Wi-Fi 7 is everywhere. Cheap routers, premium ones, everything in between. But the label doesn’t mean what you think it means.
Here’s the problem. The Wi-Fi Alliance owns the trademark for “Wi-Fi” — with a hyphen and a capital F. Some manufacturers drop the hyphen and sell “WiFi 7” routers instead. That tiny typographical trick lets them bypass certification entirely. Meaning they can sell you a “WiFi 7” router without including Multi-Link Operation, the one feature that actually sets Wi-Fi 7 apart from older standards.
MLO is the real deal. It lets routers use 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands simultaneously instead of treating them as separate connections. Lower latency, better traffic handling. But true simultaneous MLO requires multiple independent radios syncing perfectly. RTINGS tested 25 Wi-Fi 7 routers in February 2026 and found most just alternate between bands instead. The result? Fluctuating speeds and not much real improvement.
There’s also a federal bottleneck. Since March 2026, the FCC has blocked certification of new wireless hardware built outside the US. Some brands like Netgear and Eero got exemptions by promising US manufacturing. But TP-Link, ASUS, and Linksys are stuck selling only what was certified before the ban.
And even if you get a proper Wi-Fi 7 router, most of your devices can’t use it yet. Apple only started shipping Wi-Fi 7 laptops this year with the M5 chip. The M4 MacBooks from 2024 and 2025? Still Wi-Fi 6E.
Bottom line: check what you’re actually buying. If the box says “WiFi 7” without the hyphen, dig deeper. Your 500 Mbps internet plan won’t get faster just because the router cost $300.
