Whats the true speed of the wifi?

Ok this might be a noob question but I will ask. I understand for wifi there is 2.4 GHz & 5 Ghz. What confuses me is a router manufacturer will say "AC2300 WiFi - 600+1625 Mbps speeds".

1. is this saying if I hook up my laptop to wifi that it will have speeds of 1200mbps?
2. is it saying 600mpbs is the 2.4 Ghz stream and 1625 is the 5Ghz stream? If so, then technically I "CANNOT" connect to both 2.4 GHz & 5Ghz.

If I connect my laptop, its either I connect to 2.4 (600) "OR" 5 Ghz (1625). It seems as if they are saying I will get 2300 but I dont think thats the case. Perhaps its just the total bandwidth of all devices connected. Then at that point them marketing AC2300 is pointless to me.

1. No.
2. The Router is quoting what it alone is capable of, not the whole system.
The connected Wireless Card in a Laptop will have a much lower specification, fewer channels maybe not even 5 GHz on older ones.

The limitation will be the Wireless Card in the Laptop. Mine (2.4 GHz single band) is limited to 300 Mbs with such a Router/WAP.
That is the connection speed, real speeds are at best half of that.

The point is such a Router/WAP is more future proof should you upgrade a Wireless Card or get newer Wireless devices.

thank you for your reply.

Assuming I have a 5Ghz card, then should I ignore when I see AC1750, AC2300 and just focus on the 5Ghz speed alone?

Yes, that's just about it.
The limitation is the slowest Wireless hardware component of the two.
In technical detail for 5 GHz ac wireless:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ac