Is Intel Wireless/Bluetooth card upgrade possible?

Yes it's possible, in fact the manual for your system that you can find on support.dell.com even gives you a step-by-step guide complete with diagrams.  Dell systems do not have a WiFi card "whitelist".  I've upgraded lots of Dell laptop models over the years and have never had a problem.  In terms of the warranty, obviously the new card won't be covered by the warranty, and if you break anything while performing the swap, that damage wouldn't be covered either, but other than those restrictions, your warranty will remain intact.

The specs for that system indicate that it uses an M.2/NGFF slot for WiFi, which means your best bet for Intel Wireless is either the Intel 8265 or the Intel 9260.  The latter is newer technically better, although you may not notice any difference in the real world, especially if you don't have a high-end 802.11ac Wave 2 router and/or only use WiFi for Web browsing rather than a lot of high-bandwidth traffic on your LAN.  However, the 9260 is still quite new and is therefore difficult to find from reputable vendors, and it's not clear where/how the random third-party sellers on Amazon and eBay are obtaining their inventory, which is why I also suggested the much more widely available 8265.  You definitely do NOT want to get the Intel 9560, however, since that is a version of the 9260 that depends on the CPU to have certain RF components, which yours wouldn't.

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@spillytalker wrote:

@jphughan

OK. So can you please give me some links to sites which i can purchase genuine Wireless-AC 9260?

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No, because if I knew of a reliable place to get one, I would have just recommended buying the 9260 from a vendor like that instead of warning about the hazards of buying that card right now.

@jphughan
Oh, but can i ask you why?
So sellers on AliExpress are selling fake ones or something? (Also they have 1000+ positive reviews)
Why is that card hard to get?

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@spillytalker wrote:

@jphughan
Oh, but can i ask you why?
So sellers on AliExpress are selling fake ones or something? (Also they have 1000+ positive reviews)
Why is that card hard to get?

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It's hard to get because it was just recently launched, and some vendors were selling them before any PC OEMs were even using them in their systems, which I find suspicious.  I don't know anything about AliExpress one way or the other, but positive reviews do not mean they're sourcing their components legitimately.  Here's what I posted in another thread here recently about someone who was having issues with his 9260 that it turned out he purchased through a random source:

Did you get your 9260 from a reputable source?  Some people started selling them on eBay and on Amazon as third-party sellers even before any OEMs were using them, so it's not clear how those sellers got their inventory.  If you know anything about manufacturing practices in China, your seller could have gotten units that fit any of these descriptions:

- "Scrappers", which are units that failed some part of the QA check but that the manufacturer (i.e. the Chinese factory, not Intel) decided to sell themselves.
- "Midnight runs", which are units built during unauthorized production runs at the factory so that the manufacturer can sell them at a larger profit by cutting out the company that actually placed the order (Intel).  These are sometimes identical to the true production run units, but sometimes the manufacturer substitutes cheaper components to make an even larger profit on these.
- Full-on counterfeit units that may have come from a manufacturer that isn't even supposed to be making that product.

@jphughan

OK. So can you please give me some links to sites which i can purchase genuine Wireless-AC 9260?

Hello,

I'm just checking in if the 9260 is the latest or if there is something newer to replace it?

I suspect the Intel Ax200 is better, but I am also trying to detemine which specific model, if any,  is compatible.

@boed  and @tns19  the Intel AX200 is indeed the new top WiFi card, although whether it will make an actual difference in your usage would depend first on whether you even had 802.11ax wireless router/access point equipment and then whether you actually do things over WiFi that would benefit from the extra performance.  Looking over the AX200's Product Brief PDF here, I don't see any mention that it requires CNVio, so in theory it SHOULD work in any system that has an M.2/NGFF slot for WiFi -- unlike the 9560 which is basically a 9260 that relies on CNVio and notes that in its own Product Brief PDF here.  But I can't be sure, since I've never retrofitted an AX200 to an older system.  So I would say that if you want to get the latest and greatest but aren't sure whether it will work, buy the AX200 from a retailer that has a convenient return policy.  If it works, great.  If not, then return it and get the 9260 instead.

Hallo i have inspiron 15 5559 can use ax200 or which best card in this time

I put an Intel AX200 in my Inspiron 5559 laptop, works flawlessly.

Hello,

I am using Dell Vostro 5568 with Intel AC-3165 WiFi.

What is the best option to upgrade my WiFi card?

Thanks!

Wow   I just noticed this page and I want to double check my upgrade path.   My wife and I both have the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptops 7567 which has the Intel 3165 card in it actually it worked great when my internet download speed was 200mbps, but now I have upped that to 400mbps and want to change my card.  It looks as if it should be pretty straight forward and,  I have done all the windows 10 updates and Dell hardware - software updates I am hoping I can just plug it in and go. 

My router is the Netgear Nighthawk 7000 x4 router and I can run a test on my new S8 galaxy smart phone and I am hitting close to my 400mpbs speeds so that tells me, I'm good to go.  

There are a couple of cards mentioned here and I was wondering which would be the best and easiest option for me... Along with my internet downloads  I move large files back and forth to my NAS devices, up until now I usually just plugged in my Ethernet cable to get the fastest speeds but If I can double  my wifi speeds I'd be a happy person.   We usually sit just 20' from our routher so, distance should not be a problem.  

So my question is what would be the best Plug and Play wifi card to swap out my Intel 3165 to get the upgraded speeds?  

hopefully some of you folks are still around... .I'd appreciate any help you can officer.  

Dave

I wanted to update my router information  I actually have the 

R7500 — Nighthawk X4 AC2350 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router

@bpautopros Where were you able to obtain a AX200 card?

@Mitsourabh I agree with the Wifi 6, if you have a router or are future proofing it's the main reason one would want to. Where were you able to find a store with an AX200?