The international Wi-Fi Alliance consortium officially launched the new Wi-Fi 7 standard this week. The next generation of Wi-Fi brings significantly lower latency and much higher transfer speeds, making it perfect for mixed reality devices and 8K streaming. Read on as we detail what changes with Wi-Fi 7 and how it will impact future Apple devices.
What changes from Wi-Fi 6E to Wi-Fi 7?
While the current Wi-Fi 6E standard is essentially Wi-Fi 6 with support for the 6GHz band, Wi-Fi 7 comes with more significant improvements. While the maximum transfer speed of Wi-Fi 6E is around 9 Gbps, Wi-Fi 7 is capable of reaching speeds of up to 46 Gbps. This is five times faster than the current generation of Wi-Fi.
But Wi-Fi 7 isn’t just faster. It operates on 320 MHz channels, which are much wider than the channels used by previous generations of the Wi-Fi standard. Combined with the 6 GHz band, this results in much less interference and signal congestion.
With Wi-Fi 7, devices can transmit and receive data simultaneously over multiple links of different frequencies, which also helps to achieve higher transfer speeds and reduced latency. And with 4K QAM technology, more data can be transmitted at once. But what does this mean for users, especially considering future devices?
Top comment by Sheepie
I just updated my home wifi to 6E due to problems I was having (mostly resolved by having meshed AP's that can transition clients seamlessly with wired backhaul rather than peered backhaul). But from what I'm reading about 7, it'll be worth jumping to that once devices become more readily available.
I did try to hold off on upgrading until 7, but the problems I was experiencing annoyed me too much.
I'll most likely make the jump anyway when a WiFi 7 AppleTV gets released. Until then, my devices can do what's needed significantly more reliably on my now existing 6E network.
Essentially, Wi-Fi 7-enabled devices are able to transmit much more data in less time, which is essential for live streaming at resolutions higher than 4K. The improvements are also beneficial for online games and for AR/VR devices with 3D content, which usually requires much more bandwidth than regular content.
What about Apple devices?
It should be a while before Wi-Fi 7 becomes a reality for most people, as the first routers compatible with the new standard have just been announced. However, Apple is rumored to be working on adding Wi-Fi 7 support to some of its devices in the near future, starting with the iPhone 16 Pro.
Analyst Jeff Pu reported a few months ago that the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be the first Apple devices to support Wi-Fi 7 later this year. Presumably, the technology will later come to the iPad and Mac as well. But considering all that Wi-Fi 7 has to offer, it’s impossible not to think that it will be perfect for a next-generation Apple Vision Pro.
Are you planning to upgrade your router system any time soon to benefit from Wi-Fi 7? Let us know in the comments section below.
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