Dell offering draft-802.11n card for notebooks

Like many consumers, Dell is getting a little sick of waiting around for the IEEE's Task Group N to pull it together and roll out a final version of the next-gen WiFi standard, so the company has decided to start offering its own draft-802.11n card in all XPS and select Inspiron laptops. As you're probably already aware, 802.11n will be a wireless networking protocol that uses MIMO technology to offer greater range and speed than traditional 802.11a/b/g networks, but has been famously bogged down by delays and questions of interoperability. Dell's implementation comes in the form of its redundantly-named Wireless 1500 Draft 802.11n dual-band wireless card, which utilizes Broadcom's Intensi-fi flavor of draft-N -- available in such products as Netgear's RangeMax Next lineup -- to provide those desirable performance boosts. Usually we'd recommend that you wait to take the plunge until the dust settles and a final standard is announced, but since that may not happen in our lifetimes and Dell's backwards-compatible card is only $59 (or less, plus the cost of a router), it doesn't sound too risky to give this option a try.

[Via Notebook Review]

[ozgur @ Jul 17th 2006 11:59AM]

that is good news

[Jordan @ Jul 17th 2006 12:19PM]

54 mbps max is fast enough for me, for now. Extending the speed is great, and will be necessary for the future, but kick the range up to 10 times that of 802.11g and THEN I'll care.

[sputnik @ Jul 17th 2006 1:16PM]

This sounds promising for Media Center streaming connections. My laptop has Media Center and it works much smoother streaming to the 360 when I'm using my Ethernet cable as opposed to 802.11g...so this should make streaming over wireless a better experience.

[Nihls @ Jul 17th 2006 1:17PM]

Maybe it is time to start a "DellBoy" blog. I dont know if anyone else feels the same, but reading about Dell is making me sleepy.

[js @ Jul 17th 2006 1:23PM]

Decisions like these are the reason why Dell has more laptops exploding than anyone else.

[Wry Cooter @ Jul 17th 2006 3:20PM]

It would be nice if Dell tried to sell if for home networks only. It would also be fitting if none of them worked properly with existing public hotspots, and Dell had to scramble for a lot of warranty replacements for more standard units.

That is, if Dell was smart, rather than Greedy, they would sell these with a caveat to the cutting edge hobbyist that knows they may have problems, and will not mind if it ends up in the roundfile.

[luke @ Jul 17th 2006 7:27PM]

when will dell start offering the option to have an internal wireless card for their desktop range!

every system we buy from them must be kitted out with a wireless card. they should have an internal option which would include an antenna in the chassis of the case.

[Oditius @ Oct 27th 2006 7:22AM]

It would be nice if Dell (or anyone else) made the mini card for all it's XPS's. The only card they have won't fit in my XPS generation 2.