What 'on-line' Smart Phone?

Andy98765

What smartphone do you have?  Any should do.

owen kric

Just googled this - it came back as a Bluetooth thing: "Open your device's Settings app - Tap Connected devices Connection preferences Bluetooth. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on. ..." & so forth, so all the connections are wireless it seems. Am with Orange pay-as-you-go at the moment, how does that sound for a smartphone package please? Thanks.

Andy98765

Just Google "tethering a smartphone", it explains Bluetooth, Wifi and wired.
PAYG sims is just not worth it. Data is what you need for all this to work.
Check your current ISP (Internet supplier) for any mobile deals.  I pay £7 a month for unlimited calls and texts, with 5gig of data.  It is the last bit that is important.  I doubt I even have the best deal.

Andy98765

If you just want a box standard Smartphone, cheap and reliable then look at Argos and the Motorola G6 Play, was £99. It has a good sized memory (32G).
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EndlessWaves

Taking a step back for a sec, can you explain what you're trying to do?

There are other options for internet access during a power cut than tethering to a phone/tablet and they may be better choices.

owen kric

Thanks, can you tell me more please?

LV426

If I had a power cut here then this is what I'd do:

I already have a 4g Android SmartPhone.  Mine is a Sony, but any will do.  I have also done this in the past with a dirt cheap Huawei.  And I have a (limited, in fact) data allowance with my mobile plan.  Mine is "3" but again any network will do.  And I use a Windows laptop.

Phone on, connected to mobile data.  Bluetooth not necessary.  Laptop on.

EITHER
1:  Connect phone to laptop using a USB cable.  (So doing will keep the phone charged at the expense of laptop battery).
2:  On phone - Settings > Network & Internet > Hotspot & Tethering > USB tethering = On.

OR
1:  Leave phone and laptop unconnected.
2:  On phone - Settings > Network & Internet > Hotspot & Tethering > Portable Hotspot and set it up, preferably with a password.  That creates a WiFi hotspot.
3:  On laptop - connect to the (new) WiFi network.

I guess you can do much the same thing with Apples - but as I have very limited experience with their EcoSystem, I can neither confirm nor offer any detail.

Done.

JayCee

With Apple iPhones it works exactly the same.
“Settings”, “Personal Hotspot”, “Allow others to Join”
Search for the name of the iPhone, select it and enter the password.

EndlessWaves

Without any idea of what you want, need or are willing to spend it's hard to cut down the options.

The best option for a large screen on a budget of a few hundred is a computer with desktop monitor, a landline internet connection and a battery backup (UPS) for all three.

The landline network is more likely to stay up during a power cut than the mobile one and even a cheap desktop monitor is far larger than any tablet. You just need a router with power to use it.

But obviously that's not portable within the house so you could swap that desktop monitor for a large laptop, or use your existing tablet to save the cost of buying new hardware.


On the other hand if cheap is a priority then you can pick up a travel router which is battery-powered and provides an internet connection over the mobile network. It's not much cheaper than a UPS, maybe £15, but as the name suggests they're also intended to be something you can take with you when you travel.

owen kric

My Samsung Galaxy was bought with a mobile EE 'box' which was designed to give internet access on the move. If the EE modem was re-engaged, could a scenario be tablet EE modem smartphone please? Ditched the EE account because I wasn't using the modem, which was costing me, even though I wasn't using it.