Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Works well, but be aware of limitations, July 16, 2008
Who can resist the idea of more bars? Nobody. Unfortunately, the snake-oil salesmen know this and there are a lot of bogus products out there that boost the seller's bank balance but not your cell phone reception. I was really hoping someone would review this before I bought, but I took the plunge and I'm happy to report that the Cell Ranger does what it says it will do, for the most part. I deducted two stars for the need to really fuss with placement to enjoy its benefits.
If you are looking for a booster that will take a really weak signal and bathe your room in cell reception so you can wander around with the phone in your hand and talk away with no drops, this is not the right product for you. You will need to spend more and get a powerful booster that amplifies both up- and down-stream frequencies. Such devices are costly and not very portable.
But if you want a very portable device that you can take on vacation and use in the car and are willing to keep your phone within a foot or two of the "transmitter," the Cell Ranger turns a weak 1-2 bars into 4-5 with great call quality. I recommend getting the "PORT" model because you can power it with a huge variety of USB power supplies (not included) - basically you need 5 volts at a minimum of 250 ma.
I have tested it with a Gen 1 iPhone and a Moto Razr, both on AT&T. While I realize that "bars" are not accurate measures of actual signal strength, they can at least indicate improvement. With very careful placement of the antenna and transmitter, I saw improvement of 2-4 bars. This was the very first time I've seen maximum bars on both phones at my house. The best results came with the antenna outside my window and mounted on a cookie sheet (as a ground plane). The worst results (no added bars) were caused by having the antenna and transmitter too close and the antenna inside the window (they need 6-10 feet of separation) and/or moving the phone (especially the iPhone) more than a foot away from the transmitter. If you have a Bluetooth headphone, this will make the phone placement problem a non-issue.
Next week I plan to take the Cell Ranger to the Adirondacks, where cell reception is marginal at best, and give it a torture test. If there are dramatic differences in performance there, I'll edit this review.
Here's my edit: The Cell Ranger worked beautifully in the cabin where we stayed. If I prop my iPhone in the window I get one bar, maybe two, but it is not very convenient to talk that way. With the Cell Ranger and a BT headset (so I could leave the phone right next to the amplifier), I got minimum 3 bars and often 4 or 5, with no dropped calls or audio quality problems. With such weak signal, it was not possible to move the phone more than a few inches from the amp without dropping to 1 bar or dropping the call, so again, be aware that this is not a "whole room" solution.
-dan
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does what it says., August 20, 2008
We went from 2 bars to a consistent 4 bars, get a little faster downloads nothing remarkable. A liitle cumbersome to use, when trying to locate the antenna in an appropriate place. Not sure if it is worth the 150$. Have used it about 1 month and once you get the antenna in the right place the improvments are consistent.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works, Easy Setup, October 18, 2008
I've had the Cell Ranger PORT USB Signal Booster for about a month now and am very satisfied with it. I use T-Mobile and when at home I usually had to walk out into the sun room to use my phone because the reception in most of the house is too poor to maintain a connection. I plugged the Cell Ranger USB transmitter into the computer I use in the kitchen and ran the antenna line out into the dining room and placed the antenna on the window sill of the dining room window. This now gives me 3-4 bars in the kitchen as long as I keep the cell phone close to the transmitter. I don't think there are any less expensive or simpler ways currently available to boost a weak cell signal. I also like the USB and portability aspect because it makes it convenient for me to take it along when I travel.
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