On The Road with CelLynx 5Barz
Spring break is just around the corner! Join us this week as we look at all sorts of fun and useful gadgets that will make it easier than ever to hit the road for a much deserved respite from wintry doldrums, from cell phone accessories to auto maintenance tools and even biking gear. We would love to hear about your spring break plans, drop us a line and let us know where you’re headed, and we hope that you enjoy your trip!
To start off weʻre going to look at a gizmo that will not only make traveling easier, but could potentially make your time at home less frustrating as well, particularly if you happen to reside in a weak or dead spot for cellular reception. Weʻre talking about the CelLynx 5barz Road Warrior, a cellular signal booster to use in your car. Weʻve looked at other signal boosters before, but never one designed specifically to fit in your car. 5barz makes some pretty lofty claims, guaranteeing increased signal strength in any area where a cellular signal exists, and we were anxious to see if they could deliver.
The Road Warrior is roughly the size of a paperback book, and has three parts to it; the base, the cradle and the power cord/antenna, which plugs into a 12V cigarette lighter. Right away we were fans of the fact that there was no external antenna required, and that it works with every carrier in the US (except iDEN phones used by Nextel, and TMobile’s 3G services). We were able to test it out with both our iPhone 3G and with a Blackberry Storm 9530, on Verizon and ATT, both EDGE and 3G.
Oddly enough some of the worst dead spots we encounter are not in the country, but in the densest parts of San Francisco while driving around. Apparently tall buildings and huge hills are not conducive to great cellular signals! So, risking life and limb, we bravely hit the streets of San Francisco for you, dear readers. Note: we did not use the phone while driving, but safely pulled over when a dead zone was discovered. We found that even on the streets where we have consistently dropped to 1 or 2 bars, we retained signal and didnʻt drop as many calls- down to around 5% or so from 20%, with only the occasional cut-out. In addition we found that webpage loading time on the iPhones were faster when using the Road Warrior, a definite plus. There was no discernible difference between the performance of the Road Warrior with the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm. The major downside is that the phone must stay in the cradle for it to work, so a Bluetooth headset is highly recommended.
Now, just to be clear, there must be a signal- the Road Warrior wonʻt create a signal where none is present. So, for those of you planning on heading to remote areas where there may not be cellular coverage, cell phone boosters likely won’t work for you- they can’t make something out of nothing. The other caveat is that regardless of how boosted your signal is, calls that are dropped or wonʻt go through due to congestion on the cellular network canʻt be avoided.
In the interest of thorough investigation, we also gave the Road Warrior a try in a fixed location the office, which is in an old, tall, brick building in the heart of San Francisco. It would be fair to say that every staff member has spent their fair share of time down in the lobby or outside (even in the winter) trying to get a stable signal to make a call on. For as well as it works in the car, there was a whole office full of doubters as to the Road Warriorʻs ability to make the office a viable place to make a cell phone call. We were all amazed and delighted that we were able to go from one bar to four bars, and were able to make calls from anywhere in the room that the base was in. (In the past weʻve had some luck with a signal booster, but it required sitting in a fairly specific spot right next to the base.) What a great thing, to be able to move around a room freely and not fear that the call will disconnect with a wrong step!
Currently you can order the Road Warrior from a list of sellers, and you can expect to pay around $300.
