During Smart’s launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III on Friday, we chanced upon a peculiar yet nifty device that the telecom firm will soon unveil to the market (luckily for some of those who pre-ordered Samsung’s new flagship phone, they get first dibs on it!).
The device is called the WiFi Plug-It, and it’s basically an Internet dongle with the capability to share Internet connection to up to five nearby wireless devices.
Now, you may ask, is there a market for such a kind of device considering that MiFi devices — which basically do the same thing — are a dime a dozen these days? Smart certainly thinks so.
Manufactured by Huawei, the WiFi Plug-It devices can go as fast as 7.2Mbps as it rides on Smart’s vast expanse of HSPA+ networks nationwide. Standard Internet browsing rates apply, at just P10 per 30 minutes.
But unlike most MiFi devices, this one doesn’t have a battery included in it, which explains the slightly cheaper price (P3,495 for the prepaid kit at the Smart Online Store). In comparison, Smart’s Pocket WiFi offering, which could only go up to 5Mbps, retails for P3,895.
You can plug it on a standard-issue USB port on your laptop, or, if you take Smart’s suggestion, you can connect the WiFi Plug-It to a car charger and instantly transform your vehicle into a roving WiFi hotspot. If you have a portable USB charger with you, that would work fine as well.
Of course, if you’re a smartphone user, you already know that most devices today already have a WiFi-sharing feature embedded into the OS. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have another cheaper option to get wireless Internet everywhere, right?
