2.4GHz vs 5GHz WiFi — which should I connect to?

2.4GHz travels further and penetrates walls better, but tops out slower — good for smart home devices and rooms far from the router. 5GHz is faster with lower latency but drops off quickly through walls — better for laptops, consoles and 4K streaming when you're near the router. Most modern routers offer a “smart connect” feature that auto-assigns the best band per device, which is fine for most households.