Wi-Fi 7

Motorola's most potential-laden - and "Wi-Fi 7-ready" - Android flagship to date has finally arrived in Global Edition form. The Edge 40 Pro has brought its class-leading pOLED display and top-end internals with it to international shores. It also outstrips most of its competition with 125W TurboPower charging technology, and features triple rear-facing cameras, two of which are 50MP.

Meizu has unveiled the vanilla and Pro variants of its new 20 series of Android smartphones today (March 30, 2023). The devices are now poised to take on others such as the Xiaomi 13 series and OnePlus 11 with Qualcomm's new top-end processor, at least 12GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The 20 Pro also boasts fast wireless charging and triple rear 50MP shooters.

Apple has already devoted over US$1 billion to the establishment of a Silicon Design Center located in Munich, Germany. Now, the Cupertino giant has announced that it intends to approximately double this investment in expanding the facility into new buildings with significantly more lab space and "cutting-edge design". The initiative is intended to enhance R&D on on projects such as next-gen processors and wireless technologies at the Center.

Apple had reportedly planned to release iPhone 16- or 17-series devices with their own in-house Wi-Fi chips to go with their next-gen proprietary processors. However, according to a leading industry analyst, these aspirations have just gone the same way as the Cupertino giant's custom 5G baseband dreams. Meanwhile, the unusually high pressure to make A16 Bionic and M2-series successors instead mounts.

MediaTek and Federated Wireless have announced that products such as 5G hotspots and Ethernet gateways powered by Filogic chips for either Wi-Fi 7 or 6E stand to benefit from improved capacity, speed and range, as they are now more compatible with the 6GHz band on Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) systems. The chips' new certification is touted as an important step toward their inclusion into standardized devices approved by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC).

MediaTek asserts that its Wi-Fi 7 tech is taking off as of 2023, with an upcoming range of devices based on its new flagship Filogic 880 chipset for this purpose. The OEM has now also confirmed that it will be a part of Lenovo's upcoming Legion series. Its Wi-Fi 7 solution has also been chosen to pair with the next generation of AMD Ryzen processors, as well as with that of testing and validation equipment.

Now that Wi-Fi 7 is all but here, Qualcomm has anticipated demand for new total-home or home mesh systems compatible with this new standard. The OEM's latest Immersive Home Platforms are touted as small yet powerful enough to deliver 20 gigabit per second (Gb/s) worth of broadband capacity in unobtrusive form-factors.

Wi-Fi 7 is the latest standard in conventional consumer-grade wireless data technology, and as such may start to overtake its 6/6E predecessors as the latest in marketing buzzwords alongside phrases such as 'cutting-edge'. Now, a prominent industry blog claims to have ascertained when this spec will start hitting smartphones, which might in turn define the generation of flagships from prominent OEMs that will debut with it.

MediaTek has unveiled the T830 as a new platform for the router-, Mi-Fi-, or CPE-type devices of the future. It is Wi-Fi 7 capable, and can handle 4G, 5G, up-to-10Gb/s Ethernet or Wi-Fi 6/6E inputs as well. The SoC is also compatible with battery power, and is touted as light on power use in these cases.

MediaTek's latest Pentonic chipset has debuted with an emphasis on remote group-watching and group-calling use-cases. It also features the up-to-date specs and features required to enjoy 4K gaming and content in general. The 700 is also touted as being Wi-Fi 7-ready and supporting "powerful AI enhancements".

Qualcomm asserts that its latest radiofrequency front-end (or RFFE) solution is the ideal companion for an up-to-date mobile modem, as it confers the new spec of "5G/Wi-Fi coexistence" on a given device, as well as battery savings and improved performance. It is compatible with smartphones - as well as other use-cases such as IoT, VR headsets and in-car systems for the first time.

MediaTek is demonstrating its Wi-Fi 7 platform comprised of the Filogic 380 and Filogic 880 chipsets at Computex 2022. The Filogic 380 is a client Wi-Fi 7 chip that supports up to 5 Gbps speeds per channel, 4096-QAM, 320 MHz channel, and other Wi-Fi 7 technologies. The Filogic 880 is a Wi-Fi 7 access point solution with its own quad-core Cortex-A73 CPU and dedicated NPU that can scale up to 36 Gbps throughput.

Qualcomm touts its latest additions to the Networking Pro series of components as the go-to solutions to complete the next generation of routers, gateways, access points and so on. This is because they are the first of their line to support Wi-Fi 7. They are available in tri- and quad-band variants, and are pitched at OEMs planning their next premium consumer- to enterprise-grade wireless equipment.