Wi-Fi 8 is appearing at CES before most of us have switched to Wi-Fi 7

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.

“What you are seeing at CES around Wi-Fi 8 reflects industry excitement for the next generation of Wi-Fi,” Kevin Robinson, CEO of the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance, said in a statement to The Verge. “Wi-Fi Alliance is in the early stages of selecting Wi-Fi 8 features, and it is common for the Wi-Fi ecosystem to begin its work on silicon, reference designs, early product development, and technology previews ahead of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED availability.”

Update, January 6th: Added comment from a Wi-Fi Alliance spokesperson.