I do not yet own an Ipad and I have no experience with using a cellular Ipad as a hotspot. Most of the time the Ipad will be used as a normal tablet, but there will be stretches of time, ie while traveling, that it's primary purpose will be as a hotspot for other devices. My question is this when using it as a hotspot, I assume I should have it plugged in at all times, but does it have to be turned on or can it be in screen dark mode, what I call sleep mode, for it to act as a hotspot. Any information about how to use the Ipad as a hotspot would be helpful, I understand how you set it up in Settings, what I don't understand is what state you leave the Ipad in 24 hours a day?
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All iPads Ipad as HotSpot
- Thread starter garymkrieg
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If you're going to use the iPad as a hotspot all day, of course you'll want to plug it in. But it's not required to be plugged in. The iPad will last ~10 hours or so on battery and will continue to host it's hotspot for the other devices.
You can put the iPad to sleep once your devices are connected. The screen does not need to be on.
You can put the iPad to sleep once your devices are connected. The screen does not need to be on.
On the iPad 4 with iOS 6, when used purely as hotspot with display off, it actually lasted 5x 8-hour days before needing to be charged.
The advertised 10 hours is, iirc, with display on at 50% brightness. From experience, the hotspot function uses far less power than the display so it'll likely last longer as pure hotspot (albeit unlikely it will match the iPad 4). Granted, it's better to have the iPad plugged in if possible.
Plugging it in is optional. The iPad already does well as a hotspot without being plugged in.
