Ubiquiti released its first WiFi 7 access point (802.11be) in January 2024 and it marked its first move into the WiFi 7 market. It marked the company's expansion from WiFi 6 and we started to its advancements, such as Multi-Link Operation (MLO), larger channel widths and Flexible Channel Utilization.

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Which one to choose?

Both devices are similarly priced, coming in at $159 for the older U6 Pro and $189 for the U7 Pro. The U7 Pro also supports 6GHz with the same coverage area and the same six spatial streams. However, because those spatial streams are spread over 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz - it comes at the expense of the maximum 5GHz data rates, which is 4.8Gbps with the U6 Pro and 4.3Gbps with the U7 Pro, even with a channel width that is double the size.

A change that Ubiquiti made in going from U6 to U7 was the omission of Bluetooth, which removes the quick setup support from the UniFi mobile app (although you can use our HostiFi Device Discovery Tool for this) and drops support for the UP-Sense devices. If you want to continue using those sensors, you'll now need the new SuperLink device.

There is an odd amount of upgrades and some downgrades in other areas. For example the U6 Pro can handle 350+ clients, but the U7 Pro drops that down to 300+. In the real world, this might not make a huge difference, but it is odd to see.

Recommendation

In terms of a recommendation, it just boils down to if you need 6GHz support or not. We have seen some performance issues with the latest U7 devices in recent months and this is even where we are now, more than 12 months since the U7 Pro was launched. If you are running U6 devices right now, we would recommend to stick with what you have if it is working well enough. If you need 6GHz support - just bear in mind that it works the best if every access point is broadcasting this frequency, as this could create some roaming complications.

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 network consulting, with HostiFi Professional Services.