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Really? Here in Sweden (and most of the Nordic countries) we can eaisly get 1Gbps and even 10Gbps in some areas in Stockholm. In my summer house, in a small village in Spain I have 600Mbps. Where do you live?

In Europe you have functioning governments where infrastructure is built for the good of the people. In North America the infrastructure is owned by monopolistic corporations. The other part is population density.
 
My iPhone 16 Pro Max is twice as fast as my iPhone 15 Pro Max at home and that's on just a WiFi 6 network. Not all of the features in a WiFi 7 chip needs a WiFi 7 AP to get a benefit.

My 13 Pro ran exactly the same on my WiFi 6 network as my 16 Pro does.

I will give 200$ to anyone who has sold his WiFi 6(!!) router for a new WiFi 7 device.

(Mine is still a WiFi 5 from 2021)

I just upgraded from 2.4 ghz 802.11n (WiFi 4 router bought in 2013) to WiFi 6 last year. It'll be many years before I touch my network again.

We have 400 down and Wifi 6 is fine for that.
 
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I updated my routers during this sale as wells unfortunately it really made no difference in speed and I feel like I lost range from my old eero 5s

Welcome to the world of wireless. Wifi is for convenience, wired is for reliabiltiy. The speeds on Wifi are going to be dependent on interference in your environment (which you can't control) and things like the type of material that is used in the walls and floors of your home. Wired ethernet performs consistently as long as you keep the runs under 100M/300Feet .
 
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I'm not gnashing my teeth as you put it, just merely I don't need to upgrade but was planned to do so but I'll wait one more year for WiFi 7 instead.

Yes the Mac's are great machines but not perfectly obviously.
But Wifi 8 will be out in 2028 ....
 
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Welcome to the world of wireless. Wifi is for convenience, wired is for reliabiltiy. The speeds on Wifi are going to be dependent on interference in your environment (which you can't control) and things like the type of material that is used in the walls and floors of your home. Wired ethernet performs consistently as long as you keep the runs under 100M/300Feet .
my tv and computer are hardwired. unfortunately can't do that with a vision or iPad or phone or HomePods lol
 
If speed matters, you're always going to want a wire.
MOCA if an ethernet port isn't readily available.

I will say though, the MOCA solutions currently available are bad. For something that should be so easy, it's harder than it should be. I bought some equipment that apparently wasn't even compatible with other equipment from the same manufacturer, which I could only discover on reddit, after trying and failing to get the things to work together.
 
my tv and computer are hardwired. unfortunately can't do that with a vision or iPad or phone or HomePods lol

Sure you can with the iPad. I can plug my USB-C Satechi dock into my iPad and get symmetrical 1Gbps. You can get a dongle for $25 that lets you do GIG-E wired.

I believe they (Satechi) have a new dock that can do symmetrical 2.5. With Thunderbolt 5 you should be able to able to do symmetrical 10/25/50Gbps in the future.
 
only talk for yourself. I pay 6k to a laptop because I use it. The difference with latency and speed is very clear if you are using anything realtime e.g. doing airplay to the appletv (atv is already on GB ethernet) so wifi of the laptop needs to be top notch.
Streaming 4K HDR video to an Apple TV would only require about 25 Mbps. Low-latency cloud gaming services like GeForce NOW only require 45 Mbps to play first-person shooters online in 4K at 120fps. These are speeds you can already get on Wi-Fi 4, which goes up to 600 Mbps.

So if you actually do see latency on your Apple TV, it's due to some kind of signal interference, and that's not something putting Wi-Fi 7 in a laptop would fix.
 
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Gotta save something for the Spring 2025 update!
I’ll guess Timmy saves Apple $ 5,- per Mac. And lets be honest… there is a lot more in the new released Mac’s that’s not the latest and the greatest. At this point however, I’m happy there is a little movement. Now we probably have to wait a few years to get WiFi 7 and a 100hz screen when all others already have implemented oled touchscreens.
 
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Getting mad because the Mac only supports WiFi 6E and not 7 is like getting mad that your McDonalds Big Mac has one less slice of pickle than a Burger King Whopper: you will literally never notice the difference. 🍔

...I say, typing this from my phone while I get dinner at Wendy's.
Its more like buying a brand new just released car and only getting the old motor with worse consumption, reliability and lower top speed, while they released a sister model with all the bells and whistles.

 
Its more like buying a brand new just released car and only getting the old motor with worse consumption, reliability and lower top speed, while they released a sister model with all the bells and whistles.
Yes, except both cars are high-performance supercars, and people are upset that the supercar they got doesn't have a cutting-edge supercharger so they can't really let loose when they drive four blocks to the nearest grocery store.

"But my supercar isn't going to be the fastest one on the Autobahn," they say, ignoring the fact that they don't even know how to get to the Autobahn to begin with. They're just driving to the nearest Costco and back home. 🏎️
 
How has Apple still not got their own radio chips. How can transitioning the radio chip be harder than transitioning from Intel to ARM?
Because they started with Intel's modem which was a PoS (my two worst performing iPhone had the Intel modem). From what I understand they are working on a mostly greenfielded design.
 
Exactly!

WiFi 4, 802.11n, maxes out at 600Mbsp
WiFi 5, 802.11ac, maxes out at 3.5Gbps
WiFi 6, 802.11ax, and WiFi 6E, both max out at 9.6Gpbs
WiFi 7, 802.11be, maxes out at 46Gpbs.

Most of the people here who complain about the lack of WiFi 7 will be posting through their home Internet connection. The median US household internet speed is less than 250Mbps — far lower than the WiFi 4 theoretical max.

Almost stole the words out of my mouth mate. All I would add to your excellent description is the speeds you have quoted above are the theoretical maximum speeds the standard can achieve. In the case of WIFi 7, the 46Gbps is achieved using all 16 channels simultaneously on the 6ghz band and a 320MHz channel, so lets get everyone to step back into reality and realise this cannot be achieved as there simply is no hardware in existance to support this.

Let's also mention client devices, as these are the true limiting factor of your wireless network speed. Remember a wireless connection is only as fast as its slowest link. So in this case nearly every client in existence today only supports 2x2 MIMO, so for WiFi 6E, it means 2402Mbps and for WiFi 7 it is 5804Mbps, yes that is the theoretical maximum speed possible or it's PHY speed when right next to the router. That's it, it cannot be faster, no matter what your router says it can do, though it is usually slower. All those AX11000 and BE30000 speed claims are just marketing hype and lies, those speeds cannot be achieved ever! To be faster a client (phone, laptop, etc) would need to use a 4x4 MIMO client and no one uses these because 1. they don't exist and 2. power draw, they would simply drain devices too fast. That is why clients are usually the main reason of slow speeds, your routers transmit power is many magnitudes (4-10+) higher than your clients. It is why downloads are faster and uploads are slower over WiFi unless you are very close to the router, the further you are the greater the differential until it drops connection.

Let's look at one of the fastest WiFi 7 routers you can buy right now, the ROG GT-BE98 that offers "ultrafast BE30000 speeds", when in reality it offers throughput on two 6GHz bands running at up to 11529Mbps each, up to 5764Mbps at 5GHz and 1376Mbps at 2.4GHz. Remember these are max theoretical speeds with devices right next to each other and you can only connect to one of these bands at a time, so pick your max speed. Currently only 2x2 MIMO client devices exist so again on that 6GHz band you are still stuck at 5804Mbps theoretical. One of the 6GHz bands can be used as backhaul between 2 GT-BE98's in a mesh, but what good is that speed (which would only be half or less of that once you factor in walls and distance), when your internet conenction is only 1Gbps. There is zero benefit. The only benefit of the max theoretical WiFi 7 2x2 MIMO client speeds is if you had an internet connection say of 5Gbps or more, or a NAS connected to your router via 10Gbps network ports on each end, capable of read/writes in excess of 600mb/s, or maybe a USB3 SSD plugged into your router. Though if the SSD is your use case, just plug it into your device.

Yes there is MLO, but has this ever actually been proven and tested in real life, not that I am aware of, currently it is only been run in labs and is in the 802.11be standard (which is being ratified by end of 2024). There is firmware updates yet to come to any WiFi 7 devices out now to bring this feature into reality and talk is it may end up being as useful as MU-MIMO, the amazing feature that worked in labs but not in the real world. Simply put, there is so much of WiFi 7 that is yet to be tested or is so far only words on a page, that all these new features have to be taken with a grain of salt until there is actual devices capable of using these features and more important... reliably.

I'm going to be different here and say Apple did the right thing and implemented a solid WiFi option that will suit 99% of users. WiFi 7 is still very new tech with many features still not enabled which have been promised in "future firmware updates", but who knows how many firmware versions we will need to go through to iron out all the bugs and even then the early chips may have hardware limitations or faults that simply cannot be overcome with firmware. The next Mac mini/Macbook pro update will come in roughly 18 months and will have a more mature and solid chip capable of WiFi7. Future proofing with beta tech.... lol. Anyone who truly needs fast relaible network access for a proper use case will get a 10Gbps network update in their mini. For everyone else, WiFi 6E is more than ample. If this offends you, look back at your last 20 years of WiFi use and wonder how horrible it has been to achieve absolutely nothing with those garbage connections.
 
Exactly!

WiFi 4, 802.11n, maxes out at 600Mbsp
WiFi 5, 802.11ac, maxes out at 3.5Gbps
WiFi 6, 802.11ax, and WiFi 6E, both max out at 9.6Gpbs
WiFi 7, 802.11be, maxes out at 46Gpbs.

Most of the people here who complain about the lack of WiFi 7 will be posting through their home Internet connection. The median US household internet speed is less than 250Mbps — far lower than the WiFi 4 theoretical max.

Currently, home internet connectivity above 10 Gbps is virtually non-existent for the general population, as this speed is largely theoretical or limited to select pilot programs and corporate settings. Even 1 Gbps speeds are only accessible to about 88% of U.S. households, with most high-speed services for consumers capped at around 1-2 Gbps. The 10G technology being developed, particularly by cable providers, will make 10 Gbps connections feasible for households, but this is in its infancy.

What router are you going to get? Suppose you could get better than a 10Gbps fiber connection to your house. [Ziply offers 50Gbps connections in limited areas of the US Northwest for $900/month (introductory price — expect a price increase after the first month).]

The current best home WiFi 7 router (The Netgear Orbi 970 Mesh router) advertises 27Gbps throughput, but as a practical matter, tops out at 10Gbps. And if you want that fine top speed of 10Gpbs, you better buy the extra mesh nodes because speed attenuates with distance, obstructions, congestion, and interference.

So, spend $2000 for a 3-node mesh WiFi 7 router from Netgear. (Netgear makes good routers that don’t frustrate you to much to get working correctly. And you don’t have to worry about them snooping your traffic like you have to do with some routers). Then speed $900/month or more if you can even get a 50Gbps link (you probably can’t). Et voila, you have a WiFi 7 setup with the theoretical potential to give you a download orgasm… only you won’t be able to get it up to those speeds. You will be capped at WiFi 6 levels.

So, let’s be real here. A de minimis number of people are going to have better than a 2.5Gbps link. That is still WiFi 5 territory, so even WiFi 6 is overkill. Since WiFi 6/6E are now common, if you have a decent router, you won’t have to worry about squeezing all the bits you can out of your internet connection.

But, sure. Complain that Apple didn’t add a more expensive WiFi link that you’ll never use. I’m sure you’ll be happy to pay extra for potential that may wind up being useful in 5 to 7 years, after you’ve upgraded to an M8 or better.
I have tried everything possible to try to improve my WiFi. The best I could get is 800Mbps. I find running 10Gb Ethernet or 25Gb fiber with Thunderbolt much easier.
 
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I'm going to be different here and say Apple did the right thing and implemented a solid WiFi option that will suit 99% of users. WiFi 7 is still very new tech with many features still not enabled which have been promised in "future firmware updates", but who knows how many firmware versions we will need to go through to iron out all the bugs and even then the early chips may have hardware limitations or faults that simply cannot be overcome with firmware. The next Mac mini/Macbook pro update will come in roughly 18 months and will have a more mature and solid chip capable of WiFi7. Future proofing with beta tech.... lol. Anyone who truly needs fast relaible network access for a proper use case will get a 10Gbps network update in their mini. For everyone else, WiFi 6E is more than ample. If this offends you, look back at your last 20 years of WiFi use and wonder how horrible it has been to achieve absolutely nothing with those garbage connections.

Thanks for the super detailed write up. I had read about the 46Gbps max speed and found it suspicious. I'm a network engineer, no one I know in my field is a fan of wireless anything when a much more reliable and cheaper wired option is available.
 
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I have tried everything possible to try to improve my WiFi. The best I could get is 800Mbps. I find running 10Gb Ethernet or 25Gb fiber with Thunderbolt much easier.

Did you try putting you laptop within 2 feet of the router :p. Or is it 4-10 feet for idea performance because the gain is too high at 2 feet. I use the wired port on my MacMini at 2.5G because the house is wired with CAT5E and pushing 10G over that is a stretch.
 
Been reading the posts and I perceive a focus on the here and now. People often keep Macs a long time. I get that a 10-year old Mac isn't realistically expected to remain optimal current tech., granted, but what is our likely outlook for 4 or 5 years from now?

Many people lack the practical option for use ethernet - rental, lack of handyman skills, wife would balk at wires taped to the ceiling or running under rugs, etc... So for many, it's wifi.

To what extent will wifi 7 offer stronger signal strength at better distances than wifi 6E does, without resorting to a mesh system or buying a wifi extender?

To what extent with wifi 7 devices operate better in areas with heavily congesting wifi? I'm at the end of a suburban row, nobody behind or directly in front of me, fairly large yards, and aside from my own network and guest network, I see 5 wireless networks my Mac shows as 'other' networks. If I were in an apartment or condo. building, or the middle of a densely packed suburb, how many networks would be sharing spectrum? Remember when people celebrated access to 5 GHz spectrum because 2.4 was so crowded?

Right now I'm okay with my 6E router, and my cable modem speeds and our Internet usage don't warrant upgrading.

But for others considering a purchase, wifi 7 is the new standard, it will gain progressive penetrance, residential broadband speeds in some areas have grained (e.g.: fiber optic service rollouts), and if you're going to keep your Mac 8 years, etc..., today isn't the only thing on your mind.

So, any thoughts on whether a wifi 7 computer bought today will have significant advantages over a 6E computer bought today, in 5 years?
 
People are confusing internal networking with ISP provided speeds. I have gigabit, but my internal networking is configured for max 40Gbps fiber for NAS and server speeds. WiFi 7 isn’t just about dealing with internet speeds.
 
Serious question. You would need to have a Wi-Fi 7 capable router in order to take advantage of the speed differences. So does it REALLY matter when you're using your laptop and you're not at home (assuming you have a Wi-Fi 7 capable router) when you're out at Starbucks, a friend's house, hotel, or using someone else's Wi-Fi? The whole purpose of a laptop is portability and I seriously think that most users wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless the laptop is their only device, they have a Wi-Fi 7 capable router, and they're not using a VPN (which you should be using) in order to get the advertised speeds.
 
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