CelLynx 5BARz Road Warrior Cell Phone Booster

It isn’t very often that a really new and innovative product actually makes it to market.  The 5BARz Road Warrior by CelLynx caught my eye out of the thousands of exhibits at CES 2010 this last January as it is a product that if it works, I really need for myself.  I live in a high desert rural valley in what is called the cell phone “dreadzone” – there is a signal, but it is so weak that I usually have to walk outside of my house to answer or to make cell phone calls.  And I have looked for many other reasonably priced solutions including putting an antenna on my roof with very limited success.  That is, until now.

Look at what the CelLynx 5BARz Road Warrior claims from their web site!

How could anyone with poor cell reception resist this unique product in a compact single package?  It weighs about a pound and the dimensions are approximately 5″ x 5″x 1.3″ so you could actually take it with you hiking as you do your GPS, remembering to bring a suitable battery pack or perhaps a laptop uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that can output 6W long enough to make an emergency 9-1-1 call.

Currently the Road Warrior retails for $299.99 but you can find it for as little as $200 after a $50 mail-in-rebate at Newegg.com.  Any other possible solution that I have found retails for many hundreds of dollars and they are not usually portable nor suited for taking with you in your car.

We first reported on the CelLynx 5BARz Road Warrior at CES 2010 here.   When the product became available last month, this editor requested a review sample for AlienBabeltech as we have been expanding our mobile product coverage for our readers.  We have been using the Road Warrior for just over a month and we feel we can give a good report to you as it as been tested in the most extreme situations using both voice and the data stream as we also tethered our notebook to our cell phone.

This editor was not the slightest bit interested in the Road Warrior as a mobile unit as my regular driving route takes me through very good reception areas with rare drop outs.  It is at my home that has the worst cell phone reception possible.  There is only one AT&T cell tower in my very rural valley and it has an “almost” line of sight to my phone.  My next door neighbor up the road (nearer the hillside) has zero reception and my next door neighbor down the road has great reception.  The result for me, in the middle, is a signal that is essentially worthless inside my home.

If I am lucky, the cell phone will ring and as I answer it, run for the patio.  It is very frustrating, especially in cold weather.  Of course, I have explored many alternatives in the past.  Up until now, the only solution that might have worked is to set up a commercial-type cell phone reception tower and a repeater type setup for many (many) hundreds of dollars.

What the 5BARz Road Warrior promises is an economical, simple and very personal solution to easily boost a cell signal from worthless to usable and even to excellent.  Did it deliver?  Well, read on as we examine this very unique product.  Let’s take a look at the packaging and the specifications of this unit on the following page.