The MiFi 8000 ($240) from Inseego is a perfectly balanced mobile hotspot for Sprint. Pocket-size, easy to operate, and speedy, it gets far more out of Sprint's 4G network than the carrier's less expensive hotspots, for a far lower price than the $600 HTC 5G Hub. With Sprint's 5G plans thrown into some confusion by its seemingly endless T-Mobile merger saga, we find this one a solid buy and our Editors' Choice.
Design and Specs
The MiFi 8000 is a comfortable 4.29-by-2.64-by-0.71-inch (HWD), 5.39-ounce puck with a removable 4,400mAh battery and two standard TS9 ports for external antennas. Sprint promises up to 24 hours of streaming battery life, though we got 16 hours and 56 minutes of nonstop streaming time in testing, which is nothing to complain about. Unfortunately, the battery only supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0, which isn't particularly fast to charge; it takes more than three hours to fully power the hotpsot.
The hardware here is pretty much the same as the MiFi 8800L for Verizon. In hindsight, I was too optimistic about 5G in my 8800L review, buying into carrier hype about speedy 5G sweeping the nation. It has not swept the nation; we've spent the year basically in a public beta of 5G, and Sprint's rollout seems to have been slowed by its endless saga of merging with T-Mobile.
While the hardware is nearly the same, the frequency bands are different. This hotspot has Sprint's LTE bands 25/26/41, as well as 2/3/4/5/7/12/13/14/17/20/28/46/48/66. Mulling that over a little more: If Sprint merges with T-Mobile, the 8000 will be able to access T-Mobile's network on bands 2/4/12/66, which will be most of T-Mobile's 4G coverage going forward. The band missing is 71, T-Mobile's most rural band. The 8000 is much better than any hotspot T-Mobile offers, so it should be relatively future-proof, at least for a little while.
Similar Products
HTC 5G Hub (Sprint)
ZTE Warp Connect (Sprint)
Verizon Jetpack MiFi 8800L
Verizon 5G MiFi M1000
Netgear Nighthawk 5G
Bands 3/7/20/28 will provide good coverage when globally roaming. Bands 13/14/17 make the hotspot more compatible with AT&T and Verizon, which is great, but it's sold locked to Sprint.
The Qualcomm X20 modem in here is the same one as in the Samsung Galaxy S9, a gigabit LTE modem with category 18 LTE, 5x carrier aggregation, and 4x4 MIMO. That's a huge step forward from Sprint's older hotspots, like the Franklin R910, which is only a category 4 LTE device. It doesn't quite measure up to the category 20, X24 LTE modem in the HTC 5G Hub, but it also costs less than half as much.
You're looking at the USB-C port and the two TS9 antenna ports
Performance
In our tests, the hotspot showed good speeds, just not quite as good as the HTC 5G Hub. This is fine, considering the Hub costs $600 and is much larger. Over 12 tests in different locations with the 5G Hub locked to 4G, I got an average of 82.475Mbps down on the Hub and 73.85Mbps down on the MiFi 8000. Upload speeds were about the same on the two devices: 6.7Mbps on the Hub and 6.5Mbps on the 8000. With 5G in the same area, I've gotten speeds up to 300Mbps, but 5G coverage is very limited right now.
Wi-Fi range is slightly greater on the Hub, too. On the 5GHz band, I got 95 feet from the 8000 and 110 feet from the Hub, with slightly better speeds in a crowded Wi-Fi zone from the Hub all-around.
But we really shouldn't be comparing the 8000 with the much more expensive Hub; we should be comparing it with older Sprint hotspots like the ZTE Warp Connect and the Franklin R850. Those all use slow, Category 4 modems that we never saw beat about 41Mbps in real-life testing. The older and slower hotspots also have worse performance at range: Where the MiFi 8000 can keep up to 24.4Mbps at 75 feet from the hotspot, our earlier tests of the Warp Connect had it at 2.5Mbps at 75 feet.
The hotspot works as a modem over USB-C; it also will share files from a USB-C-connected flash drive, but that's a feature I've seen on hotspots for years and never really had the occasion to use.
I know that since my 8800L review, many customers have complained about reboots and connection drops on these devices. I didn't see that on either the Verizon 8800L or the Sprint 8000—in both cases, I ran them for hours streaming video without a drop. But I also know that these kinds of problems can be difficult to repeat, and only show up in the aggregate. That said, Verizon released a firmware update recently that should fix the issues, and the Sprint device is also on recent firmware.
Service Plans
Sprint's hotspot plan falls just short of what you'd want for primary home use. It's 50GB for $50 or 100GB for $60. Homes generally use around 191GB per month, according to Comcast, but the 100GB plan should be enough if you eschew video streaming. It's much more than other carriers offer: T-Mobile's plans only go to 22GB, and AT&T's and Verizon's plans for 20GB and up cost much more.
Sprint's network still rates in fourth place on our Fastest Mobile Networks tests, but it has improved dramatically in recent years. Its oddest quality is its great asymmetry—downloads are often very fast, but uploads are always relatively slow. You should make sure your intended uses are good with a 5Mbps uplink before signing up.
Should You Buy It?
Why use a dedicated hotspot rather than the hotspot feature on your phone? If you're just looking to occasionally tether your laptop on your personal plan, using your phone is just fine. But dedicated hotspots support up to 15 devices, run off separate batteries that don't drain your phone, have much more flexible Wi-Fi management tools, and have separate service plans that companies often pay for.
Sprint's HTC 5G Hub is more powerful than the MiFi 8000, but I'm recommending the 8000 instead for most Sprint customers. The Hub is $600 rather than $240, and it can't fit in your pocket. If Sprint had a widespread 5G network the Hub would be a great choice for homes and offices, but everything's so tied up in confusion around the T-Mobile merger that the Hub feels like an expensive investment in a questionable future.
Sprint also sells two other hotspots, the Coolpad Surf and the Franklin R910. I don't recommend either of those because they have significantly slower modems than the MiFi 8000, and you're coming to a hotspot for the best possible connectivity. So that leaves the 8000: small, reasonably priced, fast, and flexible, with external antenna ports and USB connectivity. If Sprint's 4G network satisfies you, the MiFi 8000 is a very good portable solution, and our Editors' Choice.
The MiFi 8000 is the best 4G hotspot you can get on Sprint. It will keep you connected for at least the next year.
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