Hands On: Novatel Wireless Merlin XU870
We recently jacked someone for got some hands on time with the new Novatel Wireless Merlin XU870. This bad boy runs off of full HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS and supports all 5 bands of service. After opening the package I was happy to see how compact the device was. No giant nub hanging out of your laptop with this unit folks, just a small antenna with a flip up extender. My first go at this was on a Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo. Since a few days ago Apple officially released support for this on its website, I had high hopes for performance before I even popped it in. All I did was slide the SIM card into the bottom of the data card, pop it in my Mac and instantly bars of service appeared in my finder bar in the top right. From there just hit connect and there it was, live 3G HSDPA access. After testing the transfer speeds a million few times I found the average speed to be about 1.2 megs a second and the upload speed to be around 320k per second. Not bad at all! Next I attempted the card on a newer Dell XPS and after installing the included software I connected with about the same speeds. Novatel has made an incredible device which boasts future proof access via firmware updates (so says on the box) for up to 7.2Mbps support. The only complaint I have so far is the location for where the SIM card is placed. It just seems too easy to get to and is even accessible while the card is in use. Afterall though this is a small price to pay for this kind of portability. Hopefully Cingular at&t will start branding this thing and officially supporting it soon so more people can partake in its HSDPA goodness. Check out the rest of the shots after the jump.
Mac support, SMS, nice card.
Hey would mind posting a list of which American cell carriers provide HSDPA data access?
To Frank Young,
The HSDPA list is very short, Cingular/AT&T. T-Mobile is looking at deployment of 3G, but don’t expect mass availability anytime soon.
Hey, BG!
Which plan did you/would you get with cing-ATT-ular? Could I use the tether with BB plan, since I got the 8800?
working fine but giving big latencies on my Mac as well as the mac title bar keeping refreshing every few seconds.
I write from italy. I bought this novatel card but i have only T-Mobile software. Can you tell me how can i find the generic software to use any Sim? Thanks a lot
how do I get a good deal for Novatel Merlin EX720 ExpressCard?
I got one of these with a Sony laptop I purchased recently but it is locked through the software / drivers to T-Mobile – anyone have the OEM software so I can connect to Orange?
I need FIRMWARE UPGRADE for my NOVATEL MERLIN XU870 for Windows Vista. Where can i find it?
vista 64 not supported!!!!!
mac book pro
Install driver in device manager manually choosing
either NW01VNDIS.inf as hsdpa and NWADIEnum.inf as umts or vice versa -
choose connect to -> setup dial up connection in vista manually
2. Type *99***1# as the phone number. Yes, that is the phone number.
3. Here is the information to type in the next boxes:
user name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
password: CINGULAR1
And it works on MAC pro under vista 64 bit ultimate with bootcamp !!!