Your new router might be a waste of money

September 17, 2025

By Kim Komando

You’ve probably seen the sales pitches. “Get blazing-fast Wi-Fi 7 with internet speeds like you’ve never seen before. Just $600 for a new state-of-the-art router!” Let me save you money.

🤑 The reality check

Yes, Wi-Fi 7 is fast. Theoretical speeds reach up to 46 Gbps. That’s 46,000 Mbps, compared to Wi-Fi 6, which tops out around 9.6 Gbps (9,600 Mbps). Here’s what that means in real life.

• A 4K movie is about 15 GB.
  • Wi-Fi 6 downloads that in 12–15 seconds.
  • Wi-Fi 7 does it in about three seconds.

Yea, you’ll never notice the difference. 

🐌 The real bottleneck

Most Americans’ internet maxes out between 200 to 1,000 Mbps. That’s 0.2 to 1 Gbps. This isn’t even close to what your router or phone can handle. Not sure? Look at those numbers above again. I’ll wait.

About your phone, it’s limited by your internet connection, not your router. 

🏎️ Who can use Wi-Fi 7?

When you fall into one of these categories, it’s worth getting. 

• Video editors moving 100 GB+ files wirelessly between computers.
• Gamers or engineers with a high-end NAS (network-attached storage).
• Power users with super fast fiber connections (2 Gbps and up).

Otherwise, it’s like buying a Ferrari to drive to church.

✅ What to do instead

• Know what you’re paying for. Before blaming your devices, look up your internet plan. Are you paying for 100 Mbps? 500? Gigabit?
• Run a speed test. Go to speedtest.net or fast.com on a phone or laptop connected to Wi-Fi. Compare the results to your plan. 
• The good ol’ reboot. It works more often than you’d think. Here’s the right way to do it: Unplug both your modem and router (if they’re separate). Wait 30 seconds, enough time to hum the Jeopardy! theme. Plug the modem back in first. Wait until the lights are steady. Then plug in the router and give it another minute to fully reboot. 

Still a slowpoke? Try a mesh Wi-Fi system (nice, it’s 33% off right now) to improve coverage.

Speaking of… A router and a modem got married. They were pronounced husbandwidth and WiFi. (Yea, it was bad. I agree.)

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