Before we left I got onto Verizon’s site to check out the coverage. The site wasn’t reassuring. Wilson’s claim is that it will boost the signal up to 20 times, but it doesn’t say anything about creating a signal when there isn’t one to be had. So I thought this will be a great place to start the review. If it would be able to help me get a signal on this trip it should help anywhere. So I throw the box in the car and off we went.
I didn’t think much about the Sleek for most of the drive down to Escalante because the freeway (I-15)has good cell service all the way down. My wife’s parents gave us a call and when we started to talk the call was dropped. A couple minutes later our brother called and said that our parents didn’t have great service in town. Our brother has AT&T so he had ok service but our parents have Verizon. My first thought here we go, great testing grounds.
When we stopped for gas I broke out the box and setup the Sleek. It was fast and easy to set up. I was still skeptical at this point and didn’t believe that it would do all that much. But I was shocked. I had one bar at the gas station. I set my phone in the cradle and 4 bars immediately. I then removed my phone and the bars dropped to one. I grabbed my wife’s phone and placed it in the cradle and again 4 bars. I really couldn’t believe it. I put my phone back in the cradle and off we went.
Later, my wife tried to make a call with her phone out of the cradle and wasn’t getting anything. So she popped my phone out and put hers in and made the call. This was my experience the whole trip. The only time that I didn’t have any signal was in Capitol Reef National Park. But as I said at first the SLeek doesn’t create a signal it just boosts it.
The Sleek retails for about $100. You can search on their website for a local store near you that carries it or you can buy it online. It really does do what it claims to do. If you traveler in places where the service might be weak, then this is the device for you. I can’t say by how much it boost the range of the signal, but all I can say is that when my phone was showing 1 bar by itself, it would boost it by at least 3 bars every time.
A couple down sides to the Sleek. First, it does have to have power for it to work. If you are looking for something to boost the signal while you are on a backpacking trip, you will want something different, unless you have a battery pack to power it. I heard of a guy doing just this. A side note if you are really looking to do this, make sure you have a medal plate or something for the antennae to hook to. It needs it to make it work right.
The next thing is that the phone has to be in the cradle to work. The cradle and phone makes it a little bulky and the wires are all connected to the cradle. The solution to this is to use a Bluetooth or wired ear piece, so you don’t have to hold the whole thing.
The postives out weigh any negatives in my book. The Sleek did excatly what it said it was going to do and was easy to set up and use. If you would like to learn more about the Sleek and any other products that Wilson Electronics make check out their website at http://www.wilsonelectronics.com . You can also find your local dealer on their site.
Pros:
• It works, it extends the signal of your wireless phone.
• It is easy to set up. It took me about 4 minutes to have it up and running.
• It has a kit to make it work in your house or office. (I was using it at the cabin that we stayed at.)
Cons:
• Needs power.
• Needs to be in the cradle.