iPhone 16 Pro tipped for super-speedy Wi-Fi upgrade

(Image credit: UniverseIce)

published 31 July 2024

Quick Summary

A new report seems to confirm previous rumours: the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are widely expected to support Wi-Fi 7, which is significantly faster than the current Wi-Fi 6/6E.

The forthcoming iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are "widely expected" to get the very latest generation of super-fast Wi-Fi. That's according to a new report by trade publication DigiTimes, which says that this year's Pro iPhones will get Wi-Fi 7 support and that Wi-Fi 7 will be a big deal in 2025.

Wi-Fi 7 is the most recent version of the wireless networking standard; the current iPhone 15 Pro supports the slightly older Wi-Fi 6E while iPhones since the iPhone 11 have supported Wi-Fi 6.

What's so great about Wi-Fi 7?

Wi-Fi 7 is much, much faster than earlier standards: in theory it's capable of transmitting and receiving data at up to 40 gigabits per second, which is four times faster than the already quick Wi-Fi 6E. It uses three frequency bands simultaneously: 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. That means not just faster data transfer but more stable connectivity too.

Intel describes Wi-Fi 7's capacity as "like using a semi-truck to move boxes compared to a moving van". It packs more data into the signal, and while the theoretical speeds are way beyond what you'll actually get in real world use Intel says a typical Wi-Fi 7 laptop can expect up to 5.8Gbps, which is two and a bit times faster than Wi-Fi 6E. That makes things like 8K video and very fast downloads – 15GB in about 25 seconds – everyday tech rather than the stuff of sci-fi.

The report isn't the first time we've heard Wi-Fi 7 discussed in the context of the 2024 iPhone pro models; late last year industry analyst Jeff Pu predicted that Wi-Fi 7 would be coming to the Pros. We'll find out for sure when the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max launch in September.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).