17 days, that's how long I spent with Celcom's new prepaid SIM pack called the Magic SIM. They have been heavily promoting this new service through social media and even some well-known members of the public have joined into promoting Celcom's latest prepaid offering. In this review, I am basing things off a real world usage scenario and given that this is my first time writing a review of a mobile service providers, I might get some things wrong.

Magic SIM

First up, the name does sound like it's on top of the world if you were to choose a name to build an explosive marketing campaign, this would be it. Celcom (XPAX) is offering this SIM card pack for only RM 5 and it will be replacing existing prepaid packages from Celcom. In fact, existing customers can upgrade to the new package from their existing prepaid account.

If you didn't read up on my initial article published when the SIM card pack was officially launched, here is the key points which I'll explain further in my review below. Probably the single biggest idea behind the Magic SIM pack is getting more than what you paid for. This means that for every reload, subscription and active time you spend on this SIM pack, it'll definitely return you something special

FREE Calls FREE Internet FOR Everyone FOREVER. #magicsim 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/kdHsv5IzCx

— afiq. (@BroAfiq) June 4, 2015

Price

Straight out, the Magic SIM prepaid pack is priced at only RM 5 making it one of the most compelling prices out there today and like other telcos, Celcom is preloading the SIM card with RM 3 worth of credit which is quite reasonable. But, unlike others, they have went ahead and included 200MB of "high speed" at no extra cost. This means that by just activating the SIM pack, you can surf the web without dishing out extra credit.

Quite a compelling offer I say

Alongside the free data included, Celcom is also giving users either 5 call minutes or SMS to any Celcom numbers. The active period out of the box is 5 days and that's about enough time for you to take advantage of the extras which are included.

Data

Mobile data, 3G or 4G is a big thing on smartphones these days and with the Magic SIM pack, Celcom is offering more data compared to their competitors (other telcos). Overall, the data being supplied isn't that much more by a long shot but it is compelling enough to get users to consider switching or buying into the new Magic SIM package

As mentioned, right out the box, you will be able to enjoy 200MB of free high speed internet which can apparently reach up to 4G speed. I wasn't able to confirm that as I did not have a 4G capable device on hand to test. Beyond that there will also be data plans which range from RM1 all the way to RM 58, you can check out the table below to see the values.


But, if you spend extra on a daily, weekly or monthly data plan, I'm happy to tell you that the Magic SIM does feature unlimited basic data which has speeds of upto 64kbps. All you need to do to take advantage of this 64kbps internet is to be on an active line (means that your top-up hasn't expired). I had the opportunity to try out this connection for a day and it was ok, was able to do some Swarm check-ins in a very slow manner and it was able to rock the facebook timeline quite smoothly (pictures didn't quite load though).

If you're not content with the slow 64kbps always on connection, and you have used up your quota for the data plan you subscribed, there are a few booster options which will throw in extra high speed data at a reasonable price.

Finally, Celcom might not be offering Magic SIM users free data for social media but they have a very compelling deal with data rollover. This data rollover feature is brought forward from their postpaid plan and it'll be automatically activated for all Magic SIM customers. The catch here is that you can only rollover the equivalent amount of data of your current data plan. This means that if you have a 100MB data plan, you can only bring forward up to 100MB of data.

Reload

This is still indeed a prepaid SIM card and the Magic SIM is reloaded with what Celcom is calling, Magic Reload. Similar to the SIM card out of the box, with every reload keyed into your account, you will instantly get a little extra. So, for example you reload RM 10 and besides having the RM 10 value being credited into your account, you will also receive data, call minutes and SMS (to celcom numbers only)

Check out the chart below for the breakdown of what freebies will you be getting each time you do a reload. Not to be confused, the free data comes with the reload itself and you will not need to spend that reload value to get the free data.

Conclusion

Throughout my time testing, I only reloaded the Magic SIM once and I was basically using up all the free data included as well as subscribing to the RM 1 plan/day. The 3G coverage was quite good and I was testing/using the data in the Petaling Jaya area. Similar to other telcos, there are some places which the coverage isn't that promising but it did perform slightly better than my usual Umobile number.

I've only been testing it for a couple of weeks and my conclusion is that it's worth every penny and comparing it to prepaid plans from other telcos, Celcom's Magic SIM pack does feature a little bit more for the same price. But, if you're currently using another prepaid plan (not from Celcom), I would advise you to wait a few months as other telcos will soon update their plans to make it more compelling.

All in all, i am quite happy with the Magic SIM pack, it does what Celcom said it does and having only spent RM 15 for 600MB of data, now that's a pretty good deal as is. You can pick up a Magic SIM pack through Celcom dealers nationwide for only RM 5 and i'm sure you are also going to enjoy all the free data