Introducing Acer’s Predator Connect X7 5G CPE Router

• Acer’s Predator Connect X7 5G CPE: Advanced Wi-Fi 7 router designed for gamers, featuring low latency and high throughput.
• Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 BE11000 connectivity with 5G support, load balancing, and Qualcomm Multi-Link Mesh technology for seamless connectivity.
• Intel Killer Prioritization Engine, hybrid QoS software, and Trend Micro Home Network Security engine ensure stable and secure gaming experiences.

If you’re a serious gamer, you probably rely on high-end PC components to gain a competitive edge while doing battle online. But if your Wi-Fi router can’t supply the necessary bandwidth to keep up with the action, then all of that expensive hardware is for naught. Fortunately, Acer provides quality routers specifically designed for gamers who need stable and high-throughput Wi-Fi connectivity.

In January 2024, Acer unveiled a follow-up to its Predator Connect X5 5G Wi-Fi router, which was until then its most recent 5G router. The recently announced upgrade to the Connect X5 5G router is the Predator Connect X7 5G CPE, which comes in a redesigned housing and introduces new Wi-Fi 7 functionality. The new Predator Connect X7 5G CPE continues to support load balancing and failover mechanisms and brings a raft of enhancements over its predecessor, and it is expected to be available for sale later this year. Read on to learn all about the new router and its Wi-Fi 7 capabilities.

Here are the key features of the Acer Predator Connect X7 5G CPE:

• Qualcomm Technologies quad-core processor
• Wi-Fi 7 BE11000 (compatible with IEEE 802.11be)
• Network latencies as low as 1 ms
• 5G connectivity
• Enhanced MU-MIMO and OFDMA
• Hybrid QoS software
• Intel®Killer™ Prioritization Engine
• Multi-Link operation
• Qualcomm® Multi-Link Mesh technology
• Trend Micro Home Network Security engine (built-in)

What is Wi-Fi 7?

Wi-Fi 7 is the latest wireless standard that will usher in a new era of connectivity and reliability that could possibly push wired connections aside. Technically known as 802.11be, Wi-Fi 7 will incorporate many of the previous standard’s GHz-spectrum tricks while also adding in a few of its own, and the Predator Connect X7 5G CPE is geared to take full advantage of these improvements.

Multi-link operation: Picking up where Wi-Fi 6E left off, Wi-Fi 7 also uses the 2.4, 5, and 6-GHz spectrum bands; however, with multi-link operation, Wi-Fi 7 routers can connect to client devices across two different bands simultaneously for even more throughput.

Greater channel width: Each Wi-Fi band operates in smaller bands of 20, 40, 80, 80+80, and 160 MHz for connecting to individual devices. Wi-Fi 7 adds the possibility for bands of 320 MHz, effectively doubling potential throughput. This doubles the potential Wi-Fi speeds to individual devices and adds a lot more bandwidth.

Flexible channel utilization: A key limitation with Wi-Fi is that interference typically affects the entire channel being used to transfer data; however, with “puncturing,” introduced in Wi-Fi 7, if a portion of a channel receives interference, that portion alone can be blocked while the rest of the channel continues uninterrupted. This makes the Wi-Fi network more resistant to interference and ensures critical flow and latency are not affected.

Predator Connect X7 5G CPE

The Predator Connect X7 5G CPE more than doubles the potential speed output compared with Wi-Fi 6 while adding flexibility for Wi-Fi gamers and enhancing performance by integrating Wi-Fi 7’s significantly reduced latency, better interference management, higher bandwidth, and other network performance enhancements. The router has the following advanced features:

• Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 BE11000 connectivity, which offers network latencies as low as 1 ms, and 5G cellular connectivity at speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps. This means the router can create a Wi-Fi 7 network by using a 5G signal, theoretically allowing a 5G cellular service to serve as your entire home Wi-Fi network without the need for secondary or tertiary devices. Of course, the router can also create a home network using Internet from a fiber, ADSL, or other Internet source through its ethernet WAN port.
• Load balancing functionality, which involves distributing Internet traffic across different WAN connections to optimize the connection. Load balancing can operate over any number of WAN feeds, which can be of different types, including ADSL, fiber, 5G, and any other Internet connection.
• Qualcomm® Multi-Link Mesh technology, so that when used in a multiunit mesh system and paired with other mesh routers, like the Predator Connect T7 Wi-Fi 7 mesh router, it can ensure a uniformly strong Wi-Fi signal throughout an entire home or other large space.
• Intel® Killer™ Prioritization Engine, which prioritizes traffic for key websites above that of lower-priority websites and apps, reducing interruptions to online streaming and games. This works alongside Acer’s hybrid QoS software, which users control via the Acer Predator Connect Utility to set up and control priorities of upload/download bandwidth.

Because Wi-Fi 7 can generate very low-latency networks, it minimizes the time taken for data to travel between devices and servers, which for gamers, especially those playing fast-paced multiplayer games, results in a more responsive gameplay experience. And by setting up multiple Predator Connect X7s or T7s, a low-latency mesh network can be established throughout an entire house or over a large area, such as a gaming tournament hall. The load balancing, hybrid QoS, and prioritization technologies incorporated into the Predator Connect X7 are good for playing online games, VR games, or cloud-based games because they ensure a stable connection at all times.

The Connect Utility gives users full control over the Predator Connect X7 5G CPE, allowing management of the device from a web-based console or from a phone through the Predator Connect mobile app. The Connect Utility can be used to set up parental controls, enable network security features, set QoS priorities, and configure various other Wi-Fi settings.

For an added layer of security, the router features an integrated Trend Micro Home Network Security engine, which is built directly into the device. This security engine keeps networked devices protected against potential attacks and helps with examining network traffic.

In summary, the Predator Connect X7 5G CPE is packed with gaming features and is powerful enough to handle anyone’s home networking needs. Its high throughput, low latency, and minimal network interference are the perfect features for gamers. Make sure to get one when it comes out later in 2024.

Source: Acer