Apple on Wednesday debuted new MacBook Air and Mac Studio models this week, powered by the company’s powerful and efficient M4 and M3 Ultra chips. While the new models also included other new features, one upgrade that didn’t come along for the ride on either lineup was WiFi 7.
Both new lineups offer WiFi 6E connectivity, which, while offering access to the 6GHz band on supported Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 routers, it’s not as fast as WiFi 7.
Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) offers theoretical speeds up to four times faster than WiFi 6E, as well as providing reduced latency and improved handling of multiple device connections. The standard’s Multi-Link Operation (MLO) combines several frequencies across multiple bands into a single connection to offer better performance and stability.
Apple’s decision not to go with WIFI 7 for its new Mac isn’t entirely unexpected, as the MacBook Pros with M4 chips that debuted last year do not feature WiFi 7, it is still a bit unusual in that Apple’s iPhone 16 models that were released last fall include WiFi 7 chips made by Broadcom. It should also be noted that while the iPhone 16 lineup offer WiFi 7 chips from Broadcom
Apple’s decision not to equip the new Macs with Wi-Fi 7 isn’t completely unexpected, given that the MacBook Pro models with M4 chips launched last year also do not feature Wi-Fi 7 support. Still, it’s an odd decision when you consider that all iPhone 16 models released in September include Wi-Fi 7 chips from Broadcom, albeit limited to the 160MHz bandwidth instead of the full 320MHz that the standard allows.
