[REVIEW] P1 W1MAX-1NSiDE 4G devices

Back in June, I was lucky enough to be invited to P1 and Intel’s launch of their embedded WiMAX devices at Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel. The event, officially dubbed the Launch of Malaysia’s First WiMAX-Inside 4G laptops, felt more like a disco than media event.

They dressed up the hotel’s ballroom and had 3 giant laptops in the front, and there were slick, dressed-up hostesses with face paint who were taking pictures with guests.

The two pics above from TianChad.com – see his post from the event.

Why the face paint? Coz that was the campaign creative:

P1 W1MAX-1NSiDE Review

I was also lucky enough to get a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 which had the new embedded WiMAX chip to test out for 2 weeks. I don’t have any pictures of the device itself because the review is more of the WiMAX service (and also because the Dell still had the cling wrap on it).

So how is the performance of P1 WiMAX on the go? Here’s a speedtest I did from The Curve in Mutiara Damansara:

I was impressed at the sustained download speed of nearly 2Mbps. It’s as good as my DSL Streamyx connection at home.

Here’s another one I did from Kota Kemuning (where I live):

Holy frickin’ crap!!! That’s a sustained download speed of more than 9Mbps. I’ve never seen that on any local broadband provider, so that really blew my socks off (No, I haven’t tested out Unifi yet) and live up to their claims that the service can achieve speeds of 10 Mbps.

Granted, the tests are to servers based in Malaysia but it’s still pretty impressive. Many of the popular sites that I visit with a decent CDN (Content Delivery Network) like Yahoo, YouTube and Facebook loaded really quickly.

Who Needs W1MAX-1NSiDE?

I’m not the target market for these embedded WiMAX devices. I work mainly from a single location (my home office) – plus, I’m a Mac 😉

However, I think these WiMAX-inside netbooks and laptops are great if you

1. Spend lots of time in cafes and on the go. If you mainly use your laptop on the go you’ll find that you’re pretty much tethered to places with WiFi. With WiMAX you don’t need to squeeze into crowded cafes and share the WiFi with everyone else. And on the occasion that you are out of WiMAX coverage, you can always fall back to WiFi since the devices are both WiMAX & WiFi capable.

2. You are a minimalist who likes to travel light. I prefer my MacBook but maybe you like something that is half the weight. And you don’t want to carry extra USB dongles to connect to 3G or WiMAX. These additional dongles also drain your battery faster, so another plus point for embedded WiMAX.

3. You are sick of Streamyx. I have a pretty good Streamyx connection but it’s not very reliable. Just 2 days ago, I had problems connecting. Turns out, apparently someone stole TM’s cables.

Where To Get W1MAX-1NSiDE

If you want to find out more about these embedded WiMAX netbooks and laptops, head on over to www.wimaxinside.com.my.

On the site, you’ll find out details about the plans and the locations where you can buy the devices. They even have an introductory promotion where you get the first 3-6 months WiMAX subscription free and pay a discounted rate if you continue later.

Finally…

Candles 'n' Cupcakes

Happy birthday P1! Packet One Networks turns 2 today. They’ve done a great job to push innovation and competition in the broadband industry. Thanks for inviting me to the launch and providing me the review unit, and I wish you all the best.


3 Comments on "[REVIEW] P1 W1MAX-1NSiDE 4G devices"

  • Naoko says

    The only prob with P1 is that whenever they tinker with their services, my connection tends to drop pretty badly. Otherwise, they’re a pretty good service.

    Also, in the early days (2 years ago when I subscribed to P1), I managed to get a 2-10mb download for about 10 minutes before they implemented proper speed limits. XD

  • Jeremy says

    Its only been 2 years?? wow….P1 really grown trememndously fast to deliver fast speeds and expand their coverage in just 2 years. Its actually pretty impressive. Hopefully they can keep this up and expand the coverage more.

  • jericho says

    there should be wimax built in every laptop. the technology must grow with it too. Hopefully a company will take that step. maybe P1?

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