I have a pocket WiFi and I bring it everywhere I go. But I plan on selling it so that I would just use my phone to share my wifi connection to other devices. However, I've got a question - does tethering drain the battery of a mobile device? Am I better off keeping my pocket wifi instead of using one of my phones to share the WiFi connectivity?
Yes indeed! Tethering would drain your battery faster. I would recommend that you just keep your pocket wi-fi to save yourself from the frustration of constantly looking for your phone's charger. Unless you have a portable battery charger, I suggest that you really not sell your pocket wi-fi. I have a Galaxy Note 2 and whenever I share my internet connection with others, may battery would drain twice as fast as compared with just normal browsing. So basically, since your phone needs to run more resources (hardware, wifi and mobile data), it would consume more power.
I would keep the pocket WiFi device personally. Leaving tethering running off of your phone will not only drain the battery, but it will also cause your phone to get very hot. I don't like tethering my phone for too long of a period of time, because I am always worried I might damage it. Plus it's a pain when calls come in on your phone and you are tethering at the same time. Also, not all phones will work with tethering. Some of them have tethering crippled by the carriers and you either need to root your phone or purchase special software to get around it.
I agree with what has been said so far, the more activity your phone does, the more it drains your battery. Even when you have moving wallpapers, they tend to make the battery drain faster, so how much more for the heavier activities, right? So I suggest that you just keep your pocket wi-fi.
Tethering does drain the phone's battery fast, however, it depends on what kind of phone do you have. I know my phone will only last for about 2 hours when I use the tethering option on my phone. I usually plug it to the charge while I'm using the tethering option.
