If you’re a digital nomad like a growing number of the population, you may constantly be in search of good reliable WiFi. By this point in your travels, if you’ve been at it for long enough, you’ve learned the hard lesson that you can no longer simply trust the words “reliable internet” written in any brochure. You have decided it is time to purchase yourself a WiFi Hotspot. Great choice!
There are so many to choose from… At one end of the spectrum, you could just convert your normal phone into a hotspot, just Google a how-to instruction and it’ll take you step by step. The other end of this spectrum is something more like this Skyroam which has pretty much every feature available.
Today we are going to discuss these features one at a time, so you know the key elements to look for.
Battery Life – The whole purpose of the HotSpot is to keep you mobile, so perhaps this is the most important feature for you, if you plan on being out for long periods of time. Most average around 6 hours, but some, like the one listed above actually has so much charge that you could use it as an external battery for your other devices.
Quantity Of Devices You Want To Connect – There are some that only allow a few devices to be connected at one time, and some that offer as many as 32. I’m not sure who would want to connect as many as 32 devices to one hotspot, but I suppose if you are travelling as a team, and you need reliable internet for everyone that would be your best bet. I imagine that would take a real toll on the battery life however.
Internet Speed – Just like anything else, your WiFi hotspot will essentially just pick up cell phone signals but at a much better rate. Your phone is designed for many things, and picking up WiFi is just one of them. A Hotspot is JUST designed for this function so it can pick up a signal much more effectively than you phone. Speed can vary from 3G to 4G and soon to 5G.
Bells & Whistles – Of course it would be difficult to list ALL of the features that people have started putting on these Hotspots to make your life easier, but ranges anywhere from ethernet ports to removable storage in the form of SD cards. The question is what you are looking to use it for. If you are a photographer the storage piece might be useful.
In the end, all of these features are secondary to price. You could keep increasing in quality until you price yourself out of the device. The device that you will most likely settle on is one that has just enough features to cover what you are using it for, and the rest is all bonus.
If you are committed to a digital nomad life, then you better be committed to your internet, and a WiFi Hotspot is the most reliable version of that to date, who knows what comes next!
