Hands on: Verizon's Jetpack LTE Mobile Hotspot 890L is <em>fast</em>
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Nice little device. I had one for about a week but returned it because my connection would simply die. i would still be connected to the 890L but could not get out. I instead went with the 4620L.
From the article:
The good
Latencies as low as 39Mbps -- (perhaps you meant ms?)
Occasional hiccups loading webpages after a few hours of consecutive usage
Automatic syncing services may eat into your data allotment
Verizon’s bandwidth caps
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Not sure I'd place those last three items under the good column.
dt
From the article:
The good
Latencies as low as 39Mbps -- (perhaps you meant ms?)
Occasional hiccups loading webpages after a few hours of consecutive usage
Automatic syncing services may eat into your data allotment
Verizon’s bandwidth caps
-----
Not sure I'd place those last three items under the good column.
dt
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I totally do not get the eight year old's bladder reference,... My wife's and my eight year old is not known for his ability to hold it in without repeated bathroom runs...
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Crazy that it's so expensive to get onto the network...I may be missing something, but overseas prepaid sim card access to wireless data seem super cheap in comparison. They'll be in really big trouble if someday its possible to roam data in the us on a network that's based/run overseas! Using gravitons, or perhaps very large Pringles can arrays (VLPCA).
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JasePow":8bq5ysq0 said:
yeah its a weird reference to begin with, not to mention it doesn't hold water (hawhaw)
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Data caps, data caps everywhere! That aside, the device itself looks pretty sleek
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This article is strangely written and and badly edited ("That over double what I was able to get"). It's less of an actual product review and more of a lightweight puff piece... what's the point of it? It says it's a review of of the Jetpack 890 but it ends up being more of an impression of Verizon's LTE service in a couple very specific areas of the country. I don't get it. Nothing about this tells me whether to buy it or not other than, well, if you like Verizon's LTE guess what? and, the battery life was pretty good on the one totally non-scientific test I took with it in the car.
Also, data caps suck, but you know, newsflash. Also not specific to this device being "reviewed".
Also, data caps suck, but you know, newsflash. Also not specific to this device being "reviewed".
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Ars is so fortunate to have such a devoted staff of brilliant editors clogging up the comment threads.
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deet":1fq88l3m said:
Just as fortunate as they are to have white-knights like you doing the same defending them
Raise the sword of justice, brother. Raise it *high*.
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Great little device, really.
Verizon's LTE is terribly slow, though - at least in comparison to ours (western/central Canada). In Calgary, or Vancouver where I've used my LTE Note, the *slowest* results I've had from the Speedtest app are 25mbps. It peaks around 40, and I've seen screens of people getting 44. LTE is freaking awesome. You very quickly get used to the speed, then whenever you're in some craphole town without LTE, being stuck on HSPA or (god forbid) 3G is painful. It's particularly nice to have either no difference between your mobile connection and home broadband. If they could just fix up those bandwidth caps, I'd ditch my home connection entirely and just tether my phone when at home.
I'm contemplating picking one of these up for when we travel. With a 6gb data plan, you can happily run a few devices without worrying about data caps so long as you're not doing crazy file transfers or streaming HD all over the place.
Verizon's LTE is terribly slow, though - at least in comparison to ours (western/central Canada). In Calgary, or Vancouver where I've used my LTE Note, the *slowest* results I've had from the Speedtest app are 25mbps. It peaks around 40, and I've seen screens of people getting 44. LTE is freaking awesome. You very quickly get used to the speed, then whenever you're in some craphole town without LTE, being stuck on HSPA or (god forbid) 3G is painful. It's particularly nice to have either no difference between your mobile connection and home broadband. If they could just fix up those bandwidth caps, I'd ditch my home connection entirely and just tether my phone when at home.
I'm contemplating picking one of these up for when we travel. With a 6gb data plan, you can happily run a few devices without worrying about data caps so long as you're not doing crazy file transfers or streaming HD all over the place.
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Those data caps completely ruin the utility of devices like this. My phone has a hotspot feature, I am not going to pay MORE for a hotspot device when it doesn't even unlock better data packages.
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sn0v":3nyjrmfh said:Data caps, data caps everywhere! That aside, the device itself looks pretty sleek
Yeah, what good is the ability to go 300 mph when you have to do it in a quarter mile?
Great, you set a world speed record. How useful is that once you've hit the financial barrier? All these carriers bragging about how fast they are, how you can download a 3 gig movie in minutes. Big whoop! What do you do for the rest of the month?
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Is it possible to get a mobile LTE device with a plan containing public&fixed(static) IPv4? Or "public" IPv6?
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As of about a year ago Verizon said Static IP's for LTE devices was coming soon. I don't know if they are available yet.
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"Fast speeds of up to 13Mbps" - thats not good and that is not fast. What are you paying for? Are you only paying for 13Mbps? Did the salesperson tell you that 13 is fast speed? If you got 80Mbps is that extremley super duper fast?
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Most of the US gets mobile broadband speeds of 1-2Mbps with latency around 100ms. You are not paying for a specific speed.
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Perhaps I missed this in the article, but it would be useful to know who manufactures the 890L.
Most other articles on the Internet don't appear to mention it either, instead just relying on Verizon's "Jetpack" moniker, but opening up the case is somewhere Ars Technica can add some value.
BTW it appears to be from ZTE - would be interested in how it compares to my Jetpack 4510L by Novatel.
Most other articles on the Internet don't appear to mention it either, instead just relying on Verizon's "Jetpack" moniker, but opening up the case is somewhere Ars Technica can add some value.
BTW it appears to be from ZTE - would be interested in how it compares to my Jetpack 4510L by Novatel.
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Slowpoke":1u4vaphp said:
Cracked the case on the 890L I have on my bench and you're correct, it's a ZTE.
The big takeaway is battery life, that's it. The other mifi/jetpack devices have been fine, except for utter crap battery life. When the point of cellular is portability, getting 2 hours usage between recharges was ridiculous. This unit takes steps in the right direction, but there's room in that case for more battery. Fill 'er up.
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Articles like this always make me glad I still have an unlimited LTE plan on Verizon. Never gonna give that up. After 6 months the latest and greatest phones drop to 200 on ebay.
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i don't see the point in Verizon offering these devices or in any media group covering their release. These devices are only fast at using up tiered data and reaching overage rates faster than ever before. That said, i would want one of these if there were no contracts and no tiers.
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sonicmerlin":21vgo4w2 said:
Unlimited phone data is indeed a requirement in my book, and in reality phones can do about 2/3 of what this little box appears to be capable of. So while it is a cool device, to me (and others with smartphones + tethering), it doesn't have a purpose.
When data plans are priced reasonably enough (imo ~$.25/gb max + nominal access fee), I can see devices like these being perfectly viable as wire line replacements. And I hope that does come into the picture eventually.
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25 cents for a gigabyte? That's almost never going to happen, unless something radical happens. Right now, the price for a gigabyte is $10, and frankly, I don't see the carriers giving up that cash cow for much much less.H2O Rip":1vobrhay said:
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sryan2k1":xgkl18mw said:
Except that I almost always get >10Mbps on T-Mobile on my phone (galaxy s3) for HSPA+, and I quite frequently get 15-21 or so Mbps. Granted, upload is atrocious (1-2Mbps) but LTE is supposed to be pushing to the 30-50Mbps range, not 5-13!.
This actually sounds like an issue with the device because the testing I've seen of Verizon's LTE network does show speeds in the 30-50Mbps range. Given this, it's pretty poor to state that it's "fast" - if anything this device seems to have speed problems.
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I'm more amazed by people's expectations and anecdotal evidence.
The difference between 13Mbps and 50Mbps doesn't matter if your data allotment runs out in the first two hours of usage. Latency is a more noticeable benchmark.
I have AT&T HSPA+ in my town and must check my usage weekly when all I do is stream music. Most months I reach 95% of the data cap.
The difference between 13Mbps and 50Mbps doesn't matter if your data allotment runs out in the first two hours of usage. Latency is a more noticeable benchmark.
I have AT&T HSPA+ in my town and must check my usage weekly when all I do is stream music. Most months I reach 95% of the data cap.
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You have got to love Verizon (and now ATnT too) for the idea 'monthly line access'. It is like being granted the right of entry into their club. Imagine the public bus service having an 'access fee' for the right to board or the right to wait at the bus stop.
One, this is just plain stupid because there is no point in boarding the bus without the intention or actually use it. These two are artifically separated. In reality boarding the bus inevitably follows using it for transporation.
Two, and therefore, employing such a scheme at distributing charges basically indicates a deceiving practice - to artifically lead people into believing that the service is cheaper than it actually is. And the fact that people buy it proves that this deception does work.
For me, this practice, of access fee + actual fee is what is a deal breaker - regardless of their actual prices.
One, this is just plain stupid because there is no point in boarding the bus without the intention or actually use it. These two are artifically separated. In reality boarding the bus inevitably follows using it for transporation.
Two, and therefore, employing such a scheme at distributing charges basically indicates a deceiving practice - to artifically lead people into believing that the service is cheaper than it actually is. And the fact that people buy it proves that this deception does work.
For me, this practice, of access fee + actual fee is what is a deal breaker - regardless of their actual prices.
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Putrid Polecat
Ars Tribunus Militum
I have LTE on my rooted SGSIII and have free WIFI tethering. Why in God's name would I buy this product?
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I'm surprised the article didn't mention the recent changes to verizon tethering policies that make these less attractive. http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/31/verizon-can-no-longer-charge-for-tethering-fcc-declares/
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I'm guessing you're the sort to have kept your unlimited data but if you are on a share-everything limited data plan, the FCC (I think it was the FCC) has ruled that Verizon can't discriminate based on what is using the data.Putrid Polecat":ai8ikjng said:
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Why should I pay another $40 a month to use this POS when my phone does the same thing for free?
Plus my phone is smaller. I don't have to remember to charge another device. I'm more likely to have it with me and it actually gets better battery life as a 4G hotspot.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5533/moto ... -battery/2
Arstech needs to stop posting this spam.
Plus my phone is smaller. I don't have to remember to charge another device. I'm more likely to have it with me and it actually gets better battery life as a 4G hotspot.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5533/moto ... -battery/2
Arstech needs to stop posting this spam.
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Raptor Apocalypse":3medr71u said:
Since apparently you've got the hookup, please let us know the secret passphrase to get free tethering on Verizon and AT&T.
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In Japan for around $45 a month you get an Emobile LTE pocket wifi running at 75Mbps down 25Mbps up and a battery that lasts 9 hours in a little Huawei unit that worked perfectly. To be clear, this wireless service was better than my Comcast cable. Considerably faster and uncapped. I had great connectivity boatign down the Sumida River. Sad how far behind we are in the US. Japan is not unique in having not only better but also cheaper wireless data than the US.
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TheVelourFog":12be84ov said:
If you have an android phone, pda.net or koush's tether work fine, and without root. If you have root, there are many additional options as well.
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I'm surprised no one's really bit on the problem with web pages stalling after long usage sessions. I'm pretty sure that's come up in other user/site reviews of this or similar Jetpack devices.
There's a part of me that would seriously consider one of these as my primary data connection, rather than buying a new smartphone when my current contract is up. I don't make calls, ever (and could use Skype in a pinch, I suppose) and SMS is through Google Voice and thus data. A two device solution isn't ideal, but considering my current provider (C Spire) gets me a whopping 0.3 Mbps down on 3G, even 3-8 Mbps sounds like some sort of unobtainable fantasy. (Home is DSL only, and even on 5 GHz N tops out at about 10 Mbps.)
But then Verizon has to go and make it super expensive and give it low data caps. Bummer. $30 a month for just 4 GB, plus a $20 a month line fee is outrageous. My part of a family plan is less than that for truly unlimited everything. Which probably explains the slow network!
There's a part of me that would seriously consider one of these as my primary data connection, rather than buying a new smartphone when my current contract is up. I don't make calls, ever (and could use Skype in a pinch, I suppose) and SMS is through Google Voice and thus data. A two device solution isn't ideal, but considering my current provider (C Spire) gets me a whopping 0.3 Mbps down on 3G, even 3-8 Mbps sounds like some sort of unobtainable fantasy. (Home is DSL only, and even on 5 GHz N tops out at about 10 Mbps.)
But then Verizon has to go and make it super expensive and give it low data caps. Bummer. $30 a month for just 4 GB, plus a $20 a month line fee is outrageous. My part of a family plan is less than that for truly unlimited everything. Which probably explains the slow network!
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We don't pay for either. Most carriers charge ~$15 a month for 5GB of tethered bandwidth. No promise on speed/latency.
You also have to understand the united states is fucking gigantic compared to Japan. It's not feasible for us to have the same level of coverage/bandwidth they have due to the physical distances involved here.
You also have to understand the united states is fucking gigantic compared to Japan. It's not feasible for us to have the same level of coverage/bandwidth they have due to the physical distances involved here.
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fredrik@skne.se":26c43ysa said:
"Data". Most carriers have pathetic caps on overall data. I will never use a carrier that doesn't offer unlimited.
The US sucks for tele-*....
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