Purchased RAZR Maxx at a Verizon store after a long discussion with the sales person where I specifically asked if the Wireless Hotspot feature is robust for daily use. I work in IT Security, and travel across the country on a regular basis, so I counted on this device to be my primary 4G connection to the world... Silly silly me.
All of this in the "red" 4G LTE coverage areas, where Verizon sales people swear by their lives the connectivity should be top notch:
- Randomly, Hotspot fails to start, simply reports "Error" in the gray status line;
- Randomly, Despite the fact that it's configured to broadcast SSID, my wireless network is invisible to my laptops;
- When and if it becomes visible, most of the time the laptops trying to connect to it report errors in the initial stages;
- If your 4G data link goes down and is re-established, most of the time the hotspot will have to be restarted;
- Some web sites are still "invisible" while others are functioning fine;
- Sometimes my VPNs to customers work fine, sometimes they aren't able to connect while general Internet connectivity is there.
Take all of the above, and repeat it 2-3 times an hour! That's my current experience with RAZR Maxx hotspot feature...
Can't blame it on my laptops or the area for one simple reason: I have 2 more WiFi hotspot enabled devices with me, and they work like a charm every time, non stop, everywhere where there's coverage.
I don't know if all these issues are in software, or in some hardware design flaw, but I honestly don't give a flying f..k anymore. The service is being billed to all of us silly trusting customers who bought it. Gonna go talk to the same Verizon sales dude again, he's gonna do a full reset of my phone again, and everything will be the same once I get back from the store.
My final advice: STAY AWAY FROM THIS DEVICE & VERIZON if you want a wireless hotspot functionality you can count on.