Yoodo 5G Prepaid Review – Great for Secondary Device

What’s Included in the Yoodo 5G SIM Pack?

Starting off our Yoodo 5G prepaid review with the unboxing, or rather unpacking, we received a SIM pack that contains some details about the telco and its prepaid plan. Inside, there was a SIM card that has already been pre-cut so you can easily fit it into devices that require the regular SIM card size, miniSIM, microSIM, and nanoSIM. There is also an eSIM option that you can get if you wish.

Yoodo 5G Prepaid Plans and Options

Best Selling Plans (Unlimited)

	Unlimited Bajet	Unlimited Atas
Data	3Mbps	6Mbps
Voice	100 minutes	100 minutes
SMS	0 messages	0 messages
Add-Ons	20GB PUBG Mobile 6GB Hotspot 2GB Roam Like Home	20GB PUBG Mobile 6GB Hotspot 2GB Roam Like Home
Price	RM35 per month	RM43 per month

Best Selling Plans (High Speed)

	Abam Jimat	Makcik Bawang	GG	Kepochi	Boss
Data	20GB	20GB	20GB	40GB	30GB
Voice	0 minutes	0 minutes	4,000 minutes	100 minutes	4,000 minutes
SMS	0 messages	0 messages	0 messages	0 messages	0 messages
Add-Ons	None	20GB Facebook 20GB WhatsApp	20GB PUBG Mobile 20GB Mobile Legends	20GB Facebook 20GB WhatsApp	20GB Facebook 20GB Instagram 20GB Netflix 20GB PUBG Mobile 20GB TikTok
Price	RM20 per month	RM26 per month	RM33 per month	RM51 per month	RM63 per month

Customizable Plans

	High Speed	Unlimited
Data	2 to 200GB RM12 to RM98	3Mbps to 6Mbps RM35 to RM43 6GB Hotspot Free *Add RM15 for 10GB Hotspot *Add RM30 for 20GB Hotspot
Voice	100 to 4,000 minutes RM5 to RM12	100 to 4,000 minutes RM0 to RM12
SMS	50 to 300 messages RM3 to RM15	50 to 300 messages RM3 to RM15

The Good

There are a number of good reasons to consider getting the Yoodo 5G prepaid plan. For starters, the plan itself is very flexible, letting you get a telco plan tailored accordingly with your needs. This could even be narrowed down to specific apps so you could go for a lower general mobile data quota, and purchase the add-on pack for specific apps / games you use most and just run with that. All you have to do is use the official Yoodo app for that.

Furthermore, it’s also pretty affordable overall. While the pricing looks like it can vary quite a bit depending on what you choose to subscribe to, I’d say for most people, you’re looking at about RM20 to RM50 per month depending on your needs. I say this because if you were willing to pay more than that, you’d likely opt for a different plan, such as from parent company Celcom’s own prepaid plan with the monthly passes or even the Xpax Postpaid plan. This feels more suitable for a secondary device, like mobile data for an iPad.

In case you’re an avid traveler, Yoodo does have roaming for over 72 countries, which includes roaming passes ranging from 1 to 15 days. The prices vary depending on which country you’ll be roaming in but it can be pretty affordable as a 1-day pass in Singapore is as low as RM5, purchasable on the app. To prevent any bill shocks, they will intentionally block activities that are deemed “chargeable”, such as making / receiving calls if you’re roaming without a pass, which adds some peace of mind.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the Yoodo 5G prepaid SIM card already comes pre-cut to cater to all sizes; standard, mini, micro, and nano. If you’d like a taste of the future, you can avoid any form of physical SIM cards whatsoever and opt for an eSIM instead if your smartphone supports it. Furthermore, the SIM card itself is free. This is pretty convenient and allows for more flexibility in how you want to use their prepaid plan, which further emphasizes my point in it being ideal for a secondary device.

Credit where credit is due, the 5G speeds on this is certainly legitimate. You can get insanely fast speeds as seen from the Speedtest screenshot here, with download and upload speeds of 700Mbps and 100Mbps respectively. Even then, the 4G+ speeds are also nothing to scoff at with speeds of 300Mbps and 60Mbps respectively. Supposedly, 5G only works on Android but it seems to work on my iPhone 14 Plus just fine for me as you can see in one of the screenshots above.

Call quality has generally been decent from my own experience, provided you have a full / near-full signal bar. It’s still better than using WhatsApp calls on Yoodo’s mobile data, as the latter often results in delayed speech as they will hear my voice about 1-3 seconds after I’ve finished speaking. As for what it’s like when it’s lower than that, we will explain it in the next section.

The Bad

Before you consider getting a Yoodo 5G SIM pack for yourself, there are a number of drawbacks that we’ve experienced and you should know about. The first is that registration after receiving the SIM card is an annoying process. The Yoodo app on the iPhone keeps freezing up after a bit of time during registration, particularly after it opens the camera to scan my IC. This forced me to speedrun the registration process in order to complete it. After I was done, I had no issues with the app. To give you an idea, it took me 17 tries to complete the process, and it was a grueling ordeal.

The next pain point I found is the lack of flexibility in modifying an existing plan. When I first picked a plan, which is the 20GB “Abam Jimat” plan, I did not select the 5G trial option due to frustrations of having to repeatedly attempt the registration process. The option to edit the plan within the app was greyed out, resulting in me contacting customer service. At the end of it all, I had two options to get 5G access; either resubscribe to the same plan with the 5G option enabled and forfeit my current one or wait for the existing plan to expire and then renew the plan manually.

In other words, don’t make the mistake of subscribing wrongly as you will either be forced to stick to it or be forced to pay in order to change. If they could at least pro-rate it as you move to another package, that would be fine too, but unfortunately, you will have to face the full brunt of the costs. Perhaps the system is incapable of such a thing but that’s merely speculation on my end.

While this MVNO is riding on Celcom’s network, its coverage can vary quite a bit at times. For instance, I could be in my office in Shah Alam, enjoying full signal, and then find myself with half downstairs out in the open. I’ve been to various parts of Klang Valley, most notably Damansara, Sunway, Subang, Petaling Jaya, Selayang, Batu Caves and Ampang, and I often find myself with 2-3 bars of signal on my iPhone. The main Celcom line on the same device does 3-4 bars consistently in the same places.

To prevent confusion, a full bar of signal on an iPhone is 4 bars.

Furthermore, 5G access is pretty limited as it’s still not available in many places. For the most part, you will get at least 4G, which is fast enough but there are times when it goes down to 3G and EDGE when the signal starts to get weak. This isn’t to say this is horrendous by any means as every telco plan will have this at some point or another. It’s more so me tempering people’s expectations as you might think you will always get 5G speeds wherever you go.

On the topic of weaker signals, call quality at half signal bars often result in voice getting cut off every few seconds for both the person I’m calling and myself. This may sound normal for some of you but using lines from 3 other telcos (whom I will not mention), I can have a pretty clear phone conversation, just a lower audio quality at worst. Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that it is an MVNO.

Yoodo 5G Prepaid Verdict

The Yoodo 5G prepaid SIM pack is a value-focused telco offering that caters to a wide variety of users. Personally, I feel like it’s more suited as a telco plan for a secondary device or for parents getting a mobile plan for their kids. I would include senior citizens into the list if it weren’t for issues that I faced with the app myself. I’m certain that more areas will get 5G coverage sooner or later but even without it, 4G / 4G+ is still more than enough for most people.

At the end of our Yoodo 5G prepaid review, I award this telco prepaid offering with out Bronze Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Yoodo for sending us this SIM pack for testing purposes.