iPhone 16 Series' Wi-Fi 7 Performance Falls Short: Is Apple Stifling Potential?

iPhone 16 Series' Wi-Fi 7 Performance Falls Short: Is Apple Stifling Potential?Apple's latest iPhone 16 series boasts significant upgrades in both exterior and internal structure, including processor and memory enhancements. Additionally, Apple claimed a leap forward in connectivity, with iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max supporting the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, promising faster download and upload speeds

iPhone 16 Series' Wi-Fi 7 Performance Falls Short: Is Apple Stifling Potential?

Apple's latest iPhone 16 series boasts significant upgrades in both exterior and internal structure, including processor and memory enhancements. Additionally, Apple claimed a leap forward in connectivity, with iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max supporting the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, promising faster download and upload speeds. However, recent testing results show that the Wi-Fi 7 performance of the iPhone 16 series hasn't met expectations, prompting questions about Apple's potential limitations in Wi-Fi 7 technology implementation.

During its launch event, Apple claimed that the iPhone 16 series would offer Wi-Fi speeds five times faster than last year's Wi-Fi 6E technology, theoretically jumping from 2.4Gbps to 5.8Gbps. However, real-world performance hasn't been as impressive. Recent tests by LesNumeriques revealed that despite the Wi-Fi 7 upgrade, the iPhone 16 models failed to achieve the expected speeds. Using a TP-Link Deco BE85 mesh Wi-Fi system, the tests showed that even when connected to the high-bandwidth 6GHz band and 10Gbps network, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Plus models struggled to surpass 1.6 to 1.7Gbps.

It is noteworthy that the magazine indicated that the test results were roughly similar to those obtained last year with iPhone 15 Pro Max, which featured Wi-Fi 6E instead of Wi-Fi 7. Further investigation suggests that Apple may have imposed a ceiling on the potential of Wi-Fi 7. These devices were expected to utilize the full 320MHz channel width compatible with Wi-Fi 7, but they are instead being limited to 160MHz. This implies that the true performance potential of the iPhone 16 models is reduced by half.

Diagnostic tools confirmed that while the Wi-Fi 7 in the iPhone 16 does support the 802.11be standard, it only utilizes a narrower band. Wi-Fi 7 in Europe can only utilize a single 320MHz band, while the US has access to three bands, suggesting that the new connectivity upgrade might not be fully utilized in all regions.

Currently, it remains unclear whether Apple will release a software update to rectify these restrictions, or if the limitations are inherent to the hardware itself. Apple hasn't highlighted any such changes in its official documentation. Users on Reddit have also reported similar issues, indicating that the Wi-Fi 7 performance problems on the iPhone 16 series are not isolated cases.

How Apple chooses to address this issue remains to be seen. While the iPhone 16 series boasts significant upgrades in external design and internal functions, the underwhelming Wi-Fi 7 performance is sure to raise concerns among users and industry experts. Apple needs to quickly clarify the actual performance of the new feature and explain why it has limited the potential of Wi-Fi 7 to better align with user expectations.