Features to Look Before Buying a Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot

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Spring is here and so are the traveling opportunities for exploring the globe. Travelers are busy preparing to make the most of spring and visit the most trending holiday places in the next few months. The foremost of these preparations is selecting a mobile wi-fi to carry to use on one&#;s travels. Mobile wi-fi routers are pocket-sized routers that help a traveler to connect to the internet while they are moving. While there are several mobile wi-fi routers to choose from, travelers should know some crucial features in a wi-fi before selecting them. We have given here a walkthrough that will assist any traveler to select the correct mobile wi-fi on their travels.

 

5GHz Wi-Fi Support

Travelers while exploring different travel locations constantly multitask from their smartphones and tablets. This can be in the form of entertainment, sending communications through e-mails & chat, making live calls, playing online games, seeing videos, seeking directions to an eatery or a restaurant or simply post photos to their social media accounts. Any mobile wi-fi router should be able to assist in these tasks easily. The router should have at least 5GHz wifi support than the usual 2.4GHz routers available in the market.

Tip: Huawei E Mobile Hotspot has the necessary wi-fi support for ultra-fast surfing.

 

Massive Battery

Running out of juice during travels at critical moments can be a big turn off for any traveler. Most of us use internet 24/7 and always like to be connected wherever we are. Most mobile wi-fi routers don&#;t emphasize this feature. Ideally, a mAh battery can last for more than a day and also serve as a power bank. While buying mobile wi-fi routers travelers should keep this critical aspect of pocket hotspots in mind.

Tip: Huawei E 4G/5G Touchscreen Mobile WiFi & Powerbank is an excellent choice as a mobile wi-fi router to carry on one&#;s travels.

 

SD Card Reader

Taking photos or storing critical information in SD Cards is a common habit amongst travelers. This may be of their DSLR cameras, smartphones and in some cases music devices. With the use of SD Cards sensitive data can be stored as backup. For instance, the action camera or smartphones might get damaged during your journey. Taking a backup in the SD Card is a safe bet to protect those travel memories. The mobile wi-fi should have a feature to read the SD Cards for such sticky situations or storing the extra data.

Tip: TP Link M Mobile Hotspot supports up to 32GB of optional storage.

 

Visual Display

Mobile wi-fi routers often run into network issues during travels due to lack of signal. This can easily frustrate a traveler while they access the internet. Having an interface or a display in the mobile wi-fi can easily inform the working condition of the router and they can also learn about any issue in case the internet stops for no reason.   

Another key benefit of having a display is tracking the amount of data a traveler is using during travels. The visual display shows the network name, battery level, speed, and current data usage to a user. For tourists using the Pay as you go plan tracking the data, they use is vital for saving roaming charges.

 Tip: Huawei E 4G Wi-Fi Hotspot offers a wide display with fast 4G Wi-Fi speeds.

 

Easy Set Up

The first hurdle faced by travelers once they buy a mobile wi-fi is making it work or in technical words setting up the router. These include setting the API Setting and the manual selection of the preferred network if required. Thanks to the latest generation of mobile wi-fi routers, these can be done with the touch of a button or an app.

Tip: Huawei E Pocket Wi-Fi enables you to connect up to 10 devices at the click of a button.

 

Branded & Unlocked

For more information, please visit 4g Mifi Device.

In most of the countries, mobile wi-fi routers are locked to work with only a partnered sim card. This severely reduces a traveler&#;s chance for seamless connectivity and their freedom to use a sim card of their choosing. Tourists should only vouch for branded mobile wi-fi routers such as Huawei, TP-Link, and other similar products. They should also keep in mind that the mobile wi-fi they are buying should also be unlocked or technically speaking sim free.

Tip: Huawei E 4G+ Mobile Hotspot & Powerbank comes unlocked so you can use any SIM card inside.

 

About WorldSIM Travel Accessories

The WorldSIM vision is to make global communications a local affair by allowing travelers to use calling and data services at local prices similar to back home. Our goal is to provide destination tailored SIM Cards coupled with versatile travel accessories that can be easily used worldwide. With hundreds of roaming partners, we are currently offering free international roaming in over 118 countries and adding more of them all the time. The success of the SIM inspired us to develop many more travel accessories and robust global communication service. We at WorldSIM are continuously assisting travelers when they go abroad by adding new products all the time.

For more information on our latest collection of travel accessories, check our website below:

https://www.worldsim.com/travel-essentials

Photo: Sarah Kobos

Despite a lack of 5G support, the Verizon Inseego Jetpack MiFi L is the best hotspot for most people because of its exceptional coverage, reliable LTE performance, and good battery life, as well as carrier service plans that offer far more data than the competition. The L has been around for a while, having shown up at Verizon in November &#;but because hotspots are updated so infrequently, that makes it less of a fossil than its age might suggest.

The L supports LTE Advanced, an upgrade to the LTE network standard that can dramatically increase throughput and reliability, both already strengths of Verizon. LTE Advanced allows a device to use multiple frequency ranges simultaneously, alongside License Assisted Access, another advance that allows a carrier to shift some traffic into unlicensed spectrum when that&#;s available. More than once, we saw this hotspot achieve download speeds faster than those of a Verizon mmWave-compatible 5G hotspot in the same location.

Verizon data-plan options

Data usagePostpaid
(hotspot only)Prepaid
(hotspot only)Unlimited postpaid smartphone
plus hotspot at 50% off25 GBn/a$60 (25 GB plan)$90 (5G Start at $70, plus $20 for Unlimited 15 GB add-on)50 GBn/an/a$100 (Start Unlimited at $70, plus $30 for Unlimited Plus 30 GB add-on)100 GB$90 (100 GB plan)$80 (100 GB plan)

Verizon&#;s newer C-band 5G network is far more useful than its mmWave 5G offering. But that service had only a partial rollout in January , leaving out such larger markets as Atlanta, Denver, and Washington, DC, and the carrier did not ship a C-band&#;compatible hotspot until March, when it introduced the $300 Orbic Speed 5G UW.

That said, if speed is your priority over coverage, the third-party tests that continue to rate Verizon&#;s coverage highly, and which led us to recommend Verizon as the best wireless carrier for coverage, now give top performance honors to its competitors. PCMag, for example, rated T-Mobile as the fastest mobile network in America in after awarding Verizon first place in its testing. RootMetrics, which performs automated drive-testing much like PCMag&#;s, judged AT&T slightly better than Verizon in a round of tests done in the second half of that found that T-Mobile&#;s 5G beat everybody else&#;s in metro areas. Network-testing firm Opensignal reported in early , based on crowdsourced data from phones running its software, that T-Mobile&#;s 5G was faster than AT&T&#;s and Verizon&#;s, even after their respective C-band 5G launches.

Hotspot modelAverage download speed
(Mbps)Average upload speed
(Mbps)Verizon Inseego MiFi M 5G UW187..73T-Mobile Inseego 5G MiFi M132..76Verizon Inseego Jetpack MiFi L118..19

Average connection speeds from our December &#;March round of testing.

Throughout our testing, the L connected with boring reliability. Download speeds during our last round of testing, from December to March , peaked at 284 Mbps along Pennsylvania Avenue in southeast DC but averaged 119 Mbps over that time. Uploads averaged 23 Mbps. More recent spot tests, in , found that this performance persists.

The L&#;s dual-band Wi-Fi router allows you to simultaneously connect on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands; it also offers a guest network, but that feature isn&#;t on by default. The L can connect up to 15 devices via Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). That older protocol loses a bit of performance and reliability in comparison with the current Wi-Fi 6, assuming you have devices that also support Wi-Fi 6&#;but we doubt that makes a huge difference in practice.

With a laptop tethered to the hotspot and playing NASA TV&#;s YouTube stream continuously, the L&#;s replaceable battery averaged 11 hours 26 minutes over three tests. That&#;s well short of Verizon&#;s advertised battery life of &#;up to 24 hours&#; yet also more than enough for a punishing workday. And now that most laptops and Android phones ship with USB-C chargers, we appreciate the compatibility that the L&#;s USB-C port offers. If you don&#;t have a charger with you, the L can also charge a over USB-C, as long as the hotspot has at least a 25% charge.

The L&#;s USB Type-C port charges the hotspot&#;s battery, and you can use it to charge a if the hotspot has more than 25% of a charge.

Photo: Sarah Kobos

This hotspot also offers USB tethering from that port, which in our tests worked without issue on an HP Spectre x360 laptop over a random USB-C cable. The L&#;s guest-network mode reduces the anxiety of giving your wireless password to somebody you just met, and its touchscreen lets you check and adjust basic settings easily, although anything more complicated requires visiting Verizon&#;s web admin interface.

This model also features an option that business travelers will appreciate whenever they hit the road again: a Stealth Mode setting (which would be better named &#;small hotel room mode&#;) that turns off its screen and sound.

You can configure most of the L&#;s important settings directly by using its touchscreen.

Photo: Sarah Kobos

The real reason to get this hotspot, advanced age and all, is the choice of high-usage-friendly rate plans that Verizon introduced in July . But if you want the best prices on large amounts of data, you need to have an existing monthly unlimited plan with Verizon.

If you don&#;t already have a on Verizon, your best deal on data for a Wi-Fi hotspot is the less-obvious option of Verizon&#;s prepaid hotspot plans. If you need a lot of data, you won&#;t do better than Verizon&#;s monthly 150 GB plan for $100 standalone (but just $70 if you have an existing and active Verizon prepaid account). Verizon&#;s monthly 100 GB prepaid plan, $80 by itself or $50 with a , also represents a great deal.

Verizon&#;s two cheapest prepaid plans, 25 GB for $60 ($30 with an existing Verizon prepaid line) and 5 GB for $40 ($10 with a Verizon prepaid line) exclude 5G. They also provide less data than all but one of Verizon&#;s monthly unlimited smartphone plans.

If, on the other hand, you have a Verizon smartphone plan already, its monthly hotspot plans make more sense. The Premium plan includes 150 GB and costs $110 a month standalone, and the Pro plan covers 100 GB and costs $90 a month standalone&#;but they drop to $80 and $60, respectively, if you have any of Verizon&#;s current unlimited-on- smartphone plans. And if you have Verizon&#;s Do More Unlimited ($80 on a single line) or Get More Unlimited ($90) plan, the 150 GB hotspot subscription costs just $60 and the 100 GB option drops to just $40.

After those, the $40 Plus plan adds 50 GB but requires a postpaid smartphone plan, while the $20 Essential plan offers just 15 GB and omits mid-band and mmWave 5G. Subscribing to Do More or Get More cuts those plans&#; rates to $20 and $10, respectively.

Note that exceeding those caps through the hotspot leaves you throttled to a useless 600 kbps data speed.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The battery life of Verizon hotspots has gone down over the life of this guide; the 11 hours and change we observed from the L in our latest tests should get you through even a lousy workday but won&#;t suffice to recharge your much.

By default, the L&#;s admin password matches its Wi-Fi password; we advise changing that.

Changing the L&#;s default alphanumeric password and other advanced settings requires logging in to the my.jetpack site from a device connected to the hotspot. The my.jetpack URL may not work everywhere in the world&#;it&#;s a sort of hack that Verizon employs, and you may need to type the backup local IP address of 192.168.1.1 instead. By default, the L&#;s admin password matches its Wi-Fi password; we advise changing that.

Some owners&#;both in reviews on Verizon&#;s site and in comments here on this guide&#;have complained about unwanted reboots on the L. We haven&#;t seen that problem on either of two different review units we&#;ve tested.

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