iPhone Personal Hotspot vs Portable Wifi Router
Discussion
Hi all,
I travel semi-regularly and since starting a new business a few months ago it's become more necessary to be 'always connected'. After an issue with the wifi at a "5 star" (it was cheap for a reason) hotel in Mexico, I want to get myself properly sorted for some trips I have coming up.
I have two options atm:
1) iPhone: I have a spare iPhone 11 which I could buy a local sim for and use solely for personal hotspotting - however, my experience with the iOS personal hotspot is that it's just not that good (whether at home or internationally). I've found the speed is generally slower and it drops out intermittently.
2) Portable hotspot: I've been reading up on portable wifi routers like this which look decent - I can add a local sim if I want or use their built-in data packages, plus it's built for wifi so hopefully less connectivity/speed issues. My main thought is am I spending a load of unnecessary cash on the hardware and cloud data plan (if I use it)? Is it that much better the iPhone hotspot?
Does anyone have a view on which of these would be better at keeping me online with fast internet whilst I'm away? Also very open to other ideas of how to stay connected while travelling!
Thanks
I travel semi-regularly and since starting a new business a few months ago it's become more necessary to be 'always connected'. After an issue with the wifi at a "5 star" (it was cheap for a reason) hotel in Mexico, I want to get myself properly sorted for some trips I have coming up.
I have two options atm:
1) iPhone: I have a spare iPhone 11 which I could buy a local sim for and use solely for personal hotspotting - however, my experience with the iOS personal hotspot is that it's just not that good (whether at home or internationally). I've found the speed is generally slower and it drops out intermittently.
2) Portable hotspot: I've been reading up on portable wifi routers like this which look decent - I can add a local sim if I want or use their built-in data packages, plus it's built for wifi so hopefully less connectivity/speed issues. My main thought is am I spending a load of unnecessary cash on the hardware and cloud data plan (if I use it)? Is it that much better the iPhone hotspot?
Does anyone have a view on which of these would be better at keeping me online with fast internet whilst I'm away? Also very open to other ideas of how to stay connected while travelling!
Thanks
You don't need to spend that much.
We have run an office from one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5577-4G-Low-Cost-...
We have run an office from one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5577-4G-Low-Cost-...
I would almost always choose a wifi hotspot, they have some advantages:
Charge separate to your phone which you may need to be on.
Can run from a power bank if needed and not lose all your phone battery.
Supports better speeds and more devices.
Can be placed where the best phone signal is in the room/building and just connect to it from there.
Can swap and change SIMs without affecting your phone.
Charge separate to your phone which you may need to be on.
Can run from a power bank if needed and not lose all your phone battery.
Supports better speeds and more devices.
Can be placed where the best phone signal is in the room/building and just connect to it from there.
Can swap and change SIMs without affecting your phone.
somouk said:
I would almost always choose a wifi hotspot, they have some advantages:
Charge separate to your phone which you may need to be on.
Can run from a power bank if needed and not lose all your phone battery.
Supports better speeds and more devices.
Can be placed where the best phone signal is in the room/building and just connect to it from there.
Can swap and change SIMs without affecting your phone.
Yup - agree with all that and also:Charge separate to your phone which you may need to be on.
Can run from a power bank if needed and not lose all your phone battery.
Supports better speeds and more devices.
Can be placed where the best phone signal is in the room/building and just connect to it from there.
Can swap and change SIMs without affecting your phone.
Can be on a different mobile network to help mitigate coverage holes.
GlenMH said:
You don't need to spend that much.
We have run an office from one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5577-4G-Low-Cost-...
If you really can't use your iPhone then one of these works well. But it's something else to charge, to carry around with you, something else to go wrong.We have run an office from one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5577-4G-Low-Cost-...
I just buy a local SIM for my iPhone and use data on that, hardly anybody uses SMS these days (plus it stops you getting a massive roaming bill by accident) so WhatsApp works fine regardless of SIM, e-mail and Zoom and Office etc all work great, my iPad and Macbook use the iPhone for data perfectly. I take a small USB power bank with me anyway as you would, just in case you get delayed somewhere. Most of the apps I need are on my phone anyway.
We ran a Vodafone basic WiFi mobile network box during covid as our home Wifi wouldn't support both of us running online meetings at the same time.
To start with I paired my Mac to my iPhone but if the phone rang the data dropped out and I lost my meeting whether I answered the phone or not.
The data box thing was free and I think it was 'only' £25-£30 a month for unlimited data. It came in handy when I went back out on the road as its often faster than most cheaper hotels wifi (Premier Inn, holiday Inn, travel lodge etc etc) so you can still browse at high speed and watch Netflix.
To start with I paired my Mac to my iPhone but if the phone rang the data dropped out and I lost my meeting whether I answered the phone or not.
The data box thing was free and I think it was 'only' £25-£30 a month for unlimited data. It came in handy when I went back out on the road as its often faster than most cheaper hotels wifi (Premier Inn, holiday Inn, travel lodge etc etc) so you can still browse at high speed and watch Netflix.
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