Review: Novatel Wireless Intelligent Mobile Hotspot 2352 MiFi

Out of the box

The Novatel Wireless 2352 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, like the 3 MiFi and Zoom 3G Wireless-N Travel Router we've looked at previously, takes your mobile broadband SIM to the next level. Instead of plugging a dongle into your laptop or PC to get mobile broadband, you instead get a funky little unit that can either be plugged into your machine or connect up to five internet capable units via Wi-Fi.

The matt black box is really nice, and the whole package is beautifully designed. The box is just the right size for all the bits provided, which comprises the Mobile Hotspot unit itself, USB lead, power cable (handily with both UK and European adaptors), battery, and a small instruction booklet. Unless you don't like black, there's nothing not to like.

Initial thoughts

It's hard not to be impressed. There's everything you'd want from the unit in the box, with the added bonus of the adaptor, and the unit itself is shiny and solid looking. In the style stakes, this is a clear winner over the 3 MiFi unit, looking very now rather than very eighties. You can't go wrong with a matt black back and a shiny front, although there is the classic smudgy finger mark problem.

The instructions are plain English, and anyone who has used a mobile phone will have no trouble getting their SIM in and the battery in place, while charging is also straightforward. The unit only has an on/off button, so its pretty hard to get the wrong one. Once your charged and ready to go, just turn your Novatel 2353 on and it should appear in your list of wireless networks.

Usage

I should say at this point that we used Windows 7 for our testing, which has a really simple and user friendly way of dealing with internet connections compared to previous incarnations of the OS.

One click of the 'interent connections' in the icon tray next to the clock brings up a list of possib le connections, and sure enough the snappily named 'IMHS_2353_etcetc' popped up with a full signal. the Intelligent Mobile Hotspot is pre-configured with 128-bit WEP encryption for security. The password you need is on a sticker on the inside of the battery cover, which can easily be removed while the unit is on - the battery itself is very securely fitted inside, so won't drop out. You'll know you're connected via Wi-Fi, as a little blue Wi-Fi symbol appears and flashes on the edge of your Novatel device. The units one button also acts as the main LED indicator of your connection status, glowing violet for HSPA, green for GPRS/EDGE etc.

Your other option is to connect via the USB cable included (you can only attach one machine this way). This means installing the Mobilink software included on the device, which is also a painless experience (Mac users will be pleased to hear there are drivers included for them too). The Mobilink software is smartly designed, showing how long you've been connected, how much data has been transferred, and the signal strength you're getting. There's also an envelope pop-up to inform you of incoming text messages, while an advanced drop down menu gives a host of other options. It really does tick all the boxes.

Speed and coverage

While connecting via Wi-Fi, the unit predictably gets all five bars while sitting next to the laptop. Once you get to 20 feet away or so, that started to fluctuate between two and four bars. However, the connection still seemed relatively stable throughout.

Speed and coverage will, of course, largely be defined by your SIM, and this is where the Novatel Wireless 2352 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot has an advantage over the 3 MiFi. It is an independent unit that should work with any mobile broadband SIM, so you're not limited by supplier.

Conclusion

The The Novatel Wireless 2352 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot is a really nifty bit of kit; a great, efficient and good looking way to share mobile broadband. And its not just us that think so - Vodafone likes it so much, it has rolled it out (in white, of course) to its customers in much of mainland Europe. Unfortunately, it hasn't made it over the pond like that yet, so you'll have to buy it separately at the moment (which is a bonus, really, as it's much sexier in black).

Of course, this means Voda hasn't got its hands on the insides, so you can use any SIM you want inside the non-branded version (we can't say what the case will be on the Voda branded version). We were given a T-Mobile SIM to test with ours, and it worked very nicely, thanks very much. It seemed to get pretty hot though and crashed occasionally - the two could well be related.