LAVA W200 3G Router is a portable solution for sharing internet connection. With simple plug and play feature it is easy to setup. Entering into a new series of “ROUTERs” product line, LAVA still proves in giving the best. Leaving the Smartphone’s aside, the router offers rich benefits of having a simple internet sharing option via 3G USB Dongle, or through LAN port. At a single time you can hook upto 32 different users on the same hotspot. It also works with EVDO Dongles. This is the first portable router I had seen with RJ45 port very well placed. It is hard to believe how LAVA was able to integrate the Ethernet port so efficiently on the device. And also this is the only device that is extremely small in size. There are some other models by Dlink, TPLink, Edimax and Asus. Talking in terms of feature I found them similar, but in terms of design LAVA W200 3G Router beats them all. You can see a glimpse of the router in few images posted below. LAVA W200 looks like to be the successor of W150 model with some missing features. Compare to W150, W200 does not have a Firewall in it. To some extent this can be less secured.
LAVA W200 is simply designed to give quick internet sharing features. Talking about the battery of W200, it is lower compared to W150. It has 1800 mAH battery while W150 has 2300 mAH of battery. In mobile phones 1800mAH offers 10 to 12 hrs of battery life when it is not used for multimedia and internet purpose. While in USB modems this time it’s almost reduced to 60% because of constant internet usage. I was able to use W200 for around 3 hours only with 5 different devices connected on it. W150, however, is capable of giving 1 hour additional compared to W200. In terms of battery capacity the routers are basic. They are not so great. But you can charge them using a USB cable. That makes them more portable. You can charge them through your laptop or mobile charger. W200 supports 802.11 w/g/n wifi standard and a maximum speed up to 150mbps. These are the most popular and commonly used standards by many devices. So there is nothing to worry about connectivity problems. With 32 user connectivity, you can enjoy smooth surfing. But when more devices are connected, more bandwidth is affected here. There is no load balancer kind of stuff available that can help you to organize the bandwidth usage. That point can be ignored, but still I think if 32 users connectivity is offered, this must be available. The settings panel is really simple. A mixture of simple and advance options makes it easy to configure.
Design:
I had already said above that LAVA W200 is the smallest and lightweight portable wifi device. The weight is just around 100g. It seems to be a big size usb to me. Carrying it is very easy. The design of LAVA W200 is really impressive. At the front side you can see LAVA Logo on the top with a light indicator placed just above W200. This light indicator turns to blue once a proper connection is established. Or else it will keep on blinking in red color. So this just tells you whether the wifi is enabled or not. W200 has a glossy white body with grayish bar on all the sides. All connectivity ports and buttons are placed well for accessing easily. At the top side lies the RJ45 port. It is covered with rubber closing. It is well integrated on the top side which is also responsible for the modem thickness. Ample of system on the LAN network are controlled by auto DHCP settings. This port also identifies the settings automatically. For LAN, WAN, there is no need of manual configuration. At the bottom side lies a USB port. You can use 3G dongle directly on it. It is also the charging port of the router. To use that configuration login is required through admin panel. You will have to set the “add the dongle” settings in the router. You can find a separate video on that in our Techarena.in/Video section.
On the left lies a slider button which controls three things. You can see the alphabets on the button. Here “O” is to turn the router off, “C” is to put it on Charging and “R” is to turn it ON. Just next to that lies another button that tells you how much charging is left in the router. You can press it and notice a blue led indicator. When the charge goes low, the light indicator keeps on reducing. At a time you can either use a 3G USB dongle or Ethernet port on it. Both cannot be used at a single time. Second thing, you can connect to your existing wifi network. That means it is not a extender. It is just a basic router. You can hook this router directly to your model through RJ45 cable and share the network easily. The range is good but not great. It is enough for single room. As per the specification the router is capable of giving you 30 meter range indoors and 50m outdoors, which proves to be wrong. The more you move from the router, the wifi signal gets weaker. This can be due to integrated antenna.
Another portable router by EdiMax comes with External Antenna. That offers more range but is not comfortable to carry. To maintain the portability, LAVA has embedded the antenna inside. Most of these devices come with 2 to 5dB antenna. 2dB is the most common one while in full fledge router you get around 5 to 9 dB antenna. So on that basis you can figure out why coverage area is affected. You can surf comfortably on your tablet pc, mobile phone, when you are near to the router. It is best for using 3G dongles. And a tiny reset hole at the end to put the router settings by default.
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