MacBook Air (2013) and AirPort Extreme 802.11ac
So on a recent summer trip - I spent some time with my friend's new Haswell based Macbook Air 13 and was very impressed.
While there is one part of me that does not necessarily like the lack of self-upgrade / maintenance options with the MBA form factor - the fact that it already supports the latest next generation form factor (NGFF) PCI-e hard drive and Haswell is pretty cool.
Overall the performance to me was average - partially due to low base clock speed of the Haswell ULT processor. But what what really impressive was the battery life. While I did not sit there and pound the device all day long, I did perform basic browsing, email and using the AirPort utility (more on that in a bit) the device ran several days without a charge when using the default power settings. You could run for an hour - close the lid - let it sit around - come back open the lid and go.
So for some portable use cases like a day with multiple customer visits with driving, etc in between - in my view this device can easily support an all day effort.
While I've seen several reviews that have complained about the lack of "HD" resolution on the screen - I found the 1440 x 900 to be fine. Viewing photos and clips was great and I wasn't expecting high end graphics in an ultra-portable. All in all when looking at the hardware - it really is an impressive package for the money.
So one thing I ran into with my friend was getting the 802.11ac networking to work correctly. When he installed the new AirPort Extreme - he used the AirPort utility to migrate the settings from his old AirPort. When using the Network Utility - we noticed that we were never getting above a 280Mbps connection in the 5Ghz band.
So first - I said - well let's look at what other networks are around you and also if your 5Ghz band is presenting the 80Mhz channel width that is part of the 802.11ac model.
I've always liked a tool called inSSIDer from MetaGeek to give you a nice view of the 2.4 and 5.0Ghz bands SSIDs, etc around you and to see if you have overlap or conflicts etc. So after quick download from the AppStore - we started checking and sure enough the 5Ghz band was only showing 40Mhz channel width.
Unfortunately - the Apple AirPort Utility does not provide the level of granularity into wireless settings that most of us used to web based management tools provide. It's shame that Apple does not provide that level of detail in their advanced settings. So then it became a question of hey since 802.11ac is still a draft has Apple released the product without full ac support and will address in a later upgrade ? So the answer is No - here is what we found.
We started by examining the AirPort Extreme configuration file. While Apple does provide the ability to dump the settings in an XML file - it's not very user manageable and there isn't much documentation on how to interpret/manipulate the file. So not much value there...
So how did we get it working ? Basically we did a "factory" reset on the device - reconfigured using the utility and bang all of a sudden were were seeing 80Mhz channel width and the wireless connection jumped to 1Gbps. The transfer of settings from the old AirPort basically downgraded the capabilities of the device. Recommendation - if you get a new AirPort Extreme - don't transfer settings - configure it from scratch...
While it was cool seeing a 1Gbps wireless connection - how did it perform ? In a word "mixed". Even with the 802.11ac connection network tests using Speedtest revealed very mixed results as you moved around his home - as a result of the lack of wall penetration with 5Ghz. In comparison connecting at 2.4 while providing a much lower connection speed - provided a much more consistent result and much better range.
So - does the Apple 802.11ac work ? Yes.
Do you see dramatic overall throughput increases ? Sometimes - but only at close ranges to the AirPort.
To me this has always been the challenge with 5Ghz - regardless of vendor - in real world scenarios. In the right use case - so an apartment or average sized home - I think yes you'll see benefit - but if your have to pass through multiple walls, etc - the value of 5Ghz really falls off.
Bottom line - would I buy the new MBA and AirPort ? As a device that could get me through a typical business day and also be able to listen to music, watch videos - yes. To me Apple has done a nice job with these devices.
While you may or may not be a MacOS fan - from a hardware point of view I am unaware of anybody else who is shipping a Haswell/NGFF/802.11ac laptop today at that price point.
While there is one part of me that does not necessarily like the lack of self-upgrade / maintenance options with the MBA form factor - the fact that it already supports the latest next generation form factor (NGFF) PCI-e hard drive and Haswell is pretty cool.
Overall the performance to me was average - partially due to low base clock speed of the Haswell ULT processor. But what what really impressive was the battery life. While I did not sit there and pound the device all day long, I did perform basic browsing, email and using the AirPort utility (more on that in a bit) the device ran several days without a charge when using the default power settings. You could run for an hour - close the lid - let it sit around - come back open the lid and go.
So for some portable use cases like a day with multiple customer visits with driving, etc in between - in my view this device can easily support an all day effort.
While I've seen several reviews that have complained about the lack of "HD" resolution on the screen - I found the 1440 x 900 to be fine. Viewing photos and clips was great and I wasn't expecting high end graphics in an ultra-portable. All in all when looking at the hardware - it really is an impressive package for the money.
So one thing I ran into with my friend was getting the 802.11ac networking to work correctly. When he installed the new AirPort Extreme - he used the AirPort utility to migrate the settings from his old AirPort. When using the Network Utility - we noticed that we were never getting above a 280Mbps connection in the 5Ghz band.
So first - I said - well let's look at what other networks are around you and also if your 5Ghz band is presenting the 80Mhz channel width that is part of the 802.11ac model.
I've always liked a tool called inSSIDer from MetaGeek to give you a nice view of the 2.4 and 5.0Ghz bands SSIDs, etc around you and to see if you have overlap or conflicts etc. So after quick download from the AppStore - we started checking and sure enough the 5Ghz band was only showing 40Mhz channel width.
Unfortunately - the Apple AirPort Utility does not provide the level of granularity into wireless settings that most of us used to web based management tools provide. It's shame that Apple does not provide that level of detail in their advanced settings. So then it became a question of hey since 802.11ac is still a draft has Apple released the product without full ac support and will address in a later upgrade ? So the answer is No - here is what we found.
We started by examining the AirPort Extreme configuration file. While Apple does provide the ability to dump the settings in an XML file - it's not very user manageable and there isn't much documentation on how to interpret/manipulate the file. So not much value there...
So how did we get it working ? Basically we did a "factory" reset on the device - reconfigured using the utility and bang all of a sudden were were seeing 80Mhz channel width and the wireless connection jumped to 1Gbps. The transfer of settings from the old AirPort basically downgraded the capabilities of the device. Recommendation - if you get a new AirPort Extreme - don't transfer settings - configure it from scratch...
While it was cool seeing a 1Gbps wireless connection - how did it perform ? In a word "mixed". Even with the 802.11ac connection network tests using Speedtest revealed very mixed results as you moved around his home - as a result of the lack of wall penetration with 5Ghz. In comparison connecting at 2.4 while providing a much lower connection speed - provided a much more consistent result and much better range.
So - does the Apple 802.11ac work ? Yes.
Do you see dramatic overall throughput increases ? Sometimes - but only at close ranges to the AirPort.
To me this has always been the challenge with 5Ghz - regardless of vendor - in real world scenarios. In the right use case - so an apartment or average sized home - I think yes you'll see benefit - but if your have to pass through multiple walls, etc - the value of 5Ghz really falls off.
Bottom line - would I buy the new MBA and AirPort ? As a device that could get me through a typical business day and also be able to listen to music, watch videos - yes. To me Apple has done a nice job with these devices.
While you may or may not be a MacOS fan - from a hardware point of view I am unaware of anybody else who is shipping a Haswell/NGFF/802.11ac laptop today at that price point.
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