Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HMC

This was a great upgrade for my Qosmio laptop. I purchased the card on Amazon from A4-TRADE and had a disappointing experience with them on two fronts - first they apparently sent electronic shipping info but never actually shipped the product (so I had to contact them after several days to get them to actually ship it). When the item arrived it was in a standard (rather than an anti-static) plastic bag - an item like this should ALWAYS be shipped in anti-static packaging. I'd suggest checking with your chosen supplier before purchase that they will ship it in an anti-static bag. However, a supplier who doesn't use anti-static bags is also unlikely to use anti-static precautions when handling the board for shipping. No gripes at all with the device itself, speeds are fast and so far I haven't noticed any of the disconnection type issues some reviewers have complained about. I suspect their disconnection issues may actually be more to do with their routers rather than the device (reviews of some recent AC routers have many users complaining about daily or frequent disconnects). Anyway, worth getting the latest firmware for the router! To install in the Qosmio laptop was relatively easy, remove the subset of F6 screws from the underside that secure the keyboard (I forget if you have to remove the three screws from within the RAM / Hard drive compartment), slide out the DVD, pop out the keyboard (finger access to pop it out is from within the DVD space) to reveal the WiFi card slot. Take a lot of care with the ribbon cables and connectors - never pull or push the ribbon with force). It's worthwhile blowing out the dust from the CPU fans while you're at it - full details of removing the case can be found in various forums - recommend perhaps getting some experienced help if you're not familiar with flat ribbon connectors and micro-coax connectors. I did have a little trouble with the Intel driver installation (Windows 7 64-bit). When I installed the "software with drivers" the card did not appear in the Windows Device list, only after installing the "drivers only" then reinstalling "software with drivers" did the card appear but after that I have had no problems at all and I'm very happy with the upgrade.

As fate would have it, the AC 7260 and a D-Link DWA-182 (USB Wireless AC adapter) arrived on the same day, along with a D-Link DIR-868L AC Router. I have been patiently waiting for a Wireless AC adapter upgrade for my Dell Netbook (replacing an Intel 5300) and this was it, especially with the bonus of Bluetooth. As I typically do with all of my network connections, I test the actual throughput speeds using the excellent third-party utility LAN Speed Test (v3.4) with LAN Speed Server running on my main server across a robust Gigabit-802.11ac network. With the new components and some of my existing setup, I did some fairly extensive comparisons in twos: 2 locations (the two ends of my house where I typically use wireless about 20-30 feet from the optimal router), 2 access points (both are upper-end 802.11ac routers - the D-Link DIR-868L and a Netgear R6200, hereafter called WAPs) and the 2 adapters. Some interesting things came out of this testing method... The basement router serves one half of the house better and the upstairs router (acting as an access point) serves the other half better, but it is not split by level (horizontally) like I thought it would be, but split vertically and that surprised me a bit. Not so surprising was that this adapter performed far better on the 5GHz frequency than the 2.4GHz frequency with either router used (I turned one off and left one on then switched them during the testing process). I first tested the AC 7260 at 4 feet from each WAP and on each frequency to get a baseline or "high performance" measurement. On 5GHz, it averaged 130Mbps Write/Upload & 300Mbps Read/Download on both WAPs, hereafter referred to as just the numbers (e.g. 130/300). On the 2.4GHz band, best transfer speeds averaged 70/90 from the remote locations, meeting my expectation that it would be slower. On the 5Ghz frequency, again in the ideal location for each WAP, I was averaging 100/200 actual throughput speeds with one and close to baseline with the other at 125/290. Note: this was when it displayed between 300-480Mbps as the connection speed in Windows (i.e. full strength) and this disparity between rated and actual speeds has been typical, in my experience. Comparing it to the DWA-182, it averaged 50-90% faster speeds consistently over the days of testing. I recognize that they are not fully/directly comparable with one being portable (USB) and this one being semi-permanent with the advantage of a better antenna array, so that must be considered. My rating is based mostly on the expected performance of the adapter (having upgraded through, now 3, excellent Intel adapters) with the secondary consideration of value. Adding to the value is the added Bluetooth option, allowing me to open a much needed USB port. My findings were similar to what other reviewers found: First, that the Bluetooth drivers that auto-installed in Windows 7 work best. Second, when audio was connected (in this case, some LG HBS700 headphones), that there was a lag of a few seconds when sound was initiated. Not so much of a problem with something like music, but kind of a pain with system sounds. Sometimes, I would not even hear the sound because the lag was longer than the actual sound. But because I don't use Bluetooth much, I will not diminish the rating because of this issue.

I bought this adapter because it had a chance to use the high quality APTx bluetooth codec, and I was happy when it worked. I installed it in an Asus V551LB laptop, and after installing the Intel drivers, the wifi and bluetooth were working perfectly. I had a chat with Intel support, and they said that technically, APTx is not supported on on devices that didn't come with this adapter installed (and they're right: the APTx logo is supposed to appear when a device that supports it connects, but nothing happened when I paired my APTx headphones,) but there is definitely some high quality streaming going on here. I compared several songs, listening through my APTx headset, on both my laptop and my phone (which does NOT have the APTx codec,) and the difference is audibly clear. On the phone, the compression is noticeable, with the high frequencies all scratchy and warble-y. The same song on my laptop (with this adapter) has no issues like that (since the APTx codec ups the bitrate to 192kbps, which for most people, is practically to lossless quality.) As far as the wifi features are concerned, they are d just as good as any other adapter. I can see both signals from my dual-band router, and can connect to each easily. I am getting connection drops occasionally, but I'll be going to check the broadcast channels soon to see if there is any interference. I also like the Intel Smart Connect program that is available (when you put the laptop to sleep it wakes it up every 15, 30, or 60 minutes to update your email and social media programs, then put the computer back to sleep,) it makes it so I always know if I have any updates after putting the laptop to rest for a while.

As expected.. It's Intel.. what can I say..

I installed it into my laptop to replace the old WiFi adaptor that just didn't cut it, the old adaptor was extremely slow and the range wasn't as good, when I replacoit with this one it's a night and day difference, in speed and range.