Wilson Electronics is well known for providing cell phone users with a system to make their cell phones keep contact with distant cell phone towers when people without their system would have no reception at all. They have a newer product out called the “Sleek“. Presently, the Sleek is supposed to work with 3G and lower systems, however, they will have a new Verizon 4G-LTE compatible model coming soon (no anticipated release date given).
Approximately one month ago, Wilson provided The Unwired Medic with a 3G Sleek to test and review, which I picked up at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. The initial test run was performed on the return trip from Las Vegas to Reno, NV. My phone carrier is Virgin Mobile, which uses the Sprint CDMA network. On the trip to Las Vegas, I estimate having reception for approximately 10-20% of the trip. I expected the harsh reality of the lack of cell towers to equate to no better reception on the return trip, and boy was I wrong! It seemed I had reception for about 50% of the drive home. I believe my guess-timates to be quasi-accurate since I was consistently looking at my cell phone throughout the trip and when we ventured through the approximately dozen towns on the ~475 mile journey. I was able to maintain even a 3G data connection for most of that time, only rarely dropping to 1x or no data. Although the connection wasn’t as good as Verizon’s CDMA coverage provides, it was as good as AT&T’s GSM (which used to be the best before they migrated to GSM), that my fellow travelers were using without the Wilson booster. I have to say that was pretty impressive for a Sprint-based network in rural areas. Between the three of us, we were almost never without reception, which is great considering how desolate the drive along Hwy 95 is.
Lately, I have been using my Sleek around the local region, where, with the hills and mountains, we have many dead zones, and while my data does sometimes drop out, I am never left without phone reception (note: the author believes this is more a problem with Virgin Mobile’s users being the step-child of Sprint’s 3G network, especially since the cell phone reception is typically 4-5 out of 5 bars when the data loss occurs). Incidentally, I have tried using the Sleek in vehicles and at my office while connecting the power but without connecting the antenna, and reception was still noticeably improved over not using it. There is supposed to be home/office indoors kit available as an accessory, but I did not have one to test.
Installation is pretty easy. I have been using mine in the car with a RAM Mounts Universal Suction Cup Mount system, which works ok at best (universal fit is not as good as a hard mount, IMHO), and in my full-size pickup with the provided adhesive mounted base. You need a DC port to plug into with the USB-Mini cord for power to the cradle, and you have a magnetic-mount antenna with a really long cord (great for having to take it with you from unit to POV, etc.). The adhesive-mounted base I’d rate at a 6/10 because it doesn’t snap lock in, so a good jolt leaves me worried that the cradle could unseat from the base and dangle free, although this never actually happened to me, plus when I’d go to place or remove the phone, the rotating mount would shift, no matter how tight I cinched down on the clamp-ring. I would like to see this improved in quality, but it is a pretty minor complaint.
The Sleek‘s cradle uses changeable arms to accommodate different sized phones. I have the Virgin Mobile Motorola Triumph, roughly an average sized Droid, and I also have a Blackberry Bold (also on Verizon) that fit without having to change the arms or grip. The arms are not difficult to adjust, but you will need to perform all the setup before getting on the road, since changing arms cannot be done as simply as the universal-fit smartphone cradles you get on eBay for $10.
The last point I’d like to see in the future is to have a charging port power pass-thru to allow you to run the booster and charge your cell phone only using one DC port in the car (since my car actually only has one port, I had to obtain a DC port splitter to charge and run the booster), but like the base issue, it really isn’t a deal-breaker.
Overall, I’d give the Wilson Electronics Sleek a solid 9/10. It performed better than I could have anticipated, giving me reception where I assumed it was just not possible, was easily adaptable to several phone sizes, and if you can program the clock on your VCR, you can set this thing up in your vehicle. The adhesive-mount base was better than the universal mount option I had available, but left a little to be desired for sturdiness. I found online retailers directly linked from the Wilson Electronics website carried the Sleek from $78 up to $130 (no better prices, but also no worse on Amazon), so shopping around is a good idea if you want to save some money on it. In short, yes… I can hear you now!
Check out the Wilson Electronics Sleek for yourself at this site: http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/ProductDetails.aspx?Product=16&title=Sleek%C2%AE+%28815226%29&Category=7
