A major factor, for right now at least, is whether the hotspot tops out at a 4G connection or is future-looking enough to support 5G. The up-front price of actual hotspot hardware can vary pretty widely. It depends on the hotspot, the network and the service you are paying for, but two things are relatively consistent across all the options: You have to buy the hotspot, and then you have to pay for service in perpetuity. Plus, all your data is further encrypted while on the mobile data network, making everything as protected as it can be. It usually can run for hours on battery power and is as secure as your router at home, often with the choice of Wi-Fi Protect Access-3 (WPA-3) level encryption. Like a mobile phone but without the ability to make or take voice calls, a mobile hotspot connects to the internet the 4G or 5G mobile data network and then transmits a fresh, secure Wi-Fi network for you and your friends. Small and light, a hotspot is often no bigger than an Altoids box yet can put you online anywhere you can make a mobile call. As it can power up very quickly, we recommend setting this to lower values to increase its battery life.The Best Satellite Messengers for Off-Grid Travel What Is a Mobile Hotspot and How Does It Work? The router can be set to turn off by itself after a certain amount of idle time, somewhere between 5 minutes and 60 minutes, via its Web interface. When used intermittently, it lasted much longer, around 10 hours or so. When used heavily and continuously with a 4G network, it offered around 4 hours of battery life, which is not bad, though relatively short. Note that these download and upload speeds could vary a great deal from one city to another, and the numbers mentioned here only reflect our experience in the Bay Area.įor the most part the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH-LC11 router worked well, but we noticed that it ran hot, especially when connected to multiple Wi-Fi devices. These speeds are comparable to those of very fast cable broadband, if not faster in many cases. Its average upload speed was also around 7.3Mbps. The download speeds varied between 7Mbps and 13Mps, with 9.2Mbps being the most common. In our trials around the San Francisco Bay Area, its connection was by far the fastest. Note that the router's connection to the Internet is very fast, and when connected to a 4G network you can use up the total monthly allowance within just an hour or so of heavy downloading.Īs mentioned above, Verizon's Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH-LC11 excelled where it mattered the most: the Internet connection. Both of these count toward the monthly allowance, which is similar to that of the LG VL600 LTE USB Modem. The Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH-LC11 works both as a 4G and 3G router with the latter being the backup in areas in which 4G is not available. In order to see how much juice left in the battery, you'll have to log in to the router's Web interface, which is a hassle and might not even be possible via a mobile device. Another thing that users will miss is the lack of a battery gauge. This means the only way to connect a client is to enter the encryption key manually. The router doesn't have a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button to support quick additions of wireless clients to the network. Next to it is an array of tiny LCDs that show the status of the Wi-Fi network and the cellular network the device is connected to, be it a 4G or a 3G. On top, the Samsung has a large on/off button that you need to press and hold for a few seconds for it to take effect. It's compact and good-looking enough to be tucked away or show off on the desk. Measuring 3.5 inches by 2.3 inches by 0.5 inch, Verizon's Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH-LC11 is about the same size as Sprint's MiFi 4082 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot. For those who are on a budget, however, we'd recommend alternatives from Sprint or T-Mobile. If you're a business user who needs a fast Internet connection on the go but doesn't do a lot of downloading, or you just don't care about the extra costs incurred when the caps are reached, Verizon's Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH-LC11 makes the most satisfying mobile router among its peers.
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