The company is releasing the first Wi-Fi 7 router even before Wi-Fi 7 is certified

Chinese hardware manufacturer H3C has launched the "world's first Wi-Fi 7 router", the Magic BE18000. Although Wi-Fi 7 is still not certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, this does not seem to worry H3C too much. 

The H3C Magic BE18000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router is a wireless router that uses Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) technology at 6 GHz and can deliver download speeds of up to an incredible 18,443 Mbps. That's significantly faster than even the recently released Wi-Fi 6, which tops out at 9.6 Gbps. It also looks like Bastion's head from Overwatch, which is obviously a plus) 

Wi-Fi 7 is expected to offer a significant speed advantage over Wi-Fi 6 (nearly double) as its new 6 GHz frequency bands support an ultra-wide 320 MHz bandwidth, which is an advantage for home streaming and gaming. 

The most important advantage of Wi-Fi 7 is its Multi-Link Operation (MLO) feature, which provides low latency and better reliability by allowing devices to use multiple channels simultaneously. This results, according to H3C, in better speeds regardless of how the devices are connected.

We expected Wi-Fi 7 to be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance in the second half of 2023. It's not uncommon for wireless equipment to be released ahead of pre-approved standards, although it's a little surprising to see a product this far ahead. This does not mean that the Magic BE18000 will not meet these official standards; just not yet. 

To be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, technologies must meet industry-agreed standards for "interoperability, security, and a set of application-specific protocols," which involves a lot of testing and takes some time. 

We already know that chip makers like Qualcomm have plans for Wi-Fi 7 with its own Wi-Fi 7 chip, which will also preempt the expected Wi-Fi 7 certification. 

Source: PC Gamer