The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced it has officially begun certifying Wi-Fi 7 devices as of the start of CES 2024 last week. You may have noticed, even before this announcement, that there is a selection of devices already available that tout Wi-Fi 7 capabilities. You may have even already installed a Wi-Fi 7 router or access point for a client, which, if that’s the case, don’t fret.
The Wi-Fi 7 Certification just means that it’s guaranteed to work within what’s been outlined by the Wi-Fi 7 standard. Just because a device doesn’t have the certification doesn’t mean it won’t be able to offer Wi-Fi 7 once devices that can take advantage of it start rolling out. And as it turned out, CES 2024 had plenty of devices that were already sporting the new and improved Wi-Fi standard.
According to an article from The Verge, plenty of new devices like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and any laptop running the BE200 card (which accounted for many of the laptops announced at CES 2024) will be able to take full advantage of Wi-Fi 7 networks moving forward.
While Wi-Fi 7 routers and access points have existed for some time, devices that can take advantage of those networks have been slower to come forward, with much of the appeal of setting up these networks currently being to have access to the sturdier mesh networks, like those provided by the Eero Max 7 or NETGEAR’s Orbi 970 Series, though those have yet to be officially certified.
If you happen to be looking for routers or access points that have that stamp of approval, however, you do have a few options. TP-Link has two Wi-Fi 7 Certified routers available as of today: the Deco BE85 and the Archer BE800. Ruckus also has a Wi-Fi 7 certified access point with the W870, however that version of the existing W870 model still seems to be in testing.
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At the moment, there also seems to be no smart home devices that have been Wi-Fi 7 certified, so there’s still plenty of building to do before the ecosystem reaches a point where every system in the home will be able to take advantage of Wi-Fi 7.
That being said, the Wi-Fi Alliance has left us its searchable database of Wi-Fi 7 certified products in the meantime, so anyone who wants to stay up to date on what’s available is free to do so.
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