Solis Smart Connectivity Devices for Mobile and Home

Solis produces mobile Wi-Fi hotspot devices and smart connectivity hardware. Their products focus on portable internet access that works across global networks, supporting 4G LTE and 5G connections depending on the model.

The Solis mobile hotspot supports pay-as-you-go data plans through a companion app, making it useful for travel, backup internet for smart homes, and remote work setups. The device acts as a portable router that can connect multiple devices simultaneously.

For smart home users, Solis hotspots serve as reliable backup connectivity when the primary internet connection fails. Smart home hubs and security cameras need continuous internet for monitoring and remote access, a Solis device provides failover connectivity without the complexity of a dedicated business-grade router setup.

Solis offers several hardware tiers. The Solis Lite is the entry-level option supporting 4G LTE with speeds up to 150Mbps down, suitable for basic smart home failover. The Solis S1 steps up with faster LTE and a longer battery life of around 8 hours of active use. The Pro 5G model adds true 5G connectivity with theoretical downlink speeds above 1Gbps, making it practical for bandwidth-heavy tasks like live camera feeds and cloud backup during an outage. The Pro 5G costs significantly more but is the only model that won't bottleneck a home with multiple 4K cameras.

Solis uses a global SIM card that automatically selects the strongest available network in over 130 countries. The companion app shows signal strength, data usage, and lets you purchase data packages by region or globally. For smart home users who travel and want to check in remotely, having a Solis device that works on the same familiar plan internationally removes a layer of complexity.

As a smart home failover device, a Solis hotspot works best when connected to a router with a WAN failover input, or paired with a travel router that supports automatic 4G failover. Connecting Solis directly as a secondary WAN keeps cloud-dependent devices like smart locks, thermostats, and cameras online during ISP outages. The data consumption from a typical smart home. Mostly status polling and short clips. Is modest enough that a pay-as-you-go data package covers most outage scenarios without large data costs.

Solis as a Smart Home Safety Net

Here's a scenario most people don't plan for until it bites them: the internet goes down, and suddenly the smart locks, cameras, and thermostat that depend on the cloud all go quiet. A Solis hotspot is one of the simplest ways to keep those devices online through an outage, and that failover role is where it earns its keep in a connected home.

The appeal is that Solis asks for no contract. You buy the hardware, then top up data through the app only when you need it. For a backup link that might sit idle for months, pay-as-you-go beats a second monthly broadband bill by a wide margin. When your primary connection drops, the Solis steps in and your cloud-dependent gear keeps reporting and accepting commands as if nothing happened.

Matching the model to the job matters:

• Solis Lite: entry-level 4G LTE up to 150Mbps, fine for status polling and a camera or two during an outage.
• Solis S1: faster LTE with roughly 8 hours of battery, a sensible middle option.
• Pro 5G: true 5G with gigabit-class downlink, the only tier that won't choke a house full of 4K cameras.

To use one as real failover, connect it to a router with a WAN failover input, or pair it with a travel router that supports automatic 4G failover. Wired straight in as a secondary WAN, it keeps smart locks, thermostats, and cameras reachable the moment your ISP drops. The data math is friendly here: a typical smart home mostly trades small status messages and the occasional short clip, so a modest pay-as-you-go package covers most outages without a scary bill.

The other half of the story is travel. Solis uses a global SIM that hops onto the strongest network across 130-plus countries, and the app shows signal and usage while letting you buy regional or global data. For someone who travels and still wants to check the home cameras on the same familiar plan, that removes a layer of fiddly local-SIM hassle. It won't replace a proper home router, and it shouldn't. But as an always-ready backup and a travel companion rolled into one device, a Solis hotspot quietly solves a problem most smart homes ignore until the day the connection drops.

Sizing Your Backup Data Plan

The question everyone asks is how much data a smart home actually burns during an outage, and the answer is reassuring. Status polling from locks, thermostats, and sensors is tiny, often just a few megabytes an hour across a whole house. The data hogs are cameras, especially anything streaming or uploading 4K clips. If your failover priority is keeping locks and alarms reachable while letting cameras drop to a lower resolution, a modest pay-as-you-go package stretches a long way.

A practical approach is to set your cameras to a lower bitrate or to event-only recording on the backup connection, which you can often automate based on which WAN is active. That way a multi-hour outage costs you a sensible amount of data rather than a shock on your next top-up. Keep the Solis charged or wired to power, test the failover once after you set it up so you trust it, and then forget about it until the day your main line goes down. That day is exactly when a quietly maintained backup proves it was worth the small ongoing cost.

Setting up a Solis hotspot as genuine automatic failover rather than a manual backup takes about an hour the first time. The key step is connecting it through a router with a WAN failover input so the switch happens without you touching anything when your primary connection drops. Many modern routers, including OpenWRT builds and consumer models from TP-Link and ASUS, support this natively. Once configured, the device becomes invisible until it is actually needed. The more common approach is simply keeping the device charged and plugging it in manually during outages, which works fine for most households. Either way, the pay-as-you-go data model means you pay nothing during the months your connection stays up. For a backup solution you genuinely hope never to use, that cost structure is exactly right.