First Smartphones With Faster Wi-Fi 7 Coming as Early as 2024

[MacRumors]

The first smartphones that support Wi-Fi 7 could start coming out as soon as the second half of 2024, according to a new report from DigiTimes that cites IC backend houses and inspection labs.

Wi-Fi 7 is able to use 320MHz channels and it supports 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology, ultimately providing up to 2.4x faster speeds than Wi-Fi 6 with the same number of antennas.

Positioned as the next major generational Wi-Fi technology evolution, Wi-Fi 7 is expected to provide speeds of "at least 30" gigabits per second and could even hit 40Gbps, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance. It will offer speeds fast enough for next-generation AR/VR, 8K video streaming, and gaming devices.

Wi-Fi 6 features speeds of up to 9.6Gb/s, and WiFi 5 maxed out at 3.5Gb/s, so WiFi 7 will be a notable improvement when it launches. There is no word as of yet on when Apple might implement Wi-Fi 7, but it is worth noting that Apple has not even adopted Wi-Fi 6E, which has been available since 2019.

Apple devices are still using Wi-Fi 6, and there is a possibility that Apple will stick with Wi-Fi 6 until the launch of Wi-Fi 7, skipping Wi-Fi 6E entirely. DigiTimes suggests that with the launch of Wi-Fi 7 on the horizon, Wi-Fi 6E is "just a transitional technology."

Wi-Fi 7 will come first to routers and notebooks before making its way to smartphones. In January, MediaTek demoed Wi-Fi 7, and Intel has said that it plans to adopt Wi-Fi 7 in PC laptops by 2024, with the technology appearing in major markets in 2025. Qualcomm is also working on Wi-Fi 7 chip options that are expected to appear in the same time frame.

Article Link: First Smartphones With Faster Wi-Fi 7 Coming as Early as 2024

 

[oofio2461]

Apple will probably add Wifi 7 Support when Wifi 8 comes out.

 

[fwmireault]

Coming to iPhone in 2036. We think you’re gonna love it.

 

[btrach144]

I’m just shocked we didn’t get 6E support

 

[jav6454]

So basically, you’ll never see those speeds, as rarely will you ever use 320Mhz or 160Mhz channel slices.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Apple will probably add Wifi 7 Support when Wifi 8 comes out.

It’s funny bcz apple used to adopt stuff faster than the other oemsi think

Till now we were stuck on by 5.0 ,and I don’t even know if a16 is finally based on armv8

 

[t0rqx]

It will stick with Wifi 6 unless it figures out how to design proper network hardware.

 

[Populus]

My first question after reading this post is: how is WiFi 7 on power consumption? Because if it’s super fast but makes my iPhone very hot and drains my battery, I’d rather stay on WiFi 6. I don’t know if this new WiFi 7 uses the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band, or completely new bands.

 

[maxsquared]

Apple is not utilising wifi6's 160 MHz for its laptops not to mention iPhone. My MacBook Pro is slower in wifi speed than my work Android phone.

 

[njn007]

The complaints about WiFi versions on iPhone models will never end… sigh

 

[coolbreeze2]

Man, my home wifi is not wifi 6 yet and here comes wifi 7!

 

[Michael Scrip]

I don't even have a router with 6 or 6E yet.

🤣

 

[rjohnstone]

30Gb/s???
Still waiting for WiFi 6 to achieve anywhere near its peak speeds in the real world.
My Eero WiFi 6 router is connected to a 2Gb/s fiber connection and yet my brand new iPhone 14 Pro can barely break 500Mb/s standing 15 feet from the router.

 

[WiiDSmoker]

So basically, you’ll never see those speeds, as rarely will you ever use 320Mhz or 160Mhz channel slices.

Cool let’s just stop all progress

 

[LoveTo]

Even if we reach WiFi 10 someday, how would it speed up my connection if my ISP only delivers 50 Mbps? 😄

 

[thuchu1]

I wonder if they'll release a software update to support it on my 802.11n Airport Extreme

 

[1557750]

Faster! Faster!! FASTER!!!

Load. Scroll. Tap. Tap. Scroll. Load. Tap.

Everyone in a hurry to fry their brains by getting their content faster. No one will ever be content. I’m good where it’s at.

 

[coolbreeze2]

Ok, then I will skip the wifi 6 router for my home and wait until wifi 7 becomes available before buying another router!

 

[nutmac]

Wi-Fi 6 features speeds of up to 9.6Gb/s, and WiFi 5 maxed out at 3.5Gb/s, so WiFi 7 will be a notable improvement when it launches. There is no word as of yet on when Apple might implement Wi-Fi 7, but it is worth noting that Apple has not even adopted Wi-Fi 6E, which has been available since 2019.

Wi-Fi 6 might be theoretically possible to reach 9.6 Gbps, but no consumer solution reaches anywhere near that. Most consumer Wi-Fi 6E routers maxes out at 1.3 Gbps, with few hitting 3.6 Gbps under most ideal scenarios.

With my own non-6E Wi-Fi setup, which comprises of several Eero Pro 6 routers, the fastest speed test I logged against 1 Gbps fiber Internet was 598 Mbps.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Holding out for Wifi 8. 7 might as well be Wifi 6s

 

[czaffa]

Lower frequencies can more easily penetrate solid objects (walls, etc), so the WiFi 7 320Mhz channels should perform far better than existing 2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz WiFi bands in many real-world indoor scenarios, right?

 

[MrWillie]

So, I upgrade to WiFi 7, @ 30 to 40 gigabits, and hook it up to my 400 megabit internet.

So is there some kind of “Black Magic” or ground unicorn horn in this equation, or am I missing something ?

My NAS uses spinning hard drives, so even if I upgraded it’s NIC to 40 gig, what does it give me, or anyone else really ?

Seams like it’s akin to driving a 911 Turbo S in rush hour traffic

 

[LogicalApex]

30Gb/s???
Still waiting for WiFi 6 to achieve anywhere near its peak speeds in the real world.
My Eero WiFi 6 router is connected to a 2Gb/s fiber connection and yet my brand new iPhone 14 Pro can barely break 500Mb/s standing 15 feet from the router.

I exceed 700mbps on my iPhone to my WiFi 6 Unifi Access Point and I am more than 15 feet away.

Are you using sufficient chancel widths to allow higher speeds?

 

[Michael Scrip]

Lower frequencies can more easily penetrate solid objects (walls, etc), so the WiFi 7 320Mhz channels should perform far better than existing 2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz WiFi bands in many real-world indoor scenarios, right?

320MHz refers to the width of the channel... not frequency band.

WIFI 7 will still operate at the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz frequency bands.

I don't think penetration will necessarily be improved by the wider channels. But we'll have to see.

 

[The Barron]

Coming to iPhone in 2036. We think you’re gonna love it.

And it's gonna be ultra-thin.