As we weigh our options in seeking out an alternative to the USB modem that completely and utterly failed us in Vegas, a new option has just presented itself in the form of a nifty little hybrid broadband card from Sprint. Announced this morning, the Sierra Wireless AirCard 402 features a unique design that allows Sprint to cover users with PC Card slots and ExpressCard slots in one swing. The design places a broadband ExpressCard within a PC Card shell — as you can see in the image above, the two pieces join when a PC Card is required, but they can also be separated to support newer, smaller notebooks and netbooks requiring an ExpressCard. Very clever. The AirCard 402 supports EV-DO Rev. A of course, giving users access to “typical upload speeds of 350-500 Kbps with peak speeds of 1.8 Mbps and typical download speeds of 600 Kbps – 1.4 Mbps with peak speeds of 3.1 Mbps where EV-DO Revision A is available.”
This little guy is definitely a nice solution for users with both a notebook and a netbook where one type of card might not fit in both. It’s also great for those of you sporting an older notebook with a PC Card slot, but who will likely be upgrading to a newer laptop in the future. The Sierra Wireless AirCard 402 is available right now and will set you back a pretty reasonable $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.
[Via Press Release]
