Comments on: 3G Performance Test: Mifi vs Touchnote vs X70 vs S5

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:23:57 +0000

RT: @chippy: @mikecane Real world Mifi speedtests. http://short.to/wxea @TaxMan45

By: Steve 'Chippy' Paine

Steve 'Chippy' Paine — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:19:52 +0000

@mikecane Real world Mifi speedtests. http://short.to/wxea

By: Steve 'Chippy' Paine

Steve 'Chippy' Paine — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:59:32 +0000

@nii_teiko mifi nicely tuned for stability. http://short.to/wxea

By: ZankChank

ZankChank — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:53:22 +0000

Chippy,

I use software on my Windows Mobile phone the HTC Wizard (or T-Mobile MDA) that allows me to make my phone a hotspot just like the MiFi. Based on my experience with my phone and video reviews of the MiFi I am going to guess that HEAT may be a major variable to how fast the MiFi may perform. My HTC Wizard and friends’ phones which used the same hotspot program on their Windows Mobile phones experienced high temperatures (very warm or hot to touch) which sometimes caused the WiFi hardware to shut off sometimes although rarely. I suspect using the MiFi as a modem, in which it is not transmitting WiFi signals, that it will run much cooler than in hotspot mode. Can you verify this?

JKKMobile,

As a response to your video on hacking to charge via USB: Charging while acting as a hotspot may pose overheating issues with the unit and/or battery which is why the manufacture does not support it out of the box.

By: Chippy

Chippy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:36:29 +0000

It could be. See JKK’s results below.

By: Chippy

Chippy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:36:06 +0000

The main thing will be the antenna. A well designed, large antenna brings advantages. It’s like bass speakers, there’s no substitute for size!!!

By: jkkmobile

jkkmobile — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:15:37 +0000

I get 100% same speed on both S5 and X70.. both my devices are equally good on 3G

By: Bogdan

Bogdan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:37:29 +0000

I was going to buy the S5 with 3G. Are you saying I shouldn’t buy it? Could it be a problem with your S5 ?

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:26:01 +0000

“The MiFi doesnt cost much more than a built-in option, is flexible, is easy to use, saves UMPC battery life (close-range Wifi takes less power than 3G in most cases) and it mobilises up to 5 WiFi devices on one 3G contract”

For me, bandwidth and carrier aside, this is the real game-changer here. Having a separate data contract for each 3G-enabled mobile device, even if the contracts are relatively cheap, has never made much sense to me, and I don’t much like swapping SIMs either. Ironically I made sure the VAIO TZ I bought a couple of years back had integrated 3G, but after the one month trial I didn’t bother subscribing.

The MiFi just seems to make sense in economic terms, in battery life and in flexibility. Just my two-cents, mind

By: Joao Oliveira (BassoPT)

Joao Oliveira (BassoPT) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:24:11 +0000

Not that simply Citivolus.

They bought use the same modem but they are different devices with different hardware inside (ssd, memory, wifi card (?!?)) everything can affect the results.
I’m sure that is why Steve did both tests.

For exemple I’m getting better results on my nc10 and 1008HA than on the UMID using MIFI, only one device connected at a time exactly on the same place!

By: Joao Oliveira (BassoPT)

Joao Oliveira (BassoPT) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:19:22 +0000

Just made a few more speedtest, testes using far away Servers like Lisbon to Germany and Lisbon to Finland and got on both 1.8Mbs download and 0.9 upload.

I think these are great results?

Joao.

By: citivolus

citivolus — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:12:24 +0000

Don’t the S5 and X70 have the same modem and so reception and performance should be similar? Maybe there is a defect with your particular S5?

By: Joao Oliveira (BassoPT)

Joao Oliveira (BassoPT) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:07:29 +0000

Hi.

With Vodafone Portugal, in Lisbon, I’m getting generally 3.1Mpbs download and 1.1Mps upload. Trying different hours of the day, different points in the city. Never got anything lower than 2.5Mbps. Event tried to download Office while driving (around 50 / 60kmh) using UMID M1 and was getting steady real 270Kpbs.

For me these are great results, specially for PT networks, which normally don’t preform that well. These are the best results I ever got around here why any 3g modem!

Joao.

By: Steve 'Chippy' Paine

Steve 'Chippy' Paine — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:57:04 +0000

New article: 3G Performance Test: Mifi vs Touchnote vs X70 vs S5 http://cli.gs/EBYvY