WiFi 7 routers (including WiFi 7 routers without 6GHz band support)

[xiaofan]

News about two new Asus China WiFI 7 router
BE3600 (RMB 499, 华硕TUF小旋风WiFi7 BE3600)
BE6500 (RMB 799, 华硕TUF小旋风WiFi7 BE6500)
https://www.acwifi.net/27419.html

 

[xiaofan]

Saw the new Ruijie WiFi7 BE72Pro router on pre-order. Shipping 1st May. Reasonably priced too at 699 rmb pre-order price.

What's interesting is it having 5 2.5G and 4 1G ports and 9 antenna.

Can't find any reviews on it yet. Maybe 1st May will have.

But can see quick unboxing of BE72Pro

This one will be interesting, as it may use MediaTek Filogic 860 or 880.
https://www.acwifi.net/27430.html

 

[MrAwesomeX]

Problem is there's little devices that support 6e less to say wifi 7.

Why would anyone need ~2Gbps wifi speed on your smartphone to play games or stream content? The latency and gaming experience is same .

Only benefit is it improves mesh wifi system bandwidth and therefore performance .

 

[joesph]

Problem is there's little devices that support 6e less to say wifi 7.

Why would anyone need ~2Gbps wifi speed on your smartphone to play games or stream content? The latency and gaming experience is same .

Only benefit is it improves mesh wifi system bandwidth and therefore performance .

new intel core ultra laptop i see 6E network card

 

[xiaofan]

Problem is there's little devices that support 6e less to say wifi 7.

Why would anyone need ~2Gbps wifi speed on your smartphone to play games or stream content? The latency and gaming experience is same .

Only benefit is it improves mesh wifi system bandwidth and therefore performance .

This year is in the early stage of WiFi 7. I actually do not recommend to buy any true WiFi 7 router now (with 6GHz support) unless you are subscribing to the 10Gbps plans which come with WiFi 7 routers.

Windows 24H2 will be released later this year with proper WiFi 7 support. Intel BE200 and other WiFi chipsets will be integrated in main stream laptops later this year and next year. Therefore we will see more and more adoption of WiFi 7 in year 2025. We should see Apple devices with support of WiFi 7 as well later this year and next year. WiFi 7 will probably become the main stream in later 2025 or in 2026.

You can safely ignore WiFi 6E routers for Singapore markets.

 

[omelet]

So far only found Dell Latitude 7x50 series with Intel Core Ultra that comes with Intel BE200 WiFi 7.

 

[MrAwesomeX]

new intel core ultra laptop i see 6E network card

My built-in motherboard wifi 5 card can reach ~900mbp already .
Thinking of upgrading to pci wifi 6/7 but kind of pointless so i just go lazada buy cheap 5-8 m Ethernet cable ard 4-5 sgd bucks .

Few/nobody upgrade computer /laptop after covid .
Most of those sls shops closing down .

 

[ahhian]

This one will be interesting, as it may use MediaTek Filogic 860 or 880.
https://www.acwifi.net/27430.html

I suspect should be Filogic 860, since that has a theoretical max speed of 7.2 Gbps.

 

[xiaofan]

So far only found Dell Latitude 7x50 series with Intel Core Ultra that comes with Intel BE200 WiFi 7.

There are more in the market, basically new Intel vPro platform will may have the Intel BE200 WiFi 7 (but some models may still come with WiFi 6E). Many of them also bear the "AI PC" buzzword.
https://wifinowglobal.com/news-blog...i-7-boosts-data-rates-by-up-to-5x-intel-says/

Examples:
1) Acer Swift Go 14 and Swift Go 16 will have the option to use either Intel Killer 1750x WiFi 7 adapter or the older Intel Killer 1675i WiFi 6E adapter.
https://www.acer.com/sg-en/laptops/swift

2) HP AI PC Spectre x360 14" and 16"
https://www.hp.com/sg-en/laptops-and-2-in-1s/spectre.html

We should see more and more laptops which come with WiFi 7 later this year and next year.

 

[xiaofan]

I suspect should be Filogic 860, since that has a theoretical max speed of 7.2 Gbps.

I agree. This is also in line with the tri-core mentioned in the acwifi.net article: triple core Arm Cortex A73, BE7200.
https://www.mediatek.com/products/broadband-wifi/mediatek-filogic-860

 

[hwzlite]

I agree. This is also in line with the tri-core mentioned in the acwifi.net article: triple core Arm Cortex A73, BE7200.
https://www.mediatek.com/products/broadband-wifi/mediatek-filogic-860

Confirmed BE72 PRO = "处理器核心: 联发科3核（MTK7988DV)"

 

[xiaofan]

Confirmed BE72 PRO = "处理器核心: 联发科3核（MTK7988DV)"

Nice finding.

It is good that Ruijie clearly states the CPU used and RAM/Flash storage used (at least for WiFi 6/7 models), unlike TP-Link.

MediaTek Filogic 820/830 are quite popular for WiFi 6 routers now. Somehow Filogic 880 is not yet so popular in WiFi 7 routers now even though MTK released the chipset back in 2022.

It is said that TP-Link Archer BE805 is using Filogic 880.
https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/List_of_802.11be_Hardware
https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/TP-LINK_Archer_BE805

From the following news in Feb 2024, among the bigger vendors, only TP-Link adopts Filogic WiFi 7 chipsets. And in reality TP-Link is using Qualcomm chipsets more for its WiFi 7 routers.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/wifi-certified-7-here-wave-qualifiied-products-follow-suit/

MediaTek’s first chipsets, the Filogic 880, 860, 380, and 360 chipsets, have been chosen by several manufacturers, including SUS, Buffalo, Hisense Visional Technology, Lenovo, Lumen, TCL, and TP-Link. These companies have Wi-Fi 7 products slated for release in 2024 and 2025—all of which will be eligible for the Wi-Fi Certified 7 label.

 

[ahhian]

Looks good 锐捷BE72Pro

Would be interesting to see comparison to ZTE BE7200Pro+

 

[xiaofan]

Looks good 锐捷BE72Pro

Would be interesting to see comparison to ZTE BE7200Pro+

Indeed.

I will wait for the review from 知电 to see how they rank the new Ruijie BE 72 Pro. As of now, they list ZTE BE7200 Pro+ as #1 in the new WiFi 7 ranking. Xiaomi BE10000 is #2. Xiaomi BE6500 Pro is #4. and Xiaomi BE7000 is #5.

 

[xiaofan]

Interesting Youtube Video talking about WiFi 7 from the perspective of Enterprise AP expert. Interesting he still counts 4K QAM as a useful improvement.

Basically nobody will have 16 x 16 MU-MIMO, 320MHz channel bandwidth is useless in Enterprise AP, MLO is more for latency improvement and not so much about bandwidth improvement. Preamble punctuation is useful but it may not be work as well as claimed.

You can see the reality is so much different from Marketing Talk from vendors like Netgear (or Asus, or TP-Link). You can safely ignore the 46Gbps claim and 16x16 MU-MIMO. Same for vendors' claim like BE25000 (quad band with dual 5G band, Singapore/EU) or BE33000 (quad band with dual 6GHz band, US).
https://www.netgear.com/sg/home/discover/wifi7/

 

[xiaofan]

Basically nobody will have 16 x 16 MU-MIMO, 320MHz channel bandwidth is useless in Enterprise AP, MLO is more for latency improvement and not so much about bandwidth improvement. Preamble punctuation is useful but it may not be work as well as claimed.

I am a bit more optimistic that consumer market may be a bit better.

1) 320 MHz channel bandwidth on the 6GHz band may be useful for some users even though there is only one possible 320MHz channel combinations in Singapore. Even if 320MHz is not usable, at least 160MHz channel bandwidth on the 6GHz band becomes more feasible.

2) MLO will help on the latency even though it may not really improve much on the bandwith in real use case. It may also help on the reliability side.

3) MRU and Preamble Puncturing may help to improve the reliability.

But things are still evolving so we may only be able to see the real benefits in year 2025 when WiFi 7 clients becomes more common (as well as better Windows 11 WiFi 7 support in 24H2, along with router/device firmware updates).

 

[xiaofan]

Asus starts to roll out MLO support for its WiFi 7 routers.

Asus FAQ:
https://www.asus.com/sg/support/faq/1053342/

MLO supported models:

ASUS Wi-Fi 7 series, with firmware version later than xxxxxx.

GT-BE96 3.0.0.6.102_33844
RT-BE96U 3.0.0.6.102_34488
GT-BE98 3.0.0.6.102_34372

MLO networks:

You can create up to 2 MLO networks at the same time.

(1) Connect your computer to the router via wired or WiFi connection and enter router URL http://www.asusrouter.com to the WEB GUI.

(2) Enter your login username and password on the login page and then click [Sign In].

(3) You can navigate to http://www.asusrouter.com/MLO.asp for MLO settings.

AiMesh with WiFi7 MLO supported device and WiFi6E without MLO devices:

If MLO is enabled on AiMesh Primary router, the node without MLO will not broadcast 6GHz WiFi. If you want to disable MLO, please go to: http://www.asusrouter.com/MLO.asp

Then disable MLO.

 

[xiaofan]

The following two are using a CPU from MTK subsidiary.
TP-Link TL-7DR5130 BE5100, RMB 329 (single 2.5G port, 512MB RAM)
TP-Link TL-7DR5130 BE5100, RMB 429 (quad 2.5G ports, 512MB RAM)

The following review say it is good for speed but not good interms of signal (coverage).

 

[xiaofan]

H3C BE18000 review (RMB 1799, single 10G+ 3 x 1G ports) -- coverage not as good as the older H3C NX15000.

 

[xiaofan]

ZTE BE5100 Pro+ （中兴巡天BE5100 Pro+）: dual 2.5G ports -- price 329

This may be a better choice than Xiaomi BE5000 (single 2.5G port) and TP-Link BE5100 ( TL-7DR5130 single 2.5G port version).

Simple review