The iPhone 15 has been tipped for a belated upgrade in the shape of Wi-Fi 6E connectivity.
Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O’Malley (via MacRumors) have issued a research note claiming that this year’s iPhone 15 range will support the latest Wi-Fi standard. They don’t specify whether this will be a Pro feature, or will come to the entire range.
Wi-Fi 6E is the first to use the brand new 6GHz frequency on top of the usual 5GHz and 2.4GHz channels, yielding faster connection speeds, lower latency, and greater reliability.
The likes of the Google Pixel 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra have been able to access this new frequency for quite some time, but Apple opted out with the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 families.
Indeed, we mentioned the lack of Wi-Fi 6E support in our iPhone 14 Pro review. It was a fairly minor omission in the grand scheme of things, but something that we definitely should have been seeing in an £1,100 smartphone launched in late 2022.
The need for an iPhone 15 with Wi-Fi 6E is especially pressing when you consider that Apple has adopted Wi-Fi 6E in some of its other product ranges. The current iPad Pro range (both 11-inch and 12.9-inch) supports the standard, as does the latest MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch) and Mac Mini.
With Wi-Fi 6E routers starting to become more affordable (the latest Nest Wifi Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E and costs £189.99/$199.99), it really wouldn’t do for Apple to ignore the standard for another year.
