Virgin Mobile Netgear Mingle hotspot gives 12.5 hours of active usage on battery

Virgin Mobile has announced a new hotspot that uses its Broadband2go coverage plan called the Netgear Mingle mobile hotspot. The device is able to connect up to ten smartphones, tablets, or computers to the internet at one time via a shared mobile broadband connection. One of the coolest features of the device is its LCD screen.

That LCD is a small 1.77-inch unit that lets the user get into the settings for security and see how much data has been consumed. Being able to tell how much data is used is a great way to be sure you don't run into overages on your account. Mingle also offers 12.5 hours of battery life per charge for active use. That means you can be using the hotspot for 12.5 hour of web surfing before it runs out of power.

Power comes from an internal 1800 mAh battery and the hotspot supports 3G and 4G LTE connectivity when available. Security settings allow the user to password protect the hotspot to keep unauthorized users out. An available AirCard app for Android and iOS devices makes managing the hotspot from the mobile device possible so you never have to touch the hotspot yourself.

Netgear has an accessory desktop charging cradle available that keeps the hotspot powered constantly. It also increases the antenna signal power by up to 10dB and has its own MIMO antennas to improve data transfer speed. Pricing and availability on that cradle is unannounced. Virgin Mobile is offering the Mingle for $99 with several pay as you go data options. A day pass with 250MB of data is $5 and a plan with 6GB of data good for a month is available for $55.

SOURCE: Android Community