Sierra Wireless Compass 597 Mobile Broadband Modem Expert Reviews

Bye-bye, big dongles. The Sierra Wireless Compass 597 for Sprint is a beefy, high-speed USB modem that actually looks like a diminutive USB memory stick: It's small, cute, and easy to use. And at $249.99 ($49.99 and up with contract), it's an ...

Inexpensive. Fast. Very compact. Feature-packed.

Novatel Ovation U727 is slightly faster. Memory card reader is slow.

The Sierra Wireless Compass 597 is a fast and inexpensive way to get on Sprint's national high-speed cellular wireless network.

This mobile broadband modem provides an easy and stylish way to get broadband Internet access while you're on the go.

Small, sleek design ; Very easy to install--no software to download

EvDO coverage not available everywhere ; Data plan can be pricey

Sprint offers the Compass 597 for a very reasonable $50 with a new two-year service agreement. To use it, though, You'll need a Sprint data plan; Sprint's data-only plan costs $60 per month for 5GB of data. If you travel frequently and want on-the-go ...

The Sierra Wireless Compass 597 is the ultimate cellular data modem combo. The device folds high-speed data access and GPS service into a tiny USB cell modem and pairs it with new Mac OS X software that takes full advantage of the new hardware.

Built-in installation software ; SmartView control panel ; microSD card slot ; high bandwidth ; built-in GPS ; no pop-up antenna needed ; external antenna jack

Two-year contract requirement for lowest-cost subscription ; problems with mounting the installation software's disk image ; microSD card failed to mount

You use a cell data modem for access to the Internet or your remote home or office network when on-the-go. Cell data connections work with the same account and service plan wherever there is a cellular signal from a given mobile provider, such as ...

If you dream of connecting to the internet from anywhere you have a lot of options. The most common one is a USB modem, and we've reviewed them in the past. Since that time, though, companies have been hard at work at reducing the size of dongles that ...