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The Jetpack MiFi 8800L is the best 4G LTE hotspot from Verizon, period. It's better than all I've tested, and chances are it will also be the last. With 5G coming next year, it's my educated guess that there won't be another 4G hotspot.
If you don't want to hold up to see how 5G pans out or need a mobile Internet solution right now, the MiFi 8800L is an excellent choice, even though it's not cheap, costing $200 retail or $100 if you sign up for a two-year contract.
MiFi 8800L: Simple yet effective design
Made by inseego, formerly Novatel, the MiFi 8800L is an oval plastic box that measures 4.45 by 2.80 by 0.75 inches. It's not tiny but not huge, either, just about the right size for a mobile hotspot.
Useful touchscreen
On top, it has a 2.4-inch 5-line black and white touchscreen that shows the device's status, connected clients, and so on. The screen's sensitivity isn't the best I've seen but is good enough, and you can use it to manage most of the hotspot's settings.
For security reasons, you need to use the device's web interface to change its Wi-Fi and admin passwords, by the way—more on this below.
You can open the underside of the hotspot to get to its removable 4400mAh Li-Ion battery. Under the battery, you'll find a SIM slot. The 8800L uses a nano-SIM.
Inseego told me the device is unlocked—meaning it will work with other carriers (changes in settings required) --but I haven't tried that out. After all, this is a Verizon device.
On the side, there's a power button. You need to press and hold it for a few seconds to turn on the hotspot. It works fine though I find it a bit finicky. There's very little tactile response, so sometimes it's hard to know if you have pressed on it. But that's not a huge deal.
USB-C applications
The most exciting part is the USB-C port. You can use it to charge the hotspot's internal battery or charge a device connected to it.
That's right. The MiFi 8800L can work as a juice pack. I tried that with my Pixel 3 XL, and the charging worked fine. It stopped when the MiFi's battery level drained 25 percent.
You can also use it to tether a computer that doesn't have Wi-Fi to the Internet. In this case, you can choose to make it also work as a mobile hotspot at the same time or not.
And there's more; you can use the USB-C port to host a storage device, like a portable drive, and share that storage with all connected clients. It's like a mini NAS server.
A portable drive would drain the hotspot's battery fast, and there's only one USB-C port. That said, this option is cool but impractical unless you use a USB-C external drive with a power adapter of its own.
Generous feature set
The 8800L comes with a secure Wi-Fi network that you can use right away out of the box. If you want to change this network's name or password into something easier to remember, you'll need to use its Web interface.
It's easy: From a connected device, point a browser to its default IP address, which is 192.168.1.1.
The interface is responsive and gives access to all of the hotspot's settings and features. And for a small device, the MiFi 8800L does have a lot of features.
For example, there's built-in GPS, which supports the NMEA GPS-over-Wi-Fi standard. Thus, supported Wi-Fi clients can automatically use the MiFi's GPS feature. Others, such as a computer, will need a software driver first.
There's also a built-in VPN client that comes in handy if you want to remain as part of a home or office network when on the go.
Other than that, the MiFi 8800L also has all the standard settings found in most routers. These include port forwarding, port filtering, MAC filtering, firewall, Guest network, and more.
High-end Wi-Fi and cellular specs
Per inseego, the MiFi 8800L is the first and, for now, the only hotspot in the U.S that uses Qualcomm's latest X20 modem. This modem features Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), meaning it has improved LTE speed thanks to carrier aggregation and the use of the 5GHz frequency.
The MiFi 8800L supports LTE bands 2/4/5/7/13/14/20/28/46/48/66, as well as UMTS 3G. For this reason, it can work almost anywhere in the world. In the U.S, however, it works best only with Verizon.
| Cellular Standard | LTE Advanced |
| Cellular Network | LTE Bands: B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B13/B14/B20/B28/B46/B48/B66; UMTS Bands: B1/B2/B5/B8 |
| World Device | Works in over 200 countries |
| Battery Life | 24 hrs |
| Weight | 5.36 oz |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 4.29 x 2.64 x .71 in |
| Charger Port | USB-C |
| Screen | 2.4” touchscreen |
| Battery | Removable 4400mAh, 16.7 Whr LiIon battery |
| Wi-Fi Specs | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz |
| Max Wi-Fi Clients | 15 |
As for Wi-Fi, the MiFi 8800L features dual-stream (2x2) Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) with the top speed of up to 867Mbps on the 5Ghz and up to 300Mbps on the 2.4GHz. Ether is more than fast enough to deliver its cellular Internet in full.
Excellent performance
I tested the MiFi 8800L throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and was happy with its performance. Verizon has good cell coverage in the area, and I was able to get good reception—and therefore fast Internet speed—without using external antennas.
On average, I got about 40Mbps, but there were locations I got up to 120Mbps. The slowest speed I got was around 15Mbps. Generally, I could stream movies to three devices simultaneously while using a fourth for other tasks without any problem.
By the way, since the hotspot is so fast, I recommend getting the unlimited data plan (currently costs $80/month). Otherwise, you can blow through any data caps in a matter of just a few hours.
The battery life was also impressive. With typical usage (web surfing, emailing, Google Maps turn by turn direction, and so on), the MiFi lasted me two days of work time on a single charge.
When I used it heavily (continuous Netflix streaming and other tasks), it lasted about 6 hours. Generally, on average, you can expect some 12 hours easily.
By the way, you can charge the hotspot using any USB-C car charger, including those used for phones.
In my case, the hotspot woke itself up (from sleep) each time I started the car, saving me from having to fumble with the temperamental power button, as mentioned above.
As for Wi-Fi, I was able to use it up to 100 feet away in open space. In a house with walls, however, the range now maxed at around 50 feet. While this was shorter than a regular router's, it's among the best for a mobile hotspot.
Verizon Jetpack MiFi 8800L's Rating
Pros
Superfast LTE speed
Good battery life
Handy touchscreen
Lots of useful features
Cons
Finicky power button
Relatively expensive
No support for upcoming 5G
Conclusion
You probably think you don't need a mobile hotspot since, when need be, you can likely use your phone as one anyway. And for the most part, you are right.
But for those traveling with a lot of Wi-Fi clients, the phone's built-in hotspot feature—which allows only three clients—won't be enough, plus it'll drain the phone's battery fast.
And that's where the Jetpack MiFi 8800L comes into play. With super-fast LTE speed, the support for up to 15 clients at a time, and long battery life, until 5G is available, this is a hotspot as good as it gets.
Good afternoon. Is there a way to set the usb-c port up to charge the unit and be a data output at the same time? I’m trying to run this with a wifi mesh system and I’m currently not able to charge the unit while it’s connected to the first node. If this is not possible, have you ever seen a conversion for the battery that allows it to be plugged into a wall socket?
That would depend on the host device, Mark, not the mobile hotspot itself.
Hi, thanks for this info. I am a novice on this stuff so apologies in advance for your responses. I just bought a used 8800. We are looking to use it in Mexico where we stay in a rural area that is serviced by a 5MB DSL line through Telmex. We can get a new data plan through Verizon which switches over to Telcel and use it when we are there but I was wondering if we could just buy a prepaid Telcel plan that would be cheaper, and more direct and we would only pay for it when we are there and need it. Would we need a different SIM card for that? Do you have a recommendation for how to best use it in this situation? Again, thank you. (and ps I don’t know what “it’s faster to get answers via site search” means.
Get an unlimited Google Fi plan, Barbara. You then can use an unlock mobile hotspot with it or use your phone as the mobile hotspot. Clearly, though, cell coverage depends on where you are, so there’s no way to know for sure what’s the best. On this front, you have to use your experience or ask the local.
Thanks for your quick reply. Because of my husband’s business account with Verizon we can get unlimited data for $45/month. After reading your Google Fi post it looks like that would be cheaper than the cheapest Google Fi data. Am I reading that correctly? If so we would likely just go with that. Although now you have me thinking that maybe we should just use our phone as the hotspot (with the same unlimited data plan) and not use the jetpack at all? Still confused.
You can use the phone as a hotspot for sure. A mobile hotspot is only helpful if you need to connect more than 3 devices to the Internet simultaneously (newer phones allow more)– check the Conclusion part of this review for more. As for which to use, that’s up to you. I doubt that Verizon charges you the same in Mexico — the rate you have is for the US. Google Fi charges you the same in most parts of the world, that’s the key. But you should check with your carrier and your hubby as to what you wanna do. I can’t advise on specifics.
We travel full time in a 5th wheel RV. Would this device, the 8800, work well for traveling all over the US? We sometimes don’t have good Verizon service, maybe1-2 bars, or even no service. I would like to use it with my firestick or use it for video classes online. We met some friends who have one and use it for business as they travel and they recommended it.
This depends on the area, Debbie. I’ve personally used it on long road trips and it worked in most places. It depends on cellular reception. If you use this one and another from AT&T as a backup, then you’re all set.
I plan to use mine as a dedicated line for a security system in rural area since the local internet is spotty. Can I put it on a charge, use cycle with a timer of 8 hours (battery), 4 hours (charge), etc. indefinitely?
I’m not sure about indefinitely but that might be possible if you time it right. Note though, there’s no indepth control of the battery usage.
In my area the only web access is Verizon LTE and I need a depenable system for web cams that will stay working for extended periods unattended. I tried a MIFI 7730L and it worked perfectly for a few weeks but then I had to call support to restart it. When I went on vacation it worked for a couple weeks and went down again and support couldn’t restart it without me being at the device. Is there anyway around this problem?
I’ve never thought of this, Michael, but you can try schedule a restart via the web interface. If that’s not possible, set up Dynamic DNS for remote administration and manually restart the hotspot remotely ever few days. Another way that can possibly work is you can take the battery out and plug the hotspot onto a smart plug, like this one, and set that plug to restart (remotely) or on a schedule.
I have the Orbic Speed RC400L hotspot through Verizon. Do you know if it supports DynamicDNS? I currently use DynDNS. I am not seeing how to configure it through the browser and haven’t found any supporting documentation from Verizon or from Orbic. My next option would to be get a travel router that supports DDNS and can act as a repeater bridge. Do you have any recommendations for a decent travel router that does both?
I don’t think so, Scott, and that’s the case of most Mobile hotspots — it does support port-forwarding. But you can use a computer connected to it as a Dynamic DNS device with the DynDNS client software (Dyn Updater) — more in this post.