Ubiquiti now has four different WiFi 7 APs on offer, with the U7 Pro - which was announced in February 2024 and now the new lineup of devices. This article is going to act as an overview of what Ubiquiti revealed on the 30th May 2024.

U7 Pro Max

The first AP is the U7 Pro Max. This has the exact same chassis, footprint and weight as the U7 Pro, so drop-in replacements should be pretty simple to do. The Pro Max is essentially a spec bump, with more MIMO streams, more throughput, more coverage and of course, a higher price tag. Ubiquiti is also dipping back into doing on-board spectral analysis again - something they did with the AC-SHD, if anyone remembers that.

Specs

For the specs we have the following:

• 2.5GbE Ethernet Port
• PoE+
• 2.4GHz, 5GHz 6GHz support
• 4x4 5GHz MIMO
• 2x2 2.4GHz MIMO
• 2x2 6GHz MIMO
• Dedicated spectral radio
• $279 US

More on that spectral radio. Ubiquiti says it is designed for "background packers and spectrum capture" and looks pretty promising. Current APs have be to be essentially 'turned off' while they run scans, which disrupts network operations.

The new U7 Pro Max is available now, direct from Ubiquiti.

U7 Pro Wall

The U7 Pro Wall is an interesting one. We had some interior design based products in the past from Ubiquiti, with the skins for the nanoHD and the AC In Wall devices. However, nothing seems as customisable as the new U7 Pro Wall. The form factor looks pretty similar to the other In Wall devices we have seen from Ubiquiti but it is a little thicker. This one can now be embedded in the wall including mounting hardware and there is also a paintable cover accessory that Ubiquiti sells too.

Specs

For the specs we have the following:

• 2.5GbE Ethernet Port
• PoE+
• 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz support
• 2x2 5GHz MIMO
• 2x2 2.4GHz MIMO
• 2x2 6GHz MIMO
• $199 US

The new U7 Pro Wall is available now, direct from Ubiquiti.

U7 Outdoor

The last one is the U7 Outdoor and is looks super interesting. For the first time (discounting the UWB-XG), Ubiquiti has made an outdoor AP that is designed to be directional. Like the new UK-Ultra however, it can be turned into an omni AP pretty easily but you do loose its impressive gain and TX power when you do that. The main headline thing you might notice with this is AP is the lack of 6GHz support. One of the main reasons could be the outdoor regulation of the band currently so Ubiquiti likely decided it wasn't worth the effort for now.

However, adding WiFi 7 to it hasn't gone to waste. The standard itself does have some improvements relating to 5GHz.

Specs

For the specs we have the following:

• 2.5GbE Ethernet Port
• PoE+
• 2.4GHz and 5GHz support
• 2x2 5GHz MIMO
• 2x2 2.4GHz MIMO
• No 6GHz
• 5GHz Directional 12.5 dBi gain
• 2.4GHz Directional 8dBi gain
• $199 US

The new U7 Outdoor is available from 17th June, direct from Ubiquiti.

Conclusion

While it feels like WiFi 6 (802.11ax) was literally announced just the other day but WiFi standards march on with progress. However, not many devices in the consumer space are available that support WiFi 7 and it might not be worth upgrading from WiFi 6 or 6E quite yet.

It is impressive what Ubiquiti is doing with its next generation of UniFi APs and if you are installing WiFi for a new project then getting the latest APs is a good idea.

HostiFi

HostiFi provides hosting for both Ubiquiti and TP-Link software-defined-networking (SDN) applications, with servers for UniFi, UISP and Omada. We also offer professional networking consulting, with HostiFi Pro.