A less power hungry 3G modem?

More popular than ever, but some are still very noisy.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
toomuchdogfur
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:26 pm
Location: Australia

A less power hungry 3G modem?

Post by toomuchdogfur » Mon May 03, 2010 7:50 pm

Hi all,

I currently have a Novatel Merlin XU870 3G 7.2Mbps Expresscard34 modem on the 3 network (in Australia) doing my mobile data duties. The modem draws about 6W in use, which doesn't sound too bad until you consider that my laptop (a Thinkpad x200) draws just 10W in my usual usage!

Switching on Wi-Fi instead draws at most 2W more - with the 9-cell 75W battery, the extra 4W drain on 3G cuts more than an hour over the 6-something hours of life I get with Wi-Fi.

This is my first and only 3G modem (I got it cheap). Is anyone aware of modems that don't draw so much power, or is it unavoidable?

(FYI: I use BatteryBar Pro to get the W/hr of my laptop, but BatteryBar Free should be able to do this too)

paha_paawo
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:50 am

Post by paha_paawo » Thu May 06, 2010 9:00 am

3G phone & connect over bluetooth -> should not cause more than 1W power draw on laptop, but of course phone battery will wear out faster. Additional bonus: you can surf with just phone using the same data plan.

Post Reply