Intel BE202 Wi-Fi 7 network card announced, supports PCIe and USB interfaces

According to news on September 18, although the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has not officially approved the Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) specification, products based on this technology have begun to be launched.

Currently, Intel has launched its first Wi-Fi 7 controllers and adapters, and these products will be available in various forms this year. Intel has listed two Wi-Fi 7 network cards on its official website: BE200 and BE202.

Both network cards support 2x2 TX/RX streams, supporting 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz, with a maximum network speed of up to 5Gbps, which is well below the maximum standard rate of 40 Gbit/s.

For comparison, Intel's current AX210 Wi-Fi 6E wireless network card can reach speeds of 2.4Gbps, and AX411 can reach 3Gbps.

In terms of differences, the two products seem to be different in terms of frequency bands. There is an additional note (160MHz) in the BE202's 6GHz frequency band support. Additionally, Intel claims that the BE200 is pre-certified for Wi-Fi 7, while the BE202 is not.

Intel's BE200 and BE202 both support PCIe and USB interfaces and can be used in desktop motherboards and notebook computers.

As @momomo_us pointed out, the upcoming Gigabyte Aorus Z790 Master X motherboard (PCB version 1.2) will come with the BE200 network card pre-installed. At the same time, other versions will use Qualcomm's Wi-Fi 7 QCNCM865 (PCB version 1.0) and MediaTek's Wi-Fi 7 MT7927, RZ738 (PCB version 1.1) network cards.

Of course, to take advantage of Wi-Fi 7, users also need to use routers and APs that are compatible with Wi-Fi 7, but currently most routers do not support the 6GHz band.