All Four iPhone 17 Models Said to Feature Apple-Designed Wi-Fi 7 Chip - MacRumors
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All Four iPhone 17 Models Said to Feature Apple-Designed Wi-Fi 7 Chip

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Earlier this week, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said all four iPhone 17 models will be equipped with Apple's first-ever custom-designed Wi-Fi chip. He did not say which Wi-Fi version the chip will support, but it appears that it will be Wi-Fi 7.

Apple Wi Fi Chip Feature Triad
All four iPhone 17 models will feature an Apple-designed Wi-Fi 7 chip, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain. He shared this information in a research note with GF Securities earlier this month.

The entire iPhone 16 lineup already supports Wi-Fi 7, so this is not much of a surprise, but the fact that the chip will be designed by Apple is notable. Apple recently debuted its custom-designed C1 modem in the iPhone 16e, for cellular connectivity, and now the company is expected to debut an in-house Wi-Fi chip in the iPhone 17 models later this year. By designing more of its own chips, Apple can reduce and eventually eliminate its reliance on external suppliers, including Qualcomm for modems and Broadcom for Wi-Fi chips.

Wi-Fi 7 allows for data transmission over the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands simultaneously with a supported router, resulting in faster Wi-Fi speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connectivity. Wi-Fi 7 can provide peak speeds of over 40 Gbps, a 4× increase over Wi-Fi 6E, if a device supports the maximum specifications.

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 17 lineup in September.

Related Roundups: iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air
Tag: Jeff Pu
Buyer's Guide: iPhone 17 (Neutral), iPhone 17 Pro (Neutral), iPhone Air (Buy Now)
Related Forum: iPhone

Top Rated Comments

I
iBluetooth
15 months ago
I look forward to getting this WiFi chip. What I would wish though is that Apple would again make a WiFi router like the AirPort which I am still using and getting 1 Gibs speed, but the AirPort is from 2013!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pbrutto Avatar
Pbrutto
15 months ago
This is still mostly irrelevant with apple refusing to use the 320Ghz band , 160 in many ways puts it on par with WiFi 6E and dilutes the 160Ghz band having 6E and 7 devices share. Hopefully they decided to actually follow the full scope of the spec instead of picking and choosing and them claiming WiFi 7. Curious if apple is actually taking advantage of the MLO capabilities to try to make up for lack of 320. I would guess not given ignoring the arguably most important feature for an end user.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
sw1tcher
15 months ago

Apple recently debuted its custom-designed C1 modem in the iPhone 16e, for cellular connectivity, and now the company is expected to debut an in-house Wi-Fi chip in the iPhone 17 models later this year.
Hoping Apple names the wi-fi chip the PO chip. Would buy an iPhone powered by a C3 modem chip and PO wi-fi chip :p
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jent Avatar
jent
15 months ago

I look forward to getting this WiFi chip. What I would wish though is that Apple would again make a WiFi router like the AirPort which I am still using and getting 1 Gibs speed, but the AirPort is from 2013!
Do we think an Apple made-wifi chip might increase the likelihood of the return of AirPort? I really miss AirPort, the beautiful Mac application and iOS app, and the typical Apple ease with which everything "just worked." I always follow Apple router threads on the MacRumors Forums and one takeaway I've gotten is that doing tech support for internet issues is tough, as there are so many variables that it's not an attractive market to be in. That makes sense to me, but I hope in the spirit of strengthening the Apple ecosystem, they consider it again. I'd love for a new Time Machine for seamless wireless backups on home wifi, but I also think there is a big push for everything to go to iCloud and am not hopeful.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
K
kyjaotkb
15 months ago

The entire iPhone 16 lineup already supports Wi-Fi 7
Is that true? I thought the 16e only had Wifi 6?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
X
xmach
15 months ago
This is great news. In addition to iPhones, I hope Apple will also deploy these new Wi-Fi 7 chips throughout its product lines, including Apple Watch and HomePods (both of which have been stuck on Wi-Fi 4 for years now). For these products bandwidth isn't as important, but latency and energy efficiency are.

Wi-Fi 7's latency and bandwidth advantages will especially benefit the Vision Pro, which currently uses Wi-Fi 6 (not even 6E). Ditto for the Apple TV, also stuck on plain-old 6.

And of course Macs should always have the latest Wi-Fi technology; since last year all current Macs have been using Wi-Fi 6E, and it was surprising and unfortunate the newest, M4 MacBook Pro's didn't include Wi-Fi 7 even though they were introduced after the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, which did.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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