Clear 4G officially launched in NYC on November 1st, and since before that date I’ve had the chance to test it out. Quick take: It’s fast, consistent, and available over much of New York City.

In case you haven’t been tracking it, Clear rolled out 4G coverage to a number of new cities, including NYC, LA, Hartford, Tampa and others, making for availability in 61 markets as of this month. It’s true 4G wireless using WiMax, not “4G” like T-Mobile's HSTA+.

Coverage in Manhattan seems to be strong, at least based on my testing. There are still some problem points, but overall I’ve been getting reliable 4G connectivity. When (and where) 4G doesn’t work I have the option of switching over to 3G, but where I had a problem getting 4G reception, I generally had a weak 3G signal. That won’t be the case everywhere in the country though.

At the top of the article is the 4G coverage map of Manhattan and the surrounding areas. You can see that it’s far from perfect but there is a lot of green. (The dark green means “best coverage” while lighter green just means coverage.) Most of the uncolored area has coverage planned for it–you can bet Clearwire won’t want too many deadspots in The Big Apple.

The device I’m using is the Clear 4G+ USB (Series S) modem. It’s a small cylindrical antenna that sticks about 2-inches out of your USB port. It’s a nice enough device, but once you’ve gone MiFi  it’s hard to live with a device that isn’t a hotspot. Luckily Clear does have mobile hot spot devices, including their version of the Sprint OverDrive, the Clear Spot 4G+. It sells for $225 with a 2-year agreement.

And how about speed? That’s what it’s all about, because if it wasn’t for this you could just have a 3G device and have no problem anywhere in a metropolitan area.