Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Mini-Review

It’s no secret Apple has had an incredible year full of successful product releases starting with the dramatic move to Intel processors taking center stage and finally with the eagerly awaited iPhone announcement. Now that all Mac platforms and I suspect even the iPhone have made the jump to Intel Apple has taken the time to release two very innovative products, the new Airport Extreme and AppleTV. Since AppleTV has yet to make it to store shelves the focus of this review will be the absolutely wonderful wireless router/basestation that now carries the name Airport Extreme. It is very important to understand that these two products are interrelated in that you really need to have the Airport Extreme if you intend to make the most of the new AppleTV’s built-in wireless. In addition to the great features supported by the new Airport design we will also focus on the bigger picture, Apple’s slow march into the living room and what that means for established media distribution channels.

Technorati Tags: apple, gadgets, review, video, wireless

Lets get one thing out of the way right now. If you are in the market for a wireless router, buy this product. Period. It is by far the best product out there with complete support for all major standards; 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and of course the new 802.11n. Oh, and did I mention it also allows you to hook up multiple printers and hard drives to the device allowing for an amazing ability to quickly and simply setup shared resources. Of course the big question most folks are going to be asking is it worth the $179? Quick answer, yes!

Setup of this version of the Airport was very similar to past versions. My only gripe might be the need to emphasize that you MUST install the newer administration tool and also to make sure everyone understands *which* tool you need to use. If you already have an existing Airport on your network things might get confusing fast since post-installation you will end up with both tools in your utilities folder, one for the old Airport and one for the new unit. Although I cannot verify, I suspect that you can use the new tool to administrate both versions. Once you get past the software installation (supports both Mac and Windows) it was very easy to configure WPA2 security and to make simple SSID and other such changes.

As for performance, I can safely say I was very impressed (so far) with not just the speed but also how stable the connection was with this new unit. I tested this as a replacement for a pre-existing Linksys/Cisco router and found that my connection was rock-solid stable vs. intermittent problems with the old router. It is hard to say if this is due to the improved standards support or just a better hardware transmitter, either way I am very pleased with the results. The building where I set this up has quite a few other wireless networks and I was very pleased to see the Airport quickly adapt to the extra interference generated by these other transmitters. In testing I also noticed that a nearby microwave also did not seem to impede performance, unlike the Linksys which almost always lost connection if placed too close to the microwave (or several types of cordless phones while in use). Since I don’t have enough space to really test the range I can’t speak to the claims made by Apple regarding the range but signal seemed constant throughout the test location which is about the size of a typical apartment or condo where before with the Linksys I would see some fluctuation. Overall the wireless performance exceeded my expectations and solved a long running issue of signal drop.

Just like the guy on late night TV who says “…but wait! There’s more!” the Airport Extreme seems to have far more to offer than just wireless routing. The unit supports USB expandability that, through the use of a USB hub, allows you to connect multiple devices and then share them on both the wired and wireless networks. Setup was amazingly simple, especially for printers and I quickly connected both an HP mutli-function printer and a Maxtor external hard drive with great results. I was able to connect to the drive from all the systems on the network and thanks to Bonjour I had no problems finding and adding the printer. As for the issue of speed, in my tests I was able to copy a 650MB ISO image from the connected HD to my Macbook Pro (using wireless) in about 3 1/2 minutes which was plenty fast enough for my needs. The ability to connect external devices via the USB port is a really great feature and makes it so simple to just add more network storage or printers without having to worry about where to hide the devices, now you can just put them at a more convenient location. Another interesting aspect of the new design for the Airport Extreme is how nicely it fits with Mac Mini form factor accessories. I used a Belkin USB/Firewire hub in my setup and it just looks awesome (see photo), almost like they were designed to go together!
Of course the million dollar question is how does the new Airport Extreme fit into the overall Apple strategy of living room domination? Hard to tell but I can most certainly say that AppleTV users are going to really wish they had the speed and stability of this device if they intend to support any serious streaming video. In testing the new Airport completely outclassed my previous favorite the Linksys SRX-200 in both overall speed (even in just 802.11g mode) and stability. So, like I said at the beginning of this review, if you are in the market I highly recommend you take a long hard look at the new Apple Airport Extreme. Once again Apple has produced a quality product that far exceeds expectations.