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Wi-Fi 7 routers are very expensive right now, but if rumors that the iPhone 16 Pro will feature the fast wireless networking technology are true, that price may not last long. Apple hasn’t been using Wi-Fi 6e technology for long. It first introduced the technology in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max in September 2024.

If a supply chain report from DigiTimes on Tuesday is accurate, the iPhone 16 Pro series may receive the upgrade. Amid more discussion about manufacturers' adoption of Wi-Fi 7, the publication said it is "widely expected" that the iPhone 16 Pro will adopt the newer standard, which will first be launched in 2023 and finalized in 2024.

There isn't much else to the report other than a brief mention of Apple hardware, but with the right hardware on both ends of the network (client and access point), users can expect better latency and speeds.

Wi-Fi has a series of frequency bands divided into multiple channels, and the width of each channel determines the speed and performance of the network. In the 6 GHz band alone, Wi-Fi can have 60 channels in that band. Wi-Fi 6E has channels as wide as 160 Mhz. Wi-Fi 7 on the 6Ghz band has twice as many channels as before, up to 320 Mhz.

There are other speed-boosting advances in Wi-Fi 7, such as multi-connection operation, which combines multiple frequencies and bands into a single connection. Another big improvement in Wi-Fi 7 is so-called quadrature amplitude modulation, which trades range for speed.

On the other hand, it’s a pretty big investment to take advantage of this technology today. An Eero Max 7 mesh Wi-Fi router costs $600. A three-pack of Eero Pro 6e mesh routers costs $550.

There are similar price gaps between vendors. A three-pack of Netgear Orbi 980 Wi-Fi 7 routers costs a whopping $2,250. Comparable models in the Netgear Wi-Fi 6e series are less than half that price.

Presumably, Wi-Fi 7 routers will come down in price as widespread adoption occurs. It will take some time for Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6e routers to come down in price.