Verizon Jetpack 890L mobile hotspot review

The 890L, sourced from China's ZTE, looks cheaper than the 4620L, and that's because it is: as of this writing, you can get it for $30 less on contract ($19.99 versus $49.99 for the Novatel). At 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.71 inches, it's also a bit bigger, a glossy domed square with three illuminated recesses on top — down, up, and OK — which are capacitive touch buttons that serve as the hotspot's only controls. The side is a strip of matte red plastic where you'll find a series of holes for the internal speaker, the power switch (more on that in a moment), a Micro USB port for charging, and a pinhole reset button. On the bottom you find a black battery cover that's opened by prying one corner helpfully labeled "OPEN." As with most hotspots, a small white sticker on top of the cover identifies the unit's default SSID and password. Underneath the cover, you'll find a second sticker — in case you lose the first one — along with the 1,700 mAh battery (made by Sony, interestingly). Removing the battery reveals the SIM slot. There's no microSD slot on this particular model, a feature commonly found on hotspots these days that allows you to share storage among connected devices. I don't miss it, but some may.

The power switch on the 890L — an actual, physical, sliding switch — is fairly novel among hotspots, and really, among modern consumer electronics in general. I like it for several reasons: one, it leaves no doubt as to the current power state; two, it has a minimal chance of being accidentally activated while in storage; and three, there's no need to press and hold for some indeterminate amount of time to toggle the power on or off. I wish more devices had physical switches like this, particularly hotspots.

Using the 890L is straightforward enough: flip the switch, wait about ten seconds for it to boot and connect to the cellular network, pair to its Wi-Fi network, and away you go. The unit supports up to 10 simultaneous connections (though, strangely, you only get five if you're connected to CDMA instead of LTE).

The web interface for controlling settings looks somewhat different than the one used by the 4520L, though the concept is the same — navigate to "http://vz.hotspot" from your browser and you land on a page where you can control countless hotspot settings on a very granular level, including restricting what devices can connect, controlling security settings for the Wi-Fi network, and toggling the CDMA, LTE, and GSM radios (the 890L works internationally with Verizon's roaming partners like Vodafone). It's easy and straightforward, and the default admin password is the same as the default Wi-Fi password, so there's no drama trying to get in the first time.

The same can't necessarily be said for the 890L's small monochrome OLED display, however: it does a decent enough job conveying current signal strength and the number of connected users from its four-icon home screen, but navigating through the archaic menu structure is a chore. ZTE should've included a back button — but since it didn't, the only way to back out of a menu is to scroll to the bottom of it and select the "back" item. It feels rushed and overlooked by Verizon's QA department, too; for instance, "Software" and "SoftWare" both appear in different places of the UI. It's certainly not a big deal for proper operation of the device, but it conveys an unsettling sloppiness to the user.