New Samsung Airave?

[Wireless Junkie]

I just got off the phone with Sprint because of problems with my Airvana Airave and my Admiral and iPhone.

They are sending me a new Samsung Airave 2 that is supposedly EVDO capable and can support PTT over it too and also covers 8000 square feet vs. 5000.

Has anyone heard of this new Samsung Airave, any pictures?

I had the first Samsung and preferred the beeps before a call connected on it much better than the Airvana..


Sent from my iPhone 4S on Sprint using Tapatalk

[larryt510]

There were two versions of the Samsung Airave (before the Airvana was available). The first Samsung Airave had a white antenna. The second version has a black antenna. If there is a third Samsung Airave I haven't heard of it yet. But I have tried all three and prefer the Samsung version 2 with the black antenna over the others. It seems to have better RF output and less issues with text messaging than the Airvana.

[Wireless Junkie]

There were two versions of the Samsung Airave (before the Airvana was available). The first Samsung Airave had a white antenna. The second version has a black antenna. If there is a third Samsung Airave I haven't heard of it yet. But I have tried all three and prefer the Samsung version 2 with the black antenna over the others. It seems to have better RF output and less issues with text messaging than the Airvana.

Does the Samsung Version 2 support EVDO?

[NGeorge]

Does the Samsung Version 2 support EVDO?

The Airvana unit is the only one that supports EV-DO. Verizon's Samsung unit (which looks just like Sprint's but is black) does--but Sprint's does not. From what I remember, the Sprint unit is the same as the Verizon unit, but has the EV-DO hardware disabled internally--don't know why Sprint opted not to have an EV-DO capability turned on.

Honestly the Airvana is your best bet--if you are in a bad signal area and have a 1x-only Airave, your battery life will suffer as your phone will constantly flip between a strong 1x from the Airave and weak EV-DO signal from the tower since it will prefer EV-DO for data. The Airvana fixes this, and is why Sprint sent me a free one.

I will mention about the texting--every other month I have to reboot the unit because sometimes it will freeze and texts will not go through. In 3 years the Samsung unit never froze. It's a small price to pay to not have your phone chewing through battery though while at home.
--Nat

[corys00]

I have the Airvana Airave 2 device in my house, I personally went from 1-2 bars to 5 bars and the conversations are much more better. I just wish it wasn't white, it gets so dusty :-/

[JamesMH]

The Airave service has really improved over the last year, you need to have a good ISP with low ping times for it to work well.

[larryt510]

I will mention about the texting--every other month I have to reboot the unit because sometimes it will freeze and texts will not go through. In 3 years the Samsung unit never froze. It's a small price to pay to not have your phone chewing through battery though while at home.
--Nat

Some handsets the Airvana will work well with and some it won't. At least that's how it was last November when I gave it a try. I have seen very mixed opinions of it on various forums as well. Either you get one that works well or you get one that sucks (depending on several factors). It's like a crapshoot.

There's supposed to be a (long awaited) firmware update coming in about 3 weeks so maybe it will make the unit better.

[Wireless Junkie]

Some handsets the Airvana will work well with and some it won't. At least that's how it was last November when I gave it a try. I have seen very mixed opinions of it on various forums as well. Either you get one that works well or you get one that sucks (depending on several factors). It's like a crapshoot.

There's supposed to be a (long awaited) firmware update coming in about 3 weeks so maybe it will make the unit better.

If this Samsung can only do 1X, I will wait for the update on the Airvana. My iPhone 4S and also Motorola Admiral are having significant problems with the Airvana right now.

Though my friend with a GS II and a Photon work just fine on the Airvana.

[larryt510]

If this Samsung can only do 1X, I will wait for the update on the Airvana. My iPhone 4S and also Motorola Admiral are having significant problems with the Airvana right now.

Though my friend with a GS II and a Photon work just fine on the Airvana.

Exactly! You never know if your phone's going to work well or not when using an Airvana. Don't have that problem with the Samsung version 2. I don't need the data on the Airvana as my EVDO signal from the regular tower is excellent and I mostly use wifi at home anyway. But using an Airave does seem to improve my battery life a bit.

[macuser09]

Some handsets the Airvana will work well with and some it won't. At least that's how it was last November when I gave it a try. I have seen very mixed opinions of it on various forums as well. Either you get one that works well or you get one that sucks (depending on several factors). It's like a crapshoot.

There's supposed to be a (long awaited) firmware update coming in about 3 weeks so maybe it will make the unit better.

I know my V950 doesn't play well with the Airvana unit I have. EVDO rarely ever works with it. It is almost like you have to do a special dance then stand a specific way to get the EVDO to actually work with the V950/airvana combination.

[larryt510]

By the way many of us using a Samsung Airave and feeding off of the Phoenix, AZ switch were experiencing a terrible static problem for a few months. Only the person on the other end (the non-femtocell side) could hear the static but it was often so bad you couldn't even hold a conversation. Well I was able to work with Sprint and helped find the cause by sending my stats. It was a faulty interface card at the switch which was replaced last week. No more static.

Sent from my MB855 using HowardForums

[NGeorge]

I know my V950 doesn't play well with the Airvana unit I have. EVDO rarely ever works with it. It is almost like you have to do a special dance then stand a specific way to get the EVDO to actually work with the V950/airvana combination.

I agree that it is very temperamental--my Blackberry hates it (it refuses to sit on it's EV-DO), whereas it had no issues with the 1st gen Samsung I had.. My Epic on the other hand works great with it, and the battery life savings along makes it worthwhile.

--Nat

[cruznis300]

Sprint's newest version is about 3 years old. It does support EVDO and covers 5,000 sq ft. Ive had it for almost 3 years and works great.. much better then VZs EVDO version which I have as well.

Here is a pic of it.

http://support.sprint.com/support/de...-dvc1230002prd

[larryt510]

Hey Cruz which phone do you use with the Airvana? I know some phones like the Photon didn't work well with it. A new firmware update might have fixed some of the problems.