All phones have 2G/3G/4G, so why don't all laptops? (!!)

[Deleted User]

All phones have 2G/3G/4G, so why don't all laptops?

Or tablets for that matter.

I have a Hudl 2, which is brilliant.

IMO, there's only one thing missing from it, and that's built-in mobile broadband.

paddyrg

Potentially the artificial division between 4G/LTE and Wi-Fi will break down over time. Different protocols, but no need for then not to converge over time.

prowla

iPads have the option of Wi-Fi only or mobile.

RumRat

prowla wrote: »

iPads have the option of Wi-Fi only or mobile.

Correct, with a £100 difference in the price. Which, sort of proves the point...;)

jeallen01

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Or tablets for that matter.

I have a Hudl 2, which is brilliant.

IMO, there's only one thing missing from it, and that's built-in mobile broadband.

The Hudl is low-end tablet, and reputedly very good for what it is, but very few tablets have SIM slots. AFAIK, the only relatively low cost ones are 2 cheap ASUS ones (we have both versions!), and they are quite old tech. OTOH, my 10" Xperia Z was an ex-demo unit with 3 months warrantee (from Scan Computers in mid -2015) and they go for about £160ish when available, so not too expensive.
Edit: the Z tablet came with Android 4.1, but an update to Android 5.1.1 was immediately available to download, and I did - very happy.

Maybe my original question should have related to tablets, and not laptops, in view of the many "negative" comments that have been posted!

jeallen01

RumRat wrote: »

Correct, with a £100 difference in the price. Which, sort of proves the point...;)

Which is more than the total cost of many basic data-enabled mobile phones - which, I think, proves my earlier point about manufacturers' ripoffs of people who are prepared to pay whatever can be prised out of them if they think they "need" it (but then I have always thought that the "Applesphere" is a rip-off anyway!).

esuhl

spud17 wrote: »

p.s. my phone doesn't even have 2g

Assuming you're talking about mobile phones, why have you still got an analogue phone?! Are there any countries where you can still use it?

prowla

jeallen01 wrote: »

Which is more than the total cost of many basic data-enabled mobile phones - which, I think, proves my earlier point about manufacturers' ripoffs of people who are prepared to pay whatever can be prised out of them if they think they "need" it (but then I have always thought that the "Applesphere" is a rip-off anyway!).

Well, people have the option; I didn't think that it was worth the extra, though.

(You're right though, the best does cost more.)

benjus

One point that I don't think has been mentioned is that mobile standards tend to move relatively quickly. People often change phones every couple of years but keep laptops for much longer. A 2G SIM slot in a laptop wouldn't be particularly useful these days, and anyone owning one would probably disable it and use tethering instead to connect on the move.

As others have said, this feature is available in some laptops so you have the option. But there has not been enough demand to put it into mass-market laptops.

prowla

benjus wrote: »

One point that I don't think has been mentioned is that mobile standards tend to move relatively quickly. People often change phones every couple of years but keep laptops for much longer. A 2G SIM slot in a laptop wouldn't be particularly useful these days, and anyone owning one would probably disable it and use tethering instead to connect on the move.

As others have said, this feature is available in some laptops so you have the option. But there has not been enough demand to put it into mass-market laptops.

The radio interface is likely on a mini-PCIe card, which can be replaced, so I suppose that would be an option; my work laptop has an unoccupied "WLAN" slot.