Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 is the first Wi-Fi 7 product

At MWC 2022, Qualcomm introduced the FastConnect 7800 chipset, which it said was “the world’s first Wi-Fi 7 product.”

FastConnect 7800 is a 14-nm chip that supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3, which promises high-speed low-latency connectivity and wireless sound improvements in general. Among the supported spectra of 5 GHz, 6 GHz and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 7 uses the former two, while the latter is reserved for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with lower bandwidth.

Using multi-channel High Band Simultaneous (HBS) technology and two Wi-Fi radios, the FastConnect 7800 allows up to four connections in the 6 GHz and 5 GHz bands. In the 6 GHz band, the chipset uses one 320 MHz or two combined 160 MHz channels to provide ultra-fast speeds of up to 5.8 Gbps. If the 6 GHz spectrum is not available, it uses the 5 GHz band, thus reducing the peak network speed to 4.3 Gbps.

There is another supported technology called 4-Stream Dual-Band Simultaneous (DBS) that helps the chipset provide a delay of just 2 ms for a sustained experience without lag.

“With the FastConnect 7800 Qualcomm Technologies confirms its leadership by defining the future of wireless. Implementing the industry’s first Wi-Fi 7 solution may be enough for some, but with the introduction of HBS Multi-Link, we’re taking performance to a new level, breaking expectations of speed and latency, “said Dina Beckis, vice president and general manager of mobile computing and communications at Qualcomm Technologies.

The sound quality also has some important upgrades with the FastConnect 7800. The chip supports Dual Bluetooth technology with LE Audio and Snapdragon soundthat helps it transmit 16-bit or 24-bit high-resolution lossless wireless. Dual Bluetooth radios also have a number of benefits. The connected devices will run twice as long and combine much faster – all while reducing power consumption by up to 50%.

Aside from Wi-Fi 7, the FastConnect 7800 also supports Wi-Fi 6 or 6E connectivity. Although Wi-Fi 7 is expected to fully mature and reach a wide range of devices by 2024, Qualcomm says its solution will be commercially available from the second half of this year. We can see its debut in Qualcomm’s future flagship SoC for smartphones, probably the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

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