Apple's capping of Wi-Fi 7 on iPhone 16 Pro models keeps them from reaching their potential speeds

Even though the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max both have Wi-Fi 7 technology installed for faster download and upload speeds, something is preventing these phones from reaching their full potential over Wi-Fi. To be clear, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max featured Wi-Fi 6E with a maximum download data speed of 9.6 Gbps. Wi-Fi 7 has  maximum download data speed of 46 Gbps.

Apparently, in testing by Les Numeriques, the iPhone 16 Pro models did not reach the connectivity speeds that one would expect to see with Wi-Fi 7. The test used a TP-Link Deco BE85 mesh WiFi system, and the results were shockingly bad. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max couldn't even get past 1.6 Gbps to 1.7 Gbps. Yikes! The same results were seen last year by Les Numeriques when it tested Wi-Fi 6E on the iPhone 15 Pro Max which also delivered a subpar performance in the test.

Part of the problem is that Apple has capped the performance of Wi-Fi 7 on the 2024 Pro iPhone models by not allowing the devices to take advantage of the 320 MHz channel width which is in line with Wi-Fi 7. Instead, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max have their channel capped at 160 MHz which reduces the potential Wi-Fi performance for these expensive premium iPhone models by as much as 50%. This is not a guess or a rumor. The 160 MHz channel figure can be seen on the iPhone's diagnostic tool.

In Europe, Wi-Fi 7 is limited to one 320 MHz band while in the U.S. there are three. But limiting the channel width to 160MHz is what needs to be fixed, if possible. There has been speculation about a possible software update that could eliminate the current cap. On the other hand, it is possible that there is something in the hardware that is causing the channel to be capped at 160 MHz and if that is the case, there might not be anything that can be done.

There is nothing in the official documents released by Apple that discusses a channel cap so we will have to see if there is any response from Apple about what could be a major connectivity issue for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.