iPhone 13 tethering speeds

Not sure where to post this but here goes.....

I have an iPhone 13 and on occasion tether it to my M1 MacBook Air. Can anyone tell me how it connects. Is it effectively a Bluetooth connection or is it WiFi n/ac/ax whatever.

I'm trying to work out whether I would do better to drop the money on a portable WiFi and purchase a data sim, although in practice I'm not likely to be a heavy user. Incidentally I believe that the various portable WiFis from the mobile cos were never locked to the supplier. Is this correct?s

Wifi (you can pair it with bluetooth but it doesn't do much that's useful). Wifi, I assume, will be the fasted the lowest spec device can handle.

Obv you can do a wired connection as an alternative.

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

I have an iPhone 13 and on occasion tether it to my M1 MacBook Air. Can anyone tell me how it connects. Is it effectively a Bluetooth connection or is it WiFi n/ac/ax whatever.

WiFi is best / fastest. Bluetooth limits you to about 2 megabit speeds. USB with lightning cable is only USB 2.0 speeds but can work when WiFi is saturated. (some hotels/public areas etc). To use USB you need the drivers for a Windows machine, installed with iTunes or by hunting online for the driver pack. Mac includes them of course.

The iPhone 13 will almost certainly provide superior cellular throughput compared to a portable style MiFi device, which is likely to have an inferior / lower Category radio compared to the cellular radio inside the iPhone.

The only exception would be the latest 5G home broadband routers, but I'm not envisaging you using one of those for casual tethering when out and about. Also if the network your iPhone is on is poorly performing from a broadband speed perspective you may wisht to join another network (on another device).

Otherwise you're going to the added expense and hassle of maintaining another cellular connection, just for the occasional MiFi tethering.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

The iPhone 13 will almost certainly provide superior cellular throughput compared to a portable style MiFi device, which is likely to have an inferior / lower Category radio compared to the cellular radio inside the iPhone.

Unless you buy something about the same price...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Mobile-Ho...

Edited by jchamier (Mon 21-Aug-23 16:14:01)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

The iPhone 13 will almost certainly provide superior cellular throughput compared to a portable style MiFi device, which is likely to have an inferior / lower Category radio compared to the cellular radio inside the iPhone.

Unless you buy something about the same price...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Mobile-Ho...

Yes I was casually aware of this Nighthawk box, hence my "..almost certainly" qualification above, but is it a realistic proposition at almost £800. Ouch!!

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

but is it a realistic proposition at almost £800. Ouch!!

Yeah exactly, more than the cost of an entry level iPhone 13 mini (£649). Netgear must be selling zero!

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Yes I was casually aware of this Nighthawk box, hence my "..almost certainly" qualification above, but is it a realistic proposition at almost £800. Ouch!!

Yes I had seen those but certainly not at the price. The one I have is an old(ish) hand-me-down Huawei 4G which has 3 written all over it hence the remark about them being unlocked. A 3 Sim would obvs be OK and I imagine one from Smarty should be problem free since it is effectively a rebranded 3 network.

The iPhone is on O2 which doesn't have the coverage of some of the other networks. I would be reluctant to change since I'm going to fall foul of the VOIP/powercut problem. O2 is the only one which gives any sort of signal round here, EE is hit or miss, 3 is non existent but good when travelling. No idea about Voda but I doubt they would be significantly better.

On the whole I think I'm probably as well sticking to O2 and phone tethering, possibly with an increased data allowance. The latter should be cheaper than a separate sim.

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

No idea about Voda but I doubt they would be significantly better.

Depends where you are in the UK, for most of England Vodafone works better in the west, and O2 in the east. Unless you’re in London or another big city, or in Scotland.

This is because O2 & Vodafone split the country in half when rolling out 4G back in 2012 to share the cost of build, building for themselves and partner. Then each network gained additional capacity (but technically different) and only rolled that out in their own areas. So if you are in a Vodafone run area with an O2 phone/SIM (such as my town) you get speeds of 5 to 8 Megabit/sec, whereas Vodafone you can see 30 Megabit or faster. But just drive into Essex and the complete reverse happens!