Wi-Fi 5 vs Wi-Fi 6 – What’s the real difference?

You may have seen some discussion surrounding Wi-Fi 6.

Generally, we assume that a higher version number makes for a better product, but it’s helpful to know specifics. Regarding Wi-Fi, it’s essential to know what you’re signing up for, especially when it comes to internet. ?

Previous generations of Wi-Fi enabled speeds approximately 10x their predecessors. The jump between Wi-Fi 5 and 6 however, is only about 40% higher, 6.9 Gbps to approximately 9.6 Gbps.

Upon learning this, many wonder why there’s so much positive talk around Wi-Fi 6. The fact is that speed was not the primary focus of this technology. While the speed jump is much less impressive than previous generations, Wi-Fi 6 tackles some other issues that have arisen with the increasing popularity of Wi-Fi networks.

Efficiency in dense environments is one of the foremost goals of Wi-Fi 6 and it delivers with aplomb.

Wi-Fi 6 handles multiple devices much better than previous versions of Wi-Fi. The overall throughput of the network is about 300% higher than Wi-Fi 5, making it well-suited for today’s world with our abundance of Wi-Fi capable devices. As a bonus, latency has been reduced by as much as 75%, making for quicker responses and less lag for the gamers out there.

As a bonus, Wi-Fi 6 also comes with improved battery life compared to version 5. It allows devices to “sleep” between receiving data preserving battery charge without lowering performance.

Understanding why Wi-Fi 6 is such a big deal despite having less of a speed increase than previous versions is important. Our friends at TP Link have helpful diagrams for our visual learning friends.

We can’t wait to see what Wi-Fi 7 brings, let us know if you have any hopes for the next version.