Seriously, why~ why most new netbook still comes with b/g wireless?

This question bother me for a long time~~ just dont know y most new release netbook (even notebook base config) still comes with b/g wireless card, y not ABGN??? are they cost "alot" more? if not, just why???

Thinking buy a lenovo S12 with ION, but when i look at the b/g wireless, i just feel sad. Is netbook wireless card upgradeable??? but seems like to me that there is no market now, i mean, i can't buy one, i could take one down from existing laptop, right??? and, are they compatible?? If i take one with ABG wireless card from a laptop and replace with new buy BG, will they work?

 

I think it would work as long as you have enough antennas built into the laptop. I think abgn has 3 antennas but the older one only had 2.

 

THe wifi card on netbooks are standard ones on the laptop and they're interchangable. Though, for wireless N, you'll need 3 antennae.

 

I think it's because 802.1 N isn't finalized yet as a standard.

 

You do NOT need 3 antennae for wireless-N, only for the 5 GHz band, or something like that, to reach 450Mbps speed. The Intel WiFi Link 5100, for example, is an a/g/n card, but only has two antenna plugs.

And wireless cards are fully and easily replaceable as long as you have drivers.

To answer your initial question, wireless-N cards are not included by default because wireless N is still not nearly as common as G.

 

uuuuuu maybe because wireless N is not finalized yet and devices out there today are having massive compatibility issues due to no final standard and wireless A is useless due to its short range.

 

It has nothing to due with wireless N being not "common" but has everything to due with Mfrs not following a standard which created MASSIVE incompatibilities.

 

I won't deny that either, but you can't argue that pretty much any public WiFi hotspot you can find these days runs on G.

 

Mastersroom is right about wireless N doesn't need 3 antennas. But the number of antennas has nothing to do with 5GHz band. By current draft N standard, both 2.4Ghz and 5GHz bands can be used, despite the number of antennas connected to the wireless card.

Regarding OP main question, I think good possible answers have been said above. Regarding the other question, whether Lenovo S12 wireless B/G card could be upgraded, the answer is yes.

Actually, many people in this forum have upgraded their notebooks wireless cards. eBay is one of the sources for buying this kind of card.

But...

As this is for Lenovo, there is a possibility that Lenovo implements white list of wireless cards which can be used with their machines. This rule originally applied to Thinkpad models, I don't know whether Lenovo's own model, such as this S12, is also using this kind of scheme. So, if it's going to be upgraded, be sure to get wireless card which belongs to this list. Few eBay sellers mention this compatibility thing on their listings.

 

Yes cost saving. Every cent helps.

I personally don't care, for browsing it makes no difference.

 

Probably because it is a netbook (remember, they do have a defined purpose that is less than a regular laptop), and most times, you don't need faster than wireless G for Internet access.

 

but for online streaming, i think, at least A does a better job than B/G isn't it?

And, there is no market for A or N!! if i buy S12, where do i get a A or N card other than taking out from other computers?? The replacement only make one computer good the other bad though~~

 

Like Phil said, the profit for netbooks (except for the vaio p, of course), is generally about $20. Adding wireless N might cost more than a dollar (consider the price of the Intel 5100 and 5300 cards), cutting into already thin margins.

 

G is more than enough for that. The bandwidth of G is higher than your internet connection, so G won't be the bottleneck.

Ebay

 

not quite sure why you think having 802.11b/g is so bad?

 

I think I know: marketing. No offense to the OP.

Many people believe they need wireless N and 2GB on a XP netbook.

 

And 64 bit
and VT
and a larger hard drive
high res screen (ok, this I can somewhat understand but...again..it is a netbook...)
dual core...(amazing, what did the Internet look like on single core? )
4GB RAM....
dedicated graphics....

 

well, if you want to mod your netbook to be a Access Point, wireless N seems to be the best way to go... not like anyone does this

 

Well Atom is good for browsing but Youtube HD is too much for N270/N280.

So it would be nice to have a CPU that can play HD Flash. I think the 2.0GHz Atom can do it.

Or they need to change flash.

 

If I had feelings, I'd be hurt.:cry: I put a 500GB HDD in my netbook just for kicks, lol...:tongue:

 

As an aside, I have a Toshiba NB205 (one of the newer netbooks) and while it's advertised as b/g, I'm connecting to my DLink DGL-4500 at 150 mbits. Furthermore, I'm able to sustain 8 to 9 megabytes per second of file transfer traffic (just copying compressed MKV h254 files) from my Windows Home Server over wireless, which is beyond what I would expect with b/g.

This is "out of box' Windows 7 RC on a nb205 with all the default drivers. I was quite impressed.