Sleek4g
Latest
CES 2013: Wilson Electronics introduces the Sleek 4G booster to get your iPhone more signal
Wilson Electronics has been making cell phone signal boosters for a while now, both for home use and for larger scale settings like offices and commercial use. But the company is turning to something more personal with its new Sleek 4G cell phone booster, which is a phone stand that will make your iPhone's signal (or a signal from any phone, really) up to 10 times more powerful. The booster, which is shipping next week, basically consists of a phone stand that you can either place on your desk or stick on your car's dashboard, and then a cord leading off of it that connects to an antenna with a magnetic base. That's it -- you don't need to actually connect your phone up at all, because the stand will just grab the signal automatically. The stand itself has a few different prongs on the sides that you can adjust depending on what phone you're using, but other than that, it just boosts a signal, and well. A normal phone signal, according to Wilson, runs at about 200 mW, but with the Sleek 4G adding a boost, the signal can reach up to 2,000 mW. Wilson's reps told us that most people think of using cell phone boosters out in more rural areas, but given all of the holes and issues in more populated areas, it can be helpful in bigger cities, too. And the booster has one other big benefit: It'll increase the battery life on the phone. By making sure the signal is always strong, Wilson says that many users have seen phones last longer than before. At $199, this isn't a small investment for sure. But if you constantly have problems with your iPhone's signal and could use a way to keep it going whether you're in a home or office or out and about in your car, Wilson's Sleek 4G booster could help.
Wilson Electronics announces Sleek 4G signal booster with multi-carrier support (update: hands-on!)
If you've ever found yourself on a lone road in the middle of nowhere with zero bars of reception on your phone, it's quite likely that you've entertained the idea of grabbing a signal booster. Wilson Electronics, one of the best known manufacturers of such devices, is introducing its latest Sleek 4G booster at CES. What makes this version different from the models launched just a few months ago? Instead of needing separate boosters for AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, it's now capable of supporting phones, tablets and hotspots on all three, as well as legacy signals for all other US carriers. Head to the press release for more details. Update: We actually had a chance to catch up with Wilson Electronics here at CES Unveiled 2013 and spend some brief time with the Sleek 4G signal booster. For a piece of kit that can take virtually any US wireless frequency (with Nextel and WiMAX as the only exceptions) and amplify it, the Sleek 4G signal booster is a quite unassuming black, plastic accessory. The add-on, which is set to retail for $199, works by plugging into any smartphone via USB -- yes, your phone will have to be on to power it -- and features a switch alongside that port to toggle between AT&T and Verizon's LTE. Considering the ever-growing sizes of smartphones these days, Wilson's seen fit to include three sets of extenders in the box to accommodate whatever handset you happen to sporting. It begins shipping next week, so if you typically have issues with cell reception, this could very well be one (pricey) solution. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub. Joseph Volpe and Sarah Silbert contributed to this report.
