T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot LTE

Pros T-Mobile's only LTE hotspot. Good battery life. Solid speeds and range.

Cons Unstable firmware drops connections. Data monitor is inaccurate. Doesn't work abroad. Bottom Line T-Mobile's first LTE hotspot can go all day, but it needs a firmware update to reach its true potential.

By Sascha Segan

It's tough to choose when you have no choice. T-Mobile's only LTE hotspot is … T-Mobile's only LTE hotspot. It has some things going for it: It's relatively inexpensive and has terrific battery life. It supports up to 8 Wi-Fi devices, and it works as a USB modem for both PCs and Macs. But I found it unreliable in testing and especially prone to losing connections when downshifting from LTE to HSPA+. So while this is the T-Mobile hotspot to buy, we can't give it Editor's Choice.

The painfully awkwardly named T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot LTE is made by ZTE, and it's a chubby little device at 3.87 by 2.25 by .7" (HWD) and 4.2 oz. Most of that space is taken up by a large 3000mAh battery, which gave the hotspot solid battery life: 6 hours, 11 minutes of streaming audio from an LTE network onto an Android smartphone.

The hotspot has a prominent, raised power button on the front along with a washed-out 1.77", 160-by-128 LCD display. There are four control buttons under the display, which isn't a touch screen. You can use the display to check your network name and password, see how much data you've transferred in this session, and see which devices are connected to the hotspot.

On the side of the hotspot there's a USB port for charging, along with a microSD card slot. If you pop in a microSD card, the hotspot shares it out over DLNA, which is a lost opportunity as no human knows how to use DLNA.

Performance and Interface
The Sonic 2.0 supports T-Mobile's HSPA+ and LTE networks, but almost nobody else's. It can't roam internationally. T-Mobile doesn't have any decent international roaming plans—its only affordable data roaming option is restricted to business customers—but it would have been nice for the hotspot to work with SIM cards purchased abroad.

T-Mobile's data prices are reasonable: $30/month for 2GB, plus $10 for each additional 2GB, with no contract. Sprint matches those prices, but requires a two-year contract; Verizon and AT&T tend to be more expensive. Only carriers that use Clearwire's old WiMAX network offer better deals, with Virgin coming in at $35/month for 10GB and Clear offering the only truly unlimited hotspot plan for $50.

I took the hotspot to eight locations in Manhattan and Queens and compared speeds on a Samsung Galaxy S4 sitting next to the hotspot with a Samsung Galaxy Note II. On average, speeds were comparable, which is impressive considering you typically bleed off up to 20 percent of your speed when converting from 4G to Wi-Fi. I saw, on average, 8Mbps down and 7.6Mbps up with 40ms ping times on both devices.

The hotspot also handled distance well. I didn't see much degradation even with the Galaxy S4 up to 125 feet away, as long as it wasn't on the other side of a wall.

I ran into several stability problems with the hotspot, though. When it dropped from LTE to HSPA, the connection completely broke and the hotspot had to be rebooted. In an area with a weak LTE connection, that happened too frequently. The hotspot would latch on to a very weak LTE link, lose it, and freeze.

I didn't see the stability problems in places with a consistent, strong connection. For instance, at home (with a strong LTE connection testing at 10-16Mbps down) I was able to stream audio for almost 20 hours without a break. The hotspot's Web-based interface lets you kick it into an HSPA+ only mode, which could improve stability.

The Sonic 2.0 has a Web-based administrator interface that lets you see which devices are connected to the hotspot and change settings. The hotspot supports WPA2 encryption along with 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, but only on the 2.4GHz band. There's a basic firewall with MAC filtering and port forwarding, and you can set data usage limits for individual devices connected to the hotspot. But the Web portal's data counter was wrong when I was using it, which was disappointing. Oddly, if I drilled down, it would show me how much data was used by each individual connected device, but not the right total for the hotspot as a whole.

The Sonic 2.0 also works as a USB modem for Windows, Mac OS and Linux PCs; plug in the cable and drivers will appear. It still functions as a hotspot when in USB mode.

Conclusions
T-Mobile has growing national LTE coverage. That might make it a good carrier to check out for your hotspot needs, except that I'm concerned over the stability of this hotspot's software. Since hotspot users are typically data hogs, an accurate data counter is also a must, and T-Mobile needs to get with the program and offer international-capable devices.

The T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot LTE has some attractive features, but it isn't the perfect hotspot for T-Mobile. A firmware update might help make it so. For now, obviously, this is the hotspot to get on T-Mobile—you want LTE, and it's your only option. But I'd like to see the carrier come out with an even better choice.

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Sony Xperia Z (T-Mobile)

Pros Beautiful, water-resistant design. Sharp display. Good size for a big-screen phone.

Cons Mediocre call quality. Dated processor. Average battery life. Bottom Line The Sony Xperia Z is a powerful, sleek new smartphone for splash-prone T-Mobile customers.

By Alex Colon

Sure, the Apple iPhone 5 may have a gazillion apps, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 may have countless cool features, and the HTC One may be built out of a block of aluminum, but one dip into the pool, one slip into the kitchen sink, or one drop into the toilet (gross) and they're history. So for some people, Sony's latest smartphone for T-Mobile, the $99.99 Xperia Z, has the ultimate killer feature: water resistance. It also happens to be an all-around great phone, with a large, gorgeous display, fast performance, and a good camera… that you can use to record video underwater. It isn't quite as powerful as the HTC One or the Galaxy S 4, but if you've been known to keep a bag of rice around to revive waterlogged devices, the Sony Xperia Z may be just the phone for you.

Design
Next to the HTC One, the Xperia Z is one of the sleekest Android phones we've ever seen. Framed out by a polyamide skeleton, the Xperia Z is covered in scratch-resistant, tempered glass on all sides and protected by a shatterproof film. I wouldn't suggest dropping this phone on the ground and expecting it to be no worse for the wear, but it has a very solid feel in the hand. It measures 5.47 by 2.79 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.15 ounces, which makes it just slightly larger than the Galaxy S 4, but it also feels a lot more premium. And while this isn't a good phone if you've got small hands, it is a nice, manageable size considering the large 5-inch screen.

In addition to the striking, primarily glass design, the Xperia Z meets military specifications IP55 and IP57. That means the phone is dust resistant and submersible in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. For this to work, you need to make sure that all of the external ports are properly sealed, but the phone is programmed by default to let you know when they aren't (you can turn these popup notifications off if you wish to live dangerously). We tested the Xperia Z's water resistance by submerging it in a pitcher filled with water for 30 minutes at a time, and never once did it falter. In fact, you can even turn on the video camera and film underwater, which I'll discuss in more detail later.

First let's talk about the display. The Xperia Z's 5-inch, 1080p screen is powered by Sony's Mobile Bravia 2 engine, and it looks fantastic. Every inch of the display is comprised of 443 pixels, which makes text, images, and video all look remarkably sharp. Compared with the Galaxy S 4, the Xperia Z looks more crisp, while colors on the GS 4 are more saturated. Which display looks better is really a matter of preference, but my vote is for the Xperia. Still, the HTC One bests them both, though it's a little smaller, at 4.7 inches.

The Xperia Z has a notification light in the upper right corner, a la BlackBerry. A flashing blue light, for instance, means you have a new message or a missed call. This is a useful feature I'm surprised hasn't made its way to more phones yet.

Your two physical controls can be found on the right side of the phone. There's Sony's trademark aluminum Power button in the middle, and a volume rocker right below. There's also a tiny cutout for the phone's speaker at the bottom, which I found a little too easy to inadvertently cover with my hand. There's a covered 3.5mm headphone jack on the top right edge, covered microSD and power ports on the left, and a covered SIM card port on the right. It took me a minute to find the power port the first time around because it blends into the phone's design so seamlessly. I reviewed the all-black model, but T-Mobile is also offering it up in a rather striking shade of purple.

The phone's sleek unibody design means the 2,330mAh battery is sealed inside. Sony includes a suite of power management software, which this phone definitely needs. Without any power-saving tools turned on, the Xperia Z lasted for 7 hours and 47 minutes of talk time, which is okay, but a few hours short of the Galaxy S 4.

Network and Call Quality
The Xperia Z supports both HSPA+ 42 and LTE on T-Mobile's network. If you pay the $579.99 to buy the phone outright, you can also use it on low-cost carriers like Simple Mobile, which also uses T-Mobile's network. It also supports 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, as well as Wi-Fi calling.

T-Mobile is in the midst of expanding its LTE coverage and plans to cover 200 million by the end of the year. We've seen LTE signals pop up in New York City from time to time, but it wasn't available when I tested the Xperia Z, so my tests were conducted over HSPA+ 42. The thing is, even T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network is still very good. I saw average speeds of 12Mbps down and 2Mbps up, which is an excellent fallback if you aren't covered by LTE.

Reception was average, and unfortunately, call quality is lacking. Voices sound harsh in the earpiece, with lots of fuzz in the background, and the phone itself vibrates at top volume. Calls made with it can be somewhat hard to hear as noise reduction is poor. The speakerphone sounds okay, but it isn't loud enough to hear outdoors. The phone had no trouble pairing with a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset and standard Android voice dialing worked fine.

T-Mobile's new contract-free plans start at $50 per month, and that gets you all the talk and texts you want, along with 500MB of high-speed data per month, after which your speeds are slowed to 2G. $60 gets you 2GB of high-speed data, and $70 gets you unlimited high-speed data. These are excellent rates compared with competitors like AT&T and Verizon.

Android and Apps
The Xperia Z is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 processor. On the one hand, that makes it one of the fastest smartphones you can get. But on the other, that processor is a whole generation behind the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip in the HTC One or the Galaxy S 4. Don't get me wrong—the Xperia Z will remain a solid performer for some time to come, but this isn't cutting-edge technology. The Xperia Z performed admirably in our benchmark tests, but cannot match the scores set by those faster devices. Still, performance feels smooth across the board, and you won't have trouble running any of the 800,000+ apps in the Google Play store, including graphically intensive games.

(Next page: Comera, Multimedia, and Conclusions)

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