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Need a phone for wifi!!

B

BrandonT

Member
I've used various USB modems for my laptop (through Verizon) and it seems they never get as good a connection as my phone itself. The new wifi hotspot devices have some pretty bad reviews. So I'm looking for a phone that is known to have stable wifi for my laptop. I've never had a smartphone so I'm not sure where to start other than probably going with an Android based. I don't think I need the latest and greatest, but if a newer phone has some worthwhile features I'll consider it. Thanks.
 
Preference on carrier and what are you looking to spend? How big of a screen are you looking for? We need some more information to give you some suggestions.
 
I'll probably stay with Verizon and 4G. I prefer small phones (the main reason I've never had a smartphone) and will likely rarely need a big screen. I can afford any phone, but put a premium on VALUE.
 
I have also tried USB modems for mobile broadband, and generally, I don't like them. For the past 2 years I have been using the C-777 Express card modem from Sprint, and it serves me well with my laptop. I can also use WiFi if and when it is available, but I'm chary of public ones. I just wish Verizon had an Express card modem in their stable - they work so much better and more reliably than usb ones.

When on the road, I like solid 3G. 4G is still not sufficiently prevalent except in large cities.

Right now I am considering the Merlin CC208 by Novatel. It is the same format as my C2777, but 4G and 3G. If Verizon had this, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
 
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BrandonT said:
Also I need decent battery life, must be able to function as a wifi hotspot all day.
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No LTE phone is going to last all day as a 4G hotspot, the technology just isn't there. If it's main function is going to be a hotspot I would probably pick up a cheap used thunderbolt in the coming weeks when they are dumped on the market for the RAZR and Prime. Then pick up a couple spare batteries and a battery charger. If you want a new phone I would go with the Prime. You are going to have to get a spare battery no matter your choice.

I would try a mifi before buying a phone you don't seem to really want. The Novatel seems to get consistently better reviews of being able to hold the signal better. I would give one a shot. Battery life is going to be an issue here as well. Around three hours max is the norm. A micro USB back-up battery would be an option with these.

No matter your choice battery life is going to be an issue. Current generation LTE chips eat batteries like candy.
 
You could use the phone via USB, and the laptop would charge it so it could make it. I can't think of a phone that would last all day as a wifi hotspot on battery.
 
Demo24 said:
You could use the phone via USB, and the laptop would charge it so it could make it. I can't think of a phone that would last all day as a wifi hotspot on battery.
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with the hotspot turned on and it plugged into USB you can drain many phone faster then they will charge, this happens with car chargers as well unless you get one of the special ones that sends a more powerful signal

happens with GPS as well
 
Anubis said:
with the hotspot turned on and it plugged into USB you can drain many phone faster then they will charge, this happens with car chargers as well unless you get one of the special ones that sends a more powerful signal

happens with GPS as well
Click to expand...


I've found that they typically 'keep up', don't necessarily charge but you either stay at the same battery level or go down significantly slower. Perhaps other phones with larger power requirements differ, this has been the case for my droid fwiw.
 
Thanks for all the great replies! So battery life is that bad with wifi on? Can I adjust the wifi signal strength on most phones? It will always be right next to my laptop so it doesn't have to be full power. I assume if I USB tether I'll no problem with battery life? I guess I need 8-9 hours of battery life.

Regarding the Thunderbolt and Prime, how will the battery life compare between these two? Otherwise good suggestions? I'm definitely not doing myfi, 2-3 hours is a joke. I'm actually pretty disappointed in the manufacturers. They aren't cheap, you don't have a screen or SoC to power, yet the battery still sucks worse than phone.
 
BrandonT said:
Thanks for all the great replies! So battery life is that bad with wifi on? Can I adjust the wifi signal strength on most phones? It will always be right next to my laptop so it doesn't have to be full power. I assume if I USB tether I'll no problem with battery life? I guess I need 8-9 hours of battery life.

Regarding the Thunderbolt and Prime, how will the battery life compare between these two? Otherwise good suggestions? I'm definitely not doing myfi, 2-3 hours is a joke. I'm actually pretty disappointed in the manufacturers. They aren't cheap, you don't have a screen or SoC to power, yet the battery still sucks worse than phone.
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It's not that phone battery life on wifi is bad, it's that you constantly have 2 network connections on the whole time. Because when tethering they can't go into standby, etc.

Thunderbolt has terrible battery life to start with, and kind of problematic.

No clue what Prime is, I assume they are referring to the Galaxy Nexus. No one knows battery life on it as it hasn't been released.

The charge would probably be a decent one if you want cheaper.


I don't know how much data you are using through this, but any new plans will have limits. And if you tether this much then you have a decent shot at being flagged and then having to buy a tethering data plan as well.
 
Maybe I'll get a 4G phone but stay with my 3G service for now. I assume all 4G phones are 3G capable? As long as I have a good signal, 3G is good enough for what I need. If I do that, and have the ability to lower wifi signal strength, what do you guys think? Or maybe I'll even just stay with a 3G phone.
 
Demo24 said:
It's not that phone battery life on wifi is bad, it's that you constantly have 2 network connections on the whole time. Because when tethering they can't go into standby, etc.
Click to expand...

I see. I'll look into the Charge also. I don't necessarily mind paying for a tethering plan, I just want the internet to work as well on my laptop, with a connection as strong as I have on my phone.
 
BrandonT said:
Maybe I'll get a 4G phone but stay with my 3G service for now. I assume all 4G phones are 3G capable? As long as I have a good signal, 3G is good enough for what I need. If I do that, and have the ability to lower wifi signal strength, what do you guys think? Or maybe I'll even just stay with a 3G phone.
Click to expand...


Yes, the 4g phones can turn off the LTE antenna and go 3g. If you want/need the speed of 4g, might as well do that.
 
Thunderbolt using CM7 has native usb tethering built in. However if you do any major downloading via your web browser you are likely to get caught.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
 
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