Renders of the iPhone 16 Pro.
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Wi-Fi 7 routers are very expensive right now, but if a rumor pans out that the iPhone 16 Pro will have the fast wireless networking technology, they may not stay that way for long.
It hasn’t been that long since Apple implemented Wi-Fi 6e. Apple first included that technology in the iPhone in September 2024, in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
If a supply chain report on Tuesday by DigiTimes is accurate, the iPhone 16 Pro line may get an upgrade. In a discussion more about manufacturer Wi-Fi 7 adoption, the publication says that the iPhone 16 Pro is “widely expected” to get the newer standard, first introduced in 2023, and finalized in 2024.
There’s not much to the report as it applies to Apple hardware, beyond that brief mention. With the right hardware on both ends of the network, client and access point, users will get improved latency, and better speeds.
Simplifying a complex topic, Wi-Fi has a series of bands broken up into channels. The width of each channel determines the speed and performance of a network.
Discussing just the 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi can have 60 channels in that band. Wi-Fi 6E has channels as wide as 160 MHz.
Wi-Fi 7 channels in the 6Ghz band are double that, up to 320 Mhz.
There are other advancements in Wi-Fi 7 that boost speed, like Multi-Link operation that can aggregate several frequencies and bands into a single connection. Another big feature that gets a boost in Wi-Fi 7 is what’s called quadrature amplitude modulation which can trade range for speed.
On the other hand, to take advantage of the technology today, that is a significant capital investment. A single eero Max 7 mesh Wi-Fi router retails for $600. A three-pack of Eero Pro 6e mesh routers sells for $550.
Other vendors have similar price disparities. A three-pack of Netgear Orbi 980 Wi-Fi 7 routers retails for an eye-watering $2250. Similar models in Netgear’s lineup for Wi-Fi 6e are less than half that.
Presumably, with wider adoption, Wi-Fi 7 router prices will decrease. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6e routers have taken some time to fall.
