Thanks for all the posts on this thread, it’s been very useful.

Here is my experience with pokefi:

Bought the unit inflight on the way to HK on a Cathay flight. It didn’t work when I tested it in the airport just after buying it, and Cathay’s ground staff couldn’t help. The unit showed a solid red the whole time. Since I was transitting to Seoul, I tried the cabin crew on the next flight, but they wouldn’t exchange it either. I also emailed Cathay but no reply from the after service department, even after several emails, so be aware the Cathay won’t be of much help if you buy it inflight.

Arrived in Seoul and the unit was now blinking red but never turned green. Contacted pokefi via fb messenger and after 5-6 days of back and forth they finally sent me a FedEx label to send the unit back. 5 days later I received a new pokefi which so far works here in Seoul.

Observations so far: The unit works best when you turn it on, wait for it to go green and just leave it on. The first day, I turned it off to save battery life, but turning it on again in rush hour in the middle of Seoul turned out to be a bad idea, as it would never go green again.

It seems (to me at least) that once you have a “slot” on the network it goes green and that it’s harder to get that in areas with lots of other people using the network at the same time. Which is, ironically, exactly where you need it, while traveling in touristy places.

My current top up SIM in Korea is only 3G and is around $16 for 1GB (many foreigners use these cards as they then don’t have to sign 2 year contracts), so pokefi actually works out to be 5 times cheaper (at $15 for 5GB) plus it’s 4G so much faster. The disadvantage is of course that you have to charge and carry the unit around with you.

The coverage in Seoul has been good so far, even underground and in the subway. I’ll keep testing it and I’m excited to bring it traveling next time I go.

I also found a neoprene sleeve for the unit on eBay for around $1.15. It seems that a neoprene sleeve for the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime fits the pokefi perfectly. I’ll test it once I get it but you can find it on eBay by searching for “Samsung Galaxy Core Prime neoprene”.

Overall, my impressions are positive so far, but I was a bit shocked that such an expensive item doesn’t have better quality control, since the first unit didn’t work at all out of the box. Customer service was decent though, once they finally sent the FedEx label to return the unit.

I’ll update this as I test it more and when I take it to other countries.