What Is Wi-Fi 6E and Do I Need It?

There are many ways to make your internet faster, but the specifics depend on what you’re willing to spend right now.

We collectively stream more movies and TV shows, play more online games, and make more video calls than ever before, and all this activity puts a serious strain on our Wi-Fi networks. We know the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard offers a range of benefits, including faster and more reliable access, but how does Wi-Fi 6E fit in?

Wi-Fi 6E is the name for devices that operate in the 6-gigahertz (GHz) band, a new swath of unlicensed spectrum. Until now, our Wi-Fi operated on two bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The Wi-Fi 6 standard has various features to improve the efficiency and data throughput of your wireless network and reduce latency for those two bands. Wi-Fi 6E brings those improvements to the 6-GHz band. Let's break that down even further.

Updated October 2022: We've added our experience with Wi-Fi 6E and news of more affordable Wi-Fi 6E routers, mesh systems, and devices.

Wi-Fi 6E Explained

Wi-Fi 6E extends the capacity, efficiency, coverage, and performance benefits of Wi-Fi 6 into the 6-GHz band. “With up to seven additional super-wide 160-MHz channels available, Wi-Fi 6E devices deliver greater network performance and support more Wi-Fi users at once, even in very dense and congested environments," says Kevin Robinson, senior vice president of marketing for the Wi-Fi Alliance. 

Each band is a chunk of frequency. The 2.4-GHz band comprises 11 channels that are each 20 megahertz (MHz) wide. The 5-GHz band has 45 channels, but they can be fused to create 40-MHz or 80-MHz channels, enabling them to transmit more data at once. The 6-GHz band supports 60 channels that can be up to 160 MHz wide.

That’s a huge chunk of extra capacity. Think of it as going from a single-track road (2.4 GHz) to a three-lane highway (5 GHz) to a six-lane superhighway (6 GHz). The analogy works for coverage too. Higher frequencies have a tougher time penetrating solid walls and floors, so the single-track 2.4-GHz roads reach further than the 5-GHz highways, which reach further than the 6-GHz superhighways.

Rebranding Standards

Wi-Fi standards have traditionally been quite confusing. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) establishes Wi-Fi standards, and those standards are certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, which currently has 866 member companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, and many more.

The Wi-Fi Alliance realized (correctly) that a standard named IEEE 802.11ax might be easier to grasp if it was rebranded as Wi-Fi 6. This move retroactively makes the IEEE 802.11ac standard Wi-Fi 5, IEEE 802.11 becomes Wi-Fi 4, and so on. Each of these standards is an umbrella term for a range of new features and improvements.

To give one example, Wi-Fi 4 introduced MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) technology to allow for multiple simultaneous transmissions to and from a device. The second wave of Wi-Fi 5 products introduced MU-MIMO, (MU stands for multi-user), enabling multiple devices to connect simultaneously to send and receive data. Wi-Fi 6 improves MU-MIMO and introduces OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiple access), enabling a single transmission to deliver data to multiple devices at once.

The range of improvements and technologies in Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E is the same. The need for the E comes from the opening up of that 6-GHz band. “With the density of Wi-Fi devices and neighboring networks increasing dramatically, Wi-Fi 6E provides pristine spectrum to maintain a great user experience,” Robinson says.

Do I Need Wi-Fi 6E?

Photograph: TP-Link

If you’re shopping for a new router or looking at mesh systems, you will certainly want to look for Wi-Fi 6 support. There are many other ways to make your Wi-Fi faster, but buying a Wi-Fi 6 router is an important one. It brings all the benefits we’ve discussed and a few we haven’t, including improved security through WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 3) and reduced battery drain, courtesy of TWT (Target Wake Time).

Whether you need to consider Wi-Fi 6E is a trickier question. We’ve already mentioned the shorter range, but the other big problem with Wi-Fi 6E is that it requires new hardware, and it’s expensive right now. Only routers and devices with Wi-Fi 6E support can operate on this newly opened 6-GHz band. Existing Wi-Fi 6 routers and any older devices cannot and will never be able to.

That said, we are seeing more options for folks looking to try Wi-Fi 6E, and prices are getting more palatable. We have tested a few Wi-Fi 6E routers, like the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) at $400, and mesh systems like the TP-Link Deco XE75 (two-pack is $300) and the Motorola Q14 (two-pack is $430). Google’s newly announced Nest Wifi Pro (two-pack is $300) lands this month, and there will be many more in the near future.

In our testing, Wi-Fi 6E can deliver some of the fastest speeds we have seen at very low latency, but the range is noticeably more limited than with the 5-GHz band. With a clear line of sight to the router or node, 6 GHz works beautifully, but as soon as there’s a wall or ceiling in the way, you will likely fall back to 5 GHz.

Remember, you also need Wi-Fi 6E devices to take advantage of these speeds. Most new high-end Android phones, laptops, and TVs support Wi-Fi 6E, but it is far from ubiquitous. There’s no Wi-Fi 6E in the iPhone 14 series or the PlayStation 5, for example, and the Xbox Series X doesn’t even have Wi-Fi 6 support. If you want to add it to your desktop or laptop, you’ll need a new network card or dongle. Opt for Wi-Fi 6E and you’re unlikely to see a lot of benefit in the short term. 

Wi-Fi 6 is enough for most people right now. On the other hand, all of these standards are backward compatible, so if you're in the market for a new router and don’t mind spending the money, then a Wi-Fi 6E system will keep you future-proof for a while.

Whatever you decide, just make sure it says “Wi-Fi Certified” on the packaging. Robinson says that'll make sure you get WPA3 security and interoperability with other devices in the home.

What Is Wi-Fi 6E and Do I Need It?

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