Xfinity Mobile Review

4 out of 5 stars

You might know Xfinity from Comcast for its internet, television, and home security services. Now, meet Xfinity Mobile.

Xfinity Mobile offers solid and cheap cell phone plans for those already in the Xfinity ecosystem. The downside to Xfinity Mobile is that you have to endure data throttling, slowdowns, and poor video streaming quality (unless you have a 5G device).

The first thing you should know about Xfinity Mobile is that its mobile services are available only to people who’ve already signed up for Comcast-Xfinity residential internet. (If that’s a deal-breaker for you, check out these other individual and family plans that compare in quality and affordability.)

Here's what else you need to know about Xfinity Mobile right up front:

Our favorite Xfinity deal Save 30% on top streaming services

Interested in bundling your mobile service with TV or internet?

New and existing Xfinity TV or Internet customers can add StreamSaver TM for just $15 per month and get Peacock Premium with ads, Apple TV+, and Netflix Standard with ads.

That's three streaming services for the price of one! And the savings are no joke—without StreamSaver, all three services would cost $29.96 per month.

Xfinity Mobile cell phone plans

Xfinity Mobile offers 5G on all unlimited and By the Gig plans

All Xfinity Mobile plans come with free unlimited talk and text. You just pay for the data in one of two ways: either By the Gig or Unlimited. Within the By the Gig plan category, there are 1 GB, 3 GB, and 10 GB plans.

All data options now include 5G data at no extra cost, just as long as you have a 5G device and live in an area with a 5G network.

Figuring out which of these two plan types—unlimited or By the Gig—is right for you may take a bit of math. But don’t worry, we’ve got the cheat sheet. It boils down to this:

If you think you will use more than 3 GB of data per month, then the unlimited plan becomes cheaper than paying by the gig.

But let's talk about each plan type in detail.

Xfinity’s unlimited data plan costs less than most of the top-rated unlimited plans out there. It’s a full $15 cheaper than T-Mobile’s cheapest unlimited plans and $20 cheaper than AT&T’s. That sounds pretty good.

What do you have to give up to get a price that good? In some cases, speed.

Data speeds

Here's what you need to know about Xfinity Mobile's unlimited plan and data speeds.

4G LTE data speeds are throttled, capped, and deprioritized. For LTE data, you’ll get download speeds of 5–12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2–5 Mbps. However, just like with Xfinity internet, once you hit their soft data cap (in this case, 20 GB), you’ll get deprioritized, meaning your speeds will get slashed to almost nothing (1.5 Mbps download and 750 Kbps upload). As opposed to T-Mobile, which offers truly unlimited data without a soft data cap.

5G is much faster. For 5G data (where available), Xfinity Mobile says you can expect download speeds around 450 Mbps and upload speeds around 50 Mbps. The only limitations are your device (must be 5G-capable) and your location (must have 5G infrastructure in place).

Mobile hotspots use 3G speeds. Xfinity’s throttling also extends to mobile hotspots, which are capped at 600 Kbps. That's 3G-level slow, which is fine for basic websites and email, but don’t expect to stream much of anything at that speed.

Video streaming resolution starts at 480p for non-5G devices

Video streaming on the unlimited plan depends on the network (4G LTE vs. 5G) and whether your device is 5G. As this table shows, the default streaming resolution is 480p, which is just standard definition (SD), for non-5G devices on either network.