Wi-Fi 8 is showing at CES earlier than most of us have switched to Wi-Fi 7

The primary Wi-Fi 8 routers and chips made a shock look at CES 2026, and will launch this yr, solely a few years after Wi-Fi 7 debuted. So, in case you don’t have already got a Wi-Fi 7 router — and many people don’t — you would possibly need to contemplate holding off on upgrading.

Fairly than specializing in velocity upgrades, Wi-Fi 8 guarantees improved stability. It affords the excessive speeds and bandwidth of Wi-Fi 7, however with improved energy effectivity, increased throughput, and higher peer-to-peer communication between gadgets. Wi-Fi 8 can also be higher at sustaining quick, steady connections when customers are shifting gadgets round, or shifting them additional away from their router. In consequence, Wi-Fi 8 customers will expertise much less “dropping out” or freezing and higher streaming and gaming efficiency.

If this week’s CES bulletins are any indication, we’ll be capable of check out Wi-Fi 8 for ourselves throughout the yr.

Asus went from final yr’s AI spider router lined in antennas to the ROG NeoCore, a Wi-Fi 8 idea router with no antennas in any respect. The polyhedral mock up The Verge’s Sean Hollister acquired a have a look at this week resembles a 20-sided die with a hole backside. In line with Asus, the manufacturing mannequin will supply the identical information speeds as Wi-Fi 7, however with increased throughput and decrease latency, so it may well transfer extra information with fewer bottlenecks and fewer lag.

“The plastic mockup broke once I picked it up,” reported Hollister from the Asus sales space. “Excellent,” responded Nilay Patel, Editor in Chief of The Verge.

Broadcom additionally introduced some Wi-Fi 8 gear at CES, together with the BCM4918 APU and two new dual-band radios, the BCM6714 and BCM6719. All three gadgets are meant for powering residential Wi-Fi 8 routers and repair supplier gateways.

Equally, on Monday, MediaTek introduced its household of Wi-Fi 8 chips, Filogic 8000, which it says will energy “premium and flagship gadgets leveraging Wi-Fi 8 expertise,” all the pieces from enterprise entry factors to smartphones, laptops, TVs, and sensible dwelling gadgets. The primary gear that includes a Filogic 8000 chip is predicted to launch later this yr.

These new routers and chipsets are arriving only some months after TP-Hyperlink demonstrated the first Wi-Fi 8 prototype connection in October. Regardless of manufacturers going full steam forward with Wi-Fi 8, the official IEEE 802.11bn specification hasn’t truly been finalized but. The present IEEE timeline predicts that the Wi-Fi 8 normal received’t be ratified till mid to late 2028. But, Asus says its first Wi-Fi 8 routers are slated to launch this yr. Early {hardware} could be based mostly on a draft model of the spec, and would possible want a firmware replace down the street to match up with the ultimate specification.

“What you might be seeing at CES round Wi-Fi 8 displays business pleasure for the following era of Wi-Fi,” Kevin Robinson, CEO of the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance, stated in an announcement to The Verge. “Wi-Fi Alliance is within the early phases of choosing Wi-Fi 8 options, and it is not uncommon for the Wi-Fi ecosystem to start its work on silicon, reference designs, early product growth, and expertise previews forward of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED availability.”

Replace, January sixth: Added remark from a Wi-Fi Alliance spokesperson.