Apple's new Time Capsule incorporates both a wireless router and a hard drive into the same product. In its niche, the Time Capsule is the most advanced product on the market -- its price is also fair compared with a separate router and network-attached hard drive.

It is available in either a 500GB (for AU$429) or 1TB (for AU$699) model. Mac owners and the space or design conscious should consider the Time Capsule if they're in need of a router upgrade, but Windows PC owners should look elsewhere for more advanced storage capabilities, as should anyone that demands fast wireless performance.

Setup and ease of use
Time Capsule is essentially an Airport Extreme Base Station with a built-in hard drive and an easy-to-use, Mac-only automated backup program. Most of what we said in our review of the original, standalone Airport Extreme Base Station applies to the Time Capsule as far as its networking capabilities. Both products provide you with a 2.4GHz or 5.0GHz 802.11n wireless network. We are happy to report that we were able to connect an Intel-powered Mac Pro, an iMac G5, a Windows Vista-based HP Pavilion tx2000z laptop, and the Windows XP-based Lenovo X300 laptop to the Time Capsule wirelessly with little trouble. Each system was also able to read and write to the Time Capsule's hard drive.

The design of the Time Capsule is clean and visually appealing, and almost identical to the Airport Extreme Base Station. You still get one indicator light up front and a row of ports on the back. That's it. Many routers offer an array of blinking status LEDs, but the Time Capsule gives you only a static green light to let you know that it's working. The backside provides you with a single gigabit Ethernet port for a connection to your broadband internet or LAN, three Gigabit ports for hard-wired network devices and a single USB 2.0 input. There's no power button, but you do get a reset button to restore the factory default settings. The power cable plugs directly into the back. We should note that while the Time Capsule is basically silent, the top gets hot, especially when the hard drive is moving a lot of data. Be sure to store it in a well-ventilated area.

Apple made the claim that setting up the Time Capsule to manage your network is easy, and if you're comfortable with basic networking concepts, it is. If you don't know whether you have a static IP address or you're unfamiliar with abbreviations like PPP and DHCP, you can still probably navigate Time Capsule's handful of setup screens, thanks to mostly clear English descriptions that accompany each option. You initiate the installation by inserting the Time Capsule CD, and from there (on a Mac) it will update your AirPort Utility, and then prompt you to select various options. Windows drivers are also included on the disc.

With your network established, Windows users should be able to see the hard drive in their network folder, and read and write files to it as with any networked storage device. You can set up a password to connect to the drive, although you get no user management interface like that of the HP MediaSmart Server. You can also access the Time Capsule's drive remotely through a .Mac account, which you have to pay for. The HP Server provides you remote access for free, although it's not a router.

Mac users can use the Time Capsule's hard drive for basic storage as well, but they also get more benefit from Time Capsule than the Windows crowd, due to its interface with Leopard's Time Machine feature. Time Machine lets you set automated backups from the Macs on your network directly to the Time Capsule. It took about two hours to back up a relatively sparse 21GB of data on a Macbook laptop over a wired gigabit connection to the Time Capsule. Apple has also preset Time Capsule to perform several backups a day for the first week you set it up, several backups a week after the first day, and then throughout each month, until you run out of drive space. Each backup only saves the information that's changed, so you don't have to do the complete multi-gigabyte data transfer every time. You can also tell Time Machine to back up manually whenever you want.

Performance

As for its performance, we're happy enough with the Time Capsule's capability as a storage device. Results will vary depending on what kind of connection you use (see the wireless performance below, for example) but when you connect a system to the Time Capsule via a Gigabit Ethernet cable, you should feel comfortable knowing that its data transfer speeds lie within the range of what we expect from other network attached hard drives.

Turn over the page to see how the Apple Time Capsule performs as a router, and our views on service and support.

Ixia IxChariot maximum throughput tests with mixed 802.11b/g and draft N clients (at 15 feet, in Mbps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Mixed throughput

Edimax BR-6504N nMax

68 

Netgear RangeMax Next WNR854T

67.5 

Asus WL-500W 802.11n

55.1 

SMC SMCWGBR14-N Barricade N

52.4 

Apple Time Capsule

51.51 

D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme Gaming Router

50.9 

LevelOne N-One WBR-6000

23.9 

Ixia IxChariot long-range tests (Throughput measured indoors at 200 feet, in Mbps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Throughput 200 feet

Asus WL-500W 802.11n

29.7 

D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme Gaming Router

27 

Netgear RangeMax Next WNR854T

26.9 

SMC SMCWGBR14-N Barricade N

24.3 

Apple Time Capsule

21.36 

Edimax BR-6504N nMax

11.4 

LevelOne N-One WBR-6000

5.3 

Although we're satisfied with its storage performance, as a wide-bandwidth 802.11n wireless router, the Time Capsule is decidedly mediocre. On the 2.4GHz performance indicated in our charts, the Time Capsule fell behind by a full 20 Mbps on our max throughput test compared with a NetGear RangeMax router. It's also on the lower end of the spectrum when compared on our long range and mixed throughput tests. We don't show 5.0GHz frequency scores for brevity, but our results on those tests scaled in a similar fashion. Anecdotally, backing up and moving data back and forth between the drive and various systems felt reasonably fast, but if you need your network to be especially speedy, our charts show that you have several faster options out there.

Service and support
Apple's service and support support are also unimpressive, but this isn't exactly news. The one-year parts and labour warranty is standard across the industry, but Apple's 90 days of phone support is the shortest coverage plan around. Online you'll find the standard array of assistance. If you can't find the support you need from Apple's FAQs or troubleshooting document, the Apple user forum is a reliable alternative.