CES 2013: TRENDnet Announces First USB 3.0 802.11ac Adapter

It’s a little bizarre whenever a new technology hits the market that no one can effectively take advantage of for months or even a year. Take 802.11ac wireless, for example. While the routers have been plentiful, the adapters to actually take advantage of the performance speeds haven’t been. The only easily-attainable adapter has been from NETGEAR, but it has one major flaw: it’s USB 2.0-based. That’s a problem, given it’d throttle back the technology’s true potential to about 1/3rd.

Thankfully, a remedy has been announced at CES, and it comes from TRENDnet. The company’s TEW-805UB AC1200 adapter sports a USB 3.0 interface – meaning no more bottleneck – and supports both n and ac wireless specs. When connecting to an ac router, the adapter will peak at 867Mbit/s (pretty specific, there), while on n, it’ll run at the typical 300Mbit/s.

When it launches in April, the TEW-805UB will retail for $69.99 – not bad, considering that’s about the same price as NETGEAR’s USB 2.0 offering. Now if only April could get here sooner, as we have a couple of 802.11ac routers kicking around that need to be properly tested!