Apple today introduced new iPhone 16 models, which will soon be available for pre-order. There are a lot of new features and hardware improvements, including the A18 chip. One of them is support for the faster Wi-Fi 7 standard, which works for the entire iPhone 16 lineup.

The benefits of Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi 7 was officially launched by the international Wi-Fi Alliance consortium earlier this year and brings significant upgrades such as lower latency and much higher transfer speeds, making it perfect for 8K streaming and mixed reality devices such as Apple Vision Pro.

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.

While the maximum transfer speed of current 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.

Wi-Fi 7 isn’t just faster. It operates on 320 MHz channels, significantly wider than those used by previous Wi-Fi standards. This, combined with the 6 GHz band, reduces interference and signal congestion. Devices can also transmit and receive data simultaneously over multiple links of different frequencies with Wi-Fi 7.

iPhone 16 supports Wi-Fi 7

While last year only the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max models were upgraded to Wi-Fi 6E, this year Apple has added Wi-Fi 7 support to all new iPhone 16 models. This includes the entry-level iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.

The upgrade was confirmed by Apple on the tech specs webpage of the new iPhones, which come with “Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) with 2×2 MIMO1.”

The iPhone 16 lineup will be available for pre-order from Friday, September 13th. The new phones will be officially launched next week, on September 20. Apple says the iPhone 16 will be available in even more countries the following week.

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