Dropped calls are a fact of life in the wireless world. Those who require the most robust service possible do more than complain about it to anyone who'll listen (which rules out the cellular provider, of course). They invest hundreds of dollars in a costly, cellular signal booster.

Wilson ranks as the premiere name in this business, and has been supplying an array of signal boosting systems for mobile and in-building use for many years now.
But with the Sleek, the firm has clearly set its sights further down the cellular food chain. For less than $140 at retail, this affordable and downsized signal booster is aimed at just about anyone who drives and uses a cellular telephone.

Sleek consists of a roof-mountable 4.25" rubber antenna with a magnetic base, hard-wired with about 12 feet of coaxial cable terminating in an SMA connector that must be screwed into a compact cradle containing the miniaturized signal-boosting amplifier. The cradle has another input to receive power from an accessory (supplied) that plugs into a standard 12V socket (supplied).

Wilson's pricier (and larger) systems create an amplified zone large enough to enhance the reception of multiple cellular phones inside the car. The Sleek only benefits the phone nestled within its cradle.

Two spring-loaded ears at each side of the cradle securely hold the cellular handset, which picks up the amplified signal from its own antenna: there's no direct electrical connection between the Sleek and the phone. This allows the Sleek to work with any cellular phone, including PCS, AMPS, GPS, 2G/3G and CDMA varieties.

Wilson also provides a holder for mounting the cradle on the dash or some other surface.
Other than ensuring that the Sleek's rooftop antenna is mounted well away from the radio's, there's nothing else to installing the device. It really can be performed by anyone, although neatly hiding the wires is another matter.

Sleek may be smaller and easier to accommodate than comparable systems, but it's hardly a set-and-forget device.

For starters (no pun intended), Sleek users need to plug it into the 12V power on entry, and to make sure they remove it upon exiting the vehicle. Wilson notes that if the 12V socket isn't of the type that shuts off power when the ignition is turned off, Sleek will likely suck the car's battery dry in a couple of days.

For many users, the car's 12V socket is already a spaghetti junction, with such aftermarket gadgets as Sirius and XM satellite radios, DVD players, and GPS systems vying for the connection.

It would be wise to remove the antenna any time the vehicle enters a car wash. Unless the wires are skillfully hidden, you'll eventually snag them on something. Hiding them (which may involve professional installation) makes it inconvenient to port Sleek from vehicle to vehicle. Another option involves hiding the antenna feed in the main vehicle, and then purchasing an extra antenna for occasional use in another.

Those who rely on it every day would opt for a neater installation, but slapping the Sleek together for occasional use is hardly an onerous procedure.

Finally, I found the device works best if the phone is butted as close as possible to the cradle back. That entails taking the phone in and out of its case every time you enter and exit the vehicle.

Once installed, you'll have a minimum of two wires tethered to the rig (the antenna's and the amplifier's power feeds); and three if you supply power to the phone.

That, and the protruding cradle ears make it somewhat unwieldy to hoist the assembly to your ear, although it can be done. Wilson suggests that you connect the phone to a Bluetooth hands-free device or wired earpiece, which makes the most sense for solo drivers. But if you're not alone and travelling a route plagued by poor reception, passengers will be grateful for a chance to use it, wires and all.

Further militating against anchoring the phone in a place where the display and keypad may be hard to reach, is the number of phone contacts that require the inputting of an extension number after the call is answered.

Whether or not Sleek is worth these operations will depend on the number of dropped calls you typically experience; or the seriousness of being unreachable on certain occasions.
If like many cellular users, you seem to find coverage lacking when you need it the most, I can report that in our testing, Sleek really delivered the goods.

According to Wilson's technical notes, the systems work best if the vehicle's roof provides a shield between the cellular phone's and the roof-mounted antenna. The test vehicle, an Audi A3, doesn't provide that very well. It has the "Open Sky" option that presents a glazed roof almost entirely devoid of metal, save for the tint. As you can see from the photo, the antenna had to be placed at an angle on the slim metal surface available.

In spite of this, the Sleek acquitted itself superbly in our field tests. Testing any sort of radio in the field, (meaning the environment for which it was designed, as opposed to a laboratory), is a necessarily dodgy business because radio reception conditions change from day to day according to the weather, humidity, and countless other variables.

The photos record a controlled test of the Wilson Sleek at a site notorious for poor signal coverage and dropped calls: the intersection of Highways 89 and 27 forming the centre of Cookstown, a small town south of Barrie, ON. The test vehicle was parked such that the iPhone could be compared as swiftly as possible with and without the aid of the Sleek.
The procedure involved attempting to place calls with the unaided iPhone with the Sleek unplugged from its antenna, and its power source removed from the 12V socket (to ensure that no radiated signal could leak out and flatter the reception).

The iPhone was also placed into its test mode (by dialing *3001#12345#*) to obtain precise reception data.

Like most other problematic reception areas, this site is inconsistent: on one occasion when testing was attempted, the iPhone showed two bars; enough for adequate reception, which rendered further testing pointless.

On May 5, the demons came out in full force. The unaided iPhone in test mode showed signal strength of -99dB (visible at the top left of the photo that shows No Network Coverage). A minute later, Sleek brought the reception up to -67dB; an impressive gain of 32dB. That's 12dB in excess of the maximum 20dB of amplification specified by the Sleek amplifier (a Wilson tech expert explained that the extra boost had to come from the efficient 4.25" antenna, and its rooftop location). This was enough to excite all four reception bars on the iPhone's main screen.

Reception in the -60dB range represents a very strong signal, while decent results can be obtained through -70/-80dB. Once it dips to -90dB, unreliable reception is likely, with dropped calls a certainty into the triple digits.

Bringing a cellular phone all the way from no service to full service is as dramatic as it gets when it comes to signal boosters, and Sleek accomplished this on a number of occasions. Besides several pockets in the Barrie-Toronto corridor, it repeated this feat in several problem areas in the hinterlands north of Kingston, ON.

Although reducing dropped calls is the headline feature, users will also appreciate consistently more intelligible, crisper voice quality. Long before your handset drops the call, both your and the caller's voice become muffled.

Poor (unaided) reception caused the caller's voice to become garbled due to vastly reduced treble response (which made sibilance hard to hear). It also sounded as if she were talking with a mouth full of marbles (the caller described my voice in similar terms). Eventually, the call was dropped.

These photos record a controlled test of the Wilson Sleek at a site notorious for poor signal coverage and dropped calls: the intersection of Highways 89 and 27 at the centre of Cookstown, ON. The first photo is of the unamplified iPhone (Network Lost, with -99 barely visible at the top left). The next photo, taken moments later, shows a remarkable 32dB of gain with the Sleek attached (-67). The third photo, taken seconds later, shows the iPhone's home screen (out of the test mode) with all four reception bars.

Slapping the iPhone into the Sleek's cradle immediately restored reception to all four bars, and then once the connection was re-established, voice quality was crystal clear and distinct on both ends.

That modest hump at the back of the aptly named Sleek houses electronics that occupy a much larger case in other Wilson systems.

No device can guarantee perfect results in every location, but those who need far superior reception, Wilson's Sleek is the least expensive, and easiest route to vastly improved signal strength.

Although we didn't test it, Wilson provides a kit (retailing in the $40 range) to convert Sleek for use indoors. It consists of an AC power source, table stand for the cradle, and a suction adaptor for window mounting the antenna and keeping it vertical.

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