Apple Airport Extreme 6th Gen and Time Capsule
1 of September 2025 - Gamerabbit
The Apple Airport Extreme 802.11ac 6th generation along the Time Capsule 5th gen came out on June 23 of 2013 at Apple's 2013 WWDC. The new Mac Pro was released the same year with its legendary design, which also caused its failure, but that not the subject here !
The Tech specs of this beauty :
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
- Frequency: Simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz
- Data Throughput: 1.3 Gigabits per second (Gbps)
-
Interfaces:
- 1x RJ-45 Connector for 100/1000Mbps Ethernet WAN
- 3x RJ-45 Connector for 100/1000Mbps Ethernet LAN
- USB 2.0 for Network Printing, AirPort Disk or Time Machine backup
- Guest Network Support
-
Security:
- WPA/WPA2
- WPA/WPA2 Enterprise
- MiMO: 3x3:3 per band
- Support for up to 50 concurrent devices
- CPU: Dual Cortex A9 Broadcom BCM53019A1
- Flash Memory: 32MB
- RAM: 512MB
- Model Number: A1521
- Dimensions : 98 mm x 98 mm x 168 mm
Source: theapplewiki.com
This New Revision of the Airport Extreme, the Airport Extreme 6th Gen and the TimeCapsule, the TimeCapsule 5th Gen were the last Airport Extreme and TimeCapsule to be realised by Apple. They were discontinued in 2018, 5 years after the release. They got the final and main redesign of the Airport lignup, a small rounded rectangle with a white glossy finish and a small LED on the front. The Airport Extreme 6th has the same width as the Airport Express 2nd Gen which harmonize the lineup design (compared to the 1st Gen airport Extreme and 1st Gen Airport Extreme). This redesign of the Airport Extreme and TimeCapsule had a real life purpose too, it improved the signal range and reduce interferences.
Screenshot of the 2013 WWDC Keynote where the Airport Extreme 6th Gen and Time Capsule 5th Gen were announced.
Source: Youtube.com
Apple introduced the Airport Extreme 6th gen and TimeCapsule 5th gen with Wifi 802,11ac, also called Wifi 5,
The max Wifi speed (source:Apple) was 1,3Gbps (1300Mbps), but the Ethernet port were theoretically limited to 1Gbps (1000Mbps), well you see the problem how the Airport Extreme can diffuse Wifi at 1,3Gbps when it can only receive 1Gpbs.
It had beamforming technology, with a special beamforming antenna ray, composed of 6 antenna, 3 for 2,4 Ghz and 3 for 5 Ghz and positioned in such a way to deliver signal and target devices. Beamforming is a technology that focuses a wireless signal towards a specific receiving device, rather than having the signal spread in all directions from a broadcast antenna, this way the signal is stronger and the connection more reliable.
Source: Apple.com
Let's talk about the Time Capsule. When Apple released it, it came in two hard drive sizes: 2TB and 3TB. When I opened both the Time Capsule and the Airport Extreme, I realized that apart from the Time Capsule having a hard drive, there was another difference. Only the Time Capsule had the connectivity for the hard drive, whereas the Airport Extreme has exposed copper, so we can't add a disk drive internally in the Airport Extreme without soldering or modifying it.
Images Source: iFixit.com and emilechuffart.com
So, after some trying, tweaking and reading, I'm gonna say what I found. In comparison to the 1st Gen Airport Extreme, we cannot connect the Airport Extreme 6th Gen or the Time Capsule 5th Gen to an existing non-Apple router to extend the wifi or even just to connect it to use its Disk Drive. If we don't have a non-Apple router, the only way to use it is to plug it with ethernet to the main router or use it as a main router. A small detail I appreciate is that the Status Led is way smaller and less bright than the 1st gen Airport Extreme, which in my case where I have it in my bedroom, it can be very annoying at night.
