Colour touch screen makes for ease of use
The Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced is a battery powered, portable modem manufactured by Netgear. It allows up to 15 Wi-Fi enabled devices to connect to it wirelessly for shared mobile Internet access through Telstra's 4G network. The modem uses dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity.
A Wi-Fi, portable modem like the 4G Advanced is one of the best ways to create a hotspot in your car to keep friends and family connected to the Web on long trips. Furthermore, it's also good way to stay online if you're a contractor and want an easy way to distribute an Internet connection to a laptop or tablet while on a worksite.
The Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced is a fairly simple device that's slightly larger than a full deck of cards in both height and width. It's constructed from soft feeling, metallic-look plastic, though a chrome strip runs around the edge of the modem in an attempt to add a touch of class. The corners of the device are smooth and round which makes it comfortable to hold, and we also like the four small plastic feet on the bottom, which prevents the modem from sliding around on a desk or table.
The Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced only has a single power button on the top. Two antenna sockets on the bottom allow users to boost reception in flaky coverage areas if needed, and a micro-USB port handles charging. If the battery is flat the modem can be connected to a computer via the included USB cable and used as a wired modem.
Interestingly, the Wi-Fi 4G Advanced uses a micro-SIM card instead of the traditional mini-SIM, which is concealed by a plastic flap on the bottom. There's also no microSD card slot, which is a feature that's traditionally common on these sorts of devices.
The best feature of the Wi-Fi 4G Advanced is a 2.4in colour touch screen, the first of its kind we've seen on a Wi-Fi modem in Australia. The screen allows users to manage advanced settings without the need to access the traditional Web interface. You can change the SSID name and network password, manage Wi-Fi profiles including a guest mode, and extend the default Wi-Fi range all on the modem itself.
The screen uses resistive, rather than capacitive touch technology, but we found it responsive to use and the interface is relatively snappy. The resistive technology also means you can use a fingertip or nail tip to make selections, something you can't do on a capacitive screen.
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If you happen to be in a 4G coverage zone, however, you can expect impressive speeds. We managed to achieve a top download speed of over 40Mbps, though speeds generally hovered between 22Mbps and 31Mbps on most occasions. Upload speeds during testing peaked at around 15.8Mbps (higher than Telstra's quoted 10Mbps). Telstra's 4G network is pretty reliable and coverage is extensive.