The U7 Pro is here, and this is the first Wi-Fi 7 enabled access point from Ubiquiti. Now I've had some time to test it out and put it through its paces, so in this video we're going to talk about the specs of the U7 Pro, we're going to compare it to the previous generation U6 Pro, and we're going to speed test the crap out of it. All right, let's get started. CrossTalk's Fundamentals of Networking training course in Seattle is just over a month away, and we still have some spots available, but once they're gone, they're gone. So if you're interested in learning the core fundamentals of computer networking, come join our three-day hands-on training course that's not only informative, but also entertaining. Now you can find the details and pricing at events.crosstalksolutions.com. We have had some great responses from our previous in-person training sessions, and we have improved and added to the content to make this one even better. If you're watching this video in the future beyond February 2024, you should still check out our events page for any future training courses. There may be one coming to your neck of the woods soon. I hope to see you there. Let's start by digging into the specs of the U7 Pro. The first and most obvious difference is that the U7 Pro is Wi-Fi 7, meaning that it can take full use of the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz wireless spectrums. Now, Wi-Fi 6E can also use all three of these wireless spectrums, but Wi-Fi 7 has a number of improvements on how those frequencies are utilized. To be clear, though, the previous generation U6 Pro is not Wi-Fi 6E. It's only Wi-Fi 6, meaning that it operates only in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, whereas 6E expands out into 6 GHz. As of right now, if you want 6E, you have to go for either the U6 Enterprise or the U6 Enterprise In-Wall, as these are the only access points with 6E in Ubiquiti's lineup of devices. That's an important distinction, given that we're comparing the Wi-Fi 6 U6 Pro and the Wi-Fi 7 U7 Pro, and we're kind of skipping over 6E entirely here. In terms of MIMO, the U7 Pro is 2x2 across all three frequencies, whereas the U6 Pro is 2x2 in the 2.4 GHz, but 4x4 MIMO in 5 GHz, and of course, no 6 GHz capability at all. What this means is that while the U7 Pro is going to allow for more bandwidth overall for Wi-Fi 7 devices, it actually has less bandwidth in the 5 GHz frequency than the U6 Pro, which is something to keep in mind if the majority of your devices are either Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6. When it comes to theoretical maximum throughput, the U7 Pro has 688 Mbit in 2.4 GHz, 2.8 GHz in 5 GHz, and a whopping 5.7 GHz per second in the 6 GHz frequency. Compared to the U6 Pro, the U7 Pro is slightly better in 2.4 GHz, but it has about 2 GHz less maximum throughput in the 5 GHz frequency, and of course, it absolutely kills it in 6 GHz since the U6 Pro is only Wi-Fi 6. The maximum number of connected devices for the U7 Pro is rated at 300 plus versus the U6 Pro, which is rated at 350 plus. Though, I mean, if you're really dealing with an installation that needs to support 300 plus client devices, you probably shouldn't be installing a single access point regardless. Now, size-wise, these access points have almost the exact same diameter footprint, but the U7 Pro is a little bit thicker from back to front. The U7 Pro comes with a 2.5 gigabit ethernet port versus the U6 Pro's gigabit ethernet port, which actually is a really nice upgrade. When it comes to power, the U6 Pro is powered up by PoE, but the U7 Pro requires PoE plus to power it up. Now, this difference is reflected also in the maximum power requirement of the U7 Pro, which pulls up to 21 watts versus the U6 Pro, which has a maximum of 13 watts. Now, when I tested this while these were sitting idle, the U7 Pro was pulling just under 10 watts of power, whereas the U6 Pro was using just about 6 watts of power. All right, so now let's talk about channel width, because this is where we're really going to see some significant improvements with the U7 Pro. Channel width is basically how much of the wireless spectrum an access point is allowed to use in any given frequency. I mean, if you think of it as like a water hose, the bigger your channel width, the bigger the diameter of the hose, and therefore, the more water or more data can flow through it. Both the U6 Pro and U7 Pro have 20 megahertz and 40 megahertz channel width options in the 2.4 gigahertz frequency, but that's the end of the similarities. The U7 Pro adds a 240 megahertz setting in the 5 gigahertz frequency, whereas the U6 Pro has a maximum 5 gigahertz channel width of 160 megahertz. Then we get up to 6 gigahertz, where of course the U6 Pro has no options, right, since it can't utilize that frequency at all, but the U7 Pro has channel width options all the way up to a whopping 320 megahertz. Now, to put that into perspective, the 2.4 gigahertz wireless frequency has three non-overlapping 20 megahertz channels, but you can go all the way up to 320 megahertz in the 6 gigahertz frequency with the U7 Pro. That's just crazy. Now let's put these channel widths to use and do some testing. My testing setup is quite simple. I have the U7 Pro plugged into one of my Pro Max switches 2.5 gigabit ports, and I also have a Zima board with a 10 gigabit ethernet PCI card attached, plugged into another 2.5 gigabit port on that same switch. The Zima board is running open speed test on it, and I confirmed with the nice folks over at open speed test that while the Zima board probably isn't the best platform to test up to 10 gigabit connectivity, it should do just fine up to around four or five gigabits, so there should be no bottleneck in our testing even though it's plugged into a 2.5 gigabit ethernet port. I tested with both my iPhone 13 Pro Max and the Google Pixel 8, which is one of just a handful of devices on the market today that are Wi-Fi 7 capable. I configured the U7 Pro with a 320 megahertz channel width for these speed tests, but left the channel selection and transmit power set to auto. I also made sure that it was the only access point powered on while running these tests. All of my test results are going to be in a blog post linked down in the description if you'd like to take a closer look. Testing the U7 Pro with my Google Pixel 8 had an impressive showing with an average download speed of just over 1.4 gigabits per second and an average upload speed of 1.87 gigabits per second. Now remember that's Wi-Fi 7 with a 320 megahertz channel width. Testing the U7 Pro with my iPhone 13 Pro Max, we saw an average download speed of just under 700 megabits per second and an average upload speed of about 812 megabits per second. This is with a 240 megahertz channel width in the 5 gigahertz frequency range. Switching now over to the U6 Pro and running these same speed tests, the Google Pixel 8 was able to achieve an average of 673 megabits per second download and an average of 944 megabits per second upload. That's 160 megahertz maximum channel width that you can set on the U6 Pro. Testing out the U6 Pro with the iPhone 13 Pro Max, I received an average of 622 megabits per second download and 563 megabits per second upload. What can we infer from these results? Well, first and foremost, a Wi-Fi 7 device connecting to a Wi-Fi 7 access point is super fast, right? It's almost twice as fast as any of the other tests. Another interesting data point is that while both the Google Pixel 8 and my iPhone Pro Max 13 were both connected to the U6 Pro access point with Wi-Fi 6, the Google Pixel 8 slightly outperformed the iPhone in download speed, but it absolutely trounced it with upload speed. It was almost twice as fast. The iPhone running speed tests on the 240 megahertz channel width U7 Pro also underperformed versus the Google Pixel 8 running speed tests against the 160 megahertz channel width U6 Pro. It had slightly better download speeds but was over 100 megabits slower on the upload. Now, of course, this video is trying to review the performance of these access points, but it also does showcase a pretty significant difference in the wireless capabilities of the older iPhone 13 versus the brand new Google Pixel 8. Also keep in mind that I'm only testing with a single device here, right? Many of the improvements that both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 offer over previous generations of wireless have to do with increasing efficiency for higher density of devices. So for example, while I achieve similar results when testing the U6 Pro and the U7 Pro with my 2x2 MIMO iPhone, which is only Wi-Fi 6 capable, if you had 10 iPhones all testing at the same time, the 4x4 MIMO of the U6 Pro provides more lanes of bandwidth and may perform better than the U7 Pro that only has 2x2 MIMO in the 5 gigahertz. So then, what are my takeaways from the U7 Pro? Now, if you saw my recent video on Wi-Fi 7 marketing, you already know my thoughts on buying into new wireless technology before the standard is actually ratified. The Wi-Fi 7 standard is no longer in draft status, but it is still pending a vote on final approval, which is expected to happen later in the year. Do I think that something is going to change that makes these new access points obsolete once the Wi-Fi 7 standard is solidified? No, I think they're actually, they're going to be just fine, right? But I also believe that there's really no rush to jump right into Wi-Fi 7. Or in other words, if you're in the market for brand new access points after the Wi-Fi 7 standard has been ratified, I think it's fine to invest in the latest and greatest. But if you're wondering if Wi-Fi 7 is worth upgrading your existing Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 access points, I'd say you still probably have a couple years of life on those older devices. This is also going to be very client device dependent. As you saw in my testing, the newer Google Pixel 8 outperformed the older iPhone 13 in both of my tests. But if you don't have any Wi-Fi 7 capable devices, it's unlikely that you'd notice much difference in terms of performance with a Wi-Fi 7 versus a Wi-Fi 6 access point. Most normal wireless usage isn't transferring large files around the network and running speed tests. It's watching YouTube and surfing the web, which don't require gigabit plus wireless capability. And even when Wi-Fi 7 is standard on smartphones, it'll still be years and years before all of your other devices catch up. Content streaming boxes like Roku, IoT devices, printers, right, these kind of things are all fine with Wi-Fi 5. Or maybe you could make a case for Wi-Fi 6. But it's going to be a long time before Wi-Fi 7 would be required in order to not bottleneck your wireless connectivity. Disagree? Let me know down in the comments below. And if you'd like to keep this party going, I have hand selected a couple of videos on the right here for you to watch next. The top video is my recent review of another brand new access point, the UK Ultra. And the bottom video features my thoughts on Wi-Fi 7 marketing here at the beginning of 2024.
