On the front of the MiFi, a bar-shaped display window shows the network strength, as well as whether you are currently roaming, the remaining battery level, whether the device has a GPS fix, and how many devices are connecting via Wi-Fi Sprint says it supports up to five. The device presents that last bit of info through dots, which is a bit harder to read than a simple number. Regardless, all of the information can be a little hard to read indoors, since the display uses the same E Ink technology found in Kindles and other e-book readers.
Outdoors, under bright light, the contrast improves dramatically. A multicolored LED on a side edge indicates the network type and speed. I ran tests five times on a laptop PC and five times on an iPhone at each of four locations; in Seattle I conducted my indoor tests in a hotel room with a window overlooking Qwest stadium, and in San Francisco my indoor tests were in my loft near the Bay Bridge, about 40 feet from an unobstructed window.
I conducted outdoor tests next to my car in a couple of mall parking lots. With the MiFi lights indicating a 4G connection, download speed tests on Speedtest. Speeds sometimes varied widely within the same group of tests run within a minute or two: In one outdoor group of five tests, I registered a low of 2. Indoors, download speeds also varied significantly.
Note that these download and upload speeds could vary a great deal from one city to another and the numbers mentioned here only represent the experience for those who live in the Bay Area.
What's more consistent, however, is the MiFi 's performance as a wireless router. Despite its tiny size, the MiFi did well at Obviously, these were not even close to the speeds of regular wireless N routers but for a mobile router, this is fast enough for most common file sharing tasks, including accessing the MiFi 's network storage.
It would be ideal if the router could offer 10 hours or more. For now, however, this is about the longest battery life of mobile routers on the market. First, the router didn't seem to work very well with some mobile devices, such as the iPhone 4. In our trials, when getting out of standby, the phone would more often than not lose the connection to the router and couldn't get an IP address.
The only way to fix this was to remove the network from the phone and add it again. This, however, happened less with other devices, such as laptops, and almost never with Android-based devices. The second issue was that sometimes the router ran hot and would drain the battery really fast.
To fix this we would have to repower it. None of these issues happened all the time, however, but they occurred often enough to be noticed. Nonetheless, overall we liked the MiFi We wished its 4G speeds were faster and that the router was more stable with all wireless devices, and we hope those issues will be fixed via a firmware update.
Dong Ngo. The device comes with an affordable unlimited 4G data plan, includes GPS and network storage functionality, and has decent battery life. The device runs hot at times and its 4G connection is comparatively slow.
Cellular Internet speed Kbps Longer bars indicate better performance. Verizon Five Spot 3G Sprint MiFi 3G Verizon MiFi 3G If you are renting a MiFi device abroad, you may be quite shocked at some of the speeds you can get. Despite not being as small as a dongle, MiFi devices are sleek and portable enough to take anywhere. More recent MiFi devices claim to offer up to 16 hours of battery life so in the very near future we may see MiFi devices that can offer a full days use.
All you need to do, depending on the specific device, is switch on the unit and wait for your devices to detect the signal. Unlike dongles, you do not need to install any software on your devices and you should be able to use MiFi with VPN programs, which is vital for some business users.
You can also use some MiFi devices for storage. If you have a microSD card you can insert it into a compatible MiFi device to boost your storage space, in a similar way to how some home routers use USB drives. MiFi gives you far more flexibility than standard mobile broadband. For starters you can connect multiple devices to it, meaning that if you are on the move you can connect your phone, tablet and laptop all at once. For people who work on the move, MiFi can be a real blessing. MiFi is also a great alternative to fixed line broadband for students living in short-term shared accommodation.
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