What’s the difference between a food processor and a WiFi access point?
During the year-end break, our old food processor finally broke down. If I’m honest, we had pushed it too far. Our needs have changed over the years and it just wasn’t meeting them anymore. We needed a newer, better, more effective device, capable of handling the seemingly endless variety of ingredients we now need to use when we cook.
Having finally accepted that we needed to upgrade, the question was which of the scores of products on the market we should buy? It’s not an easy choice. We have to consider our immediate and future needs – and our budget. But we also want something that is going to last for a few years.
In other words, we need something that meets our specific needs. Maybe not a professional-grade device, but one that will do everything we need it to – now and for the foreseeable future. And, of course, it needs to be affordable for us as well.
Plenty of options
We’d face a similar set of criteria if we were upgrading our WiFi. There is certainly no shortage of choice out there and with the arrival of WiFi 7, there are now even more options. And while you can’t compare a wireless access point, to a food processor, the principles you’d need to apply to the decision-making process are exactly the same.
You need something that will meet your needs, today and for some time to come, and falls within your budget. That said, you might want to weight these factors differently. Having WiFi that is future-proofed, for example, could be more important to a business like a café or a hotel, where guests will, inevitably, start arriving with WiFi 7-capable devices over the next few months. If you need zero latency for real-time applications or gaming in the home, you might also want to go for the WiFi 7 option – even if it costs a little bit more.
It’s your choice
If you don’t quite need that higher level of performance – and can’t envisage a scenario in which you will need it, you may be just as well off with WiFi 6/6E technology. Sure, it won’t be quite as fast or deliver the same bandwidth, but it will be much better than what you have right now.
Either way, the principle is the same – it depends entirely on your needs. We will be rolling out new WiFi 7 access points this year (we’ve already launched a high-end device (WBE660S) and we have a mid-range access point (NWA130BE) due for release very soon), but we will also continue to offer WiFi 6/6E products as well, because in the end, giving our customers the freedom to choose a solution that meets their own needs is what matters.
If you would like some guidance and information on our WiFi 6/6E and WiFi 7 products and how to choose the right one for your needs, please get in touch with us here at Zyxel Networks or contact your local Zyxel Networks-accredited reseller partner.
