Qualcomm has announced its next-gen wireless chips, which offer support for the new Wi-Fi6E standard. The “E” in the name stands for “extended” and supported devices will support the newly opened 6GHz spectrum, which should offer less network congestion and faster, more dependable connections.
At present, the iPhone 11 models, the 2020 iPhone SE, and the 2020 iPad Pro are the only Apple devices that support the Wi-Fi 6 protocol. Throughout the next year, users will begin seeing Wi-Fi 6E support come to smartphones and routers, allowing devices to use the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz spectrums.
Qualcomm has stated that the Wi-Fi 6E chips are part of its FastConnect series, the chip for routers is shipping to manufacturers now, and the model for smartphones will be arriving in the second half of this year.
Per Qualcomm’s press release:
The phone chips fall under Qualcomm’s FastConnect line, which tend to end up integrated with Snapdragon chips. There are two options at launch: the FastConnect 6700 and FastConnect 6900, which have top theoretical speeds of 3Gbps and 3.6Gbps. Both include support for the maximum size of Wi-Fi channels (160MHz on 5GHz and 6GHz).
Apple is expected to make a return to Qualcomm as its vendor for cellular chips with 5G this fall via the iPhone 12 lineup. The company has signed a deal with Broadcom that will likely cover Wi-Fi chips for the next three years.
Broadcom unveiled its Wi-Fi 6E enabled chip in February, so it’s possible that Apple could include support for the latest standard in the iPhone 12 series.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.