Wi-Fi 6 is official with higher connectivity, lower latency and better battery life

Wi-Fi Alliance has officially launched the Wi-Fi Certified 6 certification program, also known as the 802.11ax and the successor to Wi-Fi 5.

According to Wi-Fi Alliance, the new program will include improved features and capabilities that will enhance the overall Wi-Fi experience. The latest Wi-Fi generation will have higher performance, stronger connectivity and also latency improvements. 

What this all means is that the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 will support “more diverse set of devices and applications”, so it will be able to cater to a wide range of scenarios such as low power situations or high demanding environments. It is also reported to come with almost four times the capacity of Wi-Fi 5, meaning that it is able to enhance the connectivity among the massive amount of devices in an area — leading to more stable and equally-distributed connectivity in a crowded area.

A few of its features includes 160Mhz channels that offer higher performance with low latency by increasing the bandwidth, target wake time (TWT) that improves battery consumption in Wi-Fi devices and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) that shares channels for higher network efficiency and lower latency in crowded areas with high demand for Wi-Fi.

You’ll need to make sure your devices support Wi-Fi 6 for it to be functioning, so if your router has been there for years, you’ll probably need to get a new one. Also, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro are Wi-Fi 6 compatible.