Royal Pains – Paul's Tech Talk

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My Review of the Mifi 2200 Card!

I probably am not the only one who will be reviewing the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 Prepaid Mobile Hotspot(Virgin Mobile) card (Affiliate link). I do however have used this card for over 3 weeks and I wanted to give you my opinions on this. I know I originally bought this for a really good deal for $69.99 and I said a few weeks ago that I was going to talk about this little card.

Technical details:

What’s in the Box: MiFi Broadband2Go Prepaid Mobile Hotspot, AC charger, USB cable, battery, carrying pouch

experience faster average download speeds of 600 kbps – 1.4 Mbps

Ready-to-connect with no software to install

Universal Wi-Fi for ultimate compatibility

Connect up to 5 devices simultaneously

Observations on the Mifi Virgin Mobile!

I have had several weeks to play around with the Mifi card. I must say that I am really impressed with this. I don’t have a lot of options on having broadband in my neck of the woods, so when I found this on sale. I really couldn’t help myself because I could now do what I have always wanted to do. Having internet where I am live and be able to blog more readily available to me.

Pro’s:

Stream Hulu, CBS, NBC, Royal Pains (Affiliate link), Mythbusters (Affiliate link) and Netflix! (Might require less quality and some buffering but I had no problems watching what I wanted, when I wanted to.)

Portability of having WPA connections wherever I went.

I even used my Sisters Ipad to stream Netflix and YouTube on the Mifi card.

Uses the Sprint Network

Can use Linux and other Operating systems with the card.

Although, I don’t stream all the time and thus I am probably not one of those who is going above their ceiling cap they have. I’ve heard once you get above a certain limit. Probably 10 gigs or something like that they will cut you off but that is something they will not say for sure. The 2.5 gig limit will slow your speed down but I’m fine with that. I haven’t had any problems with the slow down.

Con’s:

Battery life — I was able to use my battery for over 6 hours without recharging it but that was with me using it almost all the time. If you have a long drive or am planning on use it more in your house. It is best to just keep it plugged in when you use it. (You can use a Dual USB Car charger to keep the Mifi working while travelling!)

Signal Strength — You basically have to keep it close to the windows to get any decent signal strength from the closest cell tower. I haven’t had much problems with speed but I occasionally have had signal drops and reconnects from time to time.

Cricket Wireless broadband — This is just as good as Cricket Wireless broadband but since they aren’t in the are or have 3g services in my area, I had to go with Virgin Mobile.

All in All!

To sum it up, this isn’t a really a bad deal for the price. Even though the so called “unlimited” is slower than normal speeds after 2.5 gb used, it is probably not going to be any faster than when you use it on a daily basis and thus it is still a good way to have internet in areas where there may not have many internet options. The Novatel MiFi 2200 from Virgin Mobile (Affiliate link) isn’t a bad choice with a no contract. I’ll definitely recommend it for those who might just be needed for spots that don’t have internet!