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Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot (Sprint) review: Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot (Sprint)

Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot (Sprint)

Dong Ngo SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
Dong Ngo
6 min read

The Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot is the first cellular mobile router on the market that supports all three of Sprint's data networks: 4G LTE, 4G WiMax, and 3G; among these, 4G WiMAX is (for now) unique to Sprint. That doesn't mean you're guaranteed to have superfast Internet connection everywhere, however, since that depends on the carrier's coverage are. And in my real-world testing, Sprint's 4G coverage wasn't as ubiquitous as I would like.

7.3

Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot (Sprint)

The Good

The <b>Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot</b> offers great battery life, shares fast 4G connections to up to eight Wi-Fi clients, and supports all cellular connections on Sprint's network. The device also comes with a lot of useful features for mobile users.

The Bad

The Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot's cellular speed (where it was tested) was, though fast, comparatively slow. The device is somewhat bulky and Sprint's 4G coverage is spotty.

The Bottom Line

The Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot offers another very good option for those who need fast Internet connection on the go to share within a small group. Those traveling within Sprint's WiMax coverage would likely find it an excellent product.

The Tri-Fi Hotspot, though quite small, is rather bulky compared with its peers. To make up for that it offers stellar battery life and a very well-designed LCD screen that shows loads of information at a quick glance. Costing around $100 (after rebates and with a two-year contract), the router isn't too expensive, either. (It is expensive, however, at $350 if you want to buy it without a contract.) What might cause you to think twice, however, is the hefty and limited data plans that Sprint has for it, starting at $35 for just 3GB of data allowance.

If you live or travel frequently within Sprint's current 4G coverage, the Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot makes an excellent companion; if not, it's a very good mobile hot spot that offers you consistent 3G connection and the ability to work with 4G LTE and WiMAX when available. If you don't care about WiMAX, also consider the Jetpack 4620L from Verizon.

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Design and features
Sprint's Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot is actually a lot less sexy than it looks. Head-on, it's a sleek device, resembling a small touch-screen smartphone. Looking closer, however, especially from other angles, it's as crude as a brick coming from a defected mold. And even from the front, when the LCD screen -- which is relatively large for a device of its size -- is turned on, you'll realize that it shows blurry text, making you feel like you need a better pair of glasses. That said, while it is indeed larger than most of its peers, it's still a tiny device, measuring just 3.84 by 2.25 by 0.95 inches, and it weighs less than 5 ounces. And I also loved what the LCD has to offer: lots of useful information available at a glance. Never mind the somewhat blurry text; it's not the type of screen that you want to look at for a long time anyway.

The reason the device is larger than others, especially in terms of thickness, is because it comes with a 3,600mAh lithium ion battery, about double the size as well as capacity of most other mobile routers'. In my testing, I was able to get almost 10 hours out of one charge with continuous usage. (Yes it was a challenge to figure this out since this is more than a day's worth of work.) If you use the device sporadically, which most of us generally do, you can expect even longer use time.

The router comes with two ports for external antennas and a standard Micro-USB port for changing and connection to a computer. When connected to a PC, in my trials, it also worked as a USB cellular modem. In this case, the first time you plug it in, you'll need to install its driver software, which is contained within the router itself, meaning there's no extra CD or download that you have to worry about. To use it as a mobile router, however, there's literally nothing to set up. All you have to do is turn it on, use the information provided on its screen, and you're all set. The router can support up to eight Wi-Fi clients at a time.

The router goes into sleep mode after being idle for about 30 minutes, and it takes about 30 seconds to wake up -- about as long as it takes to power up -- when you press its power button on top. To turn it on or off, you'll need to press and hold this button for a few seconds. By default, the screen shows a battery life gauge, numbers of connected Wi-Fi clients, the type of connected cellular network (3G, 4G, or WiMAX), signal bars, and the name of the Wi-Fi network as well as the password (encryption key). Other than that there are other six pages of information you can scroll through via pressing a button right next to the power button. These pages show more information for the router, such as data usage, network status, connection information, and so on. This type of LCD design is incredibly helpful since you don't need to dig into its Web interface to have the same level of access.

And the Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot does have an excellent Web interface of its own. You can get there by pointing a connected device's browser to its default IP address at 192.168.01 (the default log-in password is password). Here you can change its default settings, including the Wi-Fi network's name and password, and find even more features of the little router, such as a GPS function that helps locate where you are and services around you.

The router comes with a microSD card slot, located underneath its battery cover, to host storage to share between connected clients on the go. This is a nifty features for those who need to share documents and files between a group of travelers.

For security, the Tri-Fi Hotspot supports all variations of WEP, WPA, and WPA2 wireless encryption standards. It also offers Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a feature that quickly connects WPS-enabled clients to a Wi-Fi network.

Data plans and performance
I tried the Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot around the San Francisco Bay Area and was able to get consistent 4G coverage only within the city of San Francisco. In other cities, such as Oakland and Berkeley, most of the time I only had a 3G signal. At spots where the router was able to connect to Sprint's 4G network, its connections, while fast, weren't as fast as I've seen in others, such as the Jetpack 4620L from Verizon. Overall, the router's 4G speeds averaged at about 7Mbps for download and 1.4Mbps for upload. That's about the speed of a lower-tier cable broadband you have at home, which is very fast and enough for any hi-def media streaming. In fact I was able to stream multiple HD YouTube videos with no problem or lagging.

Note that at this download speed, you can go through the first tier of the data plan's included data cap in just about an hour. There are also two other data plans that cost $50 for 6GB and $80 for 12GB per month. The last plan is actually a better deal than what Verizon offers with the Jetpack 4620L, which is $80 for just 10GB. If you go over the limit, you'll have to pay another 5 cents for each additional megabyte. Note that these caps are applied to only when you use Sprint's 3G, 4G LTE and 4G WiMAX networks. The when you go off-network, the 3G portion of all of these data plans comes with just 300MB data cap and will cost another 25 cents per megabyte when you go over.

This wouldn't be a big deal if Sprint's 4G coverage were ubiquitous, which it isn't. Currently Sprint WiMAX is only available in select cities, and its 4G LTE network is expected to launch by the end of the year. This lack of coverage makes the Tri-Fi Hotspot more of a regular dual 3G/4G device, and its data plans even more expensive, comparatively.

As a mobile router, apart from the excellent battery life, the Tri-Fi also stayed very cool in my testing, even after extended operation.

Conclusion
The Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot is an excellent mobile router; however, the appeal is for now undermined by Sprint's spotty 4G coverage and expensive data plans.

CNET's cellular Internet speed (in kilobits per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Download  
Upload  
Clear 4G+ Appolo
9,235 
3,313 
Clear 4G+ USB Modem (4G)
9,216 
3,072 
Clear Spot Voyager
7,393 
2,259 
Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot
7,027 
1,440 
T-Mobile Rocket 3.0 (4G)
6,729 
2,440 
Sprint MiFi 2200 (3G)
1,000 
550 

7.3

Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot (Sprint)

Score Breakdown

Design 7Features 8Performance 7