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iPhone 14 specs may include support for Wi-Fi 6E in 2022, along with Apple’s mixed reality headset

Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max | Photo credit: Daniel Romero on Unsplash

More devices are expected to enter the market with support for Wi-Fi 6E in the coming year. A new report from notable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests some of Apple’s upcoming products, including the iPhone 14, could be one of them.

The addition of Wi-Fi 6E connectivity is one of the highlights in Kuo’s recent note to investors obtained by MacRumors. The analyst also reported that the shift is expected to be applied to Apple’s upcoming head-mounted display device, which the report believes is Apple’s highly anticipated AR/VR headset. Kuo expects that Apple’s adoption of Wi-Fi 6E could have a wider effect as its availability in iPhone 14 could encourage other smartphone makers to make the same move.

Transitioning to Wi-Fi 6E would also greatly benefit Apple’s rumored mixed reality headset since AR/VR require faster speeds for uninterrupted activities. And Kuo expects an annual upgrade in the supported Wi-Fi connectivity — Wi-Fi 6/6E in 2022, Wi-Fi 6E/7 in 2023, and Wi-Fi 7 in 2024. However, the analyst did not specify if this progression is a general prediction or if it specifically applies to Apple’s products.

Wi-Fi 6E is still based on the Wi-Fi 6 technology, but it extends to the 6GHz band that adds up to 1200MHz of spectrum. Tapping into the 6GHz band means there would be less congestion and interference since more devices now connect to the crowding 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

Devices connected through Wi-Fi 6E benefit from faster speeds and lower latency since it uses higher bandwidth by accessing additional 160MHz channels. This should be convenient during demanding online activities like streaming high-resolution content and AR/VR gaming.

The FCC adopted new rules in April 2020 that allowed for the unlicensed use of the 1200 MHz of spectrum in the 6GHz band in the United States. Many expected that it would encourage tech companies to launch more devices that support Wi-Fi 6E. To this day, though, there are only a few premium smartphones with this feature, including Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 3, Asus Zenfone 8, Asus ROG Phone 5, and Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro/Ultra.

Apple was rumored to add the Wi-Fi 6E connectivity to the iPhone 13 series, but that did not become a reality. But with Kuo’s recent prediction, Apple fans might finally see it happen next year for the iPhone 14 lineup.

Photo by Daniel Romero on Unsplash

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