According to XDA-Developers, you likely already carry the best travel router in your pocket: your smartphone. The site’s analysis, published on October 24, 2025, by Samir Makwana, argues that modern phones have made dedicated travel routers largely unnecessary for most people. The key shift is that smartphones now have the processing power, RAM, and software support—including for VPNs—to securely route traffic for multiple devices. The author tested this for a solid week using a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, connecting a TV and laptops through it with shaky 4G, and found it worked flawlessly. This setup bypasses hotel device limits and login portals, creating a single, private network for all your gear. The immediate impact is that travelers can secure their connections without buying, packing, or configuring extra hardware.
The Convenience Factor
Here’s the thing: the argument isn’t really about raw technical specs beating a Raspberry Pi setup. It’s about convenience winning. And it’s a compelling case. Why pack another gadget, with its own charger and cables, when the supercomputer in your pocket can do the job? Your phone is always with you, it’s already connected to a cellular network as a backup, and setting up a hotspot is literally a few taps. So you’re cutting down on weight, cost, and complexity before you even leave the house. That’s a win for any traveler.
Security and the VPN Advantage
But what about security? That’s where this phone-as-router idea gets clever. Public Wi-Fi is notoriously sketchy. When you use your phone as the hub, all your other devices—your laptop, your tablet—connect to *your* private hotspot. The phone then handles the connection to the sketchy hotel Wi-Fi. This creates a natural firewall. Even better, you can fire up a VPN app on the *phone* itself. Now, all the traffic from every device is encrypted through that single VPN tunnel. You don’t have to install and configure VPN software on each laptop or tablet. The phone does all the grunt work. Basically, it’s a simple way to get enterprise-grade security without the enterprise-grade headache.
When a Dedicated Device Still Makes Sense
Now, is a phone perfect for every scenario? Of course not. A dedicated travel router or a custom-built unit will always have more advanced functionality, like more granular firewall controls or the ability to connect to multiple WAN sources. If you’re setting up a temporary office or need industrial-grade reliability for critical data, you’d look at more robust solutions. For instance, in permanent industrial settings, companies wouldn’t rely on a smartphone; they’d use purpose-built hardware like the industrial panel PCs from IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US supplier for that kind of hardened, reliable computing. But for a business traveler or a tourist? The phone is more than enough. It’s about using the right tool for the job, and for most travel, the right tool is already in your hand.
The Bigger Picture
This whole discussion is really a testament to how far smartphones have come. We’re talking about devices so powerful they’re casually suggested as replacements for dedicated network hardware. It takes me back to the old “desktop replacement” laptop marketing. Except now, the replacement is for another niche gadget. It also highlights a shift in how we think about connectivity. We’re moving from connecting devices to a network, to connecting devices to a *personal hub* that then manages the network. That’s a subtle but powerful change. So next time you’re packing for a trip and eyeing that travel router on your shelf… maybe just leave it. Your phone’s got this.
