Pre-N WiFi gear: consider yourself warned

So for those not following the IEEE 802.11n draft spec pending approval and ratification, it could still be a while before that gets sorted out and "true" 802.11n gear hits the market. Of course, that hasn't stopped manufacturers from making 802.11n-speed (or faster) and MIMO wireless devices for the past couple of years, but now that the spec drafts are merged into one, the first "proper" pre-N chipsets are hitting the market, and finding their way into actual devices. However, eWeek and the Farpoint Group advise a big caveat emptor on pre-N purchases, as early gear tested by the two has shown issues from incompatibility to poor performance and range that's sub-par to existing non pre-N Airgo Gen 3 True MIMO chipset-based devices. So do you really need that pre-N gear that much? Obviously it's your call, but being an early adopter does have its tradeoffs.