I'm looking for the best combination of laptop and smartphone (used standalone and as a wireless modem) for domestic and international travel. I need a powerful laptop (64-bit, lots of memory) and a powerful smartphone and will use the smartphone standalone as a wireless modem for the laptop. Price is not a concern. My smartphone is an HTC Kaiser and its getting a bit dated. I would even consider Apple. It just needs to be a strong combination. If anyone can suggest or link to something I should look at I would appreciate it very much. Thanks.
Ok, somehow the question is stupid. I'll rephrase and give it one more shot. Say you were going to live completely mobile and move from place to place. Some locations with 3G/4G, other locations with just GSM cell service. And say you wanted to carry a laptop and a cellphone and no other electronics. You would use the cellphone as a phone and want to be able to use the internet with mobile apps on that phone but you also want to be able to connect the smartphone to the laptop as a wireless modem so you can use the laptop on the internet as well. Is there any particular setup you would be looking at?
With GSM you're limited to Tmob and ATT in the States. There are other GSM carriers, but not worth talking about (small regionals/resellers). Your primary concern will be the tethering fees in the contract. The data will be costly if you're not in a grandfathered data plan. If you can live with 5GB a month and pay for usage (>5GB) then I would buy the best android 4G phone from ATT. You can tether natively with android and iPhone, but only the androids are 4G. IP5 will offer 4G in November. Tethering under gingerbread OS on android (2.3) and iPhone works fine. Speeds on 4G with ATT (android) are in the 5-7MB range. I have an unlimited data plan on an old ATT Nokia E71x in which I have unlimited 3G tethering using JoikuSpot. It works fine for trading, but I wouldn't want to rely on it "9-5", so your best-bet is 4G android or wait for the IP5. Get a MB Air if using OSX. ThinkPad X1 for win7. I won't trade from a windows platform again.
Excellent, the info is greatly appreciated. I could tolerate those speeds for peronal stuff. If I settled down for a little trading I'd get DSL. I've heard that some of those new 4G android phones are killer. Thanks for the reply.
I'll look up that laptop today. I guess ATT is the place to look at the latest samsung androids? Thanks.
Just make sure you're running 2.3 or later on any android you get from AT&T. 2.2 did not support native tethering (at least on AT&T). 2.3 is native. Your best bet is a Samsung Galaxy S II model from AT&T. I hear that it's a couple of weeks from roll-out: http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/samsung-galaxy-s2.jsp#fbid=U2tIeeyAbGV I would leave any phone you buy in stock-form. I would not recommend installing a custom ROM. However, AT&T is a little slow on OS updates.
samsung droid 4g is from verizon...I am not a fan of att for data....chicagoland...plus horrible voice. . another android to consider is samsung galaxy II coming out later this year from t-mobile, also 4g.