iPhone 17 Pro to Feature Apple Designed Wi-Fi 7 Chip
In 2025, the iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to include a new Apple-designed Wi-Fi 7 chip, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst at Haitong International Securities. This could be major competition for Broadcom, which currently supplies Apple’s iPhones with a single Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip.
Pu predicts that Apple will use its own developed Wi-Fi technology for iPhone 18 lineup by 2026 although he hasn’t gone deep into it.
We saw earlier this month a report from Mark Gurman of Bloomberg that Apple has begun working on their standalone W-fi/Bluetooth chip for devices to be released by 2025. Kuo further stated that this could possibly be a Wifi solely chip and its development has been suspended but it is not clear if this has been resumed.
If Apple’s Wi-Fi 7 chip actually gets made, Apple would depend much less on external suppliers of components just like its long speculated 5G modem for iPhones. By incorporating Wi-Fi 7, the iPhone 17 Pro models would use simultaneously 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands with a compatible router hence faster speeds, lower latency, and more stable connections. At the same time, the new version of this technology can transfer at speeds that peak above 40 Gbps – in contrast with Wi-Fi 6E’s fourfold lower capacity, according to Qualcomm.
Additionally, Pu mentioned in August that while the iPhone 16 Pro models launching next year would support Wi-Fi 7, they will not feature an Apple-designed chip.