The WiFi Alliance (WFA) — the organization that decides, develops and certifies WiFi standards — in 2019 announced the next generation of WiFi dubbed WiFi 6. At the time, the WFA revealed that it would take time before the standard becomes universal in smartphones and other gadgets.
For those in the dark, WiFi 6 is here to not only provide the obvious improvement that is better speeds compared to WiFi 5, but it also tags along enhanced security and battery consumption, lower latency as well as some improvements to the efficiency and range of connections.
Even better is that with WiFi 6, expect better connections in congested areas such as public gatherings, stadiums, and conferences. With the world becoming more reliant on technology, WiFi 6 should also improve the push into IoT, smart homes, and so on.
But how do you get WiFi 6? As you expected, it all boils down to the gadget you have at hand. For smartphone owners, you’ll need at least Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chipset.
This means devices like Samsung Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy S10, OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro should come with WiFi 6 support out of the box. But to many people’s surprise, OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro WiFi 6 support is non-existent.
When asked about this scenario by Android Authority, Qualcomm reportedly hinted at certification as a possible challenge for not just the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro, but also other Snapdragon 855 devices with the feature disabled.
As it turns out, having a WiFi 6-capable chipset is not enough. Your device vendor also needs to configure the device to support WiFi 6, something OnePlus hasn’t done for the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro.
On the brighter side, it seems OnePlus has had a breakthrough with the certification issue and is prepared to push a software update to enable the OnePlus 7 Pro WiFi 6 feature. This information was shared by a Redditor who allegedly had a chat with OnePlus support.
Matter of fact, the feature will reportedly be enabled in the next OTA update the device gets, but the support guy wasn’t clear on whether it will first arrive in the beta channel or straight to the stable version. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, those interested to know more about WiFi 6 can check out what the WFA has to say here.
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Hillary Keverenge
2107 Posts
Tech has been my playground for over a decade. While the Android journey began early, it truly took flight with the revolutionary Lollipop update. Since then, it's been a parade of Android devices (with a sprinkle of iOS), culminating in a mostly happy marriage with Google's smart home ecosystem. Expect insightful articles and explorations of the ever-evolving world of Android and Google products coupled with occasional rants on the Nest smart home ecosystem.
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