I’ve owned wireless routers from nearly every Wi-Fi generation, but shopping hasn’t gotten any easier as technology advances rapidly. To get beyond the buzz, I focus on these technologies when comparing Wi-Fi routers.
Wi-Fi Standards
The first thing I look for in a wireless router is obvious: raw speed. Many factors can affect the real-world speeds you actually get, but the maximum potential speed a router can send to a single device is determined by which generation of Wi-Fi technology it’s built with.
Common Wi-Fi standards used to be advertised with technical names that confused consumers, but thankfully they’ve moved to simplified nomenclature. Under this scheme, a higher version simply means newer and faster.
I’d say there’s a significant difference between Wi-Fi 5 vs. Wi-Fi 6 vs. Wi-Fi 6E — and it’s not just about raw output. The new standards also use advanced technologies that fix common causes of slowness in the past.
If you’re buying a new router today, I recommend getting one with at least Wi-Fi 6E, but get Wi-Fi 7 if you have the budget. Don’t forget that your smart TVs and other devices should also be equipped with at least the same Wi-Fi standard (or higher) so you can take advantage of your router’s full potential.
Total Bandwidth Rating
The other spec I check in relation to speed is the router’s total bandwidth. Bandwidth is a measure of how much data can be sent to all your wireless devices simultaneously. This is especially important if you have multiple people in your home who need to use Wi-Fi for gaming or streaming Netflix.
Imagine your network as a highway and your wireless devices as cars. The Wi-Fi standard represents the speed limit for a single device, while total bandwidth represents the number of lanes available to all devices. More bandwidth means more devices can drive at their maximum speeds at the same time.
When buying a router, you can often find the bandwidth in the model name. For example, the ASUS RT-AXE7800 advertises a total bandwidth of 7800Mbps.
If you don’t like guessing how much bandwidth you need, this is a good reason to upgrade your router to Wi-Fi 7. Wi-Fi 7 routers typically have much higher bandwidth ratings than older devices.
Coverage range
Now we move on to a less obvious factor affecting connection quality: router coverage. Fixing an unstable Wi-Fi connection can be as simple as getting a router with a larger coverage area.
For example, a router may advertise that it can cover an area of 2,000 square feet. Advertised coverage matters, but I’d take this number with a grain of salt. Manufacturers use different ideal test conditions, so they’re providing a theoretical range that won’t match what you’ll experience at home.
Signal interference from other devices – and how many walls the signal has to penetrate to reach your device – can all substantially affect the quality of your connection at different distances.
A better way to compare apples to apples is to look at how many antennas the router has and how much transmit power they have. But unfortunately these specs aren’t always listed, so it’s often easier to look for a router with more advertised coverage.
Wi-Fi Bands
To ensure Wi-Fi connection quality, the range of the router isn’t the only factor to consider. You also want a router that manages interference well. That’s because the more wireless devices you have on your network, and the more neighbors broadcasting their wireless networks near you, the more you’ll experience signal degradation.
Modern Wi-Fi routers tackle this problem by giving you the ability to broadcast on new frequency bands approved by the FCC.
The traditional 2.4GHz band is more congested, but it’s still useful for reaching slower IoT devices at further ranges. The 5GHz and 6GHz bands have less range, but they’re the preferred choice for your smartphone or laptop when you want the fastest connection.
I recommend tri-band routers because they’re more likely to deliver higher connection quality. The 5GHz and 6GHz bands are less congested and also offer more Wi-Fi router channels to choose from to reduce interference.
Processor and Memory
One of the easiest ways to improve your Wi-Fi router’s speed is to buy a router with better hardware. After comparing speed and connection quality, I move on to check the router’s included processor and memory.
A router with more CPU cores can give you faster routing while more RAM can help you cache larger routing tables – in other words, faster responses.
The router’s CPU and RAM can be considered a proxy for how many wireless devices it can handle. If you only have a phone and a Nintendo Switch connected, it probably won’t matter that much.