Similar to cellular connectivity where we’ve progressed through the years from 2G, to 3G, to 4G, and now 5G, WiFi has also been evolving. Right now, WiFi 6 is the latest version of the wireless protocol, but it seems that MediaTek is trying to stay ahead of the curve by announcing its latest Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 platforms designed with WiFi 7 in mind.

Both the Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 offer some similar features such as support for WiFi 7 technologies like 4096-QAM, 320MHz, MRU and MLO, but the main difference would be in its implementation.

The Filogic 880 is designed for access points, so think of devices like modems or routers, while the Filogic 380 is created for other types of devices like our smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, streaming devices, and more. According to MediaTek, the Filogic 880 is flexible enough to scale to penta-band 36Gbps speeds and support up to 10Gbps in a single channel.

The Filogic 380 will offer MLO support for speeds of up to 6.5Gbps, up to 5Gbps in one channel, support for 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, and also Bluetooth 5.3 with LE audio. Keep in mind that it might be a while before we actually see WiFi 7 products hit the market. MediaTek says that the first consumer device with WiFi 7 support is expected to ship in the first half of 2023, along with routers using the final spec coming in the second half of 2023.