T-Mobile 4G Hotspot: Svelte and Speedy
The T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot ($80 with a two-year contract) joins a growing group of mobile hotspots that fit in your pocket and allow several Wi-Fi enabled devices to connect to the Internet via a single mobile broadband connection. (For background on this growing category, read our feature on stand-alone versus phone-integrated hotspots.)
Wed, May 18, 2011
PC World — The T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot ($80 with a two-year contract) joins a growing group of mobile hotspots that fit in your pocket and allow several Wi-Fi enabled devices to connect to the Internet via a single mobile broadband connection. (For background on this growing category, read our feature on stand-alone versus phone-integrated hotspots.)
4G Wireless: 20 Questions Asked & Answered
Size and Shape
The 4G Mobile Hotspot is about the size and shape of a small flip cell phone (folded shut), and it weighs 2.6 ounces. In my tests, the device didn't always live up to T-Mobile's speed claims, but connections were fairly reliable and battery life was pretty good, making the product a great choice for people whose travels tend to occur within T-Mobile's area of 4G coverage (as indicated on the carrier's coverage map).
Manufactured by China's ZTE Corporation, the 4G Mobile Hotspot also has a few extra features that some competing devices lack. You can use the unit to send and receive text messages via its browser-based interface. You can use it as a USB modem by tethering it to a PC with the included Micro-USB cable. And while that cable is connected, you can load files onto the MicroSD card slotted in the ZTE hotspot, though you'll have to bring your own card because ZTE doesn't provide one. Ultimately, this feature seems a bit pointless, since you can access the files on the card only while the hotspot is tethered to the PC.
Status Window
Encased in shiny black with a few lime-green accents, the 4G Mobile Hotspot sports a small white-on-black LCD display that provides brightly lit status information, including mobile broadband network type (4G, 3G, or EDGE), strength of network connection (the usual "5 bars" icon), battery level (4 bars), Wi-Fi status (on/off), number of devices connected via Wi-Fi (represented by a small number), and newly arrived text messages (a number also tells you how many there are).
This information appears when you first power on the device, but the screen goes dark after a few moments, presumably to conserve battery life. While using the 4G Mobile Hotspot, however, you can bring up the status info by pressing the on-off button on the side of the unit. A small removable plastic doorway on the opposite edge conceals a connector for an optional external antenna, which can improve reception.
On the same edge, but on the other side of the MicroSD card slot, is a button for setting up security using WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)--the Wi-Fi Alliance-backed setup protocol--if the device you're connecting to the hotspot also supports it.
