Review: Samsung Airave
With the Airave fully configured and operational, I re-performed each of the calling and surfing tests I did earlier. In my office (and about 6 feet from the Airave) the Upstage had full signal strength. (I couldn't use the other two phones for this part of the testing, since they were not set up by Sprint to be able to access the Airave).
With an active call, I walked all over my house, into each room and checked out the signal strength. In most rooms, it was better than during the control. All the upstairs rooms and the attic enjoyed full strength, or 5 of 6 bars on the UpStage.
The first floor lost a little bit of coverage, but it still averaged out to be 3 or 4 bars per room. The basement presented some challenges, and signal dropped to about two bars there. (Sprint's normal signal level in my basement is usually zero bars or one bar).
In other words, there was a definite signal improvement everywhere in the house. Quite truthfully, I expected that the enhanced coverage would range a bit outside my house, too. But it didn't.
Using the UpStage, I made a call and went for a walk. Samsung and Sprint say the Airave works in a 5000 square foot area, which measures approximately 70 by 70 feet. That area is more than large enough to cover my home. Literally the second I stepped out of my front door, coverage dropped from full strength to two bars. I walked back in and out a few times, each time with the same results. As soon as I left the house, the strong signal from the Airave vanished.
(For comparison sake, it is worth noting that my laptop can detect Wi-Fi signals from my router — which is in the same spot in my house as the Airave — all the way down my street. Also, my house is made of brick.)
As soon as I stepped outside, whether it be my front door or back door, I lost that enhanced coverage almost immediately. This was a bit of a disappointment.
Calls sounded no different when using the Airave compared to my original tests. I heard the same small amount of noises and low level of hiss. Web surfing speeds were not noticeably improved, either. CNN took about 7 seconds to load with the standard Sprint signal, and it took 6 seconds to load with the Airave active. Google consistently loaded in 5 seconds without Airave, and averaged 4.5 seconds with Airave. While this is an improvement, it is pretty much negligible.
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