Apple unveiled a new redesigned Airport Extreme on June 10, 2013. A radical change in design was an understatement if you happened to be watching the keynote live that day. It is a tower. A square tower to be more precise. Instead of smaller or slimmer (more flat), they went taller.
Going larger and taller does seem to make more sense after having a few minutes to soak it all in. With the new Airport Extreme supporting faster connections speeds 802.11ac, the likelihood of the device shrinking in size was unlikely. The faster the transfer speeds, the more antennas you have to cram in the router. The taller the router, the better the wireless footprint will be. Almost seems too easy to predict but yet there is no way anyone would have predicted this shape. Same for the new upcoming Mac Pro as well.
I purchased a new router to test out and use. My initial testing after having the Airport Extreme N (with guest network ability) shows the reception on my iPad Mini and iPhone 5 have improved in the one part of the house that had no wireless coverage. The iPad and iPhone don't support the ac standard but the footprint the new Airport Extreme lays down is superior to it's predecessor Looking for an extra 20 - 30 feet of coverage in that house of yours? I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this new router by Apple.
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| Airport Extreme 802.11ac on the network table |
Yes the router is faster! Yes it is different yet better than before! Boo I don't have a single device that can take advantage of the new gigabit wireless speeds everyone is talking about.
Biggest and best feature wasn't the new router at all
The best feature of the day was when I plugged in the router and was ready to import my configuration file from my old Airport Extreme N into the new Airport Extreme ac. The setup was automatic! This has been the best experience ever when replacing or upgrading routers.
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| Magic Router Transition |
I simply clicked on my wireless icon in the Menu Bar, selected the new router, and it went all Apple and within 2 minutes I was up and running on my new router just like magic. It was able to import the current configuration file from the old Airport Extreme, reset the old Airport Extreme to factory defaults, and I not one of my devices so much as hiccuped asking for new passwords or permission to connect to the new Airport Extreme. All with one click of a button!
User Experience: A+
Price: $199 US
Recommendation: If you need a new router or just need more footprint, then don't hesitate to pick one up if you have the money to do so.
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