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Can you upgrade the AirPort card in a mid-2012 MacBook Pro?

I'm just wondering if you're able to upgrade the AirPort card in the mid-2012 MacBook Pro, to a new card that will support 802.11ac?


Thank you,

Sam

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, 2.9GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB HD

Posted on Jun 20, 2013 6:10 AM

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Posted on Jun 20, 2013 6:12 AM

Only the Mid 2013 MacBook Air is available with a 802.11ac card, so you can't get it onto the MacBook Pro. This doesn't mean that the AirPort card may not be replaceable, even if I doubt it.


You can buy a USB Wi-Fi adapter that supports 802.11ac, so it's the same as having a 802.11ac wireless card

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Jun 20, 2013 6:12 AM in response to MaverickFlyboy

Only the Mid 2013 MacBook Air is available with a 802.11ac card, so you can't get it onto the MacBook Pro. This doesn't mean that the AirPort card may not be replaceable, even if I doubt it.


You can buy a USB Wi-Fi adapter that supports 802.11ac, so it's the same as having a 802.11ac wireless card

Oct 13, 2016 8:35 AM in response to MaverickFlyboy

I don't want to necro old threads, but this is the first thing that pops up in google, so I'll post it here for other people looking:


Tl;dr: yes


You can replace the card with airport card from newer macbook pros, and it will work just fine. There was some concern about antennas being capable of MIMO and beam forming, but wifi ac seems to work fine, here are results of iperf tests (first is just upload, second is simultaneous upload and download; using Linksys EA6400).


User uploaded file

Can you upgrade the AirPort card in a mid-2012 MacBook Pro?

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