Review: WiMAX Works, But Platform Needs Key Improvements

This first round of WiMAX testing began in the lobby of the Baltimore Hyatt Regency. On first pass, the Access Control Manager couldn't find any WiMAX access point and only offered up WiFi -- a disturbing development given the four-hour drive from New York just to test it out. Walking across the street to the outdoor area of Baltimore's beautiful Inner Harbor area, a second attempt was made. Again, the ThinkPad wasn't finding any WiMAX access point -- either in Windows' wireless manager or the Lenovo Access Control Manager. It was at this point a phone call went into XOHM support; they offered a recording saying they weren't yet open for business. Thanks XOHM!

The solution: rebooting the ThinkPad and trying again. Happily, the Access Control Manager then found XOHM's WiMAX access point and connected us right away.

(A note about the Lenovo Access Control Manager: it's a very nice graphic presentation to manage available wireless access points. But it does take a few more clicks to log into WiMAX than it does to log into WiFi using the Windows' connection manager. It would be nice to see one- or two-click connection to WiMAX, which is something that Microsoft -- or Linux and Mac developers -- could bring to the table. )

During testing in various parts of Baltimore, bandwidth ranged between 3 Mbps and 7 Mbps; that worked out to as much as 30 times the WiFi throughput found in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency. WiMAX allowed the notebook to provide clear calls on Skype, watch YouTube videos with no noticeable latency and log into email with no waiting. And here's the thing: During several hours of testing in various locations, the connection never once dropped.

Battery life in the X301 was attention-getting when it was connected to WiMAX, and not in a good way. After 25 minutes of low-impact work, with "balanced power" the selected option, the power meter showed 64 percent left in battery life. Subsequently, switching back and forth between WiMAX and WiFi did show the battery drained quicker, repeatedly, under WiMAX than with WiFi.

It was the only negative we found with the X301, and it's not even clear at this early stage whether it's an issue on Lenovo's end. But if the idea behind WiMAX is to provide more untethered computing than ever before, battery life should improve when switching to WiMAX, not get worse.

Bottom line: Even without WiMAX, the Test Center would recommend the ThinkPad X301, list-priced at $2,556, because of its sleek form factor (even with an optical drive), nice performance and features. But WiMAX itself (for which XOHM will charge $50 per month after an introductory period ends) warrants a good, long look during its early-stage rollout before big commitments should be made.