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Best Phone ~ £150 for Tether / Hotspot?

TreborMint

Casual Member
Hi there, firstly thanks for the great forum. Feel like I’ve learnt so much so quickly, but still a long way to go…
…so, to try to take a shortcut, which phone that can be picked up for ~£150 would you recommend to use for tethering / mobile hotspot to my laptop?

Would only be used for this function, and mainly on the West Coast Main Line Avanti train. I saw this article https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/articles/avanti-west-coast-main-line-wi-fi so I’m good with 4g only but I guess if a 5g capable unit is within budget that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Currently I use a work issued iPhone 11 Pro Max with an O2 sim which performs so badly I’m willing to chuck some of my own dough trying something else, which given the above I will put an EE sim into.

Was fairly set on a Huawei P30 Pro, which I think has 4x4 MIMO antennas which I naively think will help with the signal, but I just read here about the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G that seems a better pick for less £. Any advice towards this, or recommendations of other units I should go for?

Many thanks in advance, for all your help and insight - much appreciated!
 
Hi there, firstly thanks for the great forum. Feel like I’ve learnt so much so quickly, but still a long way to go…
…so, to try to take a shortcut, which phone that can be picked up for ~£150 would you recommend to use for tethering / mobile hotspot to my laptop?

Would only be used for this function, and mainly on the West Coast Main Line Avanti train. I saw this article https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/articles/avanti-west-coast-main-line-wi-fi so I’m good with 4g only but I guess if a 5g capable unit is within budget that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Currently I use a work issued iPhone 11 Pro Max with an O2 sim which performs so badly I’m willing to chuck some of my own dough trying something else, which given the above I will put an EE sim into.

Was fairly set on a Huawei P30 Pro, which I think has 4x4 MIMO antennas which I naively think will help with the signal, but I just read here about the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G that seems a better pick for less £. Any advice towards this, or recommendations of other units I should go for?

Many thanks in advance, for all your help and insight - much appreciated!
I use xiaomi mi 10t lite 5g (gaugain) , very happy with it.
Big battery as well, but since I reinstalled it with LineageOS without the Google bits I'm getting even more battery life and as a bonus it can do reverse charging.
It'd be a great device for tethering on the go.
 
Thank Lucian, I must confess it was your use that brought this phone to my attention.

Am I right in thinking in terms of modem and antenna, bearing in mind what I want to do with it, this phone is just as good as the Netgear MR1100?

Grateful for any additional opinions, advice, experience others my have :)
 
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You're welcome then :)

The router you mentioned is 4g only and lower cat, too. The advantage of that router is you can connect external antennas.

Worth checking both of them out on cacombos.com.

If you want EE consider a scancom data sim. You can get unlimited data (fup 600gb) for around £12/m.
 
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And it has enough spare juice in it to share?

I have a power bank I use in emergencies for my tablet or Kindle. But anyway my Flip 4 does not offer reverse charging so my question is probably academic anyway.
 
And it has enough spare juice in it to share?

I have a power bank I use in emergencies for my tablet or Kindle. But anyway my Flip 4 does not offer reverse charging so my question is probably academic anyway.
Enough for emergencies at least, Li-Po 4820 mAh.
Of course, if you get it second hand the capacity will be somewhat reduced.
 
You might want to look into the WiFi Bands and Channels when Tethering, if your going to rely on the Phone for a lot of Hotspoting and Bandwidth and Speed is important to you, there's not much point in buying a High End 4G or 4/5G Phone if it will only support 2.4Ghz WiFi Tethering, and not 5Ghz, in fact Ive come across some top Chinese 5G Phones that will offer you 5Ghz WiFi Tethering Band (and display that its Tethering on 5GHz) but in real life are actually Tethering at the slower 2.4Ghz Bands.
 
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You might want to look into the WiFi Bands and Channels when Tethering, if your going to rely on the Phone for a lot of Hotspoting and Bandwidth and Speed is important to you, there's not much point in buying a High End 4G or 4/5G Phone if it will only support 2.4Ghz WiFi Tethering, and not 5Ghz, in fact Ive come across some top Chinese 5G Phones that will offer you 5Ghz WiFi Tethering Band (and display that its Tethering on 5GHz) but in real life are actually Tethering at the slower 2.4Ghz Bands.
The Xiaomi Mi 10t Lite 5G (I hate to say its "name", such a mouthful) can tether 2.4GHz or 5GHz, tested both. In fact It can tether you off one of them while it is connected to another WIFI via the other radio. Took this thing with me in many travels, so tested a fair bit. :)

The only downside to this phone so far - and which is why I bought a Pixel 4a 5G for home - is that it only has USB2.0, so max speed via usb cable is 300 Mbps-ish, but if it's just for "on the go" with WIFI, not a problem.
 
The Xiaomi Mi 10t Lite 5G (I hate to say its "name", such a mouthful) can tether 2.4GHz or 5GHz, tested both. In fact It can tether you off one of them while it is connected to another WIFI via the other radio. Took this thing with me in many travels, so tested a fair bit. :)

The only downside to this phone so far - and which is why I bought a Pixel 4a 5G for home - is that it only has USB2.0, so max speed via usb cable is 300 Mbps-ish, but if it's just for "on the go" with WIFI, not a problem.
Ah the very last bit just when we were doing so well! I wanted to try this but was hoping for a faster experience than usb2.0 would allow as I do not want to tether via Wi-Fi!

Any other phones good for this ?
 
A Pixel 5 has 5G, USB 3.1, and costs ~£160 used on eBay.

Not the best phone by all means, but if you need USB 3 and 5G, it's not a bad choice.
 
Ah the very last bit just when we were doing so well! I wanted to try this but was hoping for a faster experience than usb2.0 would allow as I do not want to tether via Wi-Fi!

Any other phones good for this ?
If you read the whole thread I do mention I have a separate Pixel 4a 5G at home as it has USB3. I prefer the Xiaomi when traveling.
Also what @ssg9 suggested, the newer the better I guess.
 
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thanks man, i must have missed that bit
Sorry, my bad, got lost in multiple threads.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, older second hand Puxels are the way to go as they tend to indeed have USB3 and in my tests with iperf I managed to max out 1Gbps with a Pixel 4a 5G.
 
A Pixel 5 has 5G, USB 3.1, and costs ~£160 used on eBay.

Not the best phone by all means, but if you need USB 3 and 5G, it's not a bad choice.
Many thanks, have ordered a second hand one to test! I assume they all can be upgraded to android 11 so I have Ethernet tethering
 
Many thanks, have ordered a second hand one to test! I assume they all can be upgraded to android 11 so I have Ethernet tethering
Yes, most likely you'd be getting latest version, but if you are technically savvy I recommend installing LineageOS without the Google bits. Much better battery life and won't spy on you.

 
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