The 2 Best Wi-Fi Hotspots of 2025 | Reviews by Wirecutter

06 Jan.,2025

 

The 2 Best Wi-Fi Hotspots of | Reviews by Wirecutter

Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter

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This brick of a device is the best hotspot for people who actually need one, with quality coverage, fast 5G performance, long-enough battery life, and service plans that offer far more data than the competition.

It offers faster speeds than other Wi-Fi hotspots in our testing. The Verizon Inseego MiFi X Pro 5G UW delivered the speediest downloads and uploads, at 325.06 Mbps and 66.88 Mbps, respectively. The trade-off here is slower speeds compared with what T-Mobile&#;s 5G network can deliver, as confirmed in repeated third-party tests that led us to recommend T-Mobile as the best wireless carrier for data. But in our testing, the hotspots T-Mobile sells don&#;t translate that network capacity into performance you&#;ll see on a laptop or tablet.

Verizon offers more data. And Verizon&#;s plans&#;postpaid and prepaid&#;allow more use of that bandwidth than you can buy at AT&T or T-Mobile, with your options topping out at 150 GB for $100 postpaid or prepaid. If you already have a current unlimited-data smartphone plan with Verizon, discounts on the carrier&#;s postpaid plans can cut the hotspot cost to $80 a month. If you have one of its recent high-end plans&#;the kind with enough hotspot data to eliminate the need for most people to get a dedicated hotspot&#;the hotspot rate drops to $60 a month. If, however, you already have a prepaid line with Verizon, you should qualify for a $30 discount on any of its prepaid hotspot data-only lines.

Verizon data-plan options

Data usagePostpaid
(hotspot only)Prepaid
(hotspot only)Discounted rates with a smartphone plan25 GBn/a$60 (25 GB plan)$30 if added to a prepaid or data-only account50 GBn/an/an/a100 GB$90 (100 GB plan)$80 (100 GB plan)Postpaid: $60 with most recent unlimited plans; $40 with recent highest-end unlimited plans.
Prepaid: $50, if added to a prepaid or data-only account.150 GB$100 (150 GB plan)$100 (150 GB plan)Postpaid: $80 with most recent unlimited plans; $60 with recent highest-end unlimited plans.
Prepaid: $70, if added to a prepaid or data-only account.

Information current as of December 4, . Data allotments on older plans may vary.

You&#;re not necessarily shut down after hitting the data cap. Exceeding the caps on Verizon&#;s hotspot data plans can leave you throttled to a useless 600 Kbps data speed&#;but the carrier&#;s postpaid and prepaid plans include a sizable carveout that grants you 3 Mbps bandwidth above those quotas if you&#;re on Verizon&#;s C-band or millimeter-wave coverage, as flagged by the hotspot showing &#;5G UW&#; (short for &#;ultra wideband&#;) next to the signal-strength display.

Hotspot modelAverage download speed
(Mbps)Average upload speed
(Mbps)Verizon Inseego MiFi X PRO 5G UW325..88AT&T Franklin A50 66..30T-Mobile Inseego MiFi X Pro 5G 290..71

Average connection speeds from our December round of testing.

It delivers solid battery life that you can extend. In our battery test&#;tethering a laptop to the hotspot, with that PC&#;s Chrome browser playing a YouTube livestream&#;the MiFi X Pro 5G UW lasted an average of 9 hours 20 minutes. But because it offers wired connectivity via both its USB-C port and an old-school Ethernet port, you can stretch that battery life by plugging your laptop into the hotspot. Note, however, that the Ethernet port isn&#;t active by default; you&#;ll have to skip through a few menus on its touchscreen interface to fix that.

It offers charging flexibility. The MiFi X Pro 5G UW&#;s USB-C port should work with any USB-C charger, and the device does not push a complaint to its screen if you ignore the charger in the box to use another company&#;s hardware. You can also use this hotspot&#;s battery to charge other devices, provided its own battery hasn&#;t descended below 25% of a charge.

The MiFi X Pro 5G UW&#;s USB-C port works with off-brand chargers and can charge other devices.

Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter

This hotspot comes with the right Wi-Fi options. The MiFi X Pro 5G UW meets the usual wireless requirements: It can share its bandwidth via the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands (the former prioritizes range, the latter speed) to up to 32 devices (unusually high for this category), and it support the Wi-Fi 6 standard, which can yield slight improvements in reliability and performance in crowded spaces. This hotspot also supports a guest network that can reduce the anxiety of giving your hotspot&#;s regular wireless password to somebody you just met, but that isn&#;t on by default.

Inseego provides useful configuration options. You can also block a device connected to this hotspot via its admin interface, reachable in a browser at a my.jetpack address that didn&#;t work in Chrome unless we prefixed it with &#;http://&#; and then clicked past a security warning. The default admin password on our review unit was a random alphanumeric string instead of &#;admin,&#; but the hotspot prompted us to change it to a password meeting a complexity requirement of at least eight characters, with one uppercase, one lowercase, one digit, and one special character. Finally, we can&#;t overlook one option that frequent travelers should appreciate: a Stealth Mode setting (which would be better named &#;small hotel room mode&#;) that turns off its screen and sound.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Its battery life could be better. This hotspot doesn&#;t last as long as older, 4G-only hotspots from Verizon. If you have a newer laptop with an efficiency-optimized processor, you may find that you&#;ll need to charge the hotspot off the laptop after 10 hours.

Verizon is no T-Mobile. Verizon&#;s 5G network is no match for T-Mobile&#;s in terms of observed download and upload speeds. But that performance hasn&#;t shown up in T-Mobile&#;s limited selection of hotspots, and T-Mobile&#;s data-only plans don&#;t come close to Verizon&#;s in catering to data-intensive users&#;as in, the kind of people who would be in the market for a hotspot at all.

It&#;s slow to boot up and install software updates. The MiFi X Pro 5G UW also takes an irritatingly long time to boot up&#;more than a minute and a half, which may not seem like much in the abstract until you need to jump online right away to address some task that a browser can&#;t handle. Updates to its firmware are excruciatingly longer in comparison, taking the device offline for as long as 20 minutes.

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Features to Look Before Buying a Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot

Spring is here and so are the traveling opportunities for exploring the globe. Travelers are busy preparing to make the most of spring and visit the most trending holiday places in the next few months. The foremost of these preparations is selecting a mobile wi-fi to carry to use on one&#;s travels. Mobile wi-fi routers are pocket-sized routers that help a traveler to connect to the internet while they are moving. While there are several mobile wi-fi routers to choose from, travelers should know some crucial features in a wi-fi before selecting them. We have given here a walkthrough that will assist any traveler to select the correct mobile wi-fi on their travels.

 

5GHz Wi-Fi Support

Travelers while exploring different travel locations constantly multitask from their smartphones and tablets. This can be in the form of entertainment, sending communications through e-mails & chat, making live calls, playing online games, seeing videos, seeking directions to an eatery or a restaurant or simply post photos to their social media accounts. Any mobile wi-fi router should be able to assist in these tasks easily. The router should have at least 5GHz wifi support than the usual 2.4GHz routers available in the market.

Tip: Huawei E Mobile Hotspot has the necessary wi-fi support for ultra-fast surfing.

 

Massive Battery

Running out of juice during travels at critical moments can be a big turn off for any traveler. Most of us use internet 24/7 and always like to be connected wherever we are. Most mobile wi-fi routers don&#;t emphasize this feature. Ideally, a mAh battery can last for more than a day and also serve as a power bank. While buying mobile wi-fi routers travelers should keep this critical aspect of pocket hotspots in mind.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit 4g Mifi Device.

Tip: Huawei E 4G/5G Touchscreen Mobile WiFi & Powerbank is an excellent choice as a mobile wi-fi router to carry on one&#;s travels.

 

SD Card Reader

Taking photos or storing critical information in SD Cards is a common habit amongst travelers. This may be of their DSLR cameras, smartphones and in some cases music devices. With the use of SD Cards sensitive data can be stored as backup. For instance, the action camera or smartphones might get damaged during your journey. Taking a backup in the SD Card is a safe bet to protect those travel memories. The mobile wi-fi should have a feature to read the SD Cards for such sticky situations or storing the extra data.

Tip: TP Link M Mobile Hotspot supports up to 32GB of optional storage.

 

Visual Display

Mobile wi-fi routers often run into network issues during travels due to lack of signal. This can easily frustrate a traveler while they access the internet. Having an interface or a display in the mobile wi-fi can easily inform the working condition of the router and they can also learn about any issue in case the internet stops for no reason.   

Another key benefit of having a display is tracking the amount of data a traveler is using during travels. The visual display shows the network name, battery level, speed, and current data usage to a user. For tourists using the Pay as you go plan tracking the data, they use is vital for saving roaming charges.

 Tip: Huawei E 4G Wi-Fi Hotspot offers a wide display with fast 4G Wi-Fi speeds.

 

Easy Set Up

The first hurdle faced by travelers once they buy a mobile wi-fi is making it work or in technical words setting up the router. These include setting the API Setting and the manual selection of the preferred network if required. Thanks to the latest generation of mobile wi-fi routers, these can be done with the touch of a button or an app.

Tip: Huawei E Pocket Wi-Fi enables you to connect up to 10 devices at the click of a button.

 

Branded & Unlocked

In most of the countries, mobile wi-fi routers are locked to work with only a partnered sim card. This severely reduces a traveler&#;s chance for seamless connectivity and their freedom to use a sim card of their choosing. Tourists should only vouch for branded mobile wi-fi routers such as Huawei, TP-Link, and other similar products. They should also keep in mind that the mobile wi-fi they are buying should also be unlocked or technically speaking sim free.

Tip: Huawei E 4G+ Mobile Hotspot & Powerbank comes unlocked so you can use any SIM card inside.

 

About WorldSIM Travel Accessories

The WorldSIM vision is to make global communications a local affair by allowing travelers to use calling and data services at local prices similar to back home. Our goal is to provide destination tailored SIM Cards coupled with versatile travel accessories that can be easily used worldwide. With hundreds of roaming partners, we are currently offering free international roaming in over 118 countries and adding more of them all the time. The success of the SIM inspired us to develop many more travel accessories and robust global communication service. We at WorldSIM are continuously assisting travelers when they go abroad by adding new products all the time.

For more information on our latest collection of travel accessories, check our website below:

https://www.worldsim.com/travel-essentials

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