Turning the device on simply requires pressing the button one short time (even a quick tap does it), but turning it off takes a longpress. I find that the power on and power off scheme on the 4510L is confusing and counter-intuitive. Only a clean power off (achieved by holding the button down for five seconds until the LED turns solid yellow) clears the display entirely. The other interesting challenge that having an e-ink display poses is that when you pull the battery, the display indicators persist indefinitely. There simply isn’t space to have LTE, 1xRTT, EVDO, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA (with and without +) indicators on the e-ink display without possibly using two character, fourteen-segment displays. No doubt to make the e-ink displays affordable, Novatel had to use a display with segments that could be used across its product lineup. No doubt it does make a difference, but then we have a LED below it which blinks endlessly during normal use, and can’t be disabled. It also just seems a bit confusing to have an LED at all, since on one hand you could make the argument that Novatel went with the e-ink display to cut down on power consumption. Unlike the old 2200 software, there’s no way to disable the LED, which can get pretty annoying when working in a dark lair, er. The actual connectivity state is communicated using color - it’s purple when connected to 1x or EVDO, and green when connected to LTE. The status LED blinks when there’s network traffic (a constant rate, not proportional to traffic throughput), and is solid when idle. There’s no network status indicator on the e-ink display (that is to let one differentiate between EVDO, 1xRTT, or LTE), for that, you need to use a good-ol’ LED.Īpproximately where the old 2200 placed its status LED is where the 4510 has its own. There’s also a roaming triangle indicator, and I’m led to believe a target symbol for when GPS is active, though I’ve never seen those last two appear. The e-ink display shows battery status with four gradations, signal strength with four, and the up to five connected clients using small circles at the bottom. The new 4510L is considerably less understated than that old flat black model, including a chrome lip around the edge, chrome recessed power button, shiny plastic lid, and an e-ink top display. I like many others opted for the then-unlimited Virgin Mobile version (before unlimited finally ended) which has a faux-aluminum textured plastic topside, and the same soft touch underside. The old Verizon MiFi was flat black and relatively spartan. I’ve carried the 2200 around at a number of different conferences and always wound up constantly patting my pockets to make sure it was still there - the 4510L definitely remedies that problem, if you could call it one. To me, the old 2200 always felt a bit too light, if that’s possible. The 4510L is a fair amount chunkier than the 2200 in photos as well, though it retains roughly the same credit-card outline.