Sprint EVDO A Wireless on new Dell Laptops

Hi there,

I have a Sprint PCMCIA Merlin S720 EVDO-A Wireless card that I used with my old work laptop.

I'm looking at buying a new laptop which means I am basically screwed with my Sprint PCMCIA Card as no new laptop seem to support them.

I'm looking at a Dell M1330 which comes with the following Sprint card as an option:-

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=313-5167

I'm wondering (a) if the performance of the card is comparable (or better) than my Merlin S720 PCMCIA card and (b) if it takes up an Express Card slot?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

Hi,

I'm putting this up at the top of the board again in case anyone has any advice!

Many thanks

 

It does not take up the expresscard slot, there are internal (dedicated) slots for the various dell card options.

It depends on model, but usually there are slots under a coverplate for bluetooth (mini-usb) local wifi (wlan) broadband wifi (wwan) and sometimes a whole extra bluetooth card (wpan). Almost always the antennas for each are prewired into the case, so even if you add a card later you just have to attach them.

From what I have seen while shopping for a laptop, this is how pretty much all the major vendors are doing things for pre-configured options. The only actual expresscards are clearly marked as such and usually for more niche items like TV tuners or travel remotes.

Except for bluetooth, most of the cards are in mini pci-e format although they might actually be running in usb-wire mode. One of the nice benefits of mini pci-e was allowing for some (4?) pins to pass-through directly as a usb connection.

Several USB evdo dongles actually have these tiny pci-e cards inside them (U720, 595U are two sprint ones I've seen) and can be cheaper than buying aftermarket parts from the laptop vendor too, especially if their service credit or rebate is better. That, and you can take it out and put it back in the dongle if you want.
Warning: some *cough bad cough* oems aka lenovo lock down non-oem cards at the bios level.

As far as performance, it depends how far out on the fringe you are...but once you have a decent signal (and low noise) and are then limited by the protocol itself, "extra" signal does not help at all. Even if theres enough SnR bandwidth to do 50mb/sec (to pull out some magical fairy numbers) you are still under EVDO rev A considerations. It remains to be seen how upgrading to wimax will be.

I couldn't say exactly how it is compared to a dongle card yet myself, still waiting for my 1700 to finish being built and I returned my 1500 before I used it very much.

Theres a site out there with some decent forums and information, www.evdoinfo.com - just be aware it is run by a store and not an end-user group. Sometimes you can see their influence rear its head in how posts are moderated or how discussions seem to always lead into recommendations to open your wallet.

 

Thanks so much for the informative post, I really appreciate it.

I've been doing some diggin around on eBay and it looks like I should be able to get a Sprint USB card (U720) for around $80 so that fixes my woes!

I'm also looking at the T61P Lenovo which actually has a PC Card slot so that fixes all my woes!!!!

Thanks again!