Van Wifi - Mifi+sim vs Hotspot phone

[Miggs]

Hi,
Trying to decide best way to provide wifi in our van.
Wife needs a new phone anyway and one option is to get unlimited data deal and hotspot her phone.
Alternatively, she gets a much lower data deal and I get a sim for the mifi like the one Minxy has posted about.
Question: Is there any down side to hotspotting like battery use, wear & tear? Presumably you need to keep the phone plugged in if you were streaming TV for a few hours.
Grateful for any opinions on the subject thanks.

 

[Figaro]

Hotspotting used to make my old Moto Android get very hot, new phone is much better
Overall I think using the mifi is a better option. But left permanently on charge tends to cook the battery and make it swell.
For this reason I've recently upgraded to a Nergear Nighthawk M1 which can be used without the battery installed

 

[AndyPK]

Mifi with an external aerial ‘should’ give you better reception of a mobile signal than a hotspot ‘phone - but not always the case, and depends, not least, on which operator you’re with……

 

[Tombola]

mifi will usually out perform most phones long term esp as they get older. Its ok for the odd browsing but for serious users, mifi, or even router * aeriel is best.
try it for a while and if it suits why change

 

[Miggs]

Ok, thanks all, i'll stick with the mifi sim i think.

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[63720]

Had a Motorhome WiFi router and external antenna hard wired in many years ago and used it home and abroad with 3 data SIM cards. After upgrading our phones and now on BT Roam Like Home plan we don't use the WiFi but keep it on reserve. Toured Belgium, France and Spain using the phone hotspots without any problems. We also use this on the move for UK radio and Google maps. When parked up we tether an Amazon Firestick, on the TV, to a phone and get everything.
To answer your question imo there's no downsides to hotspotting from a phone, we've been doing it for ages.

 

[Lenny HB]

A Mifi with an external MIMO aerial comes into its own in remote poor signal areas. We have pulled in 3G signals when our phones can't get anything.

 

[Dorwyn]

I've got both mifi and mobile with hotspot, there doesn't seem much difference, I've tried various aerials with the mifi and don't find any benefit of the latter. So I tend to use whichever has the most data available, mob or mifi.

 

[dunnah01]

I'd struggle with tethering if SWMBO took her phone to the shops whilst I'm sat in the van. Fixed router in van means it's never a problem

 

[Hettie's Crew]

We used to hot spot with our IPhones to the Fire stick and it worked quite well, with a little buffering and some difficulty pairing. We also experienced high battery use, needing to be plugged in and heat on the phones. Then we fitted a decent router (Teltonika) with its own sim and a proper roof mounted aerial (Panorama)
The difference was really clear, no buffering, easy connection and no strain on the phones.
We have an EE sim only contract with 160GB on each phone and 4GB on the router sim, that we transfer data to as needed.
Really recommend a decent router/aerial set up as opposed to hot spotting.

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[grasscutter]

We hotspot from our iPhones. If the signal is poor we take out a SIM card and put it in our Motorhome Wi-Fi router.

 

[Miggs]

We have an EE sim only contract with 160GB on each phone and 4GB on the router sim, that we transfer data to as needed.

This sounds interesting, what is the process of transferring data?

 

[AndyPK]

You ‘gift’ the data from one device to another, I believe……?

 

[Hettie's Crew]

This sounds interesting, what is the process of transferring data?

We have one account with EE, Liz is the main account holder and has a second sim which is the one I use, so we both have a phone (160GB each)
She then applied for a data only sim 4GB for the router, this was only £6.40 a month.
To transfer data she just logs onto the MyEE app and can transfer data from/to any of the three sims.
If we both had separate accounts this wouldn’t be possible.