Samsung's LTE netbook isn't LaTE, it's way early

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 16 February 2010 18:04

Your IT - Mobility

Although Samsung has announced a netbook with an inbuilt LTE modem at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung's notebook and netbook announcements last week in Australia were far more significant: a netbook with built-in quad-band 3.5G (HSPA) modem module, and an admission that a Chrome OS powered netbook is in the works!

With LTE networks still at least a couple of years away for most consumers worldwide, aside from some early rollouts in the US and elsewhere in the world, the real mobile broadband deal for many of us is 3.5G HSPA.

Until now, the main problem facing netbooks with built-in 3.5G wireless broadband modems has been which one to choose - one with an 850, 1900 and 2100MHz tri-band modem, or one with a 900, 1900 and 2100MHz tri-band modem.

In Australia, at least, this has meant that a consumer had to choose carefully based on the wireless broadband they wanted to use, and where, because a SIM card from a telco that worked on an 850MHz network wouldn't work with a telco using a 900MHz network, forcing users to fall back on the 2100MHz networks that are prolific in cities but aren't as good at delivering 3.5G deep in buildings or in rural and regional areas.

So, although Kyu Uhm, the Vice President of Samsung's IT Solutions Business, launched a Samsung netbook with its own 'Kalmia LTE modem chipset' at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the vast majority of consumers worldwide simply won't care as yet, likely preferring to buy a brand new 2011 or 2012 netbook with whatever the latest LTE modem is at that time, when an LTE network has been installed and is working in their respective countries.

Yes, Samsung has spoken of the 8.5 hour battery life its LTE-equipped netbook offers, but its existing N210 netbook already offers 'up to' 12 hours of battery life, handily beating the LTE version, while the upcoming N220 netbook will offer that very cool built-in quad-band 3.5G wireless broadband module.

The quad-band 3.5G module is Samsung's own technology, and when shortly launched, will be the world's only quad-band 3.5G device, beating competitors such as Huawei, Ericsson and others and simplifying the buying decisions for consumers who aren't guaranteed to always be using the same wireless Internet provider for ever and a day.

What else did Samsung launch - and how high up in the sky did Samsung launch them? Continued on page 2 - please read on!