Honey, I shrunk the Wireless-N USB adapter

Dong Ngo | Nov 07, 2008

The GW-USMicronN next its D-Link counterpart.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

Most laptops these days come with built-in Wi-Fi or even Wireless-N capability. However, if you have an old laptop or a game console that you want to hook to the Internet wirelessly, I've got some good news...and it's tiny.

I just got my hands on the GW-USMicronN, Planex's latest USB Wireless-N adapter that the company announced at the end of last month. I've seen a lot of USB wireless adapters and I am generally not impressed with them.

The GW-USMicronN, however, is very different: it's tiny--just about a sixth of the D-Link DWA160, which is already rather compact among USB Wireless-N adapters.

Despite the small form factor, the GW-USMicronN supports Wireless-N with MIMO technology and is backward-compatible with Wireless-G. It supports all encryption standards and Wi-Fi Protected Setup, which allows you to quickly hook a wireless device to a network without having to enter the hard-to-remember encryption key.

I tried it out with our test laptop and got a good signal from it with about the same range and throughput speed as other regular-size Wireless-N adapters.

The GW-USMicronN has one more thing that makes it different from most USB Wi-Fi adapters: it's compatible with Xlink Kai. This means it works with games consoles such as the PSP, PS3, Nintendo Wii, and other Xlink Kai-compliant devices.

The GW-USMicronN will be available in the U.S. sometime next month and will cost around US$30.

Via CNET Crave

Filed under: Notebooks, PC & Peripherals
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