Will Samsung be putting 802.11ac WiFi cards into their 2013 models?

Has anyone read or heard anything about this one way or another?

I know that 802.11ac is still currently in "Draft" mode (5.0), but I just noticed that Vizio (of all OEM's) is now using 802.11ac in their notebooks. I read an article about a month ago that upcoming Mac's will be supporting them too.

I badly need a new notebook and am really excited about the ATIV 7 or a potential new ATIV 9 and really want my next notebook to have this specification. I know 802.11ac routers have been available since early 2012, but I'm also confused about the whole draft process and whether a future or "final draft" could render any current 802.11ac hardware (integrated network cards and/or routers) useless?

 

The WiFi card is an easily swappable component and, unlike some notebook manufacturers, Samsung don't whitelist WiFi cards in the BIOS. I would therefore not make the supplied WiFi card a non-negotiable feature. However, many of the thinner notebooks use a combo WiFi / bluetooth card and only include only two antennae both of which limit the upgrade options.

More important to WiFi performance is where Samsung choose to locate the antennae. The 2012 Series 7 and Series 9 have the antennae at the back of the chassis where the proximity to metal reduces the signal. They need to get the antennae back to the traditional location along the top edge of the display with a plastic strip forming the top edge of the display back. Otherwise even the best WiFi card will struggle to give good throughput at reasonable range.

John

 

thanks for the reply John.

do you know whether the current ATIV 7 card is upgradeable and whether samsung has relocated the antennae on the 2013 models?

 

The specs for the Ativ Book 7 show it uses the Intel 6235 card (which has been problematic for many people but may have finally been fixed by this month's driver update). The photo here shows both the WiFi card and the WiFi antennae cables going into one of the hinges. Another photo shows a separate (plastic?) panel along the top edge of the display. However, I have seen other photos of what was the Series 7 Ultra where that separate panel isn't obvious.

John

 

Thanks, in her video of removing the bottom of the 7 Ultra she says that the antennae cables "connect into the hinge and then travel around the display". There isn't video of the display internals however, which would be nice - hopefully some photos will later emerge. It would seem crazy if the antennae didn't extend up into the display area.

Since the back can be removed, does that mean whenever a standardized 802.11ac integrated card is released it could replace the Intel 6235 in the Series 7? Also, there's only 2 antennae cables with the 6235, but would the 802.11ac require 4 cables like some other cards?

 

If the cables go into the hinge then the antennae will be in the display. Most probably at the top. One would need a sight of the service manual to find out the exact arrangement because these thin displays use glued bezels which have to be replaced if the display is pulled apart.

It appears from the info here that ac can use up to 4 antennae in order to increase the bandwidth but will work with fewer antennae. You should also be aware that the Intel 6235 is a combo WiFi / Bluetooth card so, unless you are willing to forgo BT, any replacement would need to include the BT functionality.

I doubt if I will be rushing into ac in the near future. I've only recently invested in a concurrent dual band router so I can have slower long range 2.4Ghz running alongside faster 5GHz short range connections.

John