Ask HN: Why are there no 5G USB-C dongles for laptops?
I was deciding between a Macbook Air and framework laptop. I thought one way I can justify buying a Framework over MBA(and give up stellar battery life, proper sleep/instant wakeup function etc) is if it could be had with 5G connectivity that would allow me to use the laptop even while I''m on the train without drining my phone battery for a hotspot.
But, to my surprise, I could not find any 5G dongles that are cheap and available to buy easily... I found one on an Austrian website intended for IOT uses coming at a price almost as that of a laptop.https://www.fts-hennig.at/netztechnik/router/mobilfunkrouter/hocell-5g-dongle-m210.html
What am I missing? If my phone could have 5G and even my watch could have 5G for cheap, why not a laptop?
72 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 129 ms ] threadIt's also a lifesaver when Wi-Fi drivers are unavailable on Linux, as you can use USB tethering, and use your phone as a USB Wi-Fi dongle.
These days you can control the charge direction from Android, that may work. On my phone, I can also use Acc (and AccA) to limit charge current/voltage, and possibly stop charging (I have to check whether it cuts the connection). Advanced charging controller requires root, though.
I'm almost sure this is the main reason for these dongles to not really have a market. A phone already provides the same functionality, the battery drain on a laptop would be pretty similar (since the modem on a phone is very well optimised) so extra power through a charger/external battery would be needed anyway if the main issue is draining the phone's battery, it'd just shift to draining the computer's battery.
I faced a similar problem. I have now invested my money in an external battery instead to charge my phone if necessary. For me, this seemed like a simpler solution (also, I don't have to worry about a second SIM this way).
For iPhones, there are now batteries that do not even need cables.
https://www.anker.com/products/a1611
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJWY3AM/A/magsafe-battery...
They advertise the 633 to hold 1.3 charges for an iPhone 13.
The 622, at half the capacity would only extend battery life by ~60% (not even one charge which is a big bummer)
On top of that, they currently have a $10 discount voucher in the US. https://www.anker.com/products/a1641?ref=select_your_product...
Whereas the EU does not get any discount currently https://www.anker.com/eu-en/products/a1641?variant=415101967...
So that’s $69.99 for the US vs $88.30 for the EU, for the same product.
I think you have a typo there. The product page for 633 says 1.8 charges for the iPhone 13.
I was confused why 60% extra would seem low for half capacity of 1.3 charges (130%). Dividing 130% by two gives 65%.
But since it’s actually 180%, I agree that 60% extra seems low. Should have been about 90% extra one would think.
WiFi dongles are worth considering even though the wifi is a potential bottleneck. In most travel situations you are more interested in stability than max speed and having a WiFi dongle allows you to position it away from the laptop, in a window or high up to pick up marginal 5G signals.
My preferred solution: I carry a small 4g router (TP-Link M7350) in my backpack. Extremely useful when working in places that lack wifi (e.g. some coffee shops etc). The battery lasts very long.
https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-us/products/laptop...
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/latitude-5440-l...
Wouldn't recommend, bluetooth has the disadvantage of being very slow.
after seeing the abysmal bandwidth i understood why every headphone becomes garbage when you start using the microphone channel.
there's no hope for BT and it must go on favor of anything else from this century.
AFAIK, this is a codec issue, with most codecs not supporting bidirectional audio. IIRC, newer Bluetooth revisions tackle this.
WiFi can easily beat USB2 but Bluetooth certainly can't.
Amazon has a few USB-A dongles available; no USB-C though.
The challenging part is connecting to the cellular network, and you'd still need a separate module for that. In the end you'd end up with what is essentially a dongle connected to the RPI[0], so you don't really gain anything from it.
[0]: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-5g-hat
There is still premium for these products so the prices are high.
Wifi access is near-universal, so the average consumer will pretty much never be without internet access - and their phone is a pretty suitable backup hotspot.
The people who do need GSM-based internet - like surveyors or door-to-door people - are probably better served by tablets anyways, and definitely don't want to deal with a USB dongle. If they have to, they'll just get a laptop with a M.2 GSM card. Whatever remains probably doesn't need 5G speeds to begin with.
So yeah, it's a tiny market. Expect them to be expensive. There's a 5G USB dongle made by Apal available for €400, but that's about it.
Are you sure 4G won't be enough? You can get one of those for €50 or so.
This one. When your phone can almost always act as a hotspot, you don't need a separate one.
And for tourists it's much easier to get a 5G/WiFi hotspot at the airport for the duration of the trip.
> The people who do need GSM-based internet - like surveyors or door-to-door people - are probably better served by tablets anyways, and definitely don't want to deal with a USB dongle. If they have to, they'll just get a laptop with a M.2 GSM card.
Laptops in the space commonly have either built-in WWAN or a BTO option. I'm pretty sure you can get at least 4G on every Toughbook.
I do think 5G has been slightly miss-sold. Its main benefit is using the higher frequencies which have shorter effective range, so a busy location like a railway station that has thousands of people in can more effectively split them into microcells. But in most cases a "5G" phone is going to be using 4G infrastructure for a long time.
For my last couple week urban European trip I decided to just see how I could get by with WiFi (and downloaded maps etc.) and rely on my AT&T pay by day only used as a backup. The answer was, yes, the various WiFi logins on trains etc. trying to extract marketing info from you ranged from mildly annoying to unusable. But, at the end of the day, there were only a few days I actually needed 5G.
Though with the trend towards multiple eSIMs it's probably increasingly easy to just use one of those--although the major carriers have generally improved their international packages so it may not even be worth the trouble.
Doesn't mean 4g will never be turned off, but it makes it easier to keep it on.
I recently started using my android phone as USB hotspot to connect my desktop PC to the internet. It's great. Cable connection is way better than over wifi dongle in my pc which was unstable. And the phone is charging at the same time.
I wonder how much power 5G in a moving train needs. The point being that you'd just drain the laptop's battery faster *.
Do you even get 5G in that train or a 4G dongle would be as good?
Must it be usb-c or usb-a plus short adapter will do?
As everyone else said, the convenience of a hotspot plus not having to manage/pay for a separate cell phone subscription outweighs the battery drain for most, so no one gets dongles any more.
Edit: * maybe as fast as powering a cell phone from it...
Do you remember the last USA telephony network to go bankrupt with that idea? Hint it starts with a C, mid late 1990s. Came with laptops pre-installed in fact.
Alternatively, you can look into mobile 5g modems/routers with battery. They're also in the same price range though plus you have to charge them.
You mentioned Austria so I assume you're in the EU?
Geizhals ist usually you're best bet for product and price discovery.
https://geizhals.eu/?cat=phonmdg&xf=4844_5G~5694_USB&sort=p&...
The framework community designs for a swappable dongle are nice but they're not exactly complete. The cheapest way I can think of is to grab one of those M.2 boards, put them into a small M.2 to USB C converter and print a case around that. Most affordable M.2 modules seem to be 4G only though.
google had to warn all pixel users recently to turn off modem because of a remote full control exploit on the cheap modem they used! it was the first late update to make it even more fun to pixel customers.
chinese sites have dozen of 5g dongles you can buy for under $100.
also, i think 4G has better battery usage anyway.
https://rpishop.cz/iot-karty/5753-waveshare-5g-dongle.html
But look at that heat-sink! The thing looks very big and very power-hungry.
Since you're talking about USB, and battery drain, you can probably assume that the phone will use roughly the extra power that is required to do the 5G data transmission and relay to the USB host, and so, if you connect your phone to your computer via USB, and enable internet sharing via USB, you've achieved USB dongle behaviour ?