Wi-Fi 6: Better, faster and… kind of like Goro from Mortal Kombat?

id=”article-body” class=”row” section=”article-body”> Look for this logo to identify Wi-Fi 6-certified devices.

Wi-Fi 6 is making its big debut this year, but summing up the potential impact is a bit more complicated than saying it will make your Wi-Fi network faster. Yes, things are going to be speedier than before — but beyond basics like speed and range, what’s really key about Wi-Fi 6 is how it will reshape the way routers handle the growing number of internet-connected devices in our homes and lives.

If you’re looking for some basic answers about how that’ll work, and perhaps a semi-convoluted comparison or two to help you wrap your head around all of it, then you’ve come to right post.

Let’s start with the basics — what is Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6, or 802.11ax if you want to be technical about it, is the newest version of the 802.11 standard for wireless network transmissions that people commonly call Wi-Fi. It’s a backward-compatible upgrade over the previous version of the Wi-Fi standard, which is called 802.11ac.

Wi-Fi 6 isn’t a new means of connecting to the internet like fiber — rather, it’s an upgraded standard that compatible devices, particularly routers, can take advantage of to transmit Wi-Fi signals more efficiently.

Wi-Fi 6? Did I miss the other 5?

No, the names were just clunky, and more or less meaningless to most people who don’t work with wireless networks for a living. That’s why the Wi-Fi Alliance, the non-profit industry group that helps maintain and certify Wi-Fi devices, is now transitioning to a simpler, more user-friendly way of talking about the standard. The new version, 802.11ax, is the 6th version of 802.11, so they’re calling it Wi-Fi 6. The previous couple of generations will get the same treatment retroactively, too. For instance, the existing standard I mentioned before, 802.11ac? That’s called Wi-Fi 5 now.

When will Wi-Fi 6 get here?

Wi-Fi 6 is already here — it’s a new, certified standard that newly-made wireless devices can put to use. It’ll be a while before you have a ton of options, but Wi-Fi 6 routers from brands like Cisco, Netgear, Asus, Ubiquiti and TP-Link are already rolling out, including new mesh options for the Netgear Orbi, Arris SURFboard and TP-Link Deco lineups. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S10 was the first phone to support Wi-Fi 6, and the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max all support it, too. And now that the Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification program for Wi-Fi 6 devices is officially up and running, it’s a pretty sure bet that the next generation of laptops, streaming devices and Wi-Fi smart home devices will follow suit, too.

New Wi-Fi 6 routers, like the TP-Link Archer AX6000 here, are available for purchase now or will be in the coming months. They won’t come cheap, though.

TP-Link Read more: When will we start seeing Wi-Fi 6 smart home gadgets? | Best gaming routers of 2019 | Best mesh Wi-Fi system of 2019 

You’ll need both a Wi-Fi 6 router and Wi-Fi 6 devices like those in order to reap the full benefits of 802.11ax, but if you go ahead and get that fancy new router, your older devices will still work like normal. The rub is that they won’t be much faster, if at all — Wi-Fi 6 supports previous-gen 802.11 devices, but it can’t do much to speed them up. 

OK, so just how fast is Wi-Fi 6?

That’s a topic of some debate, and we’re still in the process of testing the hardware out for ourselves, but the early refrain from industry experts was that Wi-Fi 6 would offer real-world speeds that are roughly 30% faster than Wi-Fi 5, with theoretical maximum transfer speeds up around 10 Gbps. 

That figure held up in our first round of Wi-Fi 6 speed tests, where we clocked Wi-Fi 6 transfer speeds at 1,320 Mbps. That’s about 40% faster than the fastest Wi-Fi 5 speed we’ve ever measured, which is 938 Mbps. And I’d add that our Wi-Fi 6 speed test was about 1,000% faster than the current average download speed in the US, which is 119 Mbps.

Enlarge ImageWith a fast enough internet connection, the fastest Wi-Fi 6 router we’ve tested yet could download every MCU film from Iron Man to Endgame at 4K Blu-ray resolution in a little over two hours.

Ry Crist/CNET We’ve tested several other Wi-Fi 6 routers since then. Our current king of the speed test is the TP-Link Archer AX6000, which was able to transmit data wirelessly at 1,523Mbps from a distance of 5 feet. That’s about 60% faster than our fastest tested Wi-Fi 5 speed — so yes, Wi-Fi 6 is definitely faster than what came before.

That said, the actual number you ultimately experience will really depend on context. For starters, gigabit-plus speeds like that are a lot more than you’re likely to ever need from a single device. In environments with lots and lots of devices that need to connect, Wi-Fi 6 might make a huge difference. In small homes with only a few devices on the network, the difference might be harder to notice.

The other important thing to keep in mind is that the speed from your internet service provider (ISP) is like a speed limit for your local network. A Wi-Fi 6 router won’t magically speed it up. 

For example, in my home, I’m lucky enough to have a direct fiber connection, and my entry-level plan allows for speeds of up to 300 Mbps — but that’s only 25% of what a Wi-Fi 6 router can offer. If I wanted to take full advantage of a Wi-Fi 6 router’s extra speed, I’d need a faster plan from my ISP to match it. And right now, most plans don’t go nearly that high.

In other words, ISPs still have a lot of work to do with fiber rollouts and such in order to really capitalize on next-gen router technology, and that might take years. But when those faster ISP speeds get here, it appears that the hardware will be ready to go.

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