Vodafone 3G/GPRS datacard

Buckle up - 3G speed's here!

At last! Crack open the champagne, pull out the party poppers and cry "Hallelujah!" - you can finally get your laptop online at near-broadband speeds without sniffing out Wi-Fied cafes and departure lounges. At least, that's the theory behind Vodafone's new combined 3G (nearly broadband) and 2.5G (dial-up speed) card.

The card works with virtually any new Windows computer with a spare PC Card slot - Macs, sadly, aren't supported at the moment - and set-up is a breeze. The software makes sending text messages and counting the data you've used a doddle.

In an area of 3G coverage, the card is nothing short of mind- blowing. Web browsing and emailing take place at around 380Kbps, a speed about two-thirds that of your typical home broadband connection. We downloaded a 5MB MP3 in five minutes and the 20MB iTunes installer in a little under 15.

It doesn't come cheap. You pay �12 a month for 5MB of data on the bottom tariff and �100 for 500MB on the top one (plus an additional charge if you exceed these amounts). The surprising thing is how ten minutes of general Web browsing quickly comes to 2MB of data. The other cost is to your laptop's battery - take your typical battery life and cut it by a third.

The big problem, however, is the lack of 3G coverage - Vodafone says it covers 30 per cent of its network, primarily around big cities. In our tests, central and north London had 3G; Gatwick Airport, south London and the Sussex countryside dumped us onto slow 2.5G. As Vodafone's coverage improves in the coming months, this card will get better and better. For now, it's a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.