Sierra Wireless AirPrime MC7354 Review
I am a big believer in mobile broadband. And sure smartphones are for great for quick email readings or notes, gps, etc, etc - there are times when you need to haul out your laptop to get some real work done.
Depending where you are that also often means searching around for WiFi. And while Starbucks for many of us road warriors used to be the defacto portable office it's just gotten way too crowded - the internet service is often poor and someone is always there trying to stream a movie.
There are all kinds of other use cases as well. For example being at a customer site that doesn't have guest wireless or in a parking lot somewhere after a meeting try to get a slide deck out or some other piece of business.
This is where mobile broadband in a laptop/ultrabook really pays in my opinion. To that end I recently purchased a Sierra Wireless AirPrime MC7354 LTE Card.
This 7 Band LTE card is a mini-PCIe device that plugged in to my Dell Latitude 7240 ultrabook.
I've owned several Sierra Wireless devices in the past and this by far has been the best, fastest and easiest card to work with. Dell also did a nice job by first having the WWAN card capabilities built in to the 7240, plus including all the proper antenna connections in the base unit. The SIM slot is just under the battery away from the actual card itself - so you could easily swap out if you need to use alternate cards for international use, etc.
Connections are immediate. Even in some rural areas 99 times out of 100 - you'll get immediate bars and be connected. And while you may not always connect at LTE speeds (100Mbps Down and 50Mbps Up) you can still get HSPA+ or UMTS which is many cases is way better than you get with some WiFi hotspots.
Personally I prefer the concept of having a dedicated broadband device in my laptop versus using a phone or hotspot device. With the new capabilities in Windows 8.1 - I can just connect and work away - typically my connections are faster and more reliable than hotspots and it free's up my phone's bands to support calls. In fact if I needed I can do VoIP calls using this device as well as Lync/Skype or any other meeting or video app.
There is also full GPS capabilities so now apps like Google Maps, Here Drive, etc work great from your laptop. TMO is my mobile provider and I got a nice deal for 3Gb of LTE data per month for $20. Just bought service, popped in the SIM and off to the races.
So not the cheapest card you can buy at ~$180 - Dell actually sells some Gobi based cards for around $140 when bundled with a new 7240 but none of them were unlocked.
Bottom line - if your a road warrior and a geek like me and are looking for a nice broadband solution for your laptop or ultrabook look no further than the Sierra Wireless MC7354. It is the current state of the art and in my opinion worth every dime.
Do some research on the Sierra Wireless site and shop around before you buy.
There are several authorized agents for SW and the price can vary quite a bit.
Also these cards are in very heavy demand from many dedicated device manufacturers - so supplies can be limited from time to time.
Depending where you are that also often means searching around for WiFi. And while Starbucks for many of us road warriors used to be the defacto portable office it's just gotten way too crowded - the internet service is often poor and someone is always there trying to stream a movie.
There are all kinds of other use cases as well. For example being at a customer site that doesn't have guest wireless or in a parking lot somewhere after a meeting try to get a slide deck out or some other piece of business.
This is where mobile broadband in a laptop/ultrabook really pays in my opinion. To that end I recently purchased a Sierra Wireless AirPrime MC7354 LTE Card.
This 7 Band LTE card is a mini-PCIe device that plugged in to my Dell Latitude 7240 ultrabook.
I've owned several Sierra Wireless devices in the past and this by far has been the best, fastest and easiest card to work with. Dell also did a nice job by first having the WWAN card capabilities built in to the 7240, plus including all the proper antenna connections in the base unit. The SIM slot is just under the battery away from the actual card itself - so you could easily swap out if you need to use alternate cards for international use, etc.
Connections are immediate. Even in some rural areas 99 times out of 100 - you'll get immediate bars and be connected. And while you may not always connect at LTE speeds (100Mbps Down and 50Mbps Up) you can still get HSPA+ or UMTS which is many cases is way better than you get with some WiFi hotspots.
And speaking of hotspots - you can turn your laptop into a hotspot much in the same way you can with many phones - but at much improved throughput due to the more powerful chipset and antenna in your laptop.
In the past, these cards always came with a set of drivers and then a specialized app that you would have to launch in order to connect to your Mobile providers APN. With Windows 8.1 that all changed. Now the drivers are in the OS stack and the card is presented to you as just another Wireless card. You can also preset items like automatically connecting to the APN when you turn it on and whether you want to allow roaming.
Personally I prefer the concept of having a dedicated broadband device in my laptop versus using a phone or hotspot device. With the new capabilities in Windows 8.1 - I can just connect and work away - typically my connections are faster and more reliable than hotspots and it free's up my phone's bands to support calls. In fact if I needed I can do VoIP calls using this device as well as Lync/Skype or any other meeting or video app.
There is also full GPS capabilities so now apps like Google Maps, Here Drive, etc work great from your laptop. TMO is my mobile provider and I got a nice deal for 3Gb of LTE data per month for $20. Just bought service, popped in the SIM and off to the races.
So not the cheapest card you can buy at ~$180 - Dell actually sells some Gobi based cards for around $140 when bundled with a new 7240 but none of them were unlocked.
Bottom line - if your a road warrior and a geek like me and are looking for a nice broadband solution for your laptop or ultrabook look no further than the Sierra Wireless MC7354. It is the current state of the art and in my opinion worth every dime.
Do some research on the Sierra Wireless site and shop around before you buy.
There are several authorized agents for SW and the price can vary quite a bit.
Also these cards are in very heavy demand from many dedicated device manufacturers - so supplies can be limited from time to time.
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