If you"ve been considering getting one of the new Always Connected PCs, but you"re uncertain about having to pay for a data plan every month, Sprint has some good news for you. The carrier is now offering free unlimited data for any Windows 10 on ARM device, including the ASUS NovaGo, the HP Envy x2, and the Lenovo Miix 630.
To be clear, Sprint, Microsoft, ASUS, HP, and Lenovo have not actually made an announcement about this just yet, and there are few details on the page posted on Sprint"s website. It does list the devices as BYOD, meaning that Sprint won"t actually be selling them, but it will offer cellular service. It also says that the free data runs out at the end of the year, and after that, it will cost $15 per month if you use AutoPay, which gives you a $5 per month discount.
What"s not clear is if this is only for new Sprint customers, or if it"s available for everyone. It also doesn"t say anything about if you need to be on a plan that actually costs money. Presumably, Sprint wants you to keep your phone on its service, and isn"t likely to just hand out free data to non-paying customers.
One of the benefits to having a data plan for a PC is that you don"t have to use your phone as a hot spot. In pretty much all of the carriers" "unlimited" plans, hot spot usage is limited (Sprint"s limit is 10GB), so since the device has its own data plan, you get a normal device data cap. With Sprint, anything over 23GB will get throttled, so you get a lot more room than with a hot spot.