The wifi problem thread at Sony's forum and the Vaio Pro thread at Notebookreview's forum show Sony's Vaio Pro manifests wifi issues quite similar to the ones in the mid-2013 Macbook Airs. Updated drivers make the Vaio's wifi functional for most, but people with more than one computer who can compare wifi performance report the Sony's wifi is slow, especially as the machine is moved further from a router. Use of Bluetooth often worsens wifi performance and may even halt it. In some cases the updated drivers don't fix the problem and the Vaio Pro can't use wifi at all. And to clarify, Apple and Sony chose different wireless components: the Vaio uses the Intel N-7260 for wifi and Bluetooth, no AC. Apple uses a Broadcom card for wifi and Bluetooth in the MBA and it supports AC. (Amusingly, the tech-obsessed folk at the Notebookreview forum are far more bothered by the Vaio Pro's tendency to rev up a loud fan under light CPU loads than they are by its wifi problems, but many of those posters have powerful routers and are thus less likely to experience wifi troubles at home.)
For me, the following post at the Sony thread captures the difficulties facing a Vaio Pro buyer who gets a laptop struggling with (presumed) bad power issues:http://community.sony.com/t5/VAIO-Hardware-Networking/New-Sony-Vaio-Pro-Wifi-Iss ue/m-p/148777#M8144
I'm not trying to pick on Sony. And I'm certainly not trying to pick on Apple. If anything, I'm disappointed in Intel--though with a huge dose of sympathy--because I believe they rushed Haswell to market in a wave of enthusiasm that wasn't accompanied by methodical care. I'm certain the Haswell design will be polished and its manufacture perfected as the months pass. In the meantime, I don't think it's logistically possible for Apple to bench-test all its MBA stock to see which boards meet specs and which do not. It's even possible that several hours of usage might alter the way these boards perform. Annoying as it may be, it's probably most realistic to let buyers request exchanges from Apple when a flawed machine turns up.
So what would I tell my friends & family? It would depend on their specific needs, but in general: Clearly there are some fully-functional Haswell logicboards in the current Macbook Air line. Cloudi has one. There must be more out there and many pleased Apple customers. And the number of buyers for whom the update didn't measurably help the wifi issues is (I think) not huge. Is the current MBA a wifi powerhouse? Well no, but this might be a reasonable trade-off for great battery life for many users. The current MBA is remarkably light, sturdier than the Vaio Pro, and astonishing for its ability to work all day on a single charge. I would urge anyone considering buying it, however, to purchase it at an official Apple store in case an exchange were needed. People have 14 days to decide if it will or will not meet their needs. Make *intense* use of those 14 days to be sure problems will be discovered within that two weeks.
As for existing MBA 2013 customers who lack reasonably functional wifi, IMO they are immediately owed either a new Air to try or a similar Macbook with workable wifi. Apple would be extremely unwise to ignore these customers, regardless of where the MBA was purchased. I hope and believe Apple will do the right thing when they puzzle this out and when they stop hyperventilating and hurling epithets in the general direction of Santa Clara. (And, of course, Haswell may in fact be innocent. Time will tell.)
vhkim
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wifiguru
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