Does the entry level mbp have worst wifi?

[SoulLife9z]

I have read this review on best buy that states

No touch bar has low wifi configuration compared to touch bar models.

can anyone confirm?

 

[DeltaMac]

No touch bar has low wifi configuration compared to touch bar models

Ah, what do you think that means?
The wifi hardware is the same, AFAIK, among those models, other than possibly antenna differences between the 13-inch and 15-inch screen sizes. I don't think that would make so much difference to make one "low" and another would be better.

Why do you suppose the BestBuy site worded that review that way?

 

[coolbreeze]

I wouldn't base panic off of some random Best Buy.com review.

BB gives rewards points for writing reviews of purchased products, so many of them are just throwaway thoughts so they can collect the bounty.

 

[dark_mark]

I wouldn't base panic off of some random Best Buy.com review.

BB gives rewards points for writing reviews of purchased products, so many of them are just throwaway thoughts so they can collect the bounty.

It's not some random review. It is listed in Apple specifications on their website that:

13" nTB Wi-Fi supports 867 mb/s
13 TB Wi-Fi supports 1300 mb/s.
15 TB Wi-Fi supports 1300 mb/s

 

[acorntoy]

It's not some random review. It is listed in Apple specifications on their website that:

13" nTB Wi-Fi supports 867 mb/s
13 TB Wi-Fi supports 1300 mb/s.
15 TB Wi-Fi supports 1300 mb/s

It's unwise to overblow these specs though, as most people do not have the wifi to come anywhere near even 867 mb/s.

 

[dark_mark]

It's unwise to overblow these specs though, as most people do not have the wifi to come anywhere near even 867 mb/s.

Why? I have 1 gigabit connection at home. Also keep in mind that wi-fi has a lot of overhead which cuts your practical speed in half. In other words on 1300 mb/s connection I get 500-600mb/s real life throughput.

On 867 mb/s connection real world throughput is going to be 300-400 mb/s. It may or may not be a big deal to you, depending on how fast your internet connection is at home. Also keep in mind that in 2-3 years, gigabit internet will be much more common that it is now.

 

[ncm34]

It's unwise to overblow these specs though, as most people do not have the wifi to come anywhere near even 867 mb/s.

Agreed.

Oddly enough for me, I have 1000mbps down at my apartment, and my router supports up to 1.3gbps. However I can only routinely pull off ~450mbps on wifi with the nTB. On wired I can get up to 900+mbps.

 

[ghanwani]

Why? I have 1 gigabit connection at home. Also keep in mind that wi-fi has a lot of overhead which cuts your practical speed in half. In other words on 1300 mb/s connection I get 500-600mb/s real life throughput.

On 867 mb/s connection real world throughput is going to be 300-400 mb/s. It may or may not be a big deal to you, depending on how fast your internet connection is at home. Also keep in mind that in 2-3 years, gigabit internet will be much more common that it is now.

Throughput is also affected by signal strength which in turn varies with distance, so getting higher throughput spec is always better. I didn't know this about the nTB models.

Is this because it has a different chip?

 

[acorntoy]

Why? I have 1 gigabit connection at home. Also keep in mind that wi-fi has a lot of overhead which cuts your practical speed in half. In other words on 1300 mb/s connection I get 500-600mb/s real life throughput.

On 867 mb/s connection real world throughput is going to be 300-400 mb/s. It may or may not be a big deal to you, depending on how fast your internet connection is at home. Also keep in mind that in 2-3 years, gigabit internet will be much more common that it is now.

Because the majority of people do not have internet connections anywhere close to yours. While specs are important, speeds at less than half the NTB MBP that could more than easily stream 4k while downloading movies and music. I think it's pretty future proof.

 

[SoulLife9z]

So all in all; is NTB lower wifi spec future proof or not? Like I want my laptop be as good as possible for 5+ years. I feel like I would be losing something essential since Wifi is an importany usage in everydaylife.

 

[evec]

non touch - 2x2 MIMO Broadcom USI module some as MacBook 12 2016 / iPhone 7
other that non touch -3x3 MIMO Broadcom Murata module

Non touch model is used low cost 2x2 Wifi module, MacBook 12 2015 use 2x2 Broadcom Murata module, which Murata module（Japan Company）have better quality that USI (Taiwan Company), sorry that Apple require cost down.

 

[SoulLife9z]

Side question: How do we find out how much mb/s our internet has?

 

[jerryk]

Side question: How do we find out how much mb/s our internet has?

Check with your provider.

 

[snaky69]

So all in all; is NTB lower wifi spec future proof or not? Like I want my laptop be as good as possible for 5+ years. I feel like I would be losing something essential since Wifi is an importany usage in everydaylife.

Look, the only way you'd notice a difference is by transferring very large amounts of data between computers on your own network. For web browsing and downloading, it makes no practical difference at all, unless you have a gigabit internet connection at home.

Wi-fi speed =/= internet or downloading speed. The limiting factor is very likely to be your internet connection, not your Wi-Fi.

 

[ghanwani]

Ran into some weird issue with wifi today. Woke the computer up. It connected fine. A few seconds later, complete loss of connection. Couldn't load any sites. Open up my 2010 and it connects fine to everything. I turn the wifi off, turn it back on, and everything works. Never once had such an issue with my 2010.
[doublepost=1482737961][/doublepost]

Side question: How do we find out how much mb/s our internet has?

If you're looking to test what speed you're getting, you can use this:
https://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

 

[thadoggfather]

Ran into some weird issue with wifi today. Woke the computer up. It connected fine. A few seconds later, complete loss of connection. Couldn't load any sites. Open up my 2010 and it connects fine to everything. I turn the wifi off, turn it back on, and everything works. Never once had such an issue with my 2010.
[doublepost=1482737961][/doublepost]

If you're looking to test what speed you're getting, you can use this:
https://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

happens to mine

still a problem on 10.12.2?

 

[ghanwani]

happens to mine

still a problem on 10.12.2?

[deleted]

I thought it was a different great about graphics issues.

 

[thadoggfather]

Yes, was still a problem in 10.2.2. I returned the machine and ordered another. Someone has reported (just a few messages before this) that the problem does not happen with 10.2.3 beta.

Returned it for this reason or something else? Interesting.. It's most likely software since people are reporting issue on older machines that were running pre-sierra os'es without issue

 

[alex0002]

So all in all; is NTB lower wifi spec future proof or not? Like I want my laptop be as good as possible for 5+ years. I feel like I would be losing something essential since Wifi is an importany usage in everydaylife.

What are you doing with your wifi?

Does your wireless router/wireless access point support those faster speeds?
Is your internet connection faster than 100 Mb/s?

If you are regularly backing up huge files - e.g. whole VMs, to a NAS that is inside your home/office network, it might be an issue. That's assuming your NAS can keep up with your wifi.

If you are mostly downloading files from the internet, I don't think you will ever notice the difference. Even if you get a gigabit fibre connection, most upsteam sites won't be delivering those sorts of speeds.

 

[acorntoy]

What are you doing with your wifi?

Does your wireless router/wireless access point support those faster speeds?
Is your internet connection faster than 100 Mb/s?

If you are regularly backing up huge files - e.g. whole VMs, to a NAS that is inside your home/office network, it might be an issue. That's assuming your NAS can keep up with your wifi.

If you are mostly downloading files from the internet, I don't think you will ever notice the difference. Even if you get a gigabit fibre connection, most upsteam sites won't be delivering those sorts of speeds.

THANK YOU. This is like arguing who has a faster 0-60 on Lombard Street. It doesn't matter because nobody's gonna reach 60.