The one simple upgrade that transformed my home streaming and gaming experience

Home broadband speeds in the UK have increased dramatically in recent years, with gigabit fibre becoming more and more common. You may well be paying for the privilege, but are you feeling the difference?

Despite paying top dollar, many households still struggle to reach advertised speeds on their wireless devices. The reason is often simple: the router. Even with fast broadband, older Wi-Fi hardware can become a bottleneck for streaming, gaming, and downloading large files. In an age where the latest movies stream in 4K, games have ballooned to hundreds of gigabytes in size, and more and more of our devices are looking for a stable bite at your pad’s broadband pie, it’s becoming a genuine problem — especially in the work from home era many of us are now living in.

I recently experienced this firsthand after upgrading my home router from a BT Smart Hub 2 to the D-Link BE9500 Wi-Fi 7 Smart Router R95. The difference in wireless performance was so dramatic, it’s literally changed the way I entertain myself around my home.

Testing the difference

Before upgrading, my home network relied on the BT Smart Hub 2 supplied with my broadband connection. While reliable, the router is based on older Wi-Fi technology and was unable to fully deliver the speeds my connection could provide.

Running speed tests on an iPhone 17 Pro over Wi-Fi consistently produced download speeds of around 94.8 Mbps. That’s not bad at all — plenty enough for basic browsing and video streaming, but it left little headroom for demanding applications such as cloud gaming, or for high speed downloads.

But! My broadband package promised a standard of 900 Mbps, and guaranteed 700 Mbps. It was clearly falling short of its potential.

After replacing the router with the D-Link BE9500 Wi-Fi 7 Smart Router R95, the results were crazily different. Under the same conditions, the iPhone reached peak wireless download speeds of 924 Mbps — almost a tenfold improvement. That jump brought wireless performance much closer to the speeds available through wired Ethernet.

What Makes Wi-Fi 7 Different?

The D-Link R95 is built around the latest Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) standard, designed to deliver significantly faster speeds, lower latency, and higher network capacity compared with previous generations.

The router uses a tri-band design operating across the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, which means it can distribute traffic efficiently between devices. Theoretical data rates reach 688 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, 2,882 Mbps on 5 GHz, and 5,764 Mbps on 6 GHz, providing far more bandwidth for modern homes filled with connected devices. Though in reality, in the UK, you’re not going to find a home broadband provider that’ll max out those capabilities.

One of the most important features is Multi-Link Operation (MLO), a key Wi-Fi 7 technology that allows compatible devices to transmit data across multiple frequency bands simultaneously. Think of it like water from a hose — you’re going to water that lawn way faster if you’ve got more than one. MLO improves both throughput and stability, reducing latency (that 'walking through treacle' sensation in your online gaming sessions) and congestion during heavy network use.

The router also includes 2.5-gigabit WAN and LAN ports, meaning that wired connections can also keep pace with gigabit broadband services and high-performance devices.

Streaming and cloud gaming improvements

The most noticeable improvements appeared not necessarily while working, but when I sat down to decompress after work — playing or watching services that depend heavily on low latency and consistent speeds.

Cloud gaming platforms such as Xbox GamePass and GeForce Now became noticeably smoother. With the older router, occasional stuttering and compression artefacts would appear during busy network periods. With the router upgrade, gameplay became far more consistent, even while other devices in the house were streaming video or downloading updates.

I also have a gaming PC in my home office, but after a day sat at my desk, I usually want to be anywhere BUT in that room. So I jump over to a handheld like a Steam Deck to chill out with. I still want to tap into the power of that desktop machine, but without being tethered to it. Using apps like Moonlight — which lets you stream from a beefy rig to a lightweight handheld — on the new connection, I could play AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 with all the high-end bells and whistles turned on, without dropping a frame on my low-powered Steam Deck.

Virtual reality streaming also improved significantly. Casting PC VR games to the Meta Quest 3 headset is particularly sensitive to wireless bandwidth and latency. VR sessions need as smooth and stable a framerate as possible, or the juddering side-effects can make the immersive experiences literally unplayable, causing motion sickness. The increased capacity of the new router meant smoother casting and fewer stomach–turning slowdowns during VR sessions beamed from my PC.

Even everyday entertainment saw gains. Music and video streaming services loaded faster, buffering was reduced, and downloading large media files for offline playback became far quicker.

The router as the hidden upgrade: A small change with a big impact

The experience reinforced an important lesson: broadband speed alone does not guarantee a fast wireless network. The router acts as the gateway between your internet connection and every device in your home.

Upgrading from to the D-Link Wi-Fi 7 router turned out to be one of the most effective home network upgrades I’ve made. The near-gigabit wireless speeds unlocked the full potential of my broadband connection and significantly improved streaming, gaming, and file downloads across the house.

As services such as cloud gaming, VR streaming, and ultra-high-definition video become more common, investing in a capable router may be just as important as upgrading your broadband plan.

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