AT&T Elevate 4G Mobile Hotspot Review

AT&T is late to the 4G LTE game, but it's certainly not going to be pulling up the rear for long if the AT&T Elevate is any indication. This $69.99 hotspot has an informative display and fast upload speeds, but just how good is the performance--and where can you get the best speeds? Read on to find out.

Design

Like the Verizon MiFi 4510L, the 3.8 x 2.2 x 0.7-inch Elevate is roughly the size of a stack of credit cards, but it features tapered, rubberized edges on the left and right sides. The rubberized edges offset the glossy black rectangle that conceals the 1.8-inch (160 x 128-pixel) color LCD and blue status light on the front. The large power button sits on the top edge of the device, while two antenna ports and a microUSB port line the bottom. Removing the Elevate's rubberized back reveals a microSD card slot.

While the Elevate doesn't look or feel cheap, the rubberized casing makes it look more utilitarian than the T-Mobile Sonic 4G and the MiFi 4510L. In addition to providing indicators for signal, battery, number of connections, and hotspot name, the Elevate keeps track of how much of your data plan you've used. This is a major step above the Sprint Overdrive Pro, which only displays the data used in one session.

The Elevate lets you connect up to five devices at any given time. A microSD card (up to 32GB) may also be inserted in the hotspot to quickly share files with multiple devices. Sharing can be configured when you're connected to the Elevate by going to http://att.elevate.

4G LTE Coverage

AT&T currently offers 4G LTE data in nine markets, including Athens, Ga, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C.. In most other locations, you should get HSPA+ data. AT&T claims that two thirds of its network now run on enhanced backhaul that supports both HSPA+ Plus and 4G LTE. The carrier says it will offer coverage in 15 cities by the end of the year, but that's still well behind Verizon's 175-plus markets.

Performance

When we first tested AT&T's LTE network in Chicago using the Momentum USB broadband stick, we found it to be lacking compared to Verizon's LTE. On tests in Lincoln Park, Mayfair, and near-west suburban Oak Park, the Elevate showed definite improvement, especially with upload speeds. However, we also experienced crawling download and upload speeds in locations where the device showed four signal bars. Also, despite a strong signal, our connection dropped out several times, meaning we had to restart our upload.

The Elevate 4G averaged 6.7 Mbps for downloads on Speedtest.net; 1.05 Mbps faster than the Sprint Overdrive Pro, but 1 Mbps behind the T-Mobile Sonic 4G and more than 16 Mbps slower than Verizon's MiFi 4510L. The upload portion of Speedtest.net told a different story. The Elevate 4G averaged 3.3 Mbps; that's almost three times faster than the Overdrive Pro and the Sonic 4G, and only 1.3 Mbps slower than the MiFi 4510L.

Keep in mind that AT&T's 4G network seems to be challenged in Chicago; we saw much faster speeds with the Elevate 4G in Houston earlier this year. The device averaged a blazing 24 Mbps down and 11.5 Mbps up.

Click to enlarge

Unfortunately, the strong upload averages in Chicago didn't translate in our real-world upload tests. The Elevate took an average of 58 seconds to upload a 6.5MB file. This was slower than both the Overdrive Pro (41 seconds) and the MiFi 4510L's (14 seconds) averages. Downloading OpenOffice, a 151MB file, took the Elevate a respectable 110 seconds. The MiFi 4510L was the only hotspot to complete the task quicker, with an average of 81 seconds.

Click to enlarge

Much like the Overdrive Pro, the Elevate performed its best when accessing web pages. We timed how long it took to load Laptopmag.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, and NYTimes.com. The Elevate took an average of 7.29 seconds, mere fractions of a second slower than the MiFi 4510L (6.7 seconds) and a few fractions of a second faster than the Overdrive Pro (7.96 seconds).

Click to enlarge

Battery

The Elevate is rated for up to 5 hours of use time. Over several days of intermittent use, we only had to go outlet hunting once.

Value

The Elevate is available for $69.99 with a two-year commitment to a data plan. AT&T keeps its data offerings basic--there's only one plan: 5GB a month for $50. Each extra gigabyte of data will set you back $10.

Verdict

We were pleasantly surprised by the $69.99 Elevate Hotspot, in part because AT&T's LTE service has improved in Chicago. While it wasn't as fast as Verizon's MiFi 4510--and we're a little concerned about it dropping our connection--we love the Elevate's super-useful information bar that lets you know how much of your monthly data plan remains. Plus, this device loads websites at almost the same speed as the Verizon and Sprint hotspots. Overall, the AT&T Elevate 4G is a solid choice, but many will want to wait until the carrier rolls out 4G LTE to their coverage area.