Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
That is disappointing not to have 7. I recently upgraded my WiFi 6e system to WiFi 7 when Amazon had its last Prime Day. I picked up TP-Link routers for 53% off. WiFi 7 is a major improvement over WiFi 6e even if a device doesn’t support 7. On my previous system, my iPad with 6e would get about 400Mbps over the Internet (I have a 1.2Gbps plan). With 7, that same iPad gets a tiny bit over 1Gbps. The range is also improved with the far corners of the house getting improved reception. We have only one WiFi 7 device on the network, which gets 1.4Gbps Internet speed, the same I get for wired Ethernet. As an aside, my max speed is supposed to be 1.2Gbps, but I guess I’ll take 1.4Gbps.

I don’t have anything to test internal network speed, though I do have a 2.5Gbps network. I’m guessing a WiFi 7 device would be able to reach that fairly easily since YouTubers report getting 7-9Gbps internally with their devices.

Fortunately, I don’t plan to upgrade so it won’t matter. I already have an M3 Max machine and an M4 Max just wouldn’t be worth the expense.
I just upgraded my WF to TP-Link BE5500 Wi-fi 7. Speed is up on every device new and old BUT the range has dropped right off and back of the house is dead! Very disappointed, but assuming this is TP-Link problem.
 
I will give $100 to anyone who can notice a difference in wifi speed for 6E vs 7 😂
It's not just about single-device speeds, but network sharing/usage/saturation. In a busy household (or business!), it will be noticable.
 
I use AppleAquantia Ethernet 10Gbps so no WiFi 7 is of little consequence to me. WiFi 6E @ 160 MHz results in 2.4 Gbps PHY rate when signal strength is good so it’s not really that big of a deal to not have WiFi 7.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DblHelix
Wifi 7,as far as I can gather is still not fully ratified. Most of the specs are Locked down but it’s still a standard that is in development. Same thing happened with 802.11N. In the end some devices released too early were not compatible with the final standard. I have lots of geeks as friends, not one has Wifi 7 at home. Multiple including myself are wired for 2.5/10G Ethernet.
 
It's not really a big deal, but it is annoying given how long people keep machines.

Also note that thunderbolt is still on TB4 and not the newer TB5 on the regular M4 (though the M4 pro got 3 TB5 ports)
 
It's not really a big deal, but it is annoying given how long people keep machines.

Also note that thunderbolt is still on TB4 and not the newer TB5 on the regular M4 (though the M4 pro got 3 TB5 ports)
So step up a couple hundy and push the big shiny red button! Get TB5! All your friends already have!
 
A laptop is a desktop?

Like, look, I dont think it’s a big deal they left out wifi 7, 6e is just barely fully rolling out to folks now, 7 is gonna take a long time before it’s common enough for it to be a huge deal, but your argument is just silly.

A laptop is a mobile device that most people use with wifi more often than wired, in fact I’d bet most people never plug their laptop into an ethernet cable period
Mine is every day via TB dock on 2.5gbe which I routinely saturate (no not internet, local database crunching - have all the core slamming away (well all - 1, because remember kids to leave 1 core to host the UI! ha, ask me how I know). But WiFi 7 on my phone? For what? If you’re doing heavy data work WiFi just won’t cut it (collision handling is terrible compared to wired). Most people are rarely if ever will go much more than 5 if that other than bursting. I mean apple‘s always proud of how many 4K uncompressed streams they can pump through, but I’d bet 99% the biggest load is streaming tv… which doesn’t even break 100mbit in most cases.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ender78
It's not just about single-device speeds, but network sharing/usage/saturation. In a busy household (or business!), it will be noticable.
Do you have any idea how much network traffic you would need to be active to saturate and divide a 6e network? If even for a moment? Honestly, you would have to have about a truckload of endpoints demanding CONSTANT full scale attention from a 10gb connection, unrelenting and non- aware, to start the 6e negotiation. If you and your buddies have that kind of a gaming parlor set up that it becomes an issue, you can absolutely afford the resolution.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Adora and raybo
bummer. wanted TB5 and Wifi 7. Guess I'll wait for the M
Mine is every day via TB dock on 2.5gbe which I routinely saturate (no not internet, local database crunching - have all the core slamming away (well all - 1, because remember kids to leave 1 core to host the UI! ha, ask me how I know). But WiFi 7 on my phone? For what? If you’re doing heavy data work WiFi just won’t cut it (collision handling is terrible compared to wired). Most people are rarely if ever will go much more than 5 if that other than bursting. I mean apple‘s always proud of how many 4K uncompressed streams they can pump through, but I’d bet 99% the biggest load is streaming tv… which doesn’t even break 100mbit in most cases.
yup.
 
bahaha well, i bought an ipad pro 11 m4 with stupid 8GB RAM which i really doubt at this point is gonna be future proof (after iphone 17 12GB rumors)....
 
Wifi 7,as far as I can gather is still not fully ratified. Most of the specs are Locked down but it’s still a standard that is in development. Same thing happened with 802.11N. In the end some devices released too early were not compatible with the final standard. I have lots of geeks as friends, not one has Wifi 7 at home. Multiple including myself are wired for 2.5/10G Ethernet.
I think you are the first person to mention this. Yes honestly I’m actually more surprised that Apple chose to include a draft Wifi 7 standard on the iPhone 16s than that they didn‘t include it on the newest Macs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: raybo
I’m still on AC (wifi 5?). Plenty fast enough for my gigabit internet. The price of routers has gotten insane so the current one will have to die before I upgrade.
Your isp may be willing to upgrade you for free. Not as cool of a router as the fancy ones but probably better than what you have now
 
Tim Cook, probably, doesn't know the difference between the two. All what he cares about is the supply chain.
I bet SJ would've challenged these kind of decisions.
 
They plan these products with the aim of making an x amount of profit, if it ends up being less then expected then they’ll make adjustments. In this case the WiFi 7 was the victim. It might sound ridiculous to you and me but these people are greedy at the psycho level.
 
They need something left to add to the next models besides the 2nm M5 chip which may provide 20 percent more performance.

all Macs including mini need built in 5 or 6G Modems.



 
Last edited:
I would have been happy with the inverse, PCs need the bandwidth more than the iPhone.
My same thought as well. Like in Apple’s mind, did they really think the Zoomers who are addicted to TikTok were all clamoring for the latest networking standard so that the videos they see while doom scrolling can now auto-play 25% quicker? Not to mention the $700 mesh router system they’d need to even get close to feeling any substantive improvements. I’m being facetious of course but seriously, what are the real world use cases for prioritizing that move over the more obvious one of including it in these new machines? I could give at least a dozen realistic scenarios that would justify the need for the latest networking standard to be part of a pro computer for use by its pro users…
 
  • Haha
Reactions: robfoll
My guess is that Apple did not have a good, fully functioning WiFi7 chip ready and waiting would delay the release of the new M4 Macs. I bet it was a schedule thing and not a cost thing.
Phones use Qualcomm chips for WiFi, but do Macs? If so then it's not so simple as stuffing a Qualcomm chip in if they use another such as internal Apple WiFi chips.
 
Maybe Apple is holding out until their wireless chip is ready?

99% of people won’t notice a difference in speed, whether it be today or 6 years from now.

Even I barely notice it for work, and I’m always sending many double digit gigabyte files back and forth between my Mac and multiple dedicated hosting platforms as well as Amazon S3. I don’t even have 6E, just 6. Most people don’t even have a wired backhaul between their routers so they don’t even get the full performance benefit. And many people don’t even have internet that can saturate 6 typically, much less 6E or 7. Right now 7 routers are really expensive for a set anyway.

It sucks but the people who really care and have the fastest internet will usually be on wired anyway. The ultra speed 1%-ers.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.