Question Mobile wifi widget or cheap phone?

richard plumb

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when we are away from home, the kids are often complaining that they can't use their iPads because there is no wifi, and their phones have barely any data on their contracts. So I was thinking to get a wifi hotspot of some kind. Would only be used occasionally - maybe 4-5 times per year for a few days at a time.

I could get something like an EE wifi box for £50+£10 top up (and I currently have their summer 100GB sim), but would it make sense to instead get a cheapish android/Windows phone which can be used as a hotspot, but then could also be used as a phone when needed. Also my daughter has a lumia 530 with no selfie camera, so if I get a 4G android like a moto E, she could maybe get that as a phone later on.

The alternative would be to use my current Z3 as a hotspot, but I only have 2GB data and that might get used up quickly if everyone is connected.

What do you do when you need to get wifi access to other devices out and about? Do these pocket wifi devices have much better battery life or signal?
 
The advantage of a mobile wifi is that it works like a conventional router (print sharing, file sharing, etc.) whereas if you use a mobile with a wifi hotspot, not all networks allow this to be used for tethering (connecting other devices to share the mobile phone connection). Also, connecting more than one device to a mobile phone is less reliable plus the battery will be drained far quicker. A mobile has to contend with both voice and data at the same time whereas a pocket wifi is purpose built for data only. Tariffs for data only are also more generous withy allowance and the devices are cheaper than a mobile equivalent.

Having said that, I regularly use my Android phone as an emergency hotspot for a maximum of 2 devices to download a gig or so when needed and it works fine so I would say that if you can get the right tariff to allow tethering with has suffucient allowance, and you're not planning on connecting more than a couple of devices at the same time, AND you have good data coverage wherever you're planning on using the ipads, a cheap mobile would probably do the job just fine.
 
If it's only for occasional use over short periods a phone might do, if you are going to use it 24 hours a day over a period of days I think a mifi type device is a better solution, it's designed to be left operating for days or weeks.
 

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