A few days ago I got the first ExpressCard/34 for a high-speed cellular network, Novatel's X620. I took my prototype unit out and tested it this weekend in an HP Pavilion dv5000t, and, well, it rawks. The future of EV-DO on the MacBook Pro and other ExpressCard laptops looks secure; if the final model performs as well as this prototype did, it will match or outpace the speed of Kyocera's KPC650 PC Card, the fastest EV-DO PC Card on the market. The comparative test is more important than the 651 kbps average speed I got, because average speeds can vary widely based on network conditions. You can only truly test the quality of a card by running it against other cards at the same time, in the same location (or using a $27,000 cellular base station simulator, which I am sad to say we don't have in PC Labs.)

This card could conceivably come out on Sprint, Verizon and Alltel networks in the US, and on Bell and TELUS in Canada. Europeans and Cingular users will have to wait for an HSDPA version -- I imagine that one will come out first in Europe, as Cingular's HSDPA high-speed rollout has been less than aggressive.

Read my full preview, with test results, at PCMag.com.