Wi-Fi 8 is showing up at CES before most of us switch to Wi-Fi 7

The first Wi-Fi 8 routers and chips made a surprise appearance at CES 2026, and could launch this year, just two years after Wi-Fi 7 debuts. So, if you don’t already have a Wi-Fi 7 router — and many of us don’t — you may want to consider holding off on upgrading.

Instead of focusing on a speed upgrade, Wi-Fi 8 promises improved stability. It delivers the high speeds and bandwidth of Wi-Fi 7, but with improved power efficiency, higher throughput, and better peer-to-peer connectivity between devices. Wi-Fi 8 is also better at maintaining fast and stable connections when users move devices or move them away from their router. As a result, Wi-Fi 8 users will experience less “dropout” or freezing and better streaming and gaming performance.

If this week’s CES announcements are any indication, we’ll be able to experience Wi-Fi 8 for ourselves within the year.

Asus is gone AI spider router last year Covered with antennas Rouge Nucora Wi-Fi 8 concept router with no antennas at all. Polyhedral model EdgeSean Hollister took a look at this week and it looks like a die with 20 sides and a hollow bottom. According to Asus, the production model will deliver the same data speeds as Wi-Fi 7, but with higher throughput and lower latency, so it can transfer more data with fewer bottlenecks and less lag.

“The plastic model broke when I picked it up,” Hollister said from the Asus booth. “Excellent,” replied Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief. Edge.

Broadcom too It announced some Wi-Fi 8 gear at CESincluding the BCM4918 APU and two new dual-band radios, the BCM6714 and BCM6719. All three devices are designed to power residential Wi-Fi 8 routers and service provider gateways.

Likewise, on Monday, MediaTek Announced the Wi-Fi 8 chipset familyFilogic 8000, which it says will power “premium, leading-edge devices that take advantage of Wi-Fi 8 technology,” everything from enterprise access points to smartphones, laptops, TVs and smart home devices. The first gear featuring the Filogic 8000 chip is expected to launch later this year.

These new routers and chipsets arrive just a few months after TP-Link’s debut First typical Wi-Fi 8 connection In October. Although brands are going full steam ahead with Wi-Fi 8, the official IEEE 802.11bn specifications are yet to be finalized. the Current IEEE schedule It expects that the Wi-Fi 8 standard won’t be certified until mid-to-late 2028. However, Asus says its first Wi-Fi 8 routers are scheduled to launch this year. Early devices will be based on an initial version of the specifications, and will likely need a firmware update in the future to meet the final specifications.