Apple Airport Extreme Base Station A1521

The Apple AirPort Extreme A1521, released in 2013, represents the sixth and final generation of Apple’s AirPort Extreme line. Designed as a high-performance wireless router, it introduced support for the then-new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, offering faster speeds and better range than previous models. The device features simultaneous dual-band operation on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and six internal antennas to improve wireless coverage.

The A1521 has a clean, minimalist vertical tower design, identical to the fifth-generation Time Capsule (A1470) but without an internal hard drive. On the back, it includes one Gigabit WAN port, three Gigabit LAN ports, and a USB 2.0 port—primarily used for network printing or external hard drives (for basic file sharing over the network).

Setup and management are handled through Apple’s AirPort Utility, available on macOS, iOS, and Windows. The final firmware version is 7.9.1, released in 2020, and while Apple discontinued the entire AirPort line in 2018, the A1521 continues to be supported by the utility and remains a stable, reliable router.