After Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5, a new standard is emerging: Wi-Fi 6. Also called 802.11ax, it offers theoretical speeds of 600 to 9608 Mbps. Wi-Fi 6 is the new standard announced by the Wifi Alliance in 2020 and it comes with a derivative which is the Wi-Fi 6E. Many recently released devices already support the latest standard but you might be wondering what the difference is between the two. Is it really necessary to equip yourself with Wifi 6E? Well, we answer that in this article.
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What is Wi-Fi 6?
Faced with the growing need for more and more connected devices and the diversity of their transmission frequencies, the Wi-Fi 6 was born. In fact, it is a standard of Wi-Fi technologies that governs the standards of communications and the strict characteristics of exchanges. Wi-Fi 6 uses both 1024-QAM to provide a signal with more data and a 160 MHz channel to provide a wider channel to make your WiFi faster.
This means you can enjoy stutter-free virtual reality or incredibly vivid 4K and even 8K streaming. All in all, with the Wifi 6 the number of devices supported by WiFi is almost tenfold compared to its predecessors. Of course, the quality of service is assured.
Wifi 6E technology
The Wifi 6E for Wifi 6 Extended is as its name indicates an improvement of the version 6 on some points. It marks the extension to wifi 6 by exploring higher frequencies. We are talking about very high speed transmission and downloading of hundreds of gigabytes without batting an eyelid. Indeed, it offers up to 1200 MHz of additional spectrum for 6 GHz of frequency. The speed is also slightly higher than Wifi 6, because the standard has been adapted to accommodate 5G devices.
How Wifi 6E makes the difference?
Unlike the congested 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, the wide-open 6 GHz spectrum is only occupied by efficient Wi-Fi 6 connections. This eliminates the frustrations currently caused by overcrowding on many Wi-Fi networks. The channels in the new 6 GHz band would also not
For those who wonder what the different generations of wifi refer to, here is a comparison:
As you can see, Wi-Fi 6 brings a real gain in terms of performance (speed and latency). However, it is limited to the already very congested 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies. If you live in a house, with neighbors at a distance, chances are you’ll be fine on 5 GHz. Wi-Fi 6E will offer a slight gain in speeds (Upload/download), but more importantly the new 6 GHz frequency band will offer the advantage of being alone… for a while. Also, Wi-Fi 6E compatible devices are rather rare. Admittedly, this is somewhat normal since the 6 GHz frequency is only open in France since December 2021.
Some Wifi 6 or Wifi 6E compatible devices
Smartphones
- Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (WiFi 6E)
- Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+ (WiFi 6)
- Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10E (WiFi 6)
- Galaxy Note 10 (WiFi 6)
- Samsung Galaxy S20 (WiFi 6)
- Samsung Galaxy Fold 1/2 (WiFi 6)
- Xiaomi Mi 11 (WiFi 6E)
- Huawei P40 Pro (WiFi 6)
- iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, Pro and Pro Max (WiFi 6)
- iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max (WiFi 6)
- iPhone SE 2020 (WiFi 6)
Computers
- MacBook Air M1, MacBook Pro M1 and Mac Mini M1 (WiFi 6)
- Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop (WiFi 6)
- Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 (WiFi 6)
- Dell XPS 13/15 2020 (WiFi 6)
- HP Spectre x360 (WiFi 6)
- Lenovo Yoga x940 (WiFi 6)
- LG Gram 17 (WiFi 6)
- MSI Prestige range (WiFi 6)
- Razer Blade Pro 17 (WiFi 6)
- Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (WiFi 6)
- Microsoft Surface Laptop Go (WiFi 6)
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