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Why? I had it as well and never used it. Smartphones have much better reception, it's always there, press of a button to share the connection. When no smartphon

Why? I had it as well and never used it. Smartphones have much better reception, it's always there, press of a button to share the connection. When no smartphone, a tiny sim modem costs peanuts. You also need a separate data plan, for many carriers not so obvious or not really worth. I don't get sim trays in laptops.

shafyy 3y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted. I concur 100%. Everybody has a smarthone with a SIM card already in it and carries it around all the time. Connecting your Macbook to your iPhone is one click in your menu bar. Why do you need a SIM Card in your Macbook? I mean, there might be some business (niche) use cases, but other than that?
- thot_experiment 3y ago
  It's the friction of the thing. Phones have a trash UI, I can just pull my laptop out of my bag and shitpost on hacker news whenever I want at 90wpm, you think I'm going to bother tethering just to reply to a HN comment on Caltrain? The UX of an always on the internet laptop is unparalleled.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    On macOS, I can activate tethering pretty much instantaneously directly from my laptop, but the battery drain is still a concern.
    - JohnBooty 3y ago
      sure, but I mean, we're just shifting the battery drain to the laptop now the laptop has a bigger battery, obviously. but i'm trying to understand the Venn diagram of people who are willing to tote around a laptop, but not an external hotspot or extra battery pack to offset the extra battery drain on their phone, and need to do this for hours at a time with no AC power available, and are also willing to pay $20 a month for it or whatever the carrier charges all I can really come up with is "businesses who issue laptops that need to stay connected to the internet and it's not feasible to expect employees to use their phones as hotspots" and maybe "people doing mission critical shit who want the laptop cellular modem as a backup in case something happens to their phone or whatever" and of course people who won't blink at $20/month
      - lxgr 3y ago
        > we're just shifting the battery drain to the laptop now I'm pretty sure that a significant part of the drain is having to run a Wi-Fi hotspot. Access points use more energy than stations (clients). > and of course people who won't blink at $20/month There's no extra charge for an additional SIM card with some phone plans.
- csdvrx 3y ago
  > Connecting your Macbook to your iPhone is one click in your menu bar. Why do you need a SIM Card in your Macbook? To achieve the same result with 0 click
- 1123581321 3y ago
  It’s probably because he said phones have better reception; it’s almost impossible for that to be true unless the laptop takes pains to have just as small as an antenna as a phone would.
kubik369 3y ago
Must have been a problem with the particular laptop/country you are in. Traditionally, laptops have much more robust cellular than phones. You say the press of a button, but having cellular in the laptop is zero interactions, which is great for casual users.
- thot_experiment 3y ago
  This. Zero friction, though I wouldn't say I'm a casual user, there's no way I'm setting up a tether on a 8 minute Uber. With my laptop I just pull it out of my bag and go.
  - noname120 3y ago
    For this exact reason I have in my backpack an always-on portable Huawei 4G Wi-Fi hotspot[1] plugged to a Power Bank. I can't wait to get rid of it. [1] https://consumer.huawei.com/ie/routers/e5577/ https://consumer.huawei.com/ie/routers/e5577/
  - arcticbull 3y ago
    Tethering on macOS is super easy, your phone is just in the list of WiFi access points at the top. Not any harder than picking a WiFi AP. Kinda prefer being in the loop here since cellular data is usually metered - and as another post said, it's also nice to have a single plan instead of dealing with separate billing.
    - PlunderBunny 3y ago
      I tether my iPhone to my macBook several times a day (going to and from work on the bus). I don't know if anyone else has this experience, but my laptop will instantaneously find 30+ WiFi access points I don't care about and never use, but can take up-to a minute to find my iPhone, sometimes even with repeated 'prodding'.
  - wolrah 3y ago
    > there's no way I'm setting up a tether on a 8 minute Uber. I swipe down my quick settings bar and tap the button labeled "Hotspot". I don't even have to unlock my phone. If I have time to get my laptop out I have time to do a single swipe and tap on my phone too.
oh_sigh 3y ago
Maybe your smartphone has better reception than whatever laptop you had with a cellular connection, but generally a laptop should be able to get much better cellular reception than a smartphone since there is so much more space, and potentially energy budget to work with.
Etheryte 3y ago
For one, you don't need to have a SIM tray, many carriers offer eSIM and the number is only going up. Also, smartphones having better reception makes little sense. They're smaller and hence have smaller antennas, if you design a laptop with similar design principles in mind it will have better reception no questions asked simply by virtue of having a bigger antenna.
Aunche 3y ago
Hotspotting absolutely devours your battery life.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  You can plug your phone into your laptop which conveniently has a very big battery (and has great battery life, if it's a Mac) to keep it charged.
  - kevincox 3y ago
    No you are juggling two devices connected by a cable. Definitely not as convenient as having it built in to the laptop.
    - JohnBooty 3y ago
      juggling? like you're walking around and using the laptop while physically tethered? that's unwieldy for sure! but how often is that? any time i've used my phone as a hotspot i was not walking around. i'm not arguing that nobody ever needs this. i bet some do. also if cost is no obstacle of course it's better to have multiple options. i'm mostly responding to the commenters above that are aghast that there still aren't modems on Macbooks in 2023. i feel it's a very niche feature!
    - c22 3y ago
      I stuck velcro on my phone and my laptop to solve this problem.
lxgr 3y ago
> When no smartphone, a tiny sim modem costs peanuts. But it's also another device I need to keep charged, packed in my backpack etc. I don't use one myself since I'm mostly using my laptop where there's Wi-Fi, so I only use my phone for tethering very rarely, but even then, the battery drain is somewhat annoying.
zamadatix 3y ago
Others are rightly pointing out "laptops are bigger so should have better reception" (assuming it's physically taking advantage of that, which most built-in do) but the modems in most laptops have been historically bad with the modems in phones top of the line (as well as often refreshed more often). That's of course not a requirement, Apple could choose to put in the greatest modem they can make. That combined with good antenna design in the MacBooks should lead to significantly better reception. The limit of this is how good the modem is. Given how long they've let it slip my guess is they won't release it until it's very competitive, similar to how long they took to dump Intel despite the iPhone processors being competitive with the likes of the Intel m3 well before that. Time will tell on that one. The other half of the story is Apple has already ditched SIMs for eSIMs in the iPhone. It'd be extremely odd if they then went backwards on this to put a SIM tray in the MacBook, a device they are regularly reluctant to include more than a couple of connectors on in the first place.
- dzhiurgis 3y ago
  With a phone you can always take it outside or place somewhere where there's better signal than indoors.

shafyy 3y ago

Not sure why you're being downvoted. I concur 100%. Everybody has a smarthone with a SIM card already in it and carries it around all the time. Connecting your Macbook to your iPhone is one click in your menu bar. Why do you need a SIM Card in your Macbook? I mean, there might be some business (niche) use cases, but other than that?

thot_experiment 3y ago
It's the friction of the thing. Phones have a trash UI, I can just pull my laptop out of my bag and shitpost on hacker news whenever I want at 90wpm, you think I'm going to bother tethering just to reply to a HN comment on Caltrain? The UX of an always on the internet laptop is unparalleled.
- lxgr 3y ago
  On macOS, I can activate tethering pretty much instantaneously directly from my laptop, but the battery drain is still a concern.
  - JohnBooty 3y ago
    sure, but I mean, we're just shifting the battery drain to the laptop now the laptop has a bigger battery, obviously. but i'm trying to understand the Venn diagram of people who are willing to tote around a laptop, but not an external hotspot or extra battery pack to offset the extra battery drain on their phone, and need to do this for hours at a time with no AC power available, and are also willing to pay $20 a month for it or whatever the carrier charges all I can really come up with is "businesses who issue laptops that need to stay connected to the internet and it's not feasible to expect employees to use their phones as hotspots" and maybe "people doing mission critical shit who want the laptop cellular modem as a backup in case something happens to their phone or whatever" and of course people who won't blink at $20/month
    - lxgr 3y ago
      > we're just shifting the battery drain to the laptop now I'm pretty sure that a significant part of the drain is having to run a Wi-Fi hotspot. Access points use more energy than stations (clients). > and of course people who won't blink at $20/month There's no extra charge for an additional SIM card with some phone plans.
csdvrx 3y ago
> Connecting your Macbook to your iPhone is one click in your menu bar. Why do you need a SIM Card in your Macbook? To achieve the same result with 0 click
1123581321 3y ago
It’s probably because he said phones have better reception; it’s almost impossible for that to be true unless the laptop takes pains to have just as small as an antenna as a phone would.

kubik369 3y ago

Must have been a problem with the particular laptop/country you are in. Traditionally, laptops have much more robust cellular than phones. You say the press of a button, but having cellular in the laptop is zero interactions, which is great for casual users.

thot_experiment 3y ago
This. Zero friction, though I wouldn't say I'm a casual user, there's no way I'm setting up a tether on a 8 minute Uber. With my laptop I just pull it out of my bag and go.
- noname120 3y ago
  For this exact reason I have in my backpack an always-on portable Huawei 4G Wi-Fi hotspot[1] plugged to a Power Bank. I can't wait to get rid of it. [1] https://consumer.huawei.com/ie/routers/e5577/ https://consumer.huawei.com/ie/routers/e5577/
- arcticbull 3y ago
  Tethering on macOS is super easy, your phone is just in the list of WiFi access points at the top. Not any harder than picking a WiFi AP. Kinda prefer being in the loop here since cellular data is usually metered - and as another post said, it's also nice to have a single plan instead of dealing with separate billing.
  - PlunderBunny 3y ago
    I tether my iPhone to my macBook several times a day (going to and from work on the bus). I don't know if anyone else has this experience, but my laptop will instantaneously find 30+ WiFi access points I don't care about and never use, but can take up-to a minute to find my iPhone, sometimes even with repeated 'prodding'.
- wolrah 3y ago
  > there's no way I'm setting up a tether on a 8 minute Uber. I swipe down my quick settings bar and tap the button labeled "Hotspot". I don't even have to unlock my phone. If I have time to get my laptop out I have time to do a single swipe and tap on my phone too.

oh_sigh 3y ago

Maybe your smartphone has better reception than whatever laptop you had with a cellular connection, but generally a laptop should be able to get much better cellular reception than a smartphone since there is so much more space, and potentially energy budget to work with.

Etheryte 3y ago

For one, you don't need to have a SIM tray, many carriers offer eSIM and the number is only going up. Also, smartphones having better reception makes little sense. They're smaller and hence have smaller antennas, if you design a laptop with similar design principles in mind it will have better reception no questions asked simply by virtue of having a bigger antenna.

Aunche 3y ago

Hotspotting absolutely devours your battery life.

JohnBooty 3y ago
You can plug your phone into your laptop which conveniently has a very big battery (and has great battery life, if it's a Mac) to keep it charged.
- kevincox 3y ago
  No you are juggling two devices connected by a cable. Definitely not as convenient as having it built in to the laptop.
  - JohnBooty 3y ago
    juggling? like you're walking around and using the laptop while physically tethered? that's unwieldy for sure! but how often is that? any time i've used my phone as a hotspot i was not walking around. i'm not arguing that nobody ever needs this. i bet some do. also if cost is no obstacle of course it's better to have multiple options. i'm mostly responding to the commenters above that are aghast that there still aren't modems on Macbooks in 2023. i feel it's a very niche feature!
  - c22 3y ago
    I stuck velcro on my phone and my laptop to solve this problem.

lxgr 3y ago

> When no smartphone, a tiny sim modem costs peanuts. But it's also another device I need to keep charged, packed in my backpack etc. I don't use one myself since I'm mostly using my laptop where there's Wi-Fi, so I only use my phone for tethering very rarely, but even then, the battery drain is somewhat annoying.

zamadatix 3y ago

Others are rightly pointing out "laptops are bigger so should have better reception" (assuming it's physically taking advantage of that, which most built-in do) but the modems in most laptops have been historically bad with the modems in phones top of the line (as well as often refreshed more often). That's of course not a requirement, Apple could choose to put in the greatest modem they can make. That combined with good antenna design in the MacBooks should lead to significantly better reception. The limit of this is how good the modem is. Given how long they've let it slip my guess is they won't release it until it's very competitive, similar to how long they took to dump Intel despite the iPhone processors being competitive with the likes of the Intel m3 well before that. Time will tell on that one. The other half of the story is Apple has already ditched SIMs for eSIMs in the iPhone. It'd be extremely odd if they then went backwards on this to put a SIM tray in the MacBook, a device they are regularly reluctant to include more than a couple of connectors on in the first place.

dzhiurgis 3y ago
With a phone you can always take it outside or place somewhere where there's better signal than indoors.