Skyroam Solis Lite Review (Travel Hotspot We Love)

Our Skyroam Solis Lite review will reveal what we like and dislike about the device. The great things about it far outweigh the drawbacks, and we get into the nitty-gritty of it all below.

This pocket WiFi device will quickly become your best friend when you travel. We've had it for years and never leave for a trip without it.

Don't wait to buy a Solis Lite pocket wifi device! If you need some encouragement and confirmation that buying one now is a great decision, read on to find out what we did before we had this hotspot, why we never travel without our Solis Lite now, and even what data plans are available. Lastly, we'll compare the new Solis 5G hotspot with the Solis Lite.

Having a Solis WiFi Hotspot means you'll avoid unnecessary headaches with SIM cards in foreign countries and do away with assessing additional roaming costs or getting online during road trips. This solves those problems.

And buying one now, not later, means you won't have to fear you ordered it too close to a trip and it won't arrive in time.

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post, which means we may earn a small commission if you click the link and proceed with a purchase, at no cost to you. We truly only recommend hotels, products and services we personally use. 

Hand holding a pocket wifi device on a blue and black backpack for a Skyroam Solis Lite review.
➡︎ Buy a Solis Lite Hotspot and use “SOMETIMESHOME” for a 15% Discount!

Overview of Our Solis Skyroam Review – Our pocket WiFi device of Choice

We absolutely love our Solis Skyroam pocket wifi. We have had it for many years and truly never leave home without it when we're traveling, especially if we're going to another country.

It has worked everywhere we've been on land. We've only had trouble connecting if we're on a cruise out at sea. (There are other ways to text on a cruise ship or stay connected when you're out at sea.) This is understandable because the way the Solis hotspot works is off local cell phone towers. And there are none in the ocean.

It holds a charge for a long time (we simply charge it each night we're back at our hotel), and it's small and incredibly lightweight. We especially love that you can connect up to ten devices to it at one time.

The data is affordable, and we tend to stock up on day passes, so we always have one ready to activate.

If you're convinced and ready to buy, be sure to use code “SOMETIMESHOME” for a discount on your purchase.

Before a Solis Hotspot Device Entered Our Lives: How We Used to Stay Connected While Traveling

We dealt with traveling overseas and trying to figure out combinations of WiFi at cafes and hotels too many times. However, our businesses rely too much on WiFi to not be connected or risk it; our Solis device is the answer to our WiFi prayers!

We are a house divided on cell phone plans — Dan has AT&T, and I have Verizon. Many years ago, before we purchased a Skyroam Solis Lite, when we had to communicate with someone while traveling, we would turn on roaming and pay per day with our cell service. This usually equated to at least $10 per day internationally.

That would be $140 for each of us if we were traveling for two weeks. That's a lot of money.

AND that $10 per day didn't include unlimited data. (Most data plans abroad aren't unlimited, which is how they get you!) Mobile phone plans usually allow a max of 0.5 to 2GB of data internationally. And if you go over, you'll incur unexpected (and probably unwelcome) charges you won't be happy about.

So our solution, 98% of the time abroad, was to simply keep our phones on airplane mode and connect to WiFi whenever possible and needed. This was usually at our hotel and restaurants or cafes.

It was a bit annoying and unreliable, especially while out and about for the day. Thus, our search for a new way to connect to WiFi while traveling.

Do any of these annoyances sound familiar to you? In comes a Solis hotspot, the answer to our wi-fi prayers.

Best WiFi Hotspot for Travel: Solis Lite

After searching a bunch of Facebook travel groups to see how others connected while traveling abroad, we learned about SIM card. It's a way to hack another country's cell phone service system so your phone works as if you're a local.

But the thought of screwing around with our expensive iPhones opening them up, unintentionally allowing dust inside, voiding the warranty perhaps wasn’t appealing to us. And what would happen if we took out the iPhone SIM card and then lost it? That would be such a headache.

We didn't love this option.

SIM card coordination and swaps are a big hassle for a few reasons:

  1. You need to get the SIM card out of your phone. This doesn't seem too cumbersome, and we've heard you can pop it out easily in most cases. But toying with our $1,000+ iPhones doesn't sit well with us.
  2. You need to buy another SIM card for the country you're traveling to. Where do we get it? Do we need to return it? Do we throw it out after? (We don't like the idea of creating more waste in the world, no matter how small.) We didn't even get far enough in our research to figure it out before deciding that buying a hotspot was more appealing.
  3. You need to swap the SIM card, once again, when you get back to your home country. (America, in our case.) The idea of swapping SIM cards in-and-out of our phones seemed like we were just asking for dirt to get into them. And for something bad to happen to our phones.
  4. All this and only ONE phone is equipped to work abroad per SIM card swap. And that's annoying because we usually have two phones and at least an iPad with us, if not our computers as well.

When someone suggested a WiFi hotspot for travel, we investigated. And we’re so glad we did because it’s become a travel necessity. We always have our Solis Lite Skyroam device with us on trips.

Wifi Hotspot Industry Leader: Solis SKyroam Device

Deciding to purchase a Solis Lite Skyroam was the result of considering these factors:

  • Size and weight (we wanted it to fit into our pocket, small purse, or camera bag)
  • Price
  • Shape
  • Highly recommended and well-reviewed
  • Device connection strength
  • Connection for multiple devices on one hotspot — you can connect up to five devices on a Skyroam Solis and even more on the Skyroam Solis X
Hand holding a pocket wifi device on a blue and black backpack for a Skyroam Solis Lite review.

Skyroam Solis Travel Hotspot We Purchased

We bought the hotspot, and we love the Solis Lite device.

We love it so much, in fact, that a couple of years ago, when they came out with a new device (which is our current Solis Lite hotspot), we upgraded from the original Solis hotspot we had. (Don't worry about buying the old version — it's no longer available on the Solis website.)

We also added multiple daypasses to our shopping cart when we bought our Solis Lite. This turned out to be wise! Though it costs more money in your cart upfront, you don’t have to worry about adding more day passes to your account for a while, which is beneficial if you travel a lot, like us.

Unboxing of a Skyroam Solis Lite travel pocket wifi device.

Buy a Solis Pocket WiFi Device Directly from Their Website

We like to buy direct whenever possible. Thus, we purchased our Solis Lite hotspot device and Day Passes directly from Solis Skyroam. It arrived within five days in a small bubble envelope with all our pre-purchased Day Pass cards as well.

The biggest cost, like any device like this, be it your iPhone or iPad, for example, is the initial purchase for the device.

Our Solis Lite was $139.99 (and it will cost less for you with our discount code, “SOMETIMESHOME”). A Solis Skyroam hotspot is affordable and reasonable, especially if you’ll use it on at least one 7-day trip this year. It quickly pays for itself when you use it on your next trip.

Moreover? It saves you money and stress on cell data and swapping SIM cards in the short and long term. And who doesn't want more money and less stress in their life?

Skyroam Solis Lite Review of WifI Hotspot Data Plans and Day Passes

There are multiple WiFi data plan options with Solis. For this article, we will highlight the ones that provide coverage outside of the United States.

However, if you're a non-US resident and need coverage in the United States, Solis has great options for US travel and living, priced at $6.00 per month up to $89.00 per month, depending on the data you need.

The data options are priced and packaged in two ways with Solis:

  1. Monthly data plans that provide data coverage for 30 days. We have found that this is the way to go for any trip that is 14 days or more, or if you have a trip that's at least 10 days and you have four family members who will be on the Solis hotspot.
  2. Day passes, where you buy a pass and activate it per day. This is best for a trip that is either 13 days or less.

Solis Wifi International Plans: Global Wifi Plans that are Best for Europe

  1. Global Unlimited Data Subscription $99 per month: this is the best option if you need it for data-guzzling apps, like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.
  2. GoData $9 per month for 1GB: great plan if you will use it often during the month, not including streaming movies and tv shows.
  3. Global Daypass $9 per day: the best option if you're like us and you travel a few times a year internationally and otherwise have WiFi at home. If you buy packs of day passes from Solis, it actually costs a lot less than $9/day. For example, one day pass is $9, but a pack of 20 day passes is $120, making each day just $6 per day.

How to Choose the Solis Data Plan that is Right for Your Vacation

The best way we can help you decide the best data plan for you is by providing some examples of the plans we've used during our trips.

When We Have used Solis Global Daypasses

For any trip that is ten days or less, we use a day pass. This is the smartest option for $6/day (which is the cost per day because we buy them in packs of 20). You need to activate a day pass for every 24 hours you want to use one.

We also use day passes in the United States during road trips when one of us is driving, and the other person is a passenger doing work on a computer in the passenger seat. It's better than using our phones as a hotspot but that depends on your phone carrier and your data plan with your cell service provider.

When a Global Unlimited Data Subscription is Best

When we are in Europe for two weeks to a month at a time, we buy the Global Unlimited Data Subscription. The plan provides 20GBs of high-speed data, and the speed is reduced after that amount is used up for 30 days.

We make the 20GB last all month by not using the hotspot as soon as we're back at our hotel. When we are, we immediately connect to the wifi at the accommodations and shut off the hotspot so we conserve the data. Otherwise, you'll eat up the data pretty quickly.

The Global Unlimited Data subscription, for $99 a month, can save you over $170 during a 30-day period compared to cell phone data options.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You need to cancel the auto-renewal when you sign up for this if you do not want it to extend past 30 days. We do this by contacting Solis through the app's chat feature as soon as we activate the code. It's never been a problem for us not to have it auto-renew; we simply tell the Solis customer service person to please take it off of auto-renew, and they do.

Soli Data Plans for Traveling to Mexico or Canada

As residents of the USA, it's easy for us to travel to Mexico and Canada, two destinations we love whether we're in Vancouver, Cancun, or elsewhere in neighboring countries.

In this case, we utilize the North American Wi-Fi Plans that Solis offers.

If it's a short trip of only a few days and we want to connect multiple devices to wifi, we'll simply use Solis Global Daypasses, which work in North America, Europe, South Pacific, Africa, and more.

But if it's more than three days or a weekend getaway, we'll do something like pay for the “North America GoData Gigabyte Subscription: 1 Month” and increase the GB coverage from 1 GB to 5 GB for $20, and then we'll be sure to shut off the auto-renew, as we mentioned in the “Important Note” above.

When It Makes Sense to Skip a Day Pass During a North American Vacation

While we were in Canada (before we had a Solis Lite), Verizon charged $5 per day for roaming. With a two-day visit, we only activated a single Day Pass for 24 hours when we needed to connect multiple devices, other than our cell phones, to get work done.

It didn’t make sense to use day passes the two other days because the math didn’t work out. It was either $5 per day for a phone or $9 per day on a daypass.

For two of the three days, we only needed cell phones to do assorted social media posts and text family back in the United States. So we simply connected to hotel wifi at night to do that the other two days, one of which was partially a travel day anyway.

The moral is that you can be smart with what you use your mobile phone for and your daypasses on your Solis Lite pocket WiFi device while traveling, depending on where you are and your daily internet needs.

Asia Solis Data Plans if You are in Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and Beyond

The Global WiFi plans work for 135 countries. However, if you're only traveling to Asia, then there's an even better plan that's somewhat hidden on their site unless you specifically search for “Asia.”

We used the Asia Unlimited Data Subscription for $79/month when we were in Japan for many weeks. It was awesome, and it worked everywhere we went! We especially needed it at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea because the parks do not have WiFi and you need to be connected to see wait times for rides and use their version of Fast Passes.

The Asia plans cover the following countries: China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.

*Note that sometimes Solis has this plan, and sometimes they do not. We're not sure why they do one day and don't the next, but we also know that some plans are IP address-specific. If you are able to click the link below and the Asia plan is available, grab it! You can buy the plan in advance of a trip and activate the plan later on using the code that you were emailed after your purchase.

Solis Wifi Data Plans We Do Not Recommend

There is also a Global GoData Gigabyte Subscription. We do not recommend this. You'll quickly realize that the “Unlimited” option is the way to go because paying per GB is inefficient and costly.

However, if you run out of high-speed data on the Global Unlimited plan and need to add another GB of high-speed data you can buy one GB of data with this plan and add it to your account.

Portable travel wifi hotspot that will fit in clothes as a pocket wifi device on vacations! Skyroam is the best travel gift and essential technology for wanderlusters on the go. #skyroam #sometimeshome #wifihotspot #pocketwifi #traveltechnology

Set Up Your Solis Lite pocket WiFi device Once You Receive It, Before Your Trip

We made the mistake of activating our first Solis device in the Boston Logan Airport, awaiting our flight to Amsterdam.

Now we know it's smarter to activate it at home in the days leading up to a trip, but we weren’t sure if once we opened and activated it, a daypass would immediately go into use. We found out that isn't how it works and we’re passing this knowledge on to you.

🚨 Set up your Solis pocket wifi device ahead of time, before your trip. Not at the airport.

I feverishly contacted support on the website’s chat while we were waiting in line to board the plane. This wasn’t on purpose — it was because we totally forgot to activate it during our airport wait.

How to Activate Your New Solis WiFi Hotspot

Here are the steps to activate your Solis hotspot device after you receive it in the mail:

  • Download the Solis app and create an account.
  • Open the physical Solis Lite packaging and unbox your hotspot device.
  • Twist open the bottom of the Solis Lite device and pull the tab off the battery to activate power. You likely don’t have to charge it (ours came pre-charged), but if you do, be sure to charge it for a little while using the included cord and a USB wall power adapter…
  • Turn on your Solis Lite hotspot device – it takes a few minutes to power up.
  • Register your Solis Lite serial number with the Solis app. The number is on the bottom of your wifi device.
  • If you bought Daypasses, you can enter the numbers of the cards into your account online and throw away the physical passes afterward. If you only have digital passes, simply add the numbers to your Solis account.
Hand holding a Solis Lite skyroam hotspot device with information on the bottom of the hotspot.

Get Added Security and Internet Protection

We add a layer of protection on all our devices with a VPN plan. We have Nord VPN installed on our computers, iPhones, and iPads.

When your data — which is accessible through the internet to you and any hacker who wants to hack on a network — is precious, you should have a VPN installed and activated. This is true of any WiFi-enabled device and is not unique to Solis devices.

We recommend Nord VPN because it's the best price for the coverage. We did extensive research into the best service and that's what we signed up for, and we've loved using it. It's very user-friendly and works 100% of the time.

Identifying Solis Lite Wifi Lights on the Device

There is one major long light on a Solis Lite device. It has several functions:

  • The light bar is your power indicator. If it’s a solid line, you’re at 100% power. If it’s half a line, it’s at 50% power. You get the idea…
  • Slowly blinking light: could mean your Solis Lite device is still powering up.
  • Blinking light bar: this could indicate the Solis Lite is searching for service.

Three tiny lights on the device show if it's receiving signals and/or trying to find service.

Solis Global Daypasses

Bookmark this blog post because you may need to reference this once you have your Skyroam in hand, especially this website: a.skyroam.com

Here is how to activate a Day Pass:

  • Switch on your Solis Lite device.
  • Wait until the light bar is solid.
  • Connect your phone to your Solis Lite WiFi and open the Solis app.
  • Log into your Solis account using your registered email and password.
  • Activate a day pass. If you can't find it, click the “Status Tab” and Press “Start” for a Day Pass.

Alternatively, suppose you don't have the app. In that case, you can open up a web browser (Safari, Google, etc.) on your device and visit a.skyroam.com (if you can't get to that web address, try clearing your browsing history) to log into your account and activate or buy day passes.

Solis Daypass Expiration Dates

The cards (or online codes) do not expire unless you don't use your Solis Lite hotspot for one year.

If you don’t use the device for 365 days, then Solis Skyroam thinks you’re an inactive user. But as long as you use the hotspot once in a while (or literally once every 364 days, just shy of one-year dormancy), the pre-paid days remain valid and good to use.

More Great Uses for Your Solis Lite Pocket Wifi Devices

In Europe and Asia

Solis is wonderful if you’re traveling to Europe or Asia, where cell phone service is plentiful. This is because Solis Lite hotspot devices work off of other providers’ cell towers like most WiFi hotspots.

It connects to these foreign-to-you services locally where you're traveling to gain access to service. For example, we found it worked nearly everywhere we went in Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and more.

Road Trips

It’s also great in the car. It has been beneficial to bring our Solis pocket wifi on road trips if we’re traveling up and down the East Coast of the United States. Of course, we don't have WiFi in our car, but it's useful to have to connect to WiFi on our laptops and get work done while the other drives.

Hotels That Don't Have Free WiFi

Domestically, connecting to WiFi in places that don’t have it has been wonderful. Let’s say you need to connect at a hotel that either doesn’t have WiFi or there’s a charge.

We can turn on our Solis hotspot and connect multiple devices for less than $10 a day. Using a Solis Daypass beats a lot of hotel options that charge nearly $15 for 24 hours of premium WiFi.

Solis Review of Poor Uses for This Pocket Wifi HotSpot

We’ve read some unfavorable reviews of Skyroam Solis devices. And we realize a common thread: the reviewers had unrealistic expectations for a hotspot.

Solis Cannot Create Cell Service Where There is None

For instance, when Dan’s parents didn’t have internet, he took our hotspot there to test it out, hoping he could get online. But he discovered there isn’t cellular service where they live either. Thus, it was difficult to get service on the Solis Lite.

This is because cellular coverage is simply lacking in the suburban/rural area where they live.

Another example is my recent travels through Yellowstone National Park, where there isn’t cell service, let alone WiFi, in much of the park. Bringing our Solis hotspot wouldn’t make cell service or WiFi magically appear. It just doesn't exist there.

So if you have a Solis pocket wifi device, know it must be able to connect to cell towers and data for it to work. If there’s no service in the area, you won’t get service on your Solis Skyroam device.

It's Not Great As a Battery Pack

It's also not a great idea to rely on it as a power bank. You can technically use it as a backup battery to charge your phone, but the 16 hours of power that Solis claims the hotspot has isn't that accurate.

It depends on how new the device is (aka: how drained your batteries get over time even though the device is rechargeable) and how much you use it to browse the web. we've noticed it drains faster the more we use demanding apps on the WiFi like social media. If we're just texting and checking emails the charge on the Solis device lasts longer.

That's why we travel with a Clutch charger to charge our iPhones completely separately from our Solis device.

Solis Lite Troubleshooting

We’ve had to connect to their live chat support feature more than once. Sometimes the issue can be solved by rebooting the device. Other times we haven’t figured it out and need to talk to support. They’ve always been very helpful in diagnosing the problem, and then resolving it.

We’ve experienced the Solis app not working a few times too. Be sure you always have the “a.skyroam.com website bookmarked, so you have another lifeline if you need to activate a Day Pass or speak to support. The app has sometimes failed us, but the website has not.

Portable travel wifi hotspot that will fit in clothes as a pocket wifi device on vacations! Skyroam is the best travel gift and essential technology for wanderlusters on the go. #skyroam #sometimeshome #wifihotspot #pocketwifi #traveltechnology

Helpful Solis Skyroam Hotspot Tips

If you have something important you need it for, like a meeting where you’ll have to do a video call, you definitely want to test the WiFi coverage in advance of your meeting.

Here are some vital Solis hotspot tips:

  • Use your 24-hour Daypasses wisely: if you need WiFi at 2:00pm the next day then don't activate it at noon the day before because it will expire at the time the next day – wait until 3:00pm, for example, so it's valid until 3:00pm the next day.
  • Activate your device ahead of time.
  • Solis Lite hotspot devices, like any hotspots, don’t work everywhere – it depends on where you are.
  • Bookmark this site: a.skyroam.com because you may need to reference it in the event the app isn’t working (we can't stress that enough – we've repeated it several times in this post on purpose).

How to Buy A Solis Skyroam Pocket Wifi Device

Buying a Solis hotspot is easy to do online. (No time like the present!)

If you'd like to test it out before buying, look at their daily rental option for less than $10/day. Order ahead of time to allow a few days for shipping. If you're going to rent it for more than eight days, however, you may as well buy a device; it's more economical that way.

📳 We'd be grateful if you purchased your Skyroam Solis Lite using this link. Use coupon code:SOMETIMESHOME to save 15% 🟠

Solis Lite vs. the Solis 5Gk

The Solis 5G hit the market in May 2023. It has a few advantages and disadvantages (pros/cons, if you will) compared to the Solis Lite.

Solis 5G Pros
  • It's 5G, not 4G (Solis Lite is 4G).
  • Its battery life is expected to last for 24 hours vs. 16 hours for Solis Lite.
  • You can connect up to 16 devices at a time, rather than 10 with Solis Lite.
  • Its rugged design makes it more resistant to drops.
  • Solis 5G has a 2.4” touchscreen and dual-band Wi-Fi 6, designed to empower users with faster Wi-Fi speeds on reliable connections so they can enjoy buffer-free streaming and faster downloads.
Solis 5G Cons
  • It's bigger than the Solis Lite. The Solis 5G is rectangular, with dimensions measuring 138 x 83 x 17mm, while the Solis Lite is round, measuring 88mm in diameter with a 23mm thickness.
  • Solis 5G weighs 8.6oz (245g) compared to Solis Lite, which weighs 4.9oz (139g).
  • The cost difference is significant: $399.99 during pre-order sales and $459.99 for the Solis 5G versus the Solis Lite for $139.99.
Hand holding a black rectangular wifi hotspot Solis 5G device.
Solis 5G – Image courtesy of Solis

SKYROAM SOLIS LITE REVIEW CONCLUSION

We've had ours for years and love it! It's really saved us when we've had to get online abroad, especially, and makes us more productive on road trips. Buy one – you will not regret it!

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4 Comments

    1. Hi Louis – we loved the reviews of Skyroam/Solis, which is why we wrote our own too, to help shoppers and travelers like yourself. We also appreciate the design of the actual hotspot and how it fits in our pocket, and their customer service has been very helpful too.

  1. Skyroam Solis LIte is a great travel hotspot! The customer service is amazing and the rates are unbeatable. I highly recommend this service.

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