A month ago, towards the end of August, a report surfaced that suggested that Intel and/or Microsoft could be limiting upcoming Wi-Fi 7 to Windows 11 and newer. The speculation was a result of a leaked Intel document that did not mention Wi-Fi 7 supporting Windows 10, whereas Windows 11 was specified.
Interestingly, such speculation was seemingly put to rest by Intel as it listed its first Wi-Fi 7 modules (BE200 and BE202) which denote support for Windows 11 as well as Windows 10 on their spec sheet. The sheet does not mention much else though and the latest drivers from Intel also do not support these modules either which means some more compatibility-related questions will remain for the time being.
However, despite Intel officially listing Windows 10 on the supported OS list for these devices, there is a very good chance that full support for Wi-Fi 7 on Windows 10, just like with Wi-Fi 6E, may not be officially available. Right off the bat, we know that the BE200 and BE202 will not work with Wi-Fi 7’s ultra-wide 320MHz channel as the highest listed frequency on it is 160MHz on the 6GHz band. This means these new modules won’t potentially be able to support extremely high throughputs (EHT) of 46Gbps, assuming the Intel spec sheet is not incorrect.
Leave A Comment