Does The New iPad Have Its Own Antennagate Affecting Wi-Fi Performance?

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Some new iPad owners are finding its Wi-Fi performance to be poor at best.
Some new iPad owners are finding its Wi-Fi performance to be poor at best.

Forget the slight increase in temperature issue-that-shouldn’t-even-be-an-issue affecting the new iPad. According to some early adopters, the third-generation tablet has its own antennagate. Many users are taking to Apple’s Support Communities forum to complain that the Wi-Fi signal on their device is a lot weaker than that of their iPad 2, and even their iPhones and MacBooks.

The support thread, which was first spotted by Gizmodo, began like this:

I am in a hotel with my laptop and new ipad3. The laptop wifi reception is as strong as it gets, but the iPad only registers a weak signal. Anyone else having similar problems? Any suggestions?

That post quickly spawned a number of replies — 66 at the time of writing this post — many of which compare their new iPad’s Wi-Fi performance with that of their other Apple gadgets, particularly the iPad 2. Here’s a few of them:

Same here ipad2 has twice the wifi range with the same settings as the ipad3. The screens nice but I may return mine if this is the way they all are.

Same here! Will not hold WIFI for more than a few minutes. Two MacBooks and iPhone working fine from same router. Ready to return iPad!!!!!

Same problem. Have the Decorah Eagles live cam running on my MacPro, Mac desktop, and Mac Air on home network no problem. The New IPad – continually loading with occasional brief connection. THIS IS A PROBLEM APPLE YOU NEED TO FIX IT!
Thank you.

I had an ipad1 and no problems,  ipad2 and no problems, ipad3 wifi is WEAK. Settings are the same as the ipad2. I am running a iPhone 4s and an i7 MacBook air on the same routers

While 66 complaints (so far!) may seem like a lot, it’s really a tiny percentage of new iPad owners when you consider that Apple sold 3 million units during the first three days on sale. However, it’s clear that for some users — who may have received devices from a “bad batch” — there is an issue.

Personally, I’ve had no problems with Wi-Fi on my new iPad. What’s yours like?

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