Wifi 7 speeds vs Wifi 6E speeds (Samsung Phones)

[Sagnew]

I recently upgraded to a Samsung S24 Ultra. Was surprised to see a Wifi 7 icon when I had setup my phone at home with my Orbi RBE 970s.

However it felt like it was slower. I still have my old phone and did a speed test. Both phones in the same room, spot on the desk. Both testing the same serve, a few seconds after the firsr test was compete (ie speed tests are not running at same exact time)

Was surprised to see the 6e with a much faster speed test. 1126 Mbps down and 976 Mbs up.

Compared to the Wifi7 which was 572 Mbs up. 400 Mbs down.

Quick observations : The Wifi 6e connections displays my correct provider service speed (2.5Gig fiber) and connects on a 160MHz channel.

The Wifi 7 shows a slower service speed (800Mbps down and 1200 Mbps down on a crowded channel (48) at 80 Mhz.

Would anyone know if that is because Wifi 7 has yet to be really enabled on the Orbi lines.

I will say, over the two days, Wifi 7 appears to be my b more stable and does not suffer from the frequent disconnects I have been experiencing with 6E.

[plemans · Accepted solution]

It should. 

It could be simply rebooting the wireless allowed it to switch to the 6ghz. Sometimes roaming or turning the wifi on/off can cause the phone to go "oh this network is better. lets use it". 

[plemans]

A couple points to make. 

1. you don't say (and the settings don't show) if you're connecting to the 5ghz channels or the 6ghz ones. 

2. you'd expect the 80hz wide device to be slower as its link speed potential is half that of 160hz. Your testing is showing that. 

I'd be looking at if you're connecting to 6ghz or 5ghz. My RBE970 is rock solid. But if you're only connecting at 80hz, you'd expect it to be half. With both devices capable of connecting to 6ghz, you need to check if it actually is connecting to that band. With the phone bandsteering, it might be on the 5ghz

[Sagnew]

Re : 5ghz vs 6ghz signals.

The Wifi 7 connection is a via a 5ghz channel.

Both phones are connected to the same WiFi network / SSID. Additional settings or changes have not been made to either phones (I am not aware of any settings you can change on the phone to only connect to 5 or 6 Ghz signals).

In theory, Wifi 7 is supposed to be broadcasted on a 6 Ghz / 240 - 320 Mhz channel.

I believe this Orbi line does not actually support true Wifi 7 at the moment and will eventually be rolled out via a software update(?)

But I am curious how/why my new phone is reading this as Wifi 7 and why it's only connecting to the 5G channels (vs the older model of the phone connecting as 6E)

Maybe a combo of this Orbi line not really broadcasting WiFi7 at the moment along with this newer phone actually supporting wifi 7connections (only a few phones do at this moment) ?

[plemans]

---

@Sagnew wrote:
Re : 5ghz vs 6ghz signals.

The Wifi 7 connection is a via a 5ghz channel.---On the one device. the other is on a different channels so likely the 6ghz. 

Both phones are connected to the same WiFi network / SSID. Additional settings or changes have not been made to either phones (I am not aware of any settings you can change on the phone to only connect to 5 or 6 Ghz signals).---Most devices you can't choose what band to connect to. Some you can select a prefered band but unsure about on android devices. Windows has that option. 

In theory, Wifi 7 is supposed to be on a 6 Ghz / 240 - 320 Mhz channel.---Incorrect. Wifi 7 is just the new standard. It applies to 2.4/5/6ghz. Its not specific to just the 6ghz. The benefit to the 6ghz though is it can do up to 320hz wide channels because of more available bandwidth. 

I believe this Orbi line does not actually support true Wifi 7 at the moment and will eventually be rolled out via a software update(?)---Again, incorrect. I have a RBE970 and it does support wifi 7. I have a motorola Edge+ 2023 and it (now) connects to the 5ghz or 6ghz 

But I am curious how/why my phone is reading this as Wifi 7 and why it's only connecting to the 5G channels (vs the older model of the phone connecting as 6E)----Again, wifi 7 is the spec for all the channels. Your phone is picking up that its a wifi 7 broadcast and giving you that notice. It'll show on any of the bands you connect to. So you can't rely on that for telling if its the 5ghz or the 6ghz band. I'd be better that is what you're seeing and the speed difference. 

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[Sagnew]

>>So you can't rely on that for telling if its the 5ghz or the 6ghz band. I'd be better that is what you're seeing and the speed difference. 

Thanks for the info and your help! Here's an extended info for the new phone which displays a wifi 7 icon. Seems like a 5ghz connection to me?

Using an app, my phone can "see" the 6ghz signals. So in short, it may be a Samsung S24U issue as its defaulting to connect to the 5g signal?

[plemans]

yes you're connecting to the 5ghz band and at 80hz. 

Not sure why its connecting at 80hz unless you have DFS channels broadcasting in the area. You could try changing what channel the 5ghz broadcasts on to see if it allows the 160hz wide the 5ghz is capable of. 

Dong knows does a pretty good review of the RBE971

https://dongknows.com/netgear-orbi-970-series-wi-fi-7-mesh-review/

[Sagnew]

>>Not sure why its connecting at 80hz unless you have DFS channels broadcasting in the area

Here is what is odd....Every other 5g connection in my home is via a more typical/standard channels. Only this new phone is connecting via 80hz.

[plemans]

Did you try swapping to a different 5ghz channel? 

And not sure what you mean by "more typical". The devices don't set the channel width, the router does.

Or its picking up interference and using its preamble puncturing to use the 80hz wide width for better stability. 

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20220216/network-infrastructure/wi-fi/what-is-preamble-puncturing-and-wh...

• Speed
  BE27000 (11,530 + 8,647 + 5,765 + 1,147Mbps)†
• Simultaneous Quad-Band WiFi with dedicated backhaul

  6GHz3 (4x4/320MHz, 4K-QAM): 11,530Mbps

  5GHz-1 (4x4/240MHx, 4K-QAM): 8,647Mbps, Dedicated Backhaul

  5GHz-2 (4x4/160MHz, 4K-QAM): 5,765Mbps

  2.4GHz (4x4/40MHz, 1K-QAM): 1,147Mbps

Possibilities:

1. the Samsung prefers 5GHz over 6GHz
2. the Samsung isn't seeing 5GHz-2 ssid
3. the Samsung isn't seeing 5GHz-1 ssid when the orbi is set to completely use the 240MHz bandwidth for backhaul
4. the Samsung does see 5GHz-1 ssid and does get allocated 80MHz and does log into it, when the backhaul uses only 160MHz (of 240).

In case 3, minus seeing any viable 5GHz ssid, the Samsung chooses 6GHz. Alternatively*, cases 1,2,4, it could be that the orbi is steering the Samsung to the least optimal roaming connection.

[Sagnew]

I am jumping around a bit ....

I was playing around with the settings I noticed the "Advanced Wireless Settings (MLO Backhaul) - Enable 240MHz Bandwidth? " was unchecked.

Selected that, router re-booted and the new phone (u24/wifi7) connected to 6ghz. Not only that, it's the fastest wireless speed test I have ever had on the network. ..

So great news! But if I am not mistaken, would that setting only relate to the back-haul / router to satellite communication?

[plemans · Accepted solution]

It should. 

It could be simply rebooting the wireless allowed it to switch to the 6ghz. Sometimes roaming or turning the wifi on/off can cause the phone to go "oh this network is better. lets use it".