Testing the Sprint U300 3G/4G wireless card

Sometimes it’s fun to get out on the bleeding edge of technology.  Sometimes not.  It’s decision time for the Sprint U300 I have.  Keep it and hope Sprint updates Sprint SmartView to work with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, or return it now and revisit it later this year when they light up the Dallas area with 4G high speed coverage.

I think the smart money is on the return.

I tested three of the five operating systems I need this device to work with.  It works on Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 64bit and Windows Server 2008 64bit.  By works I mean the 3G chipset and software work.  The 4G network is currently only available in Baltimore.  Dallas and a number of other cities will be added to the 4G network this year.

Another strike against the device is speed.  So far, I have yet to see speeds above 500k out of the U300.  I thought it was my imagination with the two Palm Treo’s I’ve tested the past few months, but now I no longer think it’s my imagination.  I am just not seeing good broadband speeds from the Sprint EVDO network, Rev. A or otherwise.

Although I am sad about it, it looks like this technology doesn’t fit my needs.  If you are a Sprint developer, please look closely at how SmartView works with Windows 7.  I could not get it to work and I tried the latest available build of Windows 7, and the latest version of SmartView located at the U300 Downloads area.  Considering there’s a note at the bottom of that page for 64bit users, it would appear the issue I am seeing is a known issue.  I hope that gets worked out.  64bit isn’t just a fad.