Wifi 7 issues on iPhone 16 Pro & Pro Max

I'm feeling quite disappointed with Apple’s approach to WiFi 7 on the new iPhone 16. It turns out that the iPhone 16’s WiFi 7 capabilities are capped at only half the expected speed. This isn't just a letdown – it's misleading. If the performance isn't at true WiFi 7 levels, then don't market it as such.

For those of us who checked Apple’s spec page, it was unclear on performance details right up until October 3rd. I even had a case logged on the 31st to get clarity on the specification. And now, it appears that Apple has backdated their spec publishing date to Sept 25 to make it look like this information was transparent. This just feels wrong. If the phone’s WiFi 7 isn’t capable of reaching full speeds, it should never have been marketed with this feature.

There should be accountability here. When we invest in a product advertised as the "next best thing," we expect those claims to be real – not a way to drive sales. Would love to hear others' thoughts or experiences on this issue.

I don’t see any difference on the 16 ProMax as compared to my previous 15 ProMax. I have a 5 gig Internet connection and get over 4 Gps up and down on my 10 Gig Ethernet. This phone does not even like connecting on the 6 GHz band unless I create a dedicated 6 GHz WiFi network. In addition, the phone will not connect to the MLO Network. Interestingly, my iPad M4 does connect to MLO and the iPad is WiFi 6e. Therefore, I don’t see how Apple is claiming the 16 supports WiFi 7. It clearly does not. Sadly, Wifi 7 is the reason I bought the 16 ProMax in the first place. I should have waited for the 17

Hi folks, I have good news. After the past couple of months of feeling cheated by Apple for misrepresenting and miscommunicating the Wi-Fi 7 specs of the iPhone 16 series right off the bat when they launched the iPhone 16 series, and motivating many like me to upgrade to iPhone 16 Pro Max from the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and then belatedly knowing about Apple’s capping of the Wi-Fi 7 channel bandwidth at 160MHz, I thought of a way to find out whether the issue is a hardware or a software one, because as we know, if the issue is a hardware one, no software update can resolve it. 

1. Comparing the WiFi + Bluetooth specs of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 Pro Max (Apple publicly specifies these):

iPhone 15 Pro Max: Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3

iPhone 16 Pro Max: Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3

2. Guesstimating which Qualcomm® WiFi + Bluetooth + 5G chipset is on the iPhones (unofficially it is known that Apple uses Qualcomm® chipsets for WiFi + Bluetooth + 5G, till it can officially release its own):   

iPhone 15 Pro Max: Wi‑Fi 6E (802.11ax) with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 5.3 -> Qualcomm® SNAPDRAGON® 8+ GEN 1 with X65 modem and FastConnect™ 6900, providing max. Channel Bandwidth of 160MHz (see Channel Bandwidth spec at https://tinyurl.com/3f6382yt)

iPhone 16 Pro Max: Wi‑Fi 7 (802.11be) with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 5.3 -> Qualcomm® SNAPDRAGON® 8 GEN 2 with X70 modem and FastConnect™ 7800, providing max. Channel Bandwidth of 320MHz (see Channel Bandwidth spec at https://tinyurl.com/3cck5m82)

Conclusion: Apple’s capping of the Wi-Fi 7 channel bandwidth at 160MHz is a software one. Let’s rejoice, folks. We can hope for a software update soon, and if we want to really make it happen, we should start demanding it, because they owe it to us. If their reason for capping off the channel bandwidth is performance, shouldn’t we be the ones to decide what channel bandwidth we want to use?! We can always configure our Wi-Fi 7 routers for that. Apple should leave it to us, not decide for us. We have paid good money to use the specs that iPhones come with.

You're missing the point. Apple only fully clarified the iPhone 16’s WiFi specs in early October, after launch. At launch, only the iPhone 15's WiFi 6E specs were clearly outlined, with 160 MHz bandwidth. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get official specifications from Apple, and the information on WiFi 7 performance was vague at best, making it far from “absolutely clear” until people started pushing for answers.

Also, regarding "1.7 GHz" – I assume you meant speed rather than radio frequency,WiFi 7 should allow speeds up to 4 Gbps at its full 320 MHz spec. The purpose of WiFi 7 is to push performance beyond prior standards, and this limitation holds it back other competitors do have fully implemented specifications and dont mislead the general consumers. If the device can’t deliver true WiFi 7 speeds, it shouldn’t be labeled as such. This is misleading to those who invested in the iPhone 16 expecting full WiFi 7 capabilities.

Update - Apple released iOS 18.1. My iPhone 16 PM now connects via MLO. I’m getting a slight speed boost to up to 1850 GBs. However, still not connecting to the 320 MHz 6Hhz band. WiFi 7 clients should all be capable of this IMO.

The Qualcomm chipset hardware in the iPhone 16 Pro Max is 320MHz capable, but Apple inexplicably limits it through iOS. That’s why Apple should either publicly explain their rationale or release a software update.

Yes, I know this is a user-to-user forum, which is why I didn’t address Apple in my posts here.

The purpose of my posts were to share my findings with fellow despairing consumers what I found when I went about figuring out whether the issue is a hardware or a software one. Then they too can manage their expectation for a software update, and hopefully feel urged to demand one from Apple like I did.

To demand a software update, I called Apple Support, but as they don’t publicly reveal which Wi-Fi+Bluetooth+5G chipsets are under the hoods of their iPhones (which by the way is understandable because that’s the industry practice), they didn’t confirm nor deny that the issue is a software one, therefore, neither could they confirm or deny that a software update is round the corner.

That iPhone 16 Pro Max teardown webpage got taken down by the moderator.

Alright, so my final update here is this, after further digging. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has the USI Wi-Fi & Bluetooth

Module 339S01463 which either uses the Broadcom BCM4389 (Wi-Fi 6E max. channel bandwidth 160MHz) or the BCM4398 (Wi-Fi 6E max. channel bandwidth 320MHz) chip. That's it. Uncertainty once again!

Moving forward, I will dig deeper to know more about the specs I care about when buying an Apple device.

This is a user-to-user forum, no one here can answer your questions about Apple’s implementation of Wi-Fi 7.

UPDATE: Here are Apple’s Wi-Fi specs→Wi-Fi specifications for Apple devices - Apple Support

The iPhone 16 and 16 Pro support 160 MHz bandwidth, not 320 MHz. As bandwidth is a hardware function, it is unlikely that there will be a software update for 320 MHz bandwidth.

Does anyone have any updates for this? I'm not bothered about the 320mhz, I just want MLO to work. Speedtests only show 1.5Gbps and only utilize the 6Ghz band, despite my router displaying the iPhone 16 Pro is connected via MLO. I've seen other phones with WiFi 7 online get far past 2.5Gbps and I'm assuming this is because it's passing data over the three bands (as it should). I cannot get the iPhone to do this, and performance on WiFi 6 access points seems 10% worse than the 15 Pro Max. Annoying.

By all that I have read on this topic so far, it appears that the iPhone 16 lineup of phones will NOT be supporting full Wi-Fi 7. These phones are currently not capable of utilizing the 320 MHz band in WiFi 7. This has been well documented. This effectively caps the maximum transfer speeds to about half of the roughly 3,300 Mb/s that the 16 should be capable of.

it is my belief that Apple made a decision during the manufacturing process in order to keep the phone compatible with multiple regulations in counties such as China, as well as the EU. My understanding is that the EU only allows one of the channels on the 320 Mhz band and China does not allow 6 GHz at all.

There could be a software limiting factor here, which could be lifted in the US with a future update, meaning that this is a fixable problem. However, it seems more likely that it is a hardware limitation, in which case it is not fixable. We will all have to wait and drop another $1,000 - $1,500 on the 17 next year.

Hi, apologies to folks here. After diving deeper to get more information about wireless communication hardware in the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I found this webpage which describes what was found in a teardown. The teardown reveals that the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module is not from Qualcomm, it is the USI Global Wi-Fi & Bluetooth Module 339S01463. The 5G modem is SDX71M from Qualcomm.

I am still trying to find out more about the USI Global Wi-Fi & Bluetooth Module 339S01463 to know whether it provides channel bandwidth @ 320MHz. Info will be shared once found.

[Edited by Moderator]

G8mb1t77 wrote:

For those of us who checked Apple’s spec page, it was unclear on performance details right up until October 3rd.

No, it was absolutely clear. It says that the hardware supports 160 MHz bandwidth. For anyone who understands Wi-Fi 7 specifications that completely defines the limits of iPhone Wi-Fi connection speeds. And to be practical, what are you going to do on a handheld device that requires speeds in excess of 1.7 GHz?

My understanding is many devices were released before the official WiFi standard was introduced in early 2024. If you purchased your routers etc. prior to the official release, they may be operating in a way that restricts speeds for products released that are in compliance with the official standard. Do you know the status of the device on your network?

SkOrpiOn83 wrote:

The Qualcomm chipset hardware in the iPhone 16 Pro Max is 320MHz capable, but Apple inexplicably limits it through iOS. That’s why Apple should either publicly explain their rationale or release a software update.

Have you told Apple? Telling other users in this user-to-user forum will not get you an answer from Apple.