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

[xiaofan]

So as it turns out, the ever increasing QAM and Channel Width is mostly useless and only there to demonstrate "bigger number = better" on boxes. Lets hope MLO is at least more useful than "MUMIMO"

Hmm. I think for the first batch of WiFi 7 routers and clients (2023 and early 2024), the most important improvement over WiFI 6 is the increased channel bandwidth, since MLO is not supported by Intel BE200 as of now.

1) 320MHz channel bandwidth is new for WiFi 7 and may be possible with typical Singapore household since 6GHz interference from the neighbours will be less compared to 5GHz (less penetration power). You can see the initial test results show 3.0 to 3.4Gbits/sec using WiFi 7 capable mobile phone as the clients. I expect Intel BE200 to perfrom similarly or better.

2) Even if 320MHz may still be a problem for some cases, 160MHz channel bandwidth will be much easier compared to using WiFi 6 since now there is the 6GHz bands. Of course you can argue this is not because of WiFi 7 but rather WiFi 6E. But face it, WiFi 6E is too late and you can safely ignore WiFi 6E in Singapore and just go with WiFi 7.

MLO support in the future is of couse be another important improvement over WiFi 6/6E.

 

[psyfy]

Hi all, I am on a Wifi 5 Linksys Velop that is coming to almost 6 years old now. Am staying in a terrace house and needed 4 of these to clear all the wifi blindspots. Have a large family of 7 all hogging the wifi and many other devices and of late these Velops needs to be restarted every 1-2 weeks.

I have wired most parts of the house with Cat 6a ethernet many many years ago and am looking to utilise these cables to the max now as I have devices that can take advantage of 10g and 2.5g ethernet as well as a small handful of Wifi 6E devices.

I am thinking of skipping Wifi 6/6e altogether and go to Wifi 7 and keep that for another 6 years at least, I hope. Am looking to buy the Asus ASUS RT-BE96U in Amazon US and use the wired ethernet as backhauls. Am aware no Wifi-7 devices are out yet but with the RT-BE96U costing S$1,052 (after conversion) vs the S$999 for GT-AXE16000 on Shopee I think it makes sense to go with the RT-BE96U.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZFK3BF8/ref=ewc_pr_img_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Question is, will the US set work in Singapore? I am also contemplating the RT-BE98U as I suspect it will be coming out in a couple of weeks. Will monitor the Black Friday deals and see if got discount.

 

[TanRich]

The routers that I have bought so far, the ROG GT-AXE11000, ROG GT-AXE16000 (subsequently returned), RT-AX89X and RT-BE96U are all US sets and can be used locally. You just need to get the C5 UK AC Mains Cable Lead to plug into the Power Adapter. Like this one: https://shopee.sg/product/190791250...MIhdyX9vfFggMV5aVmAh3c8wpjEAQYASABEgJkbPD_BwE

From what I've seen, Asus typically doesn't discount its routers for any holidays (Thanksgiving included) unless a next-gen model replacing the current one is due to be launched.

The ROG GT-BE98 has been listed for sale on Amazon.de though it's currently out of stock.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CKBY2NGV/

The ROG GT-BE98 Pro is currently being reviewed by the FCC for regulatory approval and is expected to launch earliest by 2024.

One thing to note is that your router will be covered under the Asus US warranty and not local so in the event you need to get it repaired/replaced (after the Amazon 30-day returns period) it has to be shipped back to their service centre there.

 

[psyfy]

The routers that I have bought so far, the ROG GT-AXE11000, ROG GT-AXE16000 (subsequently returned), RT-AX89X and RT-BE96U are all US sets and can be used locally. You just need to get the C5 UK AC Mains Cable Lead to plug into the Power Adapter. Like this one: https://shopee.sg/product/190791250...MIhdyX9vfFggMV5aVmAh3c8wpjEAQYASABEgJkbPD_BwE

From what I've seen, Asus typically doesn't discount its routers for any holidays (Thanksgiving included) unless a next-gen model replacing the current one is due to be launched.

The ROG GT-BE98 has been listed for sale on Amazon.de though it's currently out of stock.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CKBY2NGV/

The ROG GT-BE98 Pro is currently being reviewed by the FCC for regulatory approval and is expected to launch earliest by 2024.

One thing to note is that your router will be covered under the Asus US warranty and not local so in the event you need to get it repaired/replaced (after the Amazon 30-day returns period) it has to be shipped back to their service centre there.

Many thanks for the very helpful and quick reply!

 

[sky1978]

Hi all, I am on a Wifi 5 Linksys Velop that is coming to almost 6 years old now. Am staying in a terrace house and needed 4 of these to clear all the wifi blindspots. Have a large family of 7 all hogging the wifi and many other devices and of late these Velops needs to be restarted every 1-2 weeks.

I have wired most parts of the house with Cat 6a ethernet many many years ago and am looking to utilise these cables to the max now as I have devices that can take advantage of 10g and 2.5g ethernet as well as a small handful of Wifi 6E devices.

I am thinking of skipping Wifi 6/6e altogether and go to Wifi 7 and keep that for another 6 years at least, I hope. Am looking to buy the Asus ASUS RT-BE96U in Amazon US and use the wired ethernet as backhauls. Am aware no Wifi-7 devices are out yet but with the RT-BE96U costing S$1,052 (after conversion) vs the S$999 for GT-AXE16000 on Shopee I think it makes sense to go with the RT-BE96U.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZFK3BF8/ref=ewc_pr_img_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Question is, will the US set work in Singapore? I am also contemplating the RT-BE98U as I suspect it will be coming out in a couple of weeks. Will monitor the Black Friday deals and see if got discount.

There are quite a number of Wifi 7 devices out there already, but I suspect the firmware may limit where the 6Ghz channel can be used because some countries blocked it while others only recently approved the 6Ghz usage, so the device manufacturers will need to constantly update their firmware to reflect that. Any phone using Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or Dimensity 9200 chip will have Wifi 7. I saw the below video where they tested Asus ZenFone 10 using a TP-Link BE800 Wifi 7 router and achieved a speed of 3800Mbps for download. I think that's the max it can go if we take into account the fact that Wifi operates at half duplex and that Gen 2 chipset peak Wifi speed is 5.8Gbps. There is a shop in Sim Lim Square selling this BE800 at 649, saw it from their pricelist, though not sure if they have stock a not.

 

[xiaofan]

Interestingly that Chinese Government WiFi 7 document (extra requirement and testing methods over existing WiFi 4/5/6) actually mandates MLO for WiFi 7 (but no support of 6GHz bands as of now).
https://www.miit.gov.cn/cms_files/f...ch/20235/4851021c652a4280b8e97c7a88706283.pdf

With this document we can understand why Huawei calls their low cost BE3 Pro WiFi 7 router without the support of 6GHz band and without 320MHz channel bandwidth support, but it supports MLO (2.4GHz band and 5GHz band) and 4096 QAM.

Huwei BE3 Pro Spec
https://m.vmall.com/product/10086122340823.html
传输标准
5GHz支持 IEEE 802.11be/ax/ac/n/a 2*2 MIMO，2.4GHz支持IEEE 802.11be/ax/n/g/b 2*2 MIMO
无线速率
2.4GHz理论协商速率为688Mbps；5GHz理论协商速率为2882Mbps；理论协商速率总和3570Mbps
无线频段
2.4GHz&5GHz，支持双频优选

That is a bad thing though if you intend to buy cost effective Asus WiFi 7 router with proper 6GHz support from Asus China.

 

[sky1978]

Interestingly that Chinese Government WiFi 7 document (extra requirement and testing methods over existing WiFi 4/5/6) actually mandates MLO for WiFi 7 (but no support of 6GHz bands as of now).
https://www.miit.gov.cn/cms_files/f...ch/20235/4851021c652a4280b8e97c7a88706283.pdf

With this document we can understand why Huawei calls their low cost BE3 Pro WiFi 7 router without the support of 6GHz band and without 320MHz channel bandwidth support, but it supports MLO (2.4GHz band and 5GHz band) and 4096 QAM.

That is a bad thing though if you intend to buy cost effective Asus WiFi 7 router with proper 6GHz support from Asus China.

No 6Ghz in China means no cheap Wifi 7 router under 200 dollars. Huawei and Xiaomi will not have the economies of scale to chunk out cheap Wifi 7 routers without the huge China market as their base,

Is Asus support coming from Mainland China or Taipei? I thought their HQ is in Taipei and 6Ghz has been approved there as well similar to HK.

 

[xiaofan]

No 6Ghz in China means no cheap Wifi 7 router under 200 dollars. Huawei and Xiaomi will not have the economies of scale to chunk out cheap Wifi 7 routers without the huge China market as their base,
Is Asus support coming from Mainland China or Taipei? I thought their HQ is in Taipei and 6Ghz has been approved there as well similar to HK.

Actually Xiaomi can come out with cheap WiFi 7 routers below S$200 any time if they want. After all Xiaomi 7000 is a WiFi 7 HW capable router but with 6GHZ disabled in the FW. But they may not be in a hurry to make a WiFi 7 compatible Xiaomi 10000 and 7000 any time soon for overseas market. They probably do not earn much from selling Xiaomi AX9000 and Xiaomi AX3000 in the international market.

Huawei is probably not interested in the consumer router market outside China.

TP-Link and Asus will for sure come out with many WiFi 7 routers outside of China maket but not in a hurry to reduce the price without competitions.

Edit to add:
It is not very clear whether Xiaomi 7000 is exactly capable of 6GHz or not because of the use of QCN6224 and not QCN6024. Anyway, Xiaomi could easily upgrade Xiaomi 7000 to be capable of 6GHz by carrying out minor changes.
https://www.acwifi.net/24893.html (Xiaomi 7000 tear-down)

The situation is also not 100% clear for Xiaomi 10000 whether it is exactly capable of 6GHz and WiFi 7. But at least it uses QCN6274 and QPF4559 (both are capable of 6GHz and WiFi 7, 320MHz channle bandwidth and 4096 QAM).
https://www.acwifi.net/23365.html (Xiaomi 10000 tear-down).

 

[xiaofan]

Asus Taiwan: no WiFi 6E/WiFi 7 router yet. Asus global headquarter is in Taiwan.
https://www.asus.com/tw/networking-iot-servers/wifi-6/all-series/filter/

Asus HK: as of now, only WiFi 6E router available, no WiFi 7 routers.
GT-AXE16000, GT-AXE7800 and ZenWiFi Pro ET12.
https://www.asus.com/hk/networking-...gory=WiFi-Routers,Whole-Home-Mesh-WiFi-System

 

[xiaofan]

Interestingly that Chinese Government WiFi 7 document (extra requirement and testing methods over existing WiFi 4/5/6) actually mandates MLO for WiFi 7 (but no support of 6GHz bands as of now).
https://www.miit.gov.cn/cms_files/f...ch/20235/4851021c652a4280b8e97c7a88706283.pdf

With this document we can understand why Huawei calls their low cost BE3 Pro WiFi 7 router without the support of 6GHz band and without 320MHz channel bandwidth support, but it supports MLO (2.4GHz band and 5GHz band) and 4096 QAM.

That is a bad thing though if you intend to buy cost effective Asus WiFi 7 router with proper 6GHz support from Asus China.

Same for TP-Link China which lists only one WiFi 7 router now -- no 6GHz band, with MLO and 4096 QAM.
https://www.tp-link.com.cn/product_2876.html?v=specification

Wi-Fi​

IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be无线协议
最高无线速率13000Mbps（2.4GHz 1376Mbps，5G1 5765Mbps，5G2 5765Mbps*）
*遵循法规，地区设置中选择中国5G2频段不支持160MHz

 

[TanRich]

Many thanks for the very helpful and quick reply!

Oh this slipped my mind but if you're interested in staying with Linksys, they also have a Wifi 7 mesh system, the Velop Pro 7 BE11000. The downside is they did away with the 5 Gbps WAN port found on the Wifi 6/E models. and replaced them with one 2.5Gbps WAN port...

A set of three units will set you back about S$1350 + S$140 shipping/GST while one unit costs about S$540 + S$60 shipping/GST.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGKPJR1...38235&s=pc&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

Still cheaper than buying more than two RT-BE96U units to cover your entire home area though.

Do read the reviews of the routers before making a decision though.

 

[xiaofan]

New high end Netgear Orbi 970 WiFi 7 Quad-band BE27000 mesh solution (with free one year Netgear Armor, 10G WAN, 10G LAN, 4 x 2.5G LAN ports for the main router; the satellite got one 10G port and two 2.5G ports). It does support MLO.
https://www.netgear.com/hub/wifi/mesh/orbi-970-wifi-7/

 

[TanRich]

NetGear's router features on the whole have really been impressive and so are their prices...A set of three (one router and two satellites) cost a cool S$3100 + S$280 shipping/GST on Amazon (Their own US website doesn't ship to other countries). Plus, they charge for network security/parental features....after a year which is excessive IMHO given how much the consumer is already paying for the hardware. There's also less flexibility in utilising the main router/satellite units vs TP Link's Deco range and Linksys' Velop range I think.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGJGXFC...a1309&s=pc&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

 

[xiaofan]

A bit cheaper option from Netgear (NIghthawk RS700S BE19000 triband).
https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/routers/rs700s/

 

[psyfy]

Oh this slipped my mind but if you're interested in staying with Linksys, they also have a Wifi 7 mesh system, the Velop Pro 7 BE11000. The downside is they did away with the 5 Gbps WAN port found on the Wifi 6/E models. and replaced them with one 2.5Gbps WAN port...

A set of three units will set you back about S$1350 + S$140 shipping/GST while one unit costs about S$540 + S$60 shipping/GST.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGKPJR1...38235&s=pc&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

Still cheaper than buying more than two RT-BE96U units to cover your entire home area though.

Do read the reviews of the routers before making a decision though.

I have been using my current Wifi 5 Velop and although I like it's simplicty, I find it's not as powerful as Orbi for example. Even with 4 nodes there are still small blindspots in my house and connection speeds are poor. Linksys's support though is top notch, I once had an issue and they were on the phone with me for close to 2 hours to help me resolve the problem bearing in mind my product was already out of warranty!

I used Asus's product before and I find their features and UI to be excellent. Unfortunately, I would prefer to stay with StarHub for their Ultraspeed service and since they are using ONR I will wait out first as I have not rush for 10Gbps.

 

[xiaofan]

We will soon see many low cost "China version WiFi 7" routers, with support of MLO/MRU/4096-QAM, but NO 6GHZ support, NO 320MHz channel bandwidth support.

No 6GHz may be a deal breaker for many.

Reference:
https://www.acwifi.net/26083.html

 

[TanRich]

We will soon see many low cost "China version WiFi 7" routers, with support of MLO/MRU/4096-QAM, but NO 6GHZ support, NO 320MHz channel bandwidth support.

No 6GHz may be a deal breaker for many.

Reference:
https://www.acwifi.net/26083.html

240Mhz channel bandwidth combined with MLO good enough speeds for low cost Wifi 7 routers IMHO...

 

[xiaofan]

240Mhz channel bandwidth combined with MLO good enough speeds for low cost Wifi 7 routers IMHO...

Yes, we can not complain about the cost. They are especially good when using as an AP.

Huawei BE3 Pro (1G port version): RMB399
Huawei BE3 Pro (2.5G port version): RMB499

Xiaomi 6500 Pro (quad 2.5G ports, good for 2.5G plans): RMB699
Xiaomi 7000 (quad 2.5G ports, good match for 2.5G plans): RMB799
Xiaomi 10000 triband (dual 10G ports, maybe good for 10G plans): RMB1499

TP-Link TL-7DR3630 BE3600, RMB 319
TP-Link TL-7DR5130 BE5100, RMB 369 (single 2.5G port)
TP-Link TL-7DR6560 BE6500 (quad 2.5G ports, good match for 2.5G plans), listed price RMB 729, initial batch maybe lower
TP-Link TL-7TR13090 BE13000 triband (dual 10G ports, maybe good for 10G plans)

 

[MGeaR356]

Any idea why Asus china doesn't have any wifi 7 routers for now?

 

[tak3shi]

Oh mine, I import BE95 from Kor. Been using it, it was a lil unstable at first but as time goes by, it has been v stable for a few weeks.