Cradlepoint Personal WiFi Hotspot Review

by Rob Spray, January 2011

The air above us is busy now, as we walk along conversations and vital information (mostly witless Facebook updates I think) flies over our heads as we travel about. That’s fun, but working wi-fi is normally static so what’s the wandering photographer to do? Like Neo in the Matrix we need a way to get back to the wizard. Enter the Cradlepoint PHS300 3G/4G mobile WiFi hotspot!

Cradlepoint PHS300 3G/4G Personal WiFi Hotspot

It provides a wireless access point which can be shared by 16 devices and a gateway to delicious, mobile internet goodness. Coverage permitting you can have decent connection speed for general purpose digital living or deadline beating.

If the mountain doesn’t have WiFi then WiFi goes to the mountain

The PHS300 is a tiny wi-fi router, which has its mobile broadband supplied via USB by a dongle (or smartphone like a Blackberry). I was half surprised you couldn’t add a wired connection too but there are other models which can do that. This one’s raison d’etre is to be very light and very portable. Once configured (easy) it proved reliable and predictable. It’s a fascinating piece of kit with a multitude of uses, aside from obvious Facebook and email duties! Pairing it with an Eye-Fi card equipped camera when you’re away from home is just one example.

Plug in a USB dongle and you're away!

The router is the size of a pocket diary, it looks almost plain but gives you two controls, two sockets and three status lights. Controls are very simple, a recessed on/off switch and a reset pin hole – no chance of upsetting those by accident. The lights show network activity, mobile network status and wireless active. The connectors provide for power/charging and a USB port for the vital mobile broadband widget. Configuration is all through a browser via wi-fi. A preconfigured dongle just plugs in and fires up. It helps to be router savvy, but if you’ve set up broadband at home you’ll be fine.

The business end!

Out on the town

Unlike worldly wealth you can take it with you, wearing it in a coat pocket works well. Using the short USB extension lead that came with the USB dongle nicely articulates the pair and removes the danger of breaking it in half when you bend over! As a bonus the status lights showed straight through Dawn’s yellow coat which meant I could keep tabs on what was going on – and she looked festive too.

The perfect companion for a country walk...I think Dawn, the wine and the router all qualify!

Battery life is around 3 hours, which isn’t bad from an SLR sized Li-ion bricket. It depends on the amount of data transmission; for a full days work a bigger piggyback power pack is available  – and that lasts for 8 hrs. The PHS300 will also run directly off the mains adaptor/charger too so there’s plenty of ways to stay on air for longer periods. As ever if you are dependant on portable power for you livelihood or family harmony take a plan B with you.

Cover Up

It would be missing the point to choose this as a fast download system, where it scores is allowing you to trickle feed shots ahead of a normal workflow, whether that’s to a viewing workstation in a studio, news picture desk or even a laptop poolside for my baby swimming friend. The transfer times might not sound spectacular but they carry on in your down time and you can be untethered as it happens.

The throughput you get is obviously entirely dependant on the mobile broadband coverage in your area. At my secret, crimelord hideout all mobile coverage is poor, but I do get a green light. That means I only get 2.5G (a lower league mobile ‘broadband’ connection) which limits the potential for fun. It did at least confirm that the router was viable – even in a screened bunker where we have to go outside to use a mobile phone. Seeing the the blue light on the dongle is welcome as this indicates proper 3G coverage, which is happily the norm.

The 3 status LEDs are your interface when you're on the go

The various connection flavours mentioned are different generations (G) of mobile networks. Crackly ancient mobiles were 1G, the small phones which worked at last were 2G. Then there was a hiccup and 2.5G (sometimes called GPRS but actually a bundle of standards) was bodged in while telecom companies waited until they could afford real 3G networks. The airwaves for 4G haven’t even been sold yet, so we won’t see that for a while.

With the indeterminate wait for 4G it’s good to know that the PHS300 is up to date with the hotter 3.5G and 3.75G flavours of mobile which promise genuine home grade broadband on the move. When 4G finally touches down this little star will welcome it like an old friend – it’s a well proven combination across the pond.

Speed Demon or Lemon?

All this jargon can get a bit heavy, it may even be a rare instance where some numbers would help

2.5G is the fall back for most dongles, and provides 48k-384kbit/s

3G has a theoretical maximum speed of 7.2Mbit/s

- 3.5G will double that up to a max of 14Mbit’s

4G not here for some time, but may reach more than 100Mbit/s

So 3G will be the connection of choice for a while. Like home broadband, typical download speeds are often lower than advertised. However 2Mbit/s is eminently possible and lots of people would be very happy with that at home. Sadly, for photographers, upload speeds are usually lower. Happily, they’re in better proportion than for home broadband and 1Mbit/s isn’t unusual. I’m not saying this to put you off, just to help set your expectations.

You need to know what’s possible before blasting away. To get results up fast you want to be shooting well and transmit your JPEGs first – maybe saving your RAWs for later on. It’s even worth considering whether you even need the largest JPEGs – think about what the job needs! Papparazzi might have to be more selective about the best view of Kylie’s fleeing hot pants if they don’t want to sort hundreds of blurred motordrive discards in the field.

Transfer times (to the Eye-Fi server, once tx started)

These are a rough, unscientific guide, please don’t sue me!
On the 2.5G/3G border it’s hard to tell exactly what connection you have.

I did a lot of my testing of the PHS300 with an Eye-Fi card equipped camera. That really cuts out the middle man and makes the most of mobile bandwidth – not because you get more of it but because it makes better use of your time. Who doesn’t have dead time when they’re shooting? Now you can be working even when you’re scratching your head looking for the next idea. This mobile combination is a great option for on-site shooters who need to get results up fast for approval or submission.

Out and About

My first test trip out was a bit of a damp squib. I took the hotspot and camera out for a short bike ride but  never escaped the black hole of broadband coverage centred on my house. That combined with poor aerial positioning seemed to stop transmission in its tracks. My big the mistake was leaving RAW transmission option ticked on the Eye-Fi, the intermittent coverage as I bounced across fields wasn’t stable enough, for long enough.

My second, more thoughtful, attempt worked like a charm. A no less rural route gave a much better idea of how my wireless life could work. I made sure the dongle wasn’t tucked away, stuck to JPEG transmission and worked in a few more pauses – easy after losing my Christmas battle against cake. I even got thoughtful e-mails to tell me how it was doing.

Ideal for the photo road warrior

That and further trips gave me a taste of the magic of being met back home by by my own photos – nostalgic, like getting your films back in the post but instant in a way only the modern world can manage.

A Million Household Uses

There’s a long, long list of ways this portable hot spot could be used, everyone I showed it to was left with a light bulb lit over their head. It won’t be useful for everyone but when time is of the essence there’s nothing like having your own fluffy cloud of internet.

Someone I was showing off to had a really wacky idea, wedding wi-fi. Cool receptions used to have disposable film cameras on the table. Now that everyone has iPhones, etc why not have you own cloud, create a Facebook group and have the whole thing online before its over?

I would have loved this with me out diving last summer when I couldn’t wait to tell the world about some spectacular arches we found – the world might have been happy to wait but I wasn’t!

Conclusion

I could imagine this set up paying dividends for a jobbing photographer who has to cover shows or spends days travelling from shot to shot for a local paper – equally it could bring domestic peace to a holiday. I enjoyed being my own hot-spot, and looking for more ways to use it!

Pairing the Cradlepoint with an Eye-Fi card was remarkably cool. Wonderfully wireless!

Ratings

Overall score: To the cloud!