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You Might Be Wasting Hundreds of Dollars on a Mesh Wi-Fi System. Our Lab Data Proves It

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You Might Be Wasting Hundreds of Dollars on a Mesh Wi-Fi System. Our Lab Data Proves It

We tested router signal strength across a massive facility, and the unexpected performance of single-unit routers completely flipped my perspective.

We’ve all been there: Your Wi-Fi connection freezes during a video meeting, while streaming a show or in the middle of your gaming session. 

According to a CNET survey from March 2026, 41% of Americans say they lose their Wi-Fi signal a few times a year, while 26% experience signal drops once or twice a month. For an unlucky 6% of the country, these types of disconnections are a daily occurrence. 

Sometimes the solutions are simple enough. You might not subscribe to a fast enough plan from your ISP. Or, you can get a surprisingly strong boost just by moving your router to a better position. But sometimes your poor Wi-Fi connection might mean it’s time to upgrade your router equipment. For the seven years I’ve been covering home internet, I’ve generally recommended a mesh system as the best way to eliminate dead zones in your home. I’ve seen this work time and time again in real-world tests, but I’ve never had the data to prove just how much more you’re getting when you add in a second (or third) router to your home network.

Until now, the engineers at CNET Labs spent the past two months comparing the signal strength of 10 Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems versus their standalone counterparts across a three-basketball-court-sized lab space to find out just how much of a boost you get with multiple routers spread throughout your home.


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