I decided to experiment with Tethering. I just ordered a ASUS 7" MemoPad HD Android Tablet. I will try to Tether the new Tablet to my existing 'budget' smartphone. I will most likely use PdaNet+ for the Tethering setup. I have never used PdaNet+, but I have heard that it works well for Tethering. When I want to surf the web, the 7" Tablet should make up for my small 3.5" smartphone screen size.
You're right. My smartphone service provider does allow tethering at no charge now. Some service providers charge a monthly fee for tethering (i.e., AT&T, Verizon). In that case, an App like PdaNet+ is needed so that the provider will not know that you are tethering.
I have read about that before, and have always found it strange to be charged for tethering as here is Australia we are not charged for it. But charges are fairly high if we exceed our included data amount - 10c a meg with my provider. Also in Australia, you can get a premium smart phone e.g. a Galaxy S4 or an iPhone for no upfront cost as part of a two year plan. With my mobile provider you are just have $10 a month towards the cost of the phone for the two years. After which, if you want you can get a new for just $10 a month, or keep your current one and not have to pay the extra $10.
Hi, a bit OT. What is your experience with MemoPad HD 7 esp the screen and battery life. I plan to buy this tablet for my son. Thanks
It will be a couple of days before I turn on the MemoPad HD 7 for the first time. I plan to give some feedback when I can.
Here where i live, all cellphone networks lets you tether as much as you want, no charge at all. Depending on the data plan they either charge you extra for using more than the data plan cap or just throttle you after you exceed the cap. Just last week i used more than 10GB through my cellphone because my house internet was down. After 1GB of data used i was throttled to around 256k-512k . . . LOL Still better than nothing.
Definitely, i'm starting to be way too dependent of the internet. Just last week i had no internet, tv, computer, nothing! Gotta start doing other stuff . . .
The screen clarity seems good. The screen resolution specifications are not as good as the Google Tablets, but it is good enough for me. I have not yet had a chance to fully check out the battery life (The first charge is at ~90% now.). I have read in other user reviews that the battery life is close to 10 hours with normal use. The battery showed 99% right after I first turned on the Tablet. The Tablet was on and idle for about 8 hours and the battery then showed 98%. The battery showed 95% at the completion of the software update mentioned in the last paragraph. I used the Tablet for around thirty minutes to an hour and the battery now shows 90%. The Tablet seems to be very responsive. This is my first experience with Home Wireless. The Tablet had full signal strength in the room with the Wireless Access Point. However, the wireless signal dropped to less than half in another room which is not far away. I could easily play Youtube videos (decent sound quality) in the room containing the Wireless Access Point, but had some trouble (low wireless signal strength) playing Youtube videos in the nearby room. The ASUS MemoPad HD7 stated that a new software update was available as soon as I connected to the web. The update download and installation went smooth. I installed Avast Mobile Security. I plan to try out Tethering to my budget Smartphone tomorrow.
Tethering to my budget Smartphone works great so far. My new ASUS Tablet has good web surfing performance using my Smartphone as a Hotspot. Normally, if I surf the web with my Smartphone everything seems to be very slow. The Smartphone cannot handle playing videos and some pdf's are too large to open. My Smartphone is a Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 2 4G: http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SGH-T679DBBTMB Instead of setting up Tethering in the Smartphone, I decided to try PdaNet+ for Android. PdaNet+ works great and the one thing that has surprised me is that the data transfer usage does not seem to be showing up on my Account with my Smartphone Service Provider. I have not yet paid for PdaNet+, but I may buy PdaNet+ if further tests show good performance. I have not yet tried playing a streaming HD video using my Tablet Tethered to my Smartphone. So far I have played one four minute 240p Youtube video.
I decided to do a short check of Smartphone battery drainage when tethering. I played a Youtube video which was about 11 minutes long. Smartphone Battery Charge: 74% to 70% ASUS Memopad Hd 7 Battery Charge: 75% to 74% That is roughly 22% Battery Charge loss per hour of heavy use (streaming videos). My Smartphone has a 1500 mAh battery. I estimate that I will, in most cases, only Tether to my Smartphone no more than two hours per day. Without Tethering, my Smartphone only needs to be charged once every two to four days. I decided to go ahead and buy PdaNet+ since it seems to be giving good performance. Most people say that it is a waste of money, but I purchased a 15,000 mAh external battery.
Bear in mind that using your smart phone a lot for tethering will cause a lot to wear on the battery and it won't take long until the battery life of the battery starts to shorten because of the wear. For this reason these days are only very rarely use my phone for tethering, and usually an external 4G WiFi device to save mybattery.
I am a really light Smartphone user. Before setting up for Tethering this week, I would only need to charge the battery once every four days with normal use and once every two days with heavy use. Most everyone that I know have to charge their Smartphones daily and in some cases more than once a day. If I Tether about one hour a day, I will only need to charge the battery every one to two days which is still below the use of the 'typical' Smartphone user. Therefore, I would think that my battery would last at least as long as the 'typical' Smartphone user.
Get a range extender Thekid7. I have an AP set as a repeater. Before i bought the AP, my download speed a bit over 5Mbps on the second floor and around 1Mbps on the first floor, now that i have set an AP as a repeater i almost get the full speed in the first floor. (Around 4.9Mbps)
The data transfer with Tethering apparently started showing up on my Account. My Plan had a limit of 500 MB/month at 4G speed, after that unlimited at 2G speed. I just did a minor plan upgrade to 2.5 GB/month at 4G speed, after that unlimited at 2G speed.
I am still trying to decide which larger screen smartphone to upgrade to. Google just leaked out the pricing of the 'soon to be released' Google Nexus 5 smartphone ($350 & $400). The pricing of the Google Nexus 4 was $300 & $350. The screen size of the Google Nexus 5 is reported to be around 4.9" to 5.0" which is slightly larger than the Google Nexus 4. I went to T-Mobile the other day and tried out the LG Optimus F3 (4.0") and LG Optimus F6 (4.5"). I liked the speed of both models and both have LTE. I would prefer the screen size of the LG Optimus F6, but the only place that sells the T-Mobile version is T-Mobile ($290+Tax). Several other resellers have the LG Optimus F3 T-Mobile for $200 which is less than the T-Mobile price of $240+Tax.
There have been recent price drops for both the LG Optimus F3 & LG Optimus F6. I would prefer the LG Optimus F6 over the LG Optimus F3. Recently the LG Optimus F3 T-Mobile (4.0") prices changed as follows: T-Mobile: $240 -> $200 Amazon: $200 -> $180 BestBuy: $200 -> $180 Recently the LG Optimus F3 Metro PCS (4.0") price changed as follows: BestBuy: $150 -> $130 Amazon: $150 -> $130 Recently the LG Optimus F6 T-Mobile (4.5") price changed as follows: T-Mobile: $290 -> $240 I really want the LG Optimus F6 because of the larger screen size. I am hoping that Amazon and BestBuy will start selling the LG Optimus F6 at a lower price than T-Mobile.
