While routers with Wi-Fi 6E support are only making their way into the lower price categories, manufacturers have already started to introduce models with Wi-Fi 7. And this is despite the fact that the standard itself is not expected to be approved until 2024. One of these manufacturers is Netgear, which showed the Nighthawk RS700 model.
The heart is the BCM6726/3 chipset from Broadcom, which shows how demanding Wi-Fi 7 operation will be. The computing part consists of four cores with a frequency of up to 2.6 GHz, which are needed, among other things, for more efficient (but more demanding) QAM modulation. NAND memory with a capacity of 512 MB is prepared for the system, and the operating memory type DDR4 will offer a capacity of 1 GB. In the category of home Wi-Fi routers, this is a significant over-standard.
The router supports three bands and will communicate on 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz. The manufacturer’s stated maximum throughput of 19 Gb/s suggests a configuration of 1,376 Mb/s (2.4 GHz) + 5,760 Mb/s (5 GHz) + 11,520 Mb/s (6 GHz).
Four standard gigabit Ethernets are complemented by one with speed 10 Gb/s. It uses a standard metallic network and an RJ45 connector, not SFP+, which TP-Link opted for with its Archer series for Wi-Fi 7. Ten gigabit is then also available at the WAN connector for connecting to an outdoor network.
There is also USB here, specifically in version 3.0 and with a type A connector. In the high-end, we would prefer to see USB 3.2, which is supported by the Broadcom chipset used. The theoretical throughput of the USB connector is thus half that of 10 gigabit Ethernet.
The router will first head to the American market, where it will be available in May for $600 (about CZK 13,000 without tax). However, it will reach Europe much later – the plan is for February 2024. We will most likely buy it only when Wi-Fi 7 is finally approved. After all, the American version sold since May will not yet support all the possibilities of the new standard – the manufacturer talks, for example, about the simultaneous use of multiple bands, as well as the use of one channel by multiple streams.
