Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6E

Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) layers three meaningful upgrades on top of 6E.

320 MHz channels

Twice as wide as 6E's 160 MHz. In the 6 GHz band there's actually room for them, so you can reach link rates above 5 Gbps on a single client.

Multi-Link Operation (MLO)

A client can talk on 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz simultaneously. Either to aggregate bandwidth, or to keep latency low by sending the same packet over multiple bands.

4K-QAM

Higher modulation density — 20% more data per symbol than 6E's 1024-QAM, but only at close range with strong signal.

When to upgrade

If your wired backhaul is already 2.5 Gbps+, Wi-Fi 7 unlocks it. Otherwise, a well-placed 6E mesh is still plenty.