Samsung has always been the first Android OEM to bring the latest version of Wi-Fi to the market. And the latest report suggests that the first Wi-Fi 7-equipped smartphone will be out by the second half of 2024. While Apple devices are still using Wi-Fi 6, and there are no more phone launches on the near horizon, there is a possibility that Apple will stick with Wi-Fi 6 and skip Wi-Fi 6E altogether. It will be Samsung, more specifically, the Galaxy S24, that will be among the first smartphones to feature Wi-Fi 7.
Citing IC backend houses and inspection labs, DigiTimes reports that Wi-Fi 6E will just be a “transactional technology” since Wi-Fi 7 is all set to launch in 2024. Talking about the features, Wi-Fi 7 will be able to use 300MHz channels with the support of 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology, providing up to 2.4x faster speeds compared to Wi-Fi 6 with the same number of antennas. As per Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi 7 is expected to provide speeds of at least 30Gbps, possibly even hitting the 40Gbps mark.
Wi-Fi 7 will arrive on smartphones only after laptops and routers
This is a notable improvement in speed because compared to Wi-Fi 7 speeds, Wi-Fi 6 features speeds of up to 9.6Gbps, and Wi-Fi 5 maxes out at 3.5Gbps. Thanks to the new latency-busting technologies, Wi-Fi 7 will also provide a stable connection. Before Wi-Fi 7 makes its debut for smartphones, it will first be adopted for routers and laptops. Wi-Fi 7 will be extremely expensive in its early days, and it may take until 2025 for it to become a commonplace technology.
Earlier in January, MediaTek demonstrated the Wi-Fi 7, and Intel stated that they will adopt Wi-Fi 7 in laptops by 2024. Smartphone chip giant Qualcomm is also working on Wi-Fi 7 chip options to adopt it as early as possible. Qualcomm announced the FastConnect 7800 chip during MWC 2022, which comes with features such as industry-leading Bluetooth, low-latency networking, and, of course, Wi-Fi 7 technology.
