I never thought I would see the day where we would be reviewing a 56k modem, especially not in the age of ADSL and Cable, but this is a modem with a difference. Now they are no longer required, I'm quite sure many people in connected areas don't have an analogue phone socket near their computers any more; making an emergency connection to the web, should your primary connection go down, most inconvenient (BT users will sympathise here). Also, if like me you live in a country with pathetic infrastructure outside of the major cities, this could well be the product for you.
X-Micro has always had nice packaging for their products and this is no exception. The professional and business like design is a nice change from the usual space rockets, semi-naked fairy and sports car boxes most of our review material comes in. Inside the box you will find:
- The modem itself
- Power lead
- Modem connection cable
- Instructions
The word to best describe the appearance of the modem would be 'sturdy'. It is a nice weighty unit and not too obtrusive to be left in a corner near your phone socket. There are no drivers that need to be installed, as is the nature of Bluetooth. For setup you simply open "My Bluetooth Places" (which will appear once you install your Bluetooth dongle) and you will see "Bluetooth modem" listed. To connect to the internet you just ender in you DUN settings as normal. In use I experienced no conceivable lag in data transfer vs. a normal PCI 56k modem, and I connected at a respectable 50,666b/s. Overall, one of the nicest 56k modems you can buy, and one which be of especially good use to users with laptops, or a desktop far away from the nearest phone terminal. You can buy the X-Micro modem for around £30 ($50US).
Highs
- Sturdy
- Works exactly as it should
- No performance drop off vs a PCI modem
