Apple quietly slipped out hardware updates to the AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule in June, which FCC documents claim to have stronger Wi-Fi range and performance. Despite Apple touting this newfound ability, AnandTech now has an exhaustive review of the networking products to confirm it in the real world.
MacRumors is reporting that buyers of the 2011 AirPort Extreme Base Station or Time Capsule products will find some unadvertised performance gains compared to earlier models. According to an extensive AnandTech review of both units, Wi-Fi range and performance is dramatically increased, even providing a stable wireless signal to areas where previous models failed to reach.
“At the end of the day, the new Airport Extreme dramatically improves throughput in the best case and in a few regions where signal was previously unusable,” writes Brian Klug at AnandTech. “In the worst case (location 4), performance improves from being essentially unusable to totally fine, and in the case of the 2010MBP goes from not being able to connect at all to pushing 23 Mbps.”
The chart above tells the tale, with performance using a previous fourth-generation AirPort Extreme (in blue) compared to the new 2011 fifth-generation model. While performance was similar in areas closer to the base station, the third and fourth locations show a marked increase in signal strength with the new model.
“The main improvements with AFS (real-world file transfer) happen out at the extremes where previously signal was unusable on 2.4GHz, and likewise on 5GHz,” the review reveals. “That really tells the story of the (sometimes dramatic) difference that the higher power WLAN solution in the 5th generation makes over the 4th generation.”
AnandTech attributes much of the performance increase to Apple’s switch from Marvell to Broadcom chipsets: “First, performance and range is definitely better thanks to more transmit power and the improved sensitivity afforded by newer generation chipsets. Second, the combination of lots of Broadcom in Apple’s hardware lineup (from the iPhone, iPad, and MacBooks, to iMac and Mac Mini) with Broadcom in the access point likely allows for the use of frame bursting or some other packet aggregation technique that speeds things up in some scenarios,” the report concludes.
We can definitely confirm AnandTech’s claims in our own location, having recently replaced two older AirPort Extreme units with one 2011 model, which now pumps out full bars on all of our devices in a location where there was previously only a few. All in all, the latest AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule appear to be a worthy upgrade for anyone having problems getting good wireless performance in their home or office.
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(Image courtesy of MacRumors and AnandTech)
