This year’s new iPhone 16 Pro models are "widely expected" to support Wi-Fi 7

A supply chain report by DigiTimes says this year’s iPhone 16 Pro models will likely support Wi-Fi 7.

Unfortunately, beyond that brief mention, details are scarce. Nevertheless, if true, this development could speed up the adoption of Wi-Fi 7.

If you are unfamiliar with this new networking technology, read our Wi-Fi 7 guide here.

To put it briefly, like all new networking standards, Wi-Fi 7 aims to improve bandwidth, speed, and stability. However, it does so in several interesting ways like Multi-Link Operation, wider 320MHz channels, and more. 

Wi-Fi 7 is not new. Though the standard was made official earlier this year, we have had Wi-Fi 7 routers since early 2023 – like the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE98.

The problem, however, is that Wi-Fi 7 routers are generally expensive, and outside of a handphone of smartphones and laptops, we don’t have many client devices that can take advantage of the technology.

By supporting Wi-Fi 7, Apple could speed up the Wi-Fi 7 adoption process by encouraging router manufacturers to offer more Wi-Fi 7 routers and possibly bring down their overall cost. 

Apple has traditionally not been the first to support new networking technologies. It only started supporting Wi-Fi 6E last year, and that’s only for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

However, Wi-Fi 7 has the potential to provide a big leap in networking performance and supporting it in this year’s iPhones – even if it’s only for the Pro models – can only be a positive thing. 

There’s no word yet on when Apple will announce the iPhone 16 series of phones, but it’s likely to be sometime in early to mid-September.

Source: DigiTimes

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