Mobile Routers VS Mobile Phone Hotspots & Tethering - Which is Best For You? By NASCompares

Hello and welcome back in today's video, I want to talk about mobile internet usage, and I want to talk about the pros and cons and compare utilizing a mobile phone as a wireless access point when you use that hotspot mode or by tethering versus that of mobile routers' router, something I've talked about on and off on the channel for the last year or so now fair play. This video is thanks to a comment that came through last week from Ben gorgon or groan, I'm so sorry, if I've butchered your surname there man, but going through the comments there on YouTube, someone asked me about the difference between these two devices and ultimately, which one best suits their needs, and I thought you know what that is a bloody good topic. So here we are I'm going to talk about these devices. I'm going to talk about again their pros and cons, we're going to cover price, we're going to cover speed, we're going to cover clients, battery and convenience and hopefully help you decide which one best suits your knees. I've got a bit of a sore throat right now, so I'm standing a little gravely there. Furthermore, I do apologize, and again we're still getting this new studio sorted out here so again, if the sound quality is not optimal, I apologize in advance, but let's get straight into it.

For those that aren't aware the majority of modern mobile phones by modern, I am talking at least five to seven years. The majority of modern mobile phones have a feature built into them where, although they can access and connect to the Wi-Fi in your home or office, you can also use them to turn the phone into its own router, a wireless access point and turn the phone into a router, with its own accessibility and internet hotspot. On top of that, generally, most of these devices will allow you to connect via USB or lightning or any kind of connection on the phone to a supported window, mac or maybe even some Linux systems, as well, depending on their architecture and allow you to utilize the internet on these devices directly onto your laptop. A number of us do it for work. I do it at trade shows and more, and it allows you to have a constant, easy, accessible and controllable internet point that can be safe, and you control and govern the rules.

But in the last few years we have seen a huge rise in these. These are mobile routers. These are ones that use a sim card from your local data carrier. Allow you to install a sim inside and instead of repurposing a mobile or your existing mobile, and turning on the Wi-Fi you can instead utilize these devices to carry the internet in your pocket. They come in a variety of sizes and a number of you that travel interlasting internationally, which I know has been somewhat limited during the pandemic, will see at airports lots of places particularly um in the east.

When we were doing some computer stuff, we saw loads of these. In fact, a lot of the videos I recorded we're utilizing one a little router that you pay five dollars: five quid 10 or whatever, to get the internet every day, unlimited in your pocket, utilizing 3g, 4g and in some rare cases 5g now those routers are ones that they've just got to see them inside they've got very limited control. Today, I'm talking more about pro humor grade ones, ones that you buy yourself and, although they're not cheap generally, they are more expensive than traditional routers. They do allow a huge amount of flexibility and control, and a number of you that are thinking about buying these are probably already utilizing the hotspot on mobile phones and thinking. That's quite steep like this is the Netgear um nighthawk m1, it's about two and a half years old, and it still goes about three four hundred pounds does 4g sims.

On top of that, we've got the most recent one that we reviewed here on the channel, and I got for myself personally. This is the d-link dwr2101. It's a 5g mobile router with a sim card inside there unlocked and that's already again about 3 350 Nikkei um. You know in your own currency, that's what 400 or whatever, and there's even a nighthawk m5 version of this, which goes for seven to eight hundred pounds. That's without the sim card, without the contract, which is crazy, but when you think about how much a mobile phone cost outside a contract, it kind of makes a bit more relative sense.

So, let's bash straight into that. First, one sorry hit the mic there, um price, obviously in terms of price, the phone and the hotspot and using tethering is so much cheaper. First and foremost, you've already got this. So technically it's not costing you any extra you're still using the internet connection inside you're still utilizing the mobile in your pocket, so you haven't spent any more than you already have. Of course, it's going to win in terms of price having to get one of these generally means.

You're going to have to spend a few hundred quid more to get the box, and you're either going to have to get another internet connection on a mobile, sim, or you're going to have to reuse the sim in your phone or clone the sim in your phone, so again not convenient in terms of price um and for a number of you where price is going to be very, very important. Even these, in the most basic form, are still going to set you back 80 to 100 quid in the most simplistic versions of mobile routers. So if you are thinking about price you're going to want to give these a miss, but that that money must count for something you must get something out of that which brings us on to our second point speed. Now, speed can be broken down really into bandwidth and performance, we're just going to use the label speed, um in terms of bandwidth performance and that overarching heading speed. These things just give you so, so much more notwithstanding the fact that, although this device has the internet still utilizing the internet's room out, even when you turn it into a tethering or mobile hotspot, it's only got maybe in some cases two antennas inside a mobile phone.

Some more modern phones have more sophisticated antenna and take advantage of Wi-Fi six, but still, nevertheless, even with that increased bandwidth, the amount of data that can be pushed through it efficiently is a greater more limited than that of a mobile router. Mobile routers have more antenna, they have more hardware inside. They are geared towards fast transition of data with dedicated high performance and certainly more efficient and powerful network controllers inside and again, because the number of more modern ones take advantage of Wi-Fi six. Take advantage of 5g take advantage of network connectivity in some cases, with a number of them with one or two Ethernet ports on board. The result is the overall bandwidth and the overall amount of data that can be pushed along into that bandwidth for performance is so, so much better on a mobile router.

Next, let's talk about what you're going to do with that bandwidth. What are you going to do with all that data? Well, we want to talk about clients connected devices. Mobile phones, iPads laptops, all that kit that you're going to be carrying with you, whether it's high performance cameras that will use Wi-Fi connectivity and all the stuff around you when you're on the go which one of these is better for your client devices. Obviously the routers, not only because obviously the phone in itself is a client device, but when you're connecting with other client devices generally, you find that hotspots and tethering built into mobile phones cover far, far fewer connected client devices. All of those devices we just mentioned at any given time and the more devices you put connected to this you're, going to make your phone work very, very hard in a way that it's not been designed to do, and the result is that each connected client will not only have a weaker experience than they would have on a dedicated router, but also as more clients arrive.

That will degrade further. So in terms of not just the number of clients, but the overall experience of every client device, mobile routers will always rule the with a number of these devices supporting 30 40 50 60 devices at the same time and give them a very, very good, a simultaneous network experience which brings us onto battery life again you're using this hardware, you need it to work when you're working, and you need it to sit there and shut up when you're, not using it in terms of battery life. It will come as absolutely no surprise that mobile routers win the day there as well, for example, the Netgear I'm sorry. The d-link I have here has got a 5200, odd, William battery inside that's about 10 to maybe 12-14 hours of utility of this device with that battery. Indeed, the network battery inside here the Netgear here, is 8 to 10 hours, even two years on, however, the mobile phone battery, because you're using it for other things and when using the mobile hotspot, it uses significantly more power than when it's not and that client device.

It's like having a mobile phone that will last a day or two, but how long would it last if you were consistently making phone calls? The same can be said for utilizing a mobile hotspot or tethering now, of course, tethering slightly different, because it is able to power itself from the connected client. But remember you are running a mobile setup, no mains power, so just because it's drawing power and keeping powered up the client device is now losing power. Of course, that feature is available on the mobile routers, but that really isn't a good measurement of battery power. When we are talking about how long it works, standalone and unsurprisingly, mobile routers win that round as well, which brings us on to our last point convenience- and this is where mobile hotspots draw it back. The convenience of mobile hotspot and USB tethering for your internet connectivity can not be understated.

It is so easy when you're on the train, when you are on a plane, to a lesser degree, of course, depending on the coverage and the area you're in whichever way you look at it, mobile phone tethering is so convenient, whether you're connecting via USB or you are using it as a shared internet point for multiple client devices. It may not give the performance, it may not support the same number of clients, and it may not give the same throughput in its battery life, but you can't argue that this is significantly more convenient than this off the back. These are heavier, they are larger, and they will take up more room, and although they are not large really, you know when you compare these two in your pocket, you're already carrying a phone you're carrying your wallet, your keys and, of course this is incredibly chauvinistic as an expression. You might have a habit, you might have a bag um, but it's still quite large and certainly heavier. This is about 230 240 grams.

With the battery inside that's a big old weight in your pocket. You know near enough a quarter of a kilo in your pocket, not easy, of course, if you've got a bag easy, but even then still not going to be as convenient as a phone weighing in at about 100 to 150 grams, but this has been mobile hotspots and tethering versus mobile routers, which one is best for you. They both have pros. They both have cons, and I hope this video helped you make the decision for you whether it be for home or business if you enjoyed this click like if you want to learn more about these devices as we go through them, click subscribe and do visit the link in the description over to NAS compares where we talk more and more about both of these sets of devices and going to a lot more detail about performance. Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time.

Source : NASCompares