Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro review

Finder score: 3.5

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Telstra announced its new 5G network in 2019 with a single 5G-capable handset and a single 5G-capable mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, the intriguing HTC 5G Hub. Almost a year later, it's released its second hotspot, replacing the 5G Hub with the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro. It's the telco's first mmWave-compatible 5G hotspot, which is nicely forwards looking even though right now what it's rolling out is purely sub-6Ghz 5G networking technology.

Design

Design

• Large for a hotspot
• inbuilt ethernet port

• Read our full review of the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro's design

  The HTC 5G Hub really didn't look like any 5G Hotspot that Telstra had offered previously, but with the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro it's returning to very familiar ground, with a large solid brick of a device with a much smaller central LCD display. Telstra of course doesn't do any of the building of its branded hardware, and where prior hotspots in this style were largely Sierra Wireless/Netgear equipment, the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro is instead built by Chinese firm ZTE.

  At 133 x 73 x 18.5mm and 230g this is a solid little device that won't easily slip into your pocket, although that design does allow it to incorportate not only external antenna mounts at the top but also a full sized gigabit ethernet port at the base. The whole idea here is that the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro should be a flexible device for just about any personal or business purpose, and the design very much looks that part.

  The rear of the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro is a simple plastic shell with an embossed 5G logo on it, sitting above the removable battery. Where plenty of prior hotspots also stuck the SIM card slot under the battery, it instead resides in a standard nano SIM card slot at the top. As such, the only reason you might remove the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro's battery is to check the default SSID and password, because they're printed underneath.

  The screen on the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro is a very simple 2.4 inch LCD that can't help but feel tiny given the huge bezels around it. Again I can't help but compare it to its immediate predecessor, which was very much a 5G phone without the calling options; this is a return to a device that's just a hotspot, for better and worse.

Performance

Performance

• Good indoor and outdoor 5G performance
• can't test mmWave immediately
• limited UI

• View test results and read our full review of the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro's performance

  The reason that Telstra throws the "Pro" suffix onto the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro rests at least partially on the fact that it's not only capable of hooking into the telco's existing sub-6 5G networks, but also mmWave networks of the future. Right now, Telstra's only got 3 approved sites for mmWave testing on the Gold Coast and in Sydney.

  I could tell you where Telstra's secret testing labs in Sydney are, but then a very large man called Matthew would come and glare at me menacingly. I don't want that, but in any case it's moot because Telstra's still only at the stage where it's testing out mmWave prior to actually licensing spectrum for it. Right now, all I can do is test it on the telco's existing networks.

  To do that I had to take a road trip, because while Telstra's 5G coverage maps have expanded massively since it first launched 5G in Australia in mid-2019, they're still not quite at my doorstep. So, being mindful of social distancing, I headed to West Ryde to run some tests both in public places with appropriate spacing and then at the home office of Finder's Editor-In-Chief, Angus Kidman. Yes, we're related, but what's important here is that I know his place is often a huge black spot for general mobile quality. It is, frankly, where mobile signals go to die, so I was keen to see how the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro would perform under duress.

  Using Finder's Broadband Speed Test, I ran tests both first in a 4G-only area to get a baseline, in a public park in West Ryde that Telstra's maps indicated should be awash with 5G coverage, and then in two locations in Angus' home, covering one area that he knew from long experience had a lot of interference, and another that was generally "better" for mobile coverage, near a window.

  Each test was run 3 times to gather up an average for ping, download and upload speeds. Here's how the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro managed:

  The Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro provided really very good throughput no matter where I was using it. That's especially true given I was connecting over Wi-Fi. While the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro does support Wi-Fi 6, you're always going to see some transmission speed loss when using a wireless medium; it's feasible you could do even better with a wired ethernet connection to a dedicated device.

  The Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro operates on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands with support for up to 30 tethered devices – 15 each for each band – and connection is no more difficult than any other Wi-Fi network you've ever tried to hook into. It's not quite as easy on the user interface side, though, especially if you want to change the default SSID or password. You can do this from the device itself, but it involves a T9 style keypad for entering digits, which means if you want any level of long password or SSID you'll be at it for quite some time. A 2.4 inch screen isn't a natural target for full keyboards for sure, but compared to the slick UI of the HTC 5G Hub, which was basically Android, this feels like a massive step backwards.

Battery life

Battery life

• 4,500mAh battery good for up to 9 hours
• depending on usage

• View test results and read our full review of the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro's battery life

  Like any Wi-Fi hotspot, quite how long the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro runs for will depend on how many devices you connect to it and quite how much data you're flinging around the air when you do so. Telstra advises that its 4,500mAh battery should be good for up to 9 hours of battery life.

  Any figure with "up to" before it is automatically suspect, but based on my own testing it's certainly feasible if you were tethering to only a single device or maybe two depending on your usage. Over a 4 hour heavy usage period with 4 connected devices, I was able to sap the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro's 100% battery down to just 44% of its battery capacity, so there's certainly scope to run it down faster if you were looking for it to run a small remote office or similar.

Verdict

Verdict

• Good throughput and future proofing, but not inexpensive and less flexible than its predecessor

Should you buy it?

The Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro is an interesting device. While it didn't quite hit the gigabit wireless 5G world for me in my own testing, there's certainly plenty of speed here to be grabbed to cover most people's downstream usage habits, and the promise of mmWave compatibility means it could be much faster once actual mmWave networks roll out.

However, what Telstra's doing right now is selling it on the promise of its existing 5G networks, and that's where you have to weigh up its value proposition. It's not an inexpensive device in its own right, and of course you've got to also factor in ongoing 5G data costs as well. Depending on your plan choice, simple access to Telstra's 5G networks may cost you more after June this year, let alone however much data you slurp down on it.

The simpler UI of the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro does let it get on with the job of just being a Wi-Fi hotspot, but if you've used the HTC 5G Hub with its Android interface, it's also a much less flexible unit in terms of configuration, which feels like a backwards step.

Pricing and availability

The Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro sells in Australia for $599 outright, or on payment terms over 24 or 36 months. There's not much of a discount for taking the 24 or 36 month term; you're just stretching out the cost over that timeframe.

You'll also need to pair it up with a compatible Telstra 5G Mobile Broadband Plan.

Telstra

Specifications

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