Wi-Fi 7, launched by the Wi-Fi Alliance in early 2024, offers meaningful improvements for home networks but has seen slow adoption so far. Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 routers can theoretically reach speeds up to five times faster than Wi-Fi 6E, and are worth considering for busy households with many connected devices, though real-world performance still depends on your broadband plan and network congestion.

Key advances include Multi-Link Operation, which lets routers use the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands simultaneously, and 320MHz channel widths, double that of Wi-Fi 6E, useful for streaming 4K or 8K content. However, testing has found inconsistent implementation across devices, and cheaper dual-band routers often lack these features entirely. Device support also remains patchy: the iPhone 17 and PlayStation 5 Pro support Wi-Fi 7 but show little practical speed benefit, meaning many households may still be better served by cheaper Wi-Fi 6 or 6E routers, especially with Wi-Fi 8 expected in 2028.