Forum Discussion
Please share your experience with tethered cellular
We've recently added a new docs page to include more information on connecting HoloLens to cellular networks. You can find it at https://aka.ms/HL5G. While hotspot / WiFi is sufficient for most use c...
hey Jared, we've tested successfully with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 mobile phone, plus collaborated with Netgear to test with their Nighthawk M1 (up to 1Gbps) and M2 (up to 2Gbps) mobile internet routers. We suggest the Netgear devices, as opposed to mobile phones, to our clients for a few reasons:
- avoid any risk of damage/drain of battery of a mobile phone, which may be needed for more important reasons later, e.g. emergency calling or location tracking
- not all users may have a suitable mobile phone (including appropriate data SIM) issued to them or that they're willing to use, whereas a dedicated mobile internet router and SIM is purposely there for its need then and can be shared between other users, especially if the HL2 is shared
- they're cheaper than most mobile phones
KEY THING TO NOTE: due to the USB-C standard, the HoloLens 2 will always try and charge the tethered device, which obviously has an impact on the battery life. We reported this to engineering a while back and unfortunately there's no way to get around it. For this reason, we also advise customers to consider something like the Belkin 'BOOSTCHARGE' 20K power bank (we collaborated with Belkin to find a suitable product for HL2) to enable remote workers to have easy access to mobile charging (even whilst using the HL2 if they're not using the USB-C port for anything else). I've also got a Galaxy S20+ and Microsoft Surface Duo phone here currently that i can test if that's any use?
- avoid any risk of damage/drain of battery of a mobile phone, which may be needed for more important reasons later, e.g. emergency calling or location tracking
- not all users may have a suitable mobile phone (including appropriate data SIM) issued to them or that they're willing to use, whereas a dedicated mobile internet router and SIM is purposely there for its need then and can be shared between other users, especially if the HL2 is shared
- they're cheaper than most mobile phones
KEY THING TO NOTE: due to the USB-C standard, the HoloLens 2 will always try and charge the tethered device, which obviously has an impact on the battery life. We reported this to engineering a while back and unfortunately there's no way to get around it. For this reason, we also advise customers to consider something like the Belkin 'BOOSTCHARGE' 20K power bank (we collaborated with Belkin to find a suitable product for HL2) to enable remote workers to have easy access to mobile charging (even whilst using the HL2 if they're not using the USB-C port for anything else). I've also got a Galaxy S20+ and Microsoft Surface Duo phone here currently that i can test if that's any use?
Thank you wez_p, JR_Celona and Rene Schulte. Really appreciate the details shared. Feedback heard on the charging part. I've asked if there's anything we can do but haven't heard back yet. Not sure if that's even something that can be addressed in the firmware. It looks like there are some USB-C hubs that claim to do pass-through power delivery. I wonder if you could use one of those to charge and do data at the same time. Understand of course that would be a bit bulky.