Can you hear me now? The Wilson Sleek cell phone signal booster makes sure you can. It takes a little fiddling, but once it's all situated correctly you'll be able to take and make calls in places you couldn't before.
The first thing to figure out is which model you need, based on your carrier technology. We tested the 4G, which works with our local carrier AT&T (spit!). The Sleek package consists of a cradle that will fit just about any phone, in our case an iPhone 4 (yeahyeah, we know, but it still works).
Setup couldn't be simpler: connect the phone to a powered USB port, or use the included cigarette lighter power adapter, connect the antenna cable, and Bob's your uncle. We saw an average gain of 1 to 2 bars out of a maximum 5 around Anchorage, Alaska, where coverage can be spotty. You definitely have to experiment with antenna placement, which is pretty easy because the included cable is about ten feet long and even better, the antenna itself has a circular magnetic base that will hold it to your car, the outside of a metal door, etc. Various accessory kits with different mounts and antennae (see that? high english baby!) are available to fully dial in (and a pun! bonus round!) your installation.
To see exactly what kind of boost you're getting, bring up your phone keypad (on an iPhone) and type in *3001#12345#* to start Field Test mode. This will give you an actual numerical display of your signal strength in decibels, ranging from -105 (worst) to -50 (great). Now it's hard not to whip out the Sleek whenever we set up camp to see what kind of signal we can pull in. Anyone venturing into the wild should assume they won't have cell coverage and plan accordingly, however the truth is a lot of us do a lot of outdoors activity within range of a cell tower and can take advantage of the extra margin of safety it provides. The Wilson Sleek expands this margin, and that's a good thing.