In order for computers and devices alike to be able to communicate wirelessly, a set of technical standards were drafted known as IEEE 802.11. Using radio waves, our devices talk back and forth to Wi-Fi routers, repeaters, extenders, etc;
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IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) is the group responsible for the IEEE 802 networking standards, and over the years there have been a substantial amount of advancements in wireless connectivity. This article covers the major key points about Wi-Fi since its inception, the first Macs to carry each version, all the way up to Wi-Fi 7.
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The first Wi-Fi

The launch of the clamshell iBook in July 1999 introduced wireless networking to the masses, although it actually shipped with Wi-Fi 1 – which is technically the second version since it’s 11 Mb/s. Before the iBook G3 clamshell, wireless networking was a far slower endeavor, only seeing speeds of up to 1 – 2 Mb/s.

• Wi-Fi 0 (802.11) and 1 (802.11b) both operated on 2.4 Ghz bands only
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• Wi-Fi 0 was introduced in 1997, Wi-Fi 1 was in 1999.
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Wi-Fi 2, 802.11a

• First Mac with “a” standard: Early 2006 17-Inch Core Duo iMac (w/ AirPort Extreme)

This was the first time 5 Ghz was incorporated into the Wi-Fi standard, being released around the same time as the original iBook. 2.4 Ghz was a commonly used frequency across all kinds of devices people had in their household such as: microwaves, wireless phones, cameras, etc; so this standard was created to cut through the interference common household items would create.

Although Wi-Fi 2 was much faster, the drawback was distance and signal penetration, being a higher frequency it has a harder time getting through walls.

No PowerPC Mac had Wi-Fi 2 “a” built-in or optional, this was only a thing starting with Intel Macs, that’s why the next part jumps back a few years.
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Wi-Fi 3, 802.11g

• First Mac with “g” Wi-Fi: (Optional Airport Extreme) 800 MHz eMac, ATI Graphics

When the first Power Mac G5 came out – is when market adoption really started taking off, when more and more people started using Wi-Fi in general. Wi-Fi 3 improves upon the ability for the 2.4 Ghz band to get through walls and floors, lacking any beam forming technology and instead broadcasting the signals in all directions.
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Intel-Only Era – Wi-Fi 4, 802.11n

• First Mac with “n” Wi-Fi: 20-Inch Mid-2007 Intel Core 2 Duo Aluminum iMac

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Released around the time as Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and the very first version of Wi-Fi to use a technology called MIMO (Multiple input, multiple output) to leverage the use of multiple antennas to get a far greater connection speed over Wi-Fi 3; upgrading to 600 Mb/s over the previous generation’s 54 Mb/s.
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Wi-Fi 5, 802.11ac

• First Mac with “ac” Wi-Fi: Late 2013 21.5-Inch Retina iMac

This was the very first version of wireless networking which could talk to multiple devices at the same time instead of just waiting their turn, and this was called MU-MIMO. MU-MIMO (Multiple User, Multiple input, Multiple output), which significantly helped to decongest data transmission.

It also took advantage of a technique called beam forming, which is to point the signal directly at devices, as opposed to having the signal broadcast in all directions.
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Apple Silicon Era – Version 6 and 6e, 802.11ax

• First Macs with “ac” Wi-Fi: M1 MacBook Pro, M1 Mac mini, M1 MacBook Air

Wi-Fi 6 introduces a new technology called OFDMA (Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access), which allows multiple devices to connect more efficiently – which was the design goal. There is also a massive improvement to the amount of simultaneous MU-MIMO streams possible, making connectivity even faster. Apple Silicon Macs have even better Wi-Fi than any Intel Mac, by default.
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Wi-Fi 6e also adds a third 6 Ghz band to the duo of 2.4 and 5 GHz, allowing for large data transmissions.
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Wi-Fi 7, EHT, Late 2025, M5?

• First Macs with “be” Wi-Fi: Only the M5 iPad Pro has Wi-Fi 7, currently.

Although the M5 iPad Pro comes with Wi-Fi 7, the M5 MacBook Pro instead ships with Wi-Fi 6E. Just like 6E, Wi-Fi 7 makes use of 2.4/5 and 6 GHz frequencies, but it also introduces some new major features.

• A new, 320 Mhz Ultra-wide bandwidth channel, allowing for far greater speeds.
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• 4K QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) – “4096-QAM (4K-QAM) enables each symbol to carry 12 bits rather than 10 bits, resulting in 20% higher theoretical transmission rates than WiFi 6’s 1024-QAM. This feature is optional for Wi-Fi 7 certification.” (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wi-Fi 7, Monday November 3rd 2025, URL)
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• MLO (Multi-Link operation) allows Wi-Fi 7 devices to connect to Wi-Fi 7 routers/endpoints using multiple bands simultaneously, to achieve greater speeds (like plugging in two ethernet cables at the same time, and using both).