The first Wi-Fi 8 routers and chips made a surprise appearance at CES 2026, and could launch this year, only a couple of years after Wi-Fi 7 debuted. So, if you don’t already have a Wi-Fi 7 router — and many of us don’t — you might want to consider holding off on upgrading.
Rather than focusing on speed upgrades, Wi-Fi 8 promises improved stability. It offers the high speeds and bandwidth of Wi-Fi 7, but with improved power efficiency, higher throughput, and better peer-to-peer communication between devices. Wi-Fi 8 is also better at maintaining fast, stable connections when users are moving devices around, or moving them further away from their router. As a result, Wi-Fi 8 users will experience less “dropping out” or freezing and better streaming and gaming performance.
If this we…
The first Wi-Fi 8 routers and chips made a surprise appearance at CES 2026, and could launch this year, only a couple of years after Wi-Fi 7 debuted. So, if you don’t already have a Wi-Fi 7 router — and many of us don’t — you might want to consider holding off on upgrading.
Rather than focusing on speed upgrades, Wi-Fi 8 promises improved stability. It offers the high speeds and bandwidth of Wi-Fi 7, but with improved power efficiency, higher throughput, and better peer-to-peer communication between devices. Wi-Fi 8 is also better at maintaining fast, stable connections when users are moving devices around, or moving them further away from their router. As a result, Wi-Fi 8 users will experience less “dropping out” or freezing and better streaming and gaming performance.
If this week’s CES announcements are any indication, we’ll be able to try out Wi-Fi 8 for ourselves within the year.
Asus went from last year’s AI spider router covered in antennas to the ROG NeoCore, a Wi-Fi 8 concept router with no antennas at all. The polyhedral mock up The Verge’s Sean Hollister got a look at this week resembles a 20-sided die with a hollow bottom. According to Asus, the production model will offer the same data speeds as Wi-Fi 7, but with higher throughput and lower latency, so it can move more data with fewer bottlenecks and less lag.
“The plastic mockup broke when I picked it up,” reported Hollister from the Asus booth. “Perfect,” responded Nilay Patel, Editor in Chief of The Verge.
Broadcom also announced some Wi-Fi 8 gear at CES, including the BCM4918 APU and two new dual-band radios, the BCM6714 and BCM6719. All three devices are intended for powering residential Wi-Fi 8 routers and service provider gateways.
Similarly, on Monday, MediaTek announced its family of Wi-Fi 8 chips, Filogic 8000, which it says will power “premium and flagship devices leveraging Wi-Fi 8 technology,” everything from enterprise access points to smartphones, laptops, TVs, and smart home devices. The first gear featuring a Filogic 8000 chip is expected to launch later this year.
These new routers and chipsets are arriving only a few months after TP-Link demonstrated the first Wi-Fi 8 prototype connection in October. Despite brands going full steam ahead with Wi-Fi 8, the official IEEE 802.11bn specification hasn’t actually been finalized yet. The current IEEE timeline predicts that the Wi-Fi 8 standard won’t be ratified until mid to late 2028. Yet, Asus says its first Wi-Fi 8 routers are slated to launch this year. Early hardware would be based on a draft version of the spec, and would likely need a firmware update down the road to match up with the final specification.
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
- Stevie Bonifield