I bought the Dell Latitude 11 5175 Win10…

I bought the Dell Latitude 11 5175 Win10 tablet because of its excellent specs for the price, but it has the weirdest problem.

I had the tablet configured to connect to the Logitech M557 bluetooth mouse and the Microsoft Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard. When the tablet connects to a Wi-Fi hotspot generated by my Nexus 6P smartphone, it loses its bluetooth mouse and keyboard connections. The mouse and keyboard continue to appear on the bluetooth devices list as “Connected”, but no input registers. Repeated attempts to remove the device and connect it again will eventually result in a complete inability to connect the device to the two bluetooth devices. Only a system factory reset on the tablet will restore the ability.

Just turning off the wi-fi hotspot, or disconnecting from the hotspot, does not restore the bluetooth connection. I need to turn the hotspot off, and restart the tablet. Then the devices work fine.

Connecting the tablet to a wi-fi signal originating from a normal wireless router does not trigger this response. I observed it only on the Nexus 6P (Project Fi plan) and a T-Mobile hotspot device on a Project Fi SIM. Didn’t get to test it out with AT&T or other CDMA providers.

I googled the Dell tablet with “bluetooth interference” to find this article, but in it it only indicates that 2.4Ghz signals, the standard Wifi spectrum, are also used by by bluetooth devices. Why is it only occurring with hotspots? Maybe the source of signal is too close to the tablet?

I have used a variety of Surface line tablets and iPad pro, and don’t recall this problem in the past. Although, using the tablet over a hotspot connection WHILE using bluetooth peripherals is not something I purposefully tested on every device. (Never imagined that there could be a problem on that front).

This is a bug that severely limits the utility of this tablet as a laptop.. I’m conflicted because a Surface Pro with 256GB will sell at $1,000–$1,300. The Dell, although refurbished, was only $413. Also, I am not entirely positive that this problem did not exist on Surface products. I will try out USB tetheringt, and if that method does not cause problems, stick with that.