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Here you'll find guides to all the important products, people and events in the Apple world, from iPhone to Jony Ive. + iPhone o iPhone 16 o iPhone 17 o iPhone 15 o iPhone 14 o iPhone SE o iOS o iPhone accessories o Awesome Apps + iPad o iPad o iPad Air o iPad Pro o iPad mini o Apple Pencil o iPad apps o iPadOS o iPad accessories + Apple Watch o Apple Watch Series 10 o Apple Watch Ultra o Apple Watch SE o watchOS + Mac o MacBook Pro o MacBook Air o iMac o Mac mini o Mac Pro o Mac Studio o Mac accessories o Mac apps o macOS + Vision Pro o Vision Pro o visionOS o Vision Pro accessories + AirPods o AirPods Pro o AirPods 4 o AirPods Max o Beats by Dre o AirPods accessories + TV and home o Apple TV o Apple TV+ o HomePod o HomePod mini o AirTags o Smart home o Apple One o Apple Music o Apple Arcade o Apple Fitness+ o App Store + Accessories o iPhone accessories o Apple Watch accessories o iPad accessories o Mac accessories o Vision Pro accessories o AirPods accessories o AirTag accessories + Apple services o Apple One o Apple Arcade o Apple podcasts o iCloud o AppleCare o Apple Pay o Apple Card o Apple Cash o Siri o Apple Fitness+ o Apple Maps o Messages / iMessage o CarPlay o Apple Account o Find My o Touch ID o Face ID o MagSafe o FaceTime o Continuity o Smart home / HomeKit / Home app o Apple Music * CES 2026 * Apple rumors * M5 Chip * AirPods Pro 3 * Editor's picks * Apple history + Today in Apple history + Steve Jobs + Tim Cook + Jony Ive * Videos * Podcast * Newsletters * iOS 26 * AirPods Pro 3 * iPhone Air * Apple rumors * Editor's picks * Videos * * * * * * * * * [ ] Apple quietly boosts Wi-Fi speeds on newer Macs and iPads By Rajesh Pandey * 10:22 pm, January 5, 2026 * News AI image of a MacBook and an iPad, along with the Wi-Fi icon, used to illustrate a story on the speed boost in macOS Tahoe and iPadOS 26. Wi-Fi on your Mac or iPad just got faster. AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac Apple silently gave some Macs and iPads a Wi-Fi speed boost with macOS Tahoe 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2. The update enables 160MHz channel bandwidth support on 5GHz Wi-Fi networks, eliminating a restriction that tamped down the maximum possible speeds. The additional bandwidth should let your recent Mac or iPad benefit from higher throughput. [INS::INS] Apple flips a switch and your Mac's Wi-Fi gets a speed boost Apple's full current Mac and iPad lineups support Wi-Fi 6E. On paper, this should enable them to deliver higher bandwidth and throughput over 5GHz Wi-Fi networks as compared to older models. And while that's true, the devices' capabilities were limited because they only supported 80MHz channel bandwidth on 5GHz networks. macOS Tahoe 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 address this limitation by enabling support for 160MHz bandwidth on 5GHz Wi-Fi networks, as noted in Apple's platform deployment guide. This improvement will allow compatible Macs and iPads to achieve higher real-world throughput even when connected to 5 GHz routers instead of 6 GHz models. If you primarily use Wi-Fi for large local file transfers or Time Machine backups to your network-attached storage device, the higher bandwidth should bring a noticeable speed boost. The final results will depend on several other factors, though, including congestion on your home or office Wi-Fi network. Still, this is a welcome improvement, especially if your router supports 160MHz bandwidth on the 5GHz channel. Only new Macs and iPads will get this upgrade All notable Apple products launched since 2022 support Wi-Fi 6E. This includes the M2 iPad Pro, M3 iPad Air and the A17 Pro-powered iPad mini. As for Macs, all M3 or newer MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, iMac and M4 MacBook Air models support Wi-Fi 6E. It's the same sort of bandwidth limitation that makes Wi-Fi 7 on the iPhone 17 feel like Wi-Fi 6E+. The phone only supports 160MHz wide-channels, while Wi-Fi 7 requires 320MHz channel support to deliver theoretical maximum speeds of 46Gbps. [9be48043650c6bf3] Rajesh Pandey Rajesh has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade, with a strong focus on iPhones, Macs and Apple's ecosystem. He enjoys digging into Apple software updates, hardware changes, and discovering new Mac apps that make work faster and more enjoyable. Add as a preferred source on Google * [newsletter] Subscribe to the Newsletter Our daily roundup of Apple news, reviews and how-tos. Plus the best Apple tweets, fun polls and inspiring Steve Jobs bons mots. Our readers say: "Love what you do" -- Christi Cardenas. "Absolutely love the content!" -- Harshita Arora. "Genuinely one of the highlights of my inbox" -- Lee Barnett. 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