- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 9 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The ONLY wireless 'net solution"
Pros: Great signal performance. Works great on Mac. External antenna
Cons: Some latency (it's expected)
Summary: This is a great card, especially if you have a Mac. The other card work on Mac too, but you have to get help configuring MacOS to use it (it's not that hard to do). Anyway, this card gets 2-4 bars of signal in my basement apartment. And even with 1 or 2 bars it still works really well.
Speed:
CNET is right...the card doesn't deliver perfectly consistent throughput. But it's a wireless card on a cellular network. You can't expect it to work as well as a wired connection. That said, I didn't find the performance to be unlivable. And I don't just use it for web browsing and email. I transfer stuff to/from AFP Servers, FTP servers, etc. I move a lot of data. So to say this card is fine for me is saying a lot.
They call it "Broadband Access" but it's only broadband if you're in an EVDO area, getting a good EVDO signal. If that isn't the case the card gears back to the slower "NationalAccess" (1xRTT Data) service. Don't let "slower" fool you. It's bloody fast when you compare it to 56k dialup (a little more than twice as fast). I clock the speed of NationalAccess at 80-100K, each and every time I test it. I've only clocked it at less yed that once, and that was at 71k. BroadbandAccess I clock between 200K and 800K, with bursts here and there of about 1.8Mbps. This card (and the service) gives me faster performance than I got with T-Mobile or Cingular, which is why I'm so amazed with it.
If you can handle the montly fee, you should get this card if you need to do data remotely. If it can take care of me, it can take care of just about everybody.
Kyocera KPC650:
