TLDR: WiFi 7 isn’t even ratified or “out” yet, so of course there isn’t enough hardware for it.
The WiFi 7 standard hasn’t even been finalized. It’s not unusual to see companies marketing hardware BEFORE final ratification, but it’s like a marketing gimmick more than an actual case of “early adoption” hardware. If you’re seeing a situation like this one where a few companies sell routers that support the equipment standard, and there’s only one of two adapters that do, just stay away. The Wi-Fi Alliance JUST released the WF7 certification criteria on January 8th, so maybe companies will start trying to release hardware now.
I agree that it’s very early to go with WiFi 7 at the moment. The issue that I have with the current situation is that Qualcomm managed to make a Wi-Fi 7 adapter which apparently works with AMD and Intel, while the BE200 is ‘locked’ to their platform only. They didn’t even go with CNVi this time. It’s just strange and may sway people towards a certain platform due to a simple compatibility issue like this.
Okay, so then the BE200 is an Intel product that offloads to the northbridge or CPU extensions…not that unusual. If it specifically says it supports only Intel chipsets, then you’re getting exactly what they are promising, right?
Honestly, I don’t know how the BE200 works and whether there’s a strict communication protocol only with Intel CPUs. I hope that’s not the case and a firmware update will widen its reach.
As for why I don’t like this situation is that we only get one solution working with one platform. Qualcomm, apparently made it available for both (from what I could find on the web), but since the card is not in stock since maybe November, we’re stuck with what Intel wants to feed us. Sure, Intel can do whatever it wants, but it’s not really fair for AMD users.
Edit: spelling.
TLDR: WiFi 7 isn’t even ratified or “out” yet, so of course there isn’t enough hardware for it.
The WiFi 7 standard hasn’t even been finalized. It’s not unusual to see companies marketing hardware BEFORE final ratification, but it’s like a marketing gimmick more than an actual case of “early adoption” hardware. If you’re seeing a situation like this one where a few companies sell routers that support the equipment standard, and there’s only one of two adapters that do, just stay away. The Wi-Fi Alliance JUST released the WF7 certification criteria on January 8th, so maybe companies will start trying to release hardware now.
As soon as all the plebs get wifi7 though I’m gonna start looking for the first wifi 8 router and in the meantime I’ll just chill on my cat8 ethernet.
I agree that it’s very early to go with WiFi 7 at the moment. The issue that I have with the current situation is that Qualcomm managed to make a Wi-Fi 7 adapter which apparently works with AMD and Intel, while the BE200 is ‘locked’ to their platform only. They didn’t even go with CNVi this time. It’s just strange and may sway people towards a certain platform due to a simple compatibility issue like this.
Okay, so then the BE200 is an Intel product that offloads to the northbridge or CPU extensions…not that unusual. If it specifically says it supports only Intel chipsets, then you’re getting exactly what they are promising, right?
Honestly, I don’t know how the BE200 works and whether there’s a strict communication protocol only with Intel CPUs. I hope that’s not the case and a firmware update will widen its reach. As for why I don’t like this situation is that we only get one solution working with one platform. Qualcomm, apparently made it available for both (from what I could find on the web), but since the card is not in stock since maybe November, we’re stuck with what Intel wants to feed us. Sure, Intel can do whatever it wants, but it’s not really fair for AMD users. Edit: spelling.