AX210 WiFi Module

My house that I moved into is older and has a lack of cabling/coax jacks, so I setup a nice Wi-Fi 6 mesh network. Issue was that my laptop is a 2015 Dell Inspiron 14-5458. If 802.11ax mode (Wi-Fi 6) is enabled on the network, my laptop could not detect it due to the outdated WLAN/Wi-Fi 5 card. My mom's 2019 Dell Inspiron 13-7375 laptop had a defective card that would randomly be unable to detect any network.I decided to purchase a couple of these cards after verifying they would fit our device models, and needless to say, they work great! I searched for, downloaded, and installed Windows 10 Intel AX210 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi drivers prior to installing the cards. I looked up some diseembly videos and pictures to get an idea of where to install them. Once the laptops were taken apart, I made sure to disconnect the batteries and located the cards. I unclipped the antennae, pulled the cards out of their slots, and popped the new ones in. The toughest part was clipping the antennae back onto the replacement cards because the parts are very small. After around 30 minutes of strenuous effort, sweat, and frustration, I finally got them perfectly lined up to snap into the cards! Thankfully, the process was a bit quicker on my mom's laptop after tirelessly struggling on mine.After the new cards were installed and the laptops put together, I tested them out. My old laptop detected the network without issue and download speeds over Wi-Fi 6 were significantly faster than with the old card! With the new hardware, my mom's laptop consistently detected the network after reboot and when waking from sleep.All in all, this purchase was definitely worth it and for roughly $40, these newer WLAN/Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) cards can breathe life into the wireless connectivity and bandwidth speeds for your older laptops!

Once installed completely, the WiFi and Bluetooth functions work terrifically. Windows File Explorer transfer speeds across my gigabit LAN on large files increased from about 30 MB/s to 101 MB/s...more than a 3x increase in speed and seems to be maxxing out my gigE LAN. The new card is talking to a Netgear Nighthawk WiFi 6 Mesh Range Extender EAX80 (AX6000) that is connected via ethernet cable to my LAN.Hardware installation was straightforward: A standard M.2 port, one screw, and 2 tiny little connectors for the WiFi and Bluetooth antenna wires.Software installation was a pain because I didn't do a couple critical things beforehand and so ended up with all of the previously paired BT devices getting "locked" (but unusable) by the previous driver and unable to delete them. Here's what I recommend for the installation process:1. Remove/delete ALL existing paired bluetooth devices.2. Turn OFF bluetooth and WiFi.3. Uninstall the BT and WiFi drivers (AND check the box to delete the drivers.)4. Turn the computer off and do the card swap.5. Turn on the computer, wait for Windows to install the new drivers, and then re-pair your BT devices.For me, Windows 10 recognized the hardware and installed the BT and WiFi drivers, but I still went to Intel's website and installed the most current Intel drivers for both components.

The card performs well. No issues so far.

I recently got a new Dell Inspiron 15 (Ryzen 5-7530U) laptop, it has nice specs, however I didn’t like some internal components, specially the WiFi card, it came with a Realtek RTL8821CE which only supports 1-stream 802.11ac protocol with a max connection speed of 433Mbps, so I knew I had to upgrade it to a better one like this Intel AX210 card:PROS- Came well protected.- Includes screw and protector plate.- Just plug & play (didn’t need to download drivers on Windows 11)CONS- The main disadvantage would be you need tech skills to install it. If you have doubts, consider someone else to do it for you.MAIN SPECS- Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)- 2x2 MIMO streams- Target Wake Time (TWT) to increase laptop battery life.- Bluetooth 5.3INSTALLATIONInstalling this card involves:- Removing 8 screws holding the laptop bottom cover.- Locating the WiFi card and removing the screw holding it in place.- Unattach the antennas.- Swap the new WiFi card in.- Connect antennas, consult your computer manual, as there is no standard on the color of the main and aux cables, for my laptop, white corresponds to MAIN connector and black to AUX connector.- Secure WiFi card with protective plate and screw.- Put back the laptop cover and secure it in place.DRIVERSAfter booting the laptop Windows 11 recognized and installed the drivers automatically, I just had to enter the WiFi credentials again and it connected flawlessly.BLUETOOTH 5.3I have a BT mouse connected to the laptop and all I can say is that it works. But BT 5.3 offers a more robust, power-efficient, and user-friendly Bluetooth experience compared to Bluetooth 5.0, especially if you use it to connect audio devices.CONCLUSIONI now have a speedy 1733 Mbps connection, as I have a WiFi 5 Synology RT2600 Router that I got back in 2017, I’m happy with the upgrade, if I ever upgrade my router I know the laptop will support WiFi 6.

Do yourself a favor and download both the wifi and bluetooth drivers from Intel FIRST before you change the wifi card out. Then you'll have the drivers ready to install after putting the computer back together. FYI I have a Windows 10 with Core I7 - 7Gen!!, and the wifi card is working great.Update: After experiencing some random BSOD and tracing it back to the date I installed the wifi card, I uninstalled it and no longer get BSOD errors. Perhaps there were complications with the electrical components.