Fi 6 era, even when we tested the balcony , the performance was very good, which was around 500Mbps. The GE800 had a relatively obvious attenuation under 6GHz , but it could still reach a performance of 864Mbps. The system was under MLO and smart switching. Then we all chose the more stable 5GHz and the connection reached the same 1152Mbps. We also provide the previously tested Wi-Fi 6 model Deco X90 in stand-alone performance for comparison. Another big advantage of this last one is that it has There are two 10Gbps WAN/LAN ports. We also built two PCs to conduct iPerf3 testing. First, we tested the simulated server-to-device test , that is, WAN to LAN. After our actual measurement, the average transmission speed was very comfortable. 8.56 Gbps . If the transmission between intranet devices is tested , that is, LAN to LAN , it can also reach an average performance of 8.51 Gbps. For friends who need to build a 10Gbps intranet, it is really comfortable to have two 10Gbps network ports. I hope that in the future, one WAN/LAN port can be used as 2.5GbE, so that two 10GbE ports can be released, which will be super easy to use. In terms of additional functions, the Archer GE800 also has everything it should have, including VPN series functions, NAT guidance DMZ forwarding has GE800 and also supports EasyMesh function App. You can also find the parental control function in the App to limit the daily online time of family members and filter and control the content . In this episode, we will focus on the two key points here first . If you have decided to When buying a high-end router , it is really recommended to look directly at Wi-Fi 7 routers. In terms of wireless protocol specifications , heat dissipation, and connector configuration , you may be able to find options with similar prices and significantly better specifications. Second , today I tried my best to cover all the key points of Wi-Fi 7. If you have any questions or things that Bonnie didn’t mention , please leave a message below to discuss them together.
