The Qualcomm FastConnect 7700QualcommWi-Fi 7 is still a relatively new and high-end technology that has traditionally been reserved for flagship phones and other high-end mobile devices. A lot of this has to do with cost; the desire by chipmakers to bring this cost down is why we are starting to see Wi-Fi 7 chipsets like the new Qualcomm FastConnect 7700 that are specifically targeted at mainstream smartphones and other mobile devices.Qualcomm is one of the undisputed leaders in the semiconductor industry when it comes to Wi-Fi solutions, especially for the Wi-Fi 7 standard. For a while now, its FastConnect 7800 and 7900 chips have been found in many of the worlds leading flagship phones and high-end laptops. The company even brags that across client devices and infrastructure it has more than 1,000 of these designs launched or in development.Qualcomm began this journey back in 2022 with the FastConnect 7800, which was the companys first Wi-Fi 7 product and can now be found in over 450 products. After the FastConnect 7800, the company followed up with the 7900, which added AI enhancements and was the companys first integrated Wi-Fi solution with Bluetooth and UWB connectivity.How The FastConnect 7700 Fits Into Qualcomms LineupThis brings us to the recently launched FastConnect 7700, which is part of Qualcomms second-generation of Wi-Fi chipsets, taking more from the 7900 and less from the 7800. What this means is that the 7700 starts with stronger fundamentals such as AI-enhanced Wi-Fi, which I detailed when I wrote about the FastConnect 7900 last year. The 7700 uses those on-device AI models to optimize traffic through quality of service, which delivers optimized battery, latency and bandwidth based on traffic. The FastConnect 7700 also maintains 320-megahertz channel support (which many low-cost Wi-Fi 7 solutions drop down to 160 megahertz) and still offers 4K QAM modulation. This is why the FastConnect 7700 can still claim a peak theoretical Wi-Fi speed of 5.8 Gbps, the same as the 7800 and 7900.The 7700 is also an upgrade over the 7800 in the sense that it has Bluetooth 6.0 support versus Bluetooth 5.4. It also includes Bluetooth Channel Sounding, which is a useful feature for improving Bluetooth accuracy and for using a device as a trusted Bluetooth connection for automotive or other applications. The FastConnect 7700 also brings Qualcomms XPAN technology along with Snapdragon Sound yet another upgrade over the 7800, while offering parity with the 7900. The 7700, like its FastConnect siblings, still supports 6-gigahertz, 5-gigahertz and 2.4-gigahertz connectivity (where applicable, since not all countries support 6 gigahertz over Wi-Fi).In terms of missing features, the FastConnect 7700 loses Qualcomms Dual-Band Simultaneous and High-Band Simultaneous connectivity, which allow for better speeds and reduced latency in demanding low-latency applications like gaming. It also lacks the UWB connectivity integration of the FastConnect 7900, which makes sense given that the 7700 is a lower-cost design.What is interesting is that the FastConnect 7700 adopts the same 14nm process node as the FastConnect 7800, meaning that its a very mature manufacturing process for Qualcomms Wi-Fi business and offers considerable cost savings. That said, it also isnt as advanced as the 6nm process node on the FastConnect 7900, which likely means less power savings for the 7700.Expanding Wi-Fi 7s ReachI believe that Qualcomm is right when it says that the FastConnect 7700 is a chipset targeting OEMs that want to upgrade from Wi-Fi 6 rather than devices already using Wi-Fi 7. A lower-cost solution using a more mature process node should mean better accessibility for Wi-Fi 7, which is inherently faster and lower-latency than Wi-Fi 6 while also being more secure. Qualcomm claims that this chip is 2x faster than Broadcoms 160-megahertz solution in the Apple iPhone 16, but real-world speeds are often much closer than that. (Speed differences are more noticeable in real-world settings when a Wi-Fi 7 chip is paired with an appropriate Wi-Fi 7 router.)I would expect most devices using the FastConnect 7700 to be mainstream smartphones, but I could see tablets and PCs leveraging this chip as well, especially now that Qualcomm has a Snapdragon X processor for mainstream PCs that the 7700 could be paired with. I expect that the FastConnect 7700 will compete directly with offerings from the likes of Broadcom and MediaTek, and it will be interesting to see which design wins Qualcomm collects across the ever-widening set of compute verticals it supports. While I dont expect every FastConnect 7700 to ship with a Snapdragon processor, I do expect this combination to be the most likely one well see for now and a significant avenue for uptake of the 7700 in the market.Moor Insights & Strategy provides or has provided paid services to technology companies, like all tech industry research and analyst firms. These services include research, analysis, advising, consulting, benchmarking, acquisition matchmaking and video and speaking sponsorships. Of the companies mentioned in this article, Moor Insights & Strategy currently has (or has had) a paid business relationship with Broadcom, MediaTek and Qualcomm.Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades