Should you switch to a Wi-Fi 7 mesh router? My home testing reveals what got better (and what didn't)

Tenda BE5100 3-Pack Mesh Wi-Fi System 4 / 5 Very good pros and cons Pros Makes mesh Wi-Fi easy to set up

App offers pro-grade features, such as diagnostics

Excellent hardware with Wi-Fi 7 support for a fraction of the price of some systems. Cons Units feel a bit cheap and "plasticky."

Spare satellite units retail for $100 each. $189.99 at Amazon

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There's nothing more frustrating than sitting on your couch or at your desk and noticing a limited Wi-Fi signal. I don't know about you, but I've been seen with my phone in my outstretched arm, doing something that looks like a weird yoga pose, trying to get a better signal.

Also: I set up a $4 router reboot timer, and it's made my internet reliably faster

Back in the day, the solution I'd fan back onto would be to set up a repeater or hook up another Wi-Fi router to spread the signal. Not a great solution because it didn't allow for a smooth handover between the different routers. I also dabbled with Wi-Fi extenders of all sorts.

Yeah, they were mostly a waste of money. Even the ones that worked didn't work all that well. The extenders often made a good internet connection bad, and a mediocre connection terrible.

But there wasn't much of an alternative because, back then, I didn't have a Tenda BE5100 3-pack Mesh Wi-Fi System.

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