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, it’s a great decision, read on. And our advice is to buy it now, not later, so you can forego unnecessary headaches with SIM cards in foreign countries, do away with assessing additional roaming coasts, and even get online during road trips.

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. 

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. The only time we’ve had trouble connecting is if we’re on a cruise out to sea. (There are other ways to text on a cruise ship or stay connected when you’re out at sea.) Which 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 multiple devices to it (up to ten actually).

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.

📳 Buy Your Solis Pocket Wifi Device NOW So You’re Ready to Connect to WiFi as Soon as You Book a Trip! 🟠

How we Stayed Connected While Traveling Before a Solis Skyroam Hotspot Device

We dealt with traveling overseas and trying to figure out combinations of WiFi at cafes and hotels too many times. Our businesses rely too much on WiFi, however, 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, we had to communicate with someone while traveling, we used to turn on roaming and paid per day with our cell service. This usually equated to at least $10 per day, internationally.

BUT we still needed to be careful since 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, these days.

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? Our Skyroam Solis Lite review is what you need to hear.

Best WiFi Hotspot for Travel: Solis Lite

After searching a bunch of Facebook travel groups online to see how others connected while traveling abroad, we learned about SIM card. It’s a way to hack the cell phone service system in another country 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 seemed like a huge 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 didn’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 love 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 we decided 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 to happen to them.
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 a few 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
• Connection for multiple devices on one hotspot – you can connect up to five devices on a Skyroam Solis and even more on the new Skyroam Solis X

Skyroam Solis Travel Hotspot we Purchased

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

We also added multiple day passes to our shopping cart when we bought our Solis Lite. This turned out to be wise! Though it’s 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.

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 quite affordable and reasonable, especially if you’ll use it a lot.

It can actually save you money and lessen 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

There are three WiFi plan options with Solis:

1. Unlimited plan $99 per month – 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. Day Pass $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 we pay $9/month for GoData we have up to 1GB to use whenever, during the month. But if we don’t use the Skyroam Solis Lite device every month, that isn’t the best plan.

Since we travel a few times a year internationally and have a few road trips a year where one of us is driving, and the other person is a passenger doing work on a computer if need be, Day Passes are the best option for us.

The exception to this has been when we’re in Europe for 4-6 weeks at a time. Then we buy a month data plan.

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

When It Makes Sense to Skip a Day Pass During Your Vacation

While we were in Canada (before we had a Solis Lite), Verizon charged $5 per day for roaming. With a three-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 Day Pass. And 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 2 days (one of which was partially a travel day anyway).

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

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 Day Pass 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 Skyroam 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.

Here are the steps to activate your Skyroam hotspot device after purchasing it online and receiving 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 Day Passes, 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 into your Solis account.

Solis Lite Wifi Light Indicators on the Device

There is one 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: could indicate the Solis Lite is searching for service.

Solis Day Passes

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 Day Pass 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 A Solis Lite Pocket Wifi Devices

Solis is wonderful if you’re traveling to Europe, for example, 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. We found it worked nearly everywhere we went in The Netherlands, for example.

It’s also great for the car. It has been beneficial to bring our Solis pocket wifi on 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.

Domestically, it’s been wonderful to connect to WiFi in places that don’t have it. 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 Day Pass beats a lot of hotel options, that charge nearly $15 for 24 hours of premium WiFi.

Solis Review: Poor Uses for This Pocket Wifi HotSpot

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

For instance, Dan’s parents don’t have internet so he took it there to test it out, hoping he could get online from their house. But he discovered there isn’t cellular service where they live either, so it was really difficult to get service on the Solis Lite.

This is because cellular coverage is simply lacking in the suburban/rural area where they live. Solis cannot create service where there is none. 

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.

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, 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.

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. We learned this the hard way when Dan was in Buffalo at his parents’ house.

So here are a few tips for you:

• Use your 24-hour Day Passes 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.
• Skyroam 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% 🟠

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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