Thinkpads Forum

I'm in the market for a WWAN card for my X230, I'm in Toronto, Canada so I want to take advantage of the fastest cards available. Based on my understanding there is a "whitelist" that limits my choices via the bios.

Where would one find this whitelist?

Of the cards on this "whitelist", which ones allow the fastest speeds?

Are there "whitelisted" cards that are as fast as current WWAN technology's capability?

I think I'm almost out of warranty, are systems running reliably with bios hacks to allow non-whitelisted cards? (I want to run an X220 keyboard with full funtion as well, so am considering a hacked bios once again)

Thanks,

Carthik

Carthik wrote:Where would one find this whitelist?

The list of Lenovo supplied cards that will work in an X230 can be found the the Hardware Maintenance manual (HMM) for that model, on the Lenovo web site.

Of the cards on this "whitelist", which ones allow the fastest speeds?

Probably the Ericsson 5521 card - it will support HSPA-DC operation (provided your ISP offers it).

Frankly, if you after the fastest speed possible you need to determine what that means for the areas that you are mostly using WWAN in, and you may need to use an external dongle. The ISP service offerings in a particular area may be in well in advance of the available support from internal WWAN cards.

In my area, I can get 4G/LTE services on the 1800Mhz band which are not yet support by any WWAN internal card vendor, so I just use a Sierra USB WWAN device that does support those services.

I think I'm almost out of warranty, are systems running reliably with bios hacks to allow non-whitelisted cards? (I want to run an X220 keyboard with full funtion as well, so am considering a hacked bios once again)

No hacked Bios for the X230 as far as I'm aware, and no solution for using a different keyboard either.

Cheers,

Bill B.