The new iPhone 16 models are equipped with several new features and hardware improvements. The advanced A18 chip and new camera controller are the most important updates this year.
In addition, all iPhone 16 models are equipped with faster Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) for even faster wireless network connections. The latest Wi-Fi standard works on the 6 GHz band, which greatly reduces interference and disruptions.
Benefits of wifi 7
Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) was officially launched this year by the international Wi-Fi Alliance consortium, bringing significant improvements such as lower latency. This is the time delay between when a network action is made and when the data is received. The new standard also has much faster transfer speeds, making it perfect for 8K streaming and mixed reality devices such as Apple Vision Pro.
Wi-Fi 7 devices can transmit more data in less time, which is important for live streaming at resolutions higher than 4K. In addition, the improvements are also beneficial for online gaming and for AR/VR devices with 3D content, which typically requires much more bandwidth than regular content.
The maximum transfer rate of current wifi 6E is about 9Gbps, Wifi 7 can reach speeds of up to 46Gbps. This is a speed gain of five times compared to the current generation wifi.
Wi-Fi 7 isn’t just faster. It operates on 320MHz channels, which are significantly wider than previous Wi-Fi standards. Combined with the 6GHz band, this reduces interference and signal congestion. Devices can also send and receive data simultaneously over multiple links of different frequencies with Wi-Fi 7.
All iPhone 16 support wifi 7
Last year, only the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max models were equipped with wifi 6E. This year, Apple has added support for the latest wifi standard to all iPhone 16 models. This standard is therefore present in both the ‘standard’ and ‘pro’ models.
Apple confirmed the upgrade on the new iPhones’ technical specifications page, which lists the new iPhones as coming with “Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) with 2×2 MIMO1.”