ArsTechnica’s Jacqui Cheng conducts a faceoff between Verizon’s MiFi and Sprint’s Overdrive 4G mobile hotspots. The results aren’t particularly conclusive, but I enjoyed this sentence:
On top of the MiFi’s pretty looks, it also performs better at basic tasks like turning on and shutting down. While the MiFi can power on and off and be ready to use within seconds, the Overdrive takes its time powering on—taking a minute or more. If that sounds bad, things are about to get worse.
Not very promising.
Cheng provides loose, basic performance measurements. For uploads and downloads the Overdrive does really well on a 4G network and somewhat worse than the MiFi on a 3G network. So no clear winner. Cheng also throws in a comparison with a tethered iPhone 4 on AT&T’s 3G network, which does surprisingly well. Ping times are horrible on the iPhone 4 though.
Frankly, if I had to pull a trigger, for my needs I’d go with an iPhone 4, punt on the mobile hotspots, and use the savings to max out the storage on the iPhone.