TP-Link M7010 4G LTE Portable WiFi, Mobile WiFi Hotspot Works up to 8 Hours, Caravan, Travel 4G Router, SIM Card Slot, Unlocked LTE-Advanced MiFi, Share up to 10 Devices, App Management

I owned and used this item purchased from amazon for a couple of years, with a data-only SIM from Three. Set-up was easy - the back has to come off the unit so you can slide in the SIM card and fit the rechargeable battery but there's a notch on one corner allowing you to get a fingernail in.Switch on, and the box should start to try and sign on to your SIM card's network then report "connected" and the service obtained such as "4G". The device has a pre-set numeric password string which can be found by navigating the menu options. There are just two buttons on the device - one marked "home" and another on the top side, and a combination of the two allows you to cycle round each menu page and then make selections within each page where appropriate.One nice feature is that this box serves out a web page interface via your local IP network (use http://192.168.0.1 or http://192.168.1.1 as the web address in most cases). Here you can change the router access password and make a lot of configuration changes to the wireless network for security purposes, etc. The default user name and password are both "admin" (all lower case") and it would be advisable to change these as soon as you can, for security reasons. If you forget your user name or password and can't log in through the web page, there's a pin-hole "reset" button which can be pressed with the aid of an unfolded paperclip (with the unit switched on) so everything gets reset to defaults including the admin/admin user name and password.Looking at my network provider's website, my locale is marked with 4G outdoor service only, yet I was able to get 4G service indoors provided I positioned the unit carefully. The wi-fi signal was great, but I didn't try to connect to the box from outside the room I was using it in so I'm not sure it would fill a whole house but you never know.Battery life was a couple of hours when fully connected and working, but I nearly always used the unit with permanent USB power connected.One thing to note is that I sometimes got a "battery overheat" condition whilst running on external USB power, which was quite odd. The unit would literally report over-temperature on its screen, and switch off. I then had to wait several minutes before the unit would turn back on again. Feeling the back of the unit, the battery inside had indeed got hot. I'm sure the charging circuit should switch off when the battery is fully charged, but apparently not sometimes for me.The other thing to note is that the back plate that you remove to fit the battery and SIM card is quite fragile. In the two years I owned the unit, it fell off the shelf where I'd put it (remember I had to find just the right spot to achieve 4G connectivity in a fringe reception area). All for corners of the removable back ended up being chipped and broken, and on one occasion I broke more off one of the corners just trying to get the back off the unit, hence me mentioning the tiny cut-out on one corner which should ease removal for you. Just be careful getting the back off if you want to look after this item and are looking to re-sell it at a later date. Gently does it.Overall given the price and functionality (which was pretty much flawless) I recommend this item. I only stopped using it because I got a dual-SIM phone with my data SIM as the second SIM, so I could use hotspot tethering at home and also mobile data as conveniently as possible whilst I'm out and about, even if that's just providing 4G connectivity for my sat nav whilst driving, so I get live traffic updates.I can see the application for someone who doesn't want to be bothered with smart phone tethering but does want to use a wi-fi only tablet or computer at home. Very easy to set up and it just works without a hitch in my experience.

We use the TP-Link in our van and when staying in B&Bs etc. The TP-Link was simple to set up. I just put the SIM card in and it did the rest so set up time was under five minutes. It worked straight away and hooking up devices was straightforward. It works well in the van so passengers have watched videos and even downloaded and uploaded files while we have been on the move. Obviously it is only ever as good as the mobile network’s signal (EE in our case) but we have had very few dropouts and managed to work while we have been away. Charging doesn’t take long; we tend to leave it plugged into the usb anyway so it has not run out of battery on us. It is capable of running for hours though. Size-wise the TP-Link is fairly flat, slightly thicker than an iPhone, and easily fits in a pocket.

Why did you choose this product over others?:Simple and effective.

We bought this for when we go away in the caravan so we can use the smart tv.This is really easy to use and set up. The connection is good and despite some other reviews it has a decent battery life. It does take a while to charge but that doesnt really bother me. The signal strength is good. Its very small and compact and never let us down. It had the tv and two phones connected with no issues.

Bought one as a hotspot for my office on a farm lot and initially worked ok.The problem from day one is that the antenna to acquire the 4g signal is not powerful enough and struggled to find signal in our farm building even when taped to a window. This was an issue as phones would also struggle with signal, but at least be bareable when placed in the same strategic positions.Other than that, in places where signal was always perfect, the device worked well, connected and ran faultless without any problems.Setup was easy, connecting to it is easy and adjusting settings via the app is also a doddle.Then after 9 or so months it stopped connecting to my SIM, only to present INSERT SIM constantly even after reseating the sim, rebooting the device, resetting the device etc etc and the solution while talking to TPLink was a long and laborious affair which included me getting technical details and addresses from my sim card provider which meant hours on the phone. I replaced the device and decided to return the lot as it just was not working the way I needed it to work.Pros - cheap, works well in signal rich areasCons - works worse than a phone in troublesome areas and support is not simple on this device

Still works fine. Using it for one year now.