Welcome to the New Year! From all of us here at the DigitalReviews team: may this year be better than the previous one!
With “20-20 hindsight” we can now clearly see that everything around us changed dramatically. And one of them was travel restrictions.
Now that these are gradually lifting here’s a travel companion worth considering: the latest 4G LTE Mobile Router from D-Link: the DWR-933.
Here’s a quick summary.
WHAT DOES IT DO
• It’s a wireless hotspot for up to 10 connected mobile devices
• Needs a SIM card for internet connection
• Can connect with all 802.11ac/n/g/b devices
• Can connect to PC also with USB cable (included)
• It’s fast: Cat6 LTE-A speeds at 300Mbps
• Dual-Band: 2.4 and 5GHz
OTHER GOOD THINGS
• Big removable battery: 3000mAh for all day use
• microSD card slot (up to 64Gb)
• very portable 120g and 98x71x19mm
THE WISH-THEY-HAD-DONE-BETTER DEPARTMENT
• micro USB charging instead of the now ubiquitous USB-C
• No Ethernet port
• Small lo-res display, hard to make out some icons
SETUP AND TESTING
Putting in the SIM card is probably the fiddliest thing I’ve done in a while… I have seen much easier SIM slots!
Other than that the setup is very easy. The WPS button lets you connect without putting in the password key but that only worked on the 2.4GHz band.
That’s it! But if you know what you’re doing you can also check out the advanced configuration options through a browser.
The “blazing” speeds are of course the maximum possible speeds and severely limited by your network coverage. In my neck of the woods a 1 or 2 bar is about par for the course…
The big advantage of using a dedicated hotspot is that you don’t have to use your phone’s battery and data for a job that is better suited to something like the DWR-933.
FINDINGS
Everything is “micro”: the charging, the SIM card and SD card. As well as the display. I can live with that but it is not 2021 tech.
It does what it needs to do well. Very well indeed.
It does have all the security and protection you need these days, like built-in firewall, WPA/WPA2 Wi-Fi encryption and WPS for one touch setup with other devices.
It’s pocketable and lightweight.
In many ways it’s unremarkable. And that can be OK if the price is right. At just AUD250 it might be. And if you check online you can probably shave off another 20 or 30 bucks…
If you are planning to be more mobile in 2021 you might seriously consider chucking this hotspot in your travel bag!
This is a review?…no data throughput…no mention of battery life…no mention of how many devices you connected