When 5G first started rolling out, I was one of many who couldn't understand why we needed even faster data, and even after trying many 5G phones and experiencing their fast connection speeds, I still wasn't sold. However, that changed after extensive testing to see just how powerful a 5G phone could really be, with the result that I bet it will be useful to many other people in the long run as well. Discussions about 5G mainly focus on video calls on the go, mobile gaming, and fast downloads of movies and TV shows. But when I found myself without internet access at home for a month, I was forced to explore the wonders of the 5G hotspot. This is how it happened.
I lose my connection
I recently moved into a new apartment, in a location that was not ready for high speed internet (had been renovated and partially rebuilt). So I was faced with the uncomfortable prospect of going without internet at home, something anyone in today's online world should find just as horrifying. It seems that broadband engineers only operate on a full moon or when the planets align, because the earliest possible time to set up our new location for Wi-Fi was 22 days, more than 3 full weeks. after we moved. The prospect was sickening: me, a young millennial, without Wi-Fi for three weeks? How to navigate in social networks? How do I stream Warzone with my colleagues? How can I video call my friends? And, more importantly (in case my editor reads), how can I keep doing all my work?
![Trabajo a domicilio]()
Me, a young millennial, without Wi-Fi for three weeks? (Image credit: Pixabay) Sure, some of these tasks could be done with data, but not all, and not without burning through things faster than I burn through my morning bagels. I realized that I would have to become a super hoarder of data, only turning it on at regular and sporadic intervals, or just moving to my house or another apartment for three weeks. But as I was packing up my old apartment and cataloging the myriad of phones I was sent to test, I saw a lot of 5G phones, and a thought began to form in my mind. It was the idea of a trial, a litmus test of 5G capability, a chance that would seduce me. Can I use a 5G phone as a hotspot to provide high-speed internet access for my new apartment for me and a roommate to work and relax on our various devices? Well, while writing for TechRadar, it was basically my job to find out.
5G or not to be
The phone I chose to become my new ersatz router was the Xiaomi Black Shark 3, a gaming-focused phone I reviewed about a month ago. My reasons were twofold. First of all, gaming phones often have more antennas to improve connectivity while gaming, and I thought that might improve connectivity in our apartment. Secondly, one of the gadgets in the Black Shark 3 caught my eye: it was the FunCooler, which is used to keep the device cool during long periods of gaming. Since phones that double as hotspots can become well, well, warm, I thought it might be useful to keep the "router" stable.
![Los teléfonos para juegos generalmente tienen más antenas para mejorar la conectividad cuando se juega.]()
Gaming phones generally have more antennas to improve connectivity when gaming. (Image credit: Future) I didn't plug the Black Shark 3 and FunCooler into the wall because they both use USB-C and I don't have enough converters to spare. I plugged the two into a 20.000mAh portable power bank, which is powered via micro USB. This way my ``router'' only took one plug, not two, and I also figured that since micro USB powers up quite slowly, only a small amount of power would flow to the phone. - enough to keep it fully charged, but not to ruin the battery by charging it fast and constantly. Again, this is something I didn't put any critical thinking or scientific reasoning into, it just seemed like a good idea to me. Finally, I needed the holy grail: the 5G SIM card. I went with Vodafone, as I use it for my personal SIM card, and that meant I could go to the new apartment before I moved, do a speed test, and make sure high-speed internet was definitely available on site. (Clearly it was, or this article would end here.) I visited three of the company's stores in London (neither Google Maps nor the company's website had very specific information on which stores were open) and ended up queuing for an hour at the store. from Oxford Street, enclosed in a face mask. However, I left the store with the perfect SIM card: 5G compatible, unlimited data, no speed limit, and on a thirty-day plan, all for €37 (which I thought was quite reasonable, given that I had the intention to do). When I got home, the first thing I did was insert the SIM card into the phone. Now the actual tests had to begin. See the best global SIM plans (4G and 5G)
Fully connected
![Mi enrutador ersatz.]()
My ersatz router. (Image credit: Future) I typically use three devices at once: whatever phone I'm testing, my iPad Pro, and my work laptop. During a business day I can use all three for various tasks, and will often need to connect other devices as well. I also have a PS4 which I tried to use over 5G. My roommate has a desktop and a smartphone and we've had guests over at times as well (with social distancing) so overall it's safe to say we had five or six devices connected to the router at one time given. . Stop reading this article for a while and take a guess at what kind of internet speed we were looking for on each device. Maybe take Google's internet speed test to see what type of connection you have on the device you're currently using. Note that 5G in my area on Vodafone sometimes goes up to 200 Mbps; As of this writing, it only increased by 20 Mbps, and 5G is still inconsistent at best, but let's talk about maintaining top speeds. On his desktop, my roommate reported a top speed of 50 Mbps; That's blazingly fast speed, considering it's actually twice as fast as our Wi-Fi in our old apartment, and also when five other devices were also seeing similar internet speeds. This is the fastest speed we've ever seen and typically when I run an internet test the results show up in the 20's and 30's. There were some variations depending on the device such as laptops, tablets, phones and other devices of different ages and all of whom have different antennas and receivers, but it was always around that level. So what can we do about it? Getting to work was pretty easy, as was streaming music and scrolling through social media, so we took our tests a step further.
![Usualmente uso tres gadgets a la vez.]()
I usually use three gadgets at the same time. (Image credit: Future) I found early on that I could play Oldschool Runescape Mobile without any noticeable lag, and my roommate was playing Europa Universalis multiplayer without a problem. When he tried League of Legends, his ping was 40, not great, but just as bad for a PC hotspot from a phone. One big problem was my PS4, which was apparently not very happy connecting to the hotspot, and only had 3.9 Mbps. It was enough to download games, even if the skin was slowly creeping, but I decided that neither Warzone nor Fall Guys justified such abuse as if was made to run at this speed. The only real problem, though, was the video chat: every time I joined a meeting via Google Meet, it would cut out after a few minutes and I could only continue listening if I turned off Wi-Fi only on my phone. use 5G staff. This is just one feature that didn't work that well, and since everything else I tried worked well (and more than well, in some cases), I was willing to forgive. As of this writing, I've been using my home router for a week now, and I constantly forget that it's not a real router. For every 10 things I do on the Internet, 9 of them work as before, and I find that my standard speeds are faster than Wi-Fi in my old apartment. In fact, this solution is also cheaper: I'm currently paying €37 per month for this 5G plan, whereas my old broadband plan was €50 per month (which is the new one, but that's at least for faster speeds). fast, apparently.). I have two more weeks to live this 5G life before the engineers come and turn my apartment into a former standard Wi-Fi hangout, and while I can't wait for that to happen, it would be nice to play some online games on my PS4 again. - I was very surprised by the results of this 5G test. The speeds were much higher than I expected and I was able to do much more than I expected. So if you're a frequent hotspot, maybe you like to get your devices out and about to work, or if you have a family that always likes to stay connected on the go, 5G could have a pretty big impact on you. Today's best deals for Samsung Galaxy S20, Oppo Find X2, Xiaomi Mi 10, Motorola Edge, OnePlus 8, LG Velvet and Sony Xperia 1 II Unlimited minutes Unlimited texts 2 GB of data
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