Huawei E8377 CarFi VS ZTE VFi MF905

More and more people show great dependence to WiFi, even when they are on the go, especially in a car. The manufacturers in China has notice the demand and provided solution for this. We had introduced Huawei CarFi E8377 many times in the past year. You may get familiar with it. And another Chinese vendor ZTE also provide the similar product ZTE VFi MF905 for the network demand in a car. Here come the questions: What’s the difference between Huawei E8377 and ZTE MF905? Which one is better? In this article, you will find the answer for this.

zte-vfi-mf905-vs-huawei-carfi-e8377-4gltemall

Appearance

ZTE VFi MF905 comes later than Huawei E8377, but the two mobile WiFi hotspots look alike in shape and color. They are both in black color and used for cigarette cradle in a car. There is a USB port in the body, and of course there is a slot for SIM card in the two hotspots. But the SIM card slot in Huawei E8377 is covered by a small cap. The SIM card slot in MF905 is just above the USB port.  On the top side, the logo and LED indicators are shown. The power button is at the center of the top.

huawei-e8377-carfi-hotspot-4gltemall

Technical Specifications

They are both with LTE Category 4 technology, so they can achieve peak download speed to 150mbps and upload speed to 50mbps. The transmission date rates are very good for daily surfing. But whether the surfing speed could be stable when a car is in high speed driving, it still needs time to test.

 

As a follower, ZTE MF905 could support up to 8 wireless users to access internet while Huawei E8377 supports only 10 users. But in most cases, they are enough to use in a car. There is no official saying about the WiFi coverage distance, but we suppose there is no any problem for the WiFi to cover a whole car.

huawei-carfi-e8377-sim-card-slot

Control

If user want to do some setup in the CarFi, they can connect the tablets, smartphones or PCs with WiFi and log in the web interface to setup. But here now, Huawei and ZTE also provide a new option for users. User can download the apps to setup the two CarFi. For Huawei E8377 CarFi, you may use “Huawei Mobile WiFi” app. And for ZTE MF905, the app name ZTE Link could be used for settings.

 

Frankly speaking, the two Car WiFi hotspots are very similar. We cannot tell which one is better from the specifications and features. Only the real test would tell which would have more stable and better performance. We will take a test next time in real driving situation to see this result.

zte_mf905_vfi-4gltemall

If you had read some review before, there is also other solution for the Car WiFi. The model number is Huawei E8372 and Alcatel W800. They are in the shape of USB dongle, not like the E8377 and MF905. But with the cigarette plug, it would be also OK to use in a car. If you want to know more details of them, welcome to check on www.4gltemall.com .

 

Netgear Aircard 810s VS Aircard 815s

Looking at the current available 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot, Netgear seems lead the LTE Advanced terminals. If you had known Huawei E5786 mobile WiFi, you may think this is the fastest 4G pocket router. However, if you know the two 4G mobile routers which we would introduce today, you may have a new view for the mobile terminals.

netgear-aircard-815s

Since LTE Cat3 and Cat4 are becoming the mainstream for carriers, LTE-advanced would of course be available in near future. Here we can see some carriers are stepping fast. The carrier AT&T in USA and Telstra in Australia had presented the LTE Advanced networks for commercial use. The aforementioned Huawei E5786 is a LTE cat6 mobile router, which is already available for many network providers. AT&T and Telstra already used the LTE Cat9 and Cat11 terminals, which mean the LTE Cat9 and Cat11 technologies are available for the two carriers.

netgear_aircard_810s_mobile_hotspot

AT&T introduced Netgear Aircard 815s and had a new name “AT&T Unite Explore” while Telstra introduced Netgear Aircard 810s and has a new name of “Telstra WiFi 4GX Advanced III”. The two 4G mobile hotspots very similar in the name but feature differently. Today, we will have what’s the difference between them.

 

Aircard 810s vs 815S Appearance

The Netgear Aircard 810s follows the design of the predecessor Aircard 790s, which is a same level mobile router to Huawei E5786 supporting LTE Cat6. The body of Aircard 810s is made of plastic but feels good. With a 2.4 inch LCD screen, user can read the connection status and setup the routers on the screen.

netgear-aircard-815s-appearance-features

The Netgear Aircard 815s also has a 2.4inch QVGA capacitive touchscreen like Aircard 810s. So the screen has same functions to Netgear AC810S for settings. There special feature of Aircard 815s which should mention is the rugged design that is dustproof, shock and water-resistant. This feature allows users to take the Aircard 815s not only for common outdoor activities, but also in severse weather, especially for the wilderness exploration. They both have two connectors for external antenna and socket type is TS-9. Between the two connectors, there is a USB 3.0 port.

netgear-aircard-810s-vs-ac815s-antenna-connector

 

Netgear AC810S VS AC815S Technical Specifications

 

Below the blank shows the details specifications of the two routers:

Model Netgear Aircard 810s AT&T Unite Explore 815S
Product type LTE Mobile Hotspot LTE Mobile Hotspot
Category LTE Cat.11 LTE Cat.9
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon X12 Qualcomm MDM9240
Data rates DL 600Mbps/UL 100Mbps DL 450Mbps/UL 100Mbps
Supported 4G LTE frequency bands B1, B3, B7, B8, B28 B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7, B12, B17, B29, B30
WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz
Max support users 15 users 15 users
MIMO 2 x 2 MIMO 2 x 2 MIMO
Connector for external antenna Two, TS-9 jacks Two, TS-9 jacks
Buy Antenna Aircard 810s External Antenna AT&T Unite Explore External Antenna
App management Netgear Aircard APP Netgear Aircard APP
SIM type Micro SIM Micro SIM
Battery Removable, 2930 mAh Removable, 4340 mAh
Dimensions 112 x 68.6 x 15.45mm 112 x 68.6 x 15.45mm
Ethernet Port No No
Datasheet download Netgear AC810S Datasheet AT&T Unite Explore 815s Datasheet
User Manual Telstra 4GX Advanced III Manual AT&T Unite Explore Manual
Other features 3 band CA 3 band CA
Firmware download Aircard 810s Firmware ATT Unite Explore Firmware
Drivers Aircard 810s driver ATT Unite Explore drivers
Reviews Netgear Aircard 810s review AT&T unite explore review
Price 249.00USD 349.00USD

 

 

 

Netgear Aircard 810s vs 815S Performance

 

Actually, we had not tested the two units at same network environment in practice. But we will do that respectively in near future and will provide full test report for the two mobile hotspots. We hope the report would be a good reference for the potential users who need the 4G mobile routers.

There is one function that we have to mention: The Aircard 815s and 810s can both work like a mobile power bank, which is called Battery Boost, they can charge other electronics such as smartphones and tablets. This function is practical and useful in most cases.

netgear-aircard-815s-battery-boost-charging

From the appearance and specifications, we can see the two mobile routers (Aircard 815s and 810s) are with the latest technology and dominate the wireless terminals. Netgear Aircard 810s supports higher level network technology and it should be the fastest 4G mobile router. Of course, the price is also not cheap for the Aircard 810s, so as Aircard 815s. But if you would like a budget mobile pocket 4G router, the Netgear Aircard 790s may be a good option for you.

Huawei Honor 8 New Smartphone Available

At an event in Paris a few days ago, Huawei launched its new flagship smartphone Honor 8 for the European market. The predecessor Honor 7 has good price-performance ratio and is now available at good price now in www.4gltemall.com. The Honor 8 was sold in China for several weeks. Highlights of the new Honor 8 include the completely new design with 2.5D glass both on the front and on the back, and the 12-megapixel dual camera, which is already known in the Huawei P9.

 

huawei-honor-8-3

New design with lots of glass

The Honor 7 was still a massive metal back and a flat glass display cover on the market. The successor Honor 8 provides glass surface on both sides, which is toward slightly rounded at the sides. Thus, the device is expected to be better in the hand and no more act as edgy. The frame is further comprised of metal.

 

 

The Honor 8 is available in the colors Midnight Black, Pearl White and Sapphire Blue. All three colors are both on the front and on the back side visible and also the frame is colored accordingly, so that one has a uniform appearance.

huawei-honor-8-1

 

Good equipment

The Honor 8 is quite similar to the Huawei P9 technically. Most likely is that visible on the rear dual camera, this has resolution of 12 megapixels and allow good shots particularly. One sensor is an ordinary RGB color sensor; the other is a monochrome sensor.

 

Again on board is the dual SIM function and the ability to expand the internal 32GB memory with a MicroSD memory card. As a processor, HiSilicon Kirin 950 octa-core is used, which runs at up to 2.3GHz per core and is equipped with 4 GB of memory. There is also an i5 coprocessor, which provides, in certain applications for acceleration. The Wi-Fi works on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and besides GSM and UMTS, Honor 8 supports LTE networks.

huawei-honor-8-2

The LCD display of Honor 8 is 5.2 inches and has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD). And a fast fingerprint sensor on the back has been integrated again. Another new feature is the NFC functionality, even if a Secure Element for secure payments sadly lacking. The integrated battery is 3,000 mAh strong. The Honor 8 can charge to 50% within 30 minutes via the integrated USB Type C port.

 

huawei-honor-8-4

The Honor 8 is available on www.4gltemall.com now. As a new mobile phone with new features, it is significantly more expensive than the Honor 7.However, the price-performance ratio is very good if you compare the specifications of Honor 8 with those of similar expensive competing products.

 

Huawei E5573 Mini MiFi Router Overview

Now Huawei obviously focuses more on the development of mobile hotspot routers, as well as new LTE sticks. The small devices are a little larger than sticks, but far more diverse. So there are many products of mixture of router and stick. And now we get the E5573s, Huawei provides another device for mobile and stationary use. Find out what the Huawei E5573 offers.

Huawei E5573

Features and Specifications of Huawei E5573
Manufacturer and Model Number: Huawei E5573s-320
LTE Category: LTE CAT4
Download rate up: 150 MBit/s
Upload rate to: 50 Mbit/s
Supported LTE bands: LTE Band 1/3/5/7/8/20  (800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz)
Backward compatible with: HSPA+, HSUPA, UMTS, Edge
Support of LTE-Advanced: No
MIMO Support: 2 x2
External Antenna: Yes, Dual TS-9 connectors (Buy Huawei E5573 External 4G antenna)
Network | LAN & WLAN
LAN ports: no
WLAN standards: 802.11a/b/g/n
5 GHz WLAN support: YES
encryption: WEP, WPA, WPA2
Wireless Hotspot function: Yes, up to 10 devices
Others
SIM type Mini SIM
Battery pack: 2300mAh (operation to 6h; standby to 300h)
Dimensions (WxHxD): 96.8 x 58 x 12.8 mm at 75 grams
USB: Micro USB
Memory card expansion: No
release: mid-2015
available at: WWW.4GLTEMALL.COM

 

 Huawei E5573

LTE Technologies

 

The Huawei E5573s supports LTE Category 4 (CAT4), which is sufficient for most customers. The LTE module in Huawei E5573 could provide download rates up to 150 Mbps in LTE network. In addition, if the LTE network is not available, the operating via HSPA+, HSUPA, UMTS (3G) and Edge (2G) is possible. As a global model, the Huawei E5573 could support TDD-LTE/FDD-LTE/WCDMA/UMTS/GSM networks. Here we have the Huawei E5573s-320 supports 4G FDD-LTE Band 1/3/5/7/8/20 (800, 850, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz). Actually, there are many variant models for Huawei E5573, below are the sub-models listed with the supports network frequency bands:

 

Huawei E5573s-320:

– FDD Band 1/3/5/7/8/20 (800/850/900/1800/2100/2600MHz)

– WCDMA Band 850/900/2100MHz

 

Huawei E5573s-856 (For China Unicom):

– TDD Band 40/41

– FDD Band 1/3

– WCDMA Band 1/8

 

Huawei E5573s-852 (For China Mobile):

– TDD LTE Band 38/39/40/41

– FDD LTE Band 3/7

– TD-SCDMA B34/39

 

Huawei E5573s-606:

– LTE-FDD 2600(7)/2100(1)/1800(B3)/700(B28)MHZ

– LTE-TDD Band 40 (2300MHz)

– DC-HSPA+/HSPA+/HSPA/UMTS 2100/900/850 MHz

 

Huawei E5573s-607:

– FDD Band 5 (850MHz) & TDD Band 40 (2300MHz)

 

Huawei E5573s-156(also MTS 8210FT):

– LTE-FDD 1800(3)/2600(B7)/800(B20)MHZ

– LTE-TDD Band 38 (2600MHz)

– DC-HSPA+/HSPA+/HSPA/UMTS 2100/900/850 MHz

 

Huawei E5573s-508:

– LTE-FDD 1700(4)/2600(B7)/700(B13)MHZ

Huawei E5573

From the above frequency bands, users can choose the appropriate one for their market per the carriers at their locations or countries. If you would take the E5573 MiFi for oversea travel or use in multiple countries, you would better to clarify the network frequency bands of the destination countries and find the correct variant model.

 

Wireless Features

The Huawei E5573 4G hotspot router allows the connection of up to 10 additional devices, such as smartphone, laptop, tablet or game console. It supports the 802.11a/b/g/n. The modern wireless ac is not integrated again, which we find quite a pity.

Huawei E5573

 

External antenna

Like other Huawei 4G mobile hotspots, the Huawei E5573 has two TS-9 jacks for connecting an external LTE antenna. Thus, if the E5573 is used in areas with difficult reception conditions, the signal can be improved by connecting a 4G antenna. Here we have one smart antenna for Huawei E5573 to recommend: http://www.4gltemall.com/4g-antenna-two-ts-9-connector.html

4G LTE Indoor Antenna (2 x TS-9 Connectors) for Huawei/ZTE 4G LTE Modems/dongles/mobile hotspots

 

Battery

One important matter for a mobile router of course is still the battery. The Huawei E5573 has a capacity of 2300 mAh for about 6 hours of operation and 300 hours standby which is enough according to the manufacturer. In practice, you may found the battery is not really enough on intensive use. In this case, the similar model Huawei E5770 Mobile WiFi Pro or Huawei E5771 WiFi Plus may be better options because they have large power capacity for much longer working time.

Huawei E5573

Conclusion

 

 

Currently the Huawei E5573 is available on www.4gltemall.com. You can check the variants for different areas. And 4gltemall.com could ship the Huawei E5573 to anywhere of the world. It’s easy to get this pocket WiFi. Since the Huawei E5573 technically hardly differs from devices such as the Huawei E5577, it is still a good mobile WiFi Router.

 

LTE Cat6 CPE ZTE MF286 VS Huawei E5186

With the evolution of the wireless network technology, more and more network providers are trying to upgrade their LTE network to LTE cat6 advanced, so more and more users demand LTE terminals to support the latest LTE advanced networks. Even though, very few user equipments can meet the demand.

huawei-e5186-front-and-side

We had introduced the world’s the fist LTE Category 6 router Huawei E5186, now we get the new LTE Cat6 gateway ZTE MF286. As ZTE’s first LTE Category 6 router, the MF286 has many functions, even the appearance/interfaces design similar to LTE CPE E5186, but it also many special features. Today, we will have a check the difference between the two 4G LTE Routers.

huawei-e5186-leds-vs-zte-mf286-indicators

Appearance

The ZTE MF286 and Huawei E5186 both looks like a common stationary wireless home router, front indicators to show wireless connection status (Power, Wifi, Phone, 3G/4G, Battery, Signal), side gridding design to heat radiating, and interfaces (4 x RJ45 ports for WAN/LAN, 2 x RJ11 ports for VoLTE and telephone, 1 x USB port for storage and power adapter plug). And there are two connectors for external antenna in the two routers but the connectors are covered by a small cap in case dust and water. And the WPS button and reset hole line together. Of course, there is one SIM card slot in the two routers.

 

 

Technical specifications

The two routers can work well with FDD & TDD LTE networks. As wireless gateways for LTE Cat6, they both could achieve download speed to 300mbps and upload speed to 50mbps on LTE FDD networks. And the download speed could reach 112Mbps on TD-LTE networks. If LTE network is not available, they can automatically switch to 3G UMTS/WCDMA network or 2G GSM networks. And the peak download speed on 3G network is 42Mbps.

huawei-e5186-vs-zte-mf286-interfaces

ZTE MF286 and Huawei E5186 4G Router both could support the IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac with dual bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz). Up to 64 devices could connect to the MF286 and E5186 LTE CPE respectively. And they both support VoLTE function, which is required and practical on the LTE Advanced network. The management of the two routers can be done via the web UI. Users can do personal settings for Ethernet, WLAN, VoIP, Security, Port Forwarding, MAC/LAN IP filter, DHCP, DMZ, SIP ALG, UPnP, NAT settings etc in web UI.

 

But we can also see the difference between the two similar 4G Router:

  1. The chipset of the Huawei E5186 is Huawei own Hisilicon Kirin while ZTE MF286 is based on Qualcomm chipset Qualcomm WTR3925 (28nm process) and Qualcomm MDM9230 (20nm process)
  2. There is no battery in Huawei E5186, it can only work when connect to power adapter. However, the ZTE MF286 has built-in battery with 3000mAh capacity, which can support a conference call for up to 4 hours.

ZTE MF286

The two points should be the key difference between the two routers. Below are the details comparisons for the two routers on features and specifications for reference:

 

Model ZTE MF286 Huawei E5186
Type Stationary & Portable Router Stationary router
Category LTE Cat6 LTE Cat6
Network technology TD-LTE/FDD-LTE/DC-HSPA+/HSPA+/ UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM TD-LTE/FDD-LTE/DC-HSPA+/HSPA+/ UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM
4G Speed * LTE-FDD DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps

* TD-FDD DL 220Mbps/UL 10Mbps

* LTE-FDD DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps

* TD-FDD DL 220Mbps/UL 10Mbps

3G Speed DC-HSPA+ DL up to 43.2Mbps DC-HSPA+ DL up to 43.2Mbps
WiFi IEEE802.11a/b/g/n/ac(2.4GHz and 5GHz) IEEE802.11a/b/g/n/ac(2.4GHz and 5GHz)
MIMO Yes Yes
Max users 64 64
Interfaces 2 x RJ11 + 4 x RJ45 + 1 x USB + 1 x SIM slot + 1 x Power plug + 2 x connectors for antennas 2 x RJ11 + 4 x RJ45 + 1 x USB + 1 x SIM slot + 1 x Power plug + 2 x connectors for antennas
Battery Yes, 3000mAh No
VoLTE Yes Yes
Other features CSFB, HD Voice, Web UI, IPV6, WPS Firewall, CS Voice, VoIP, VoLTE, TR069 Remote Management, HTTP Online Upgrade, QoS, USB Share, UPnP, IPV6, DLNA, Fax, Print, VPN
Dimensions  180 × 170 × 30 mm 190 mm × 200 mm × 32 mm

 

If you like the two LTE Cat6 routers, welcome to check www.4gltemall.com .

 

ZTE MF286 4G LTE Cat6 Wireless Router Review

With the development of LTE network technology, more and more network providers are trying to upgrade the network to LTE advanced with carrier aggregation. Then more and more users are demanding for LTE Cat6 equipments so as to achieve possible fast downlink and uplink speed. Finally, ZTE presents its first LTE category 6 wireless router since Huawei had its LTE cat6 router E5186 and E5175 on sale for long time.

ZTE MF286

Built-in battery for Mobile Use

ZTE MF286 looks similar to the traditional wireless home router, but in this new router, ZTE had designed a built-in battery so that users can not only use the MF286 as a stationary router at home, but also take the MF286 router outdoor for mobile use. With the 3000 mAh battery, ZTE MF286 can support a conference call for up to 4 hours or share a 4G network for up to 3 hours. It can’t be taken in a pocket like ZTE MF970 LTE Cat6 MiFi, but it’s useful for multiple devices’ network support.

 

ZTE MF286

High-speed 4G Connection

Like the Huawei 4G LTE Cat6 routers, ZTE MF286 can achieve peak download speed to 300Mbps and upload speed to 50mbps on LTE networks. The speed is almost the double of the current speed on LTE Cat4. If user downloads a movie of 1GB, it may only take few seconds on this speed. ZTE MF286 Router can achieve this due to the Qualcomm WTR3925 RF transceiver chipset based on the 28 nm process with the Qualcomm MDM9230 modem based on the 20 nm process. The new chipsets perform better and consume less power than its predecessors.

 

Dual-band WiFi and support for 802.11ac

Compare with the current home routers, ZTE MF286 CPE has almost the highest level to support WiFi 802.11b/g/n/ac and 3 x 3 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology with three spatial streams for maximum performance. It operates on both 2.4 GHz with great wall-penetration capabilities and 5 GHz with a lower chance of picking up interference. The powerful gadget also supports gigabit wired connections so that it is possible to copy files over a LAN at a speed higher than 80 MB/s.

 

In the test, ZTE MF286 proves to have good signal coverage; it can cover an office larger than 500 square meters. The signal attenuation is not obvious even at a point far from the device. Internet surfing is smooth, even in a meeting room separated by glass doors.

ZTE MF286

High-Definition VoLTE Call

Conference calls are an indispensible part of business interactions. As a standard feature for high-end wireless routers, ZTE MF286 supports advanced VoLTE voice calls. You can connect it to a telephone or a conference hands-free telephone system to get a much better call quality than regular telephone calls.

 

With 4 RJ-45 Ethernet ports, there is a USB port which connects a USB disk to share pictures, files or videos among the users on the same WiFi network. As ZTE’s first 4G LTE Cat6 router, the MF286 Router has many selling points which are practical for users. But Huawei E5186 has been on the market almost one year ahead of ZTE MF286, we can’t tell whether the MF286 will gain the trust from customers even though Huawei E5186 CPE doesn’t have the battery.

 

ZTE MF903 4G Pocket WiFi Review

Following the steps of the competitor Huawei, the Chinese Telecom equipment vendor presents a new 4G Mobile WiFi Hotspot named ZTE MF903, which is very similar to Huawei Mobile Wifi Pro E5770. The Huawei E5770 mobile hotspot was proved to be a powerful portable 4G router with multi-functions. And ZTE MF903 copied almost all the features and comes to be a budget option for users.

ZTE MF903 LED indicators

The appearance of ZTE MF903 is not like E5770, which has a small screen to show full connection status when working. The MF903 has only a few indicators about battery, WiFi, message and signal. The left side of the indicator is ZTE logo and the right side is power button.

 

If you had read our introduction of Huawei E5770 hotspot, you may know the interfaces/ports are covered by a small tap, under which there are there ports for Ethernet cable, USB in and out. (If you want to know more about Huawei E5770, click here.)This design could protect the ports form dust. But the ports are open to air in ZTE MF903 hotspot.  The lucky thing is the Sim and SD card slots are protected by a cover.  The reset hole is at the side of SD card slot.

ZTE MF903 interfaces

ZTE MF903 is using ZX297520 while Huawei E5770 is based on Huawei Hisilicon chipset. Both of them can provide same functions. They can transfer the 4G wireless network from a SIM card to WiFi signal so that the connected devices via WiFi could access internet. This can make true of when user insert SIM cards to them. But if users connect an Ethernet cable to them, they can also transfer the network from Ethernet to WiFi, after connected with the WiFi, user can also surf freely.  The only difference on this is that Huawei E5770 could support up to 11 users while MF903 support only 8 devices.

ZTE MF903 charge smartphone

The shinning point of the two mobile hotspots is the large battery capacity, which would not only keep themselves long-time working but also charge other electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, game terminals etc..

ZTE MF903 SIM and SD card slot

Regarding the technical specifications, ZTE MF903 and Huawei E5770 both support the LTE category 4 technology and could achieve download speed to 150Mbps and upload speed to 50Mbps. Both can work well on TD-LTE and FDD-LTE networks but it depends on the specific model number. And the download and upload speeds are theoretical under perfect environment, in practice, the speed can’t reach these speed due to network congestion or far distance to the cell tower. But they can also work on UMTS network if 4G LTE network is not available. What’s more, they both can be controlled by APP. For ZTE MF903 to use ZTELink while for Huawei E5770 to use Huawei mobile WiFi app. User can also manage the settings through web UI in the browsers.

ZTE MF903 back label

From the appearance and technical features, we can’t tell which one is better. But we think the Huawei E5770 would be at higher price than ZTE MF903 due to the Huawei’s brand reputation and quality trust from customers. We will do a network connection test next to see which one is better in performance.

Netgear Aircard 790 vs Aircard 785s

Netgear AirCard 790 is the natural evolution of the Netgear AirCard 785S, a portable 4G router that our staff has tested in the past. We recently had the opportunity to test the new version and compare it with the previous model, allowing them to assess fully all the improvements in relation to the significant price difference between the two devices.
aircard 790s in hand

New looking

Netgear has managed to improve what already presented itself as a great 4G router. In favor of a more rounded and minimal design, the new AirCard 790 abandons the square lines of 785S.

On the front facade stands a much larger display that tells you some information about connection on the touchscreen, where the base is no longer angular. To protect the battery compartment and microSIM, there is a much more rounded shell and comfortable to grip. The frame of aircard 785S was silver in color and visually conflict with the rest of the device, where it is dark gray, amalgamating with the rest body.

netgear aircard 790s screen

 

On the top side of Netgear Aircard 790, instead of two buttons (on Netgear AC785S are On/Off button and Multifunction), there is only one button for on/off, a yield possible simplification thanks to the adoption of the touchscreen display. On the opposite side we find then the two inputs for connecting the antenna (antenna is sold separately) to enhance signal reception and 9-pin microUSB input.

netgear aircard 790s external antenna connectors and USB interface

 

Regarding the latter, there is no clear explanation why that would have prompted the company in the choice (in the user manual there is no mention about this) of supplying a cable with the best known micro USB 5-pin. It’s clear that the microUSB cable adopted is suitable for almost all electronic devices currently on the market. This can’t connect seamlessly into the wider opening 9-pin, but if you are not careful, it threatens to ruin the port when inserting.

 

Touchscreen

As anticipated, the main novelty of the aircard 790 is in the display, wider (5 x 3.7 cm against 3.5 x 2.7 centimeters of the 785S) but mostly touchscreen. You can select items with the touch of our finger rather than only using a key to scroll the list as instead we used to do with the previous model. What’s more, there are two capacitive buttons, “Home” and “Back”, respectively, to return to the main board or return to the previous screen.

netgear aircard 790s settings

The main facade just shows a touch on the name or password for WiFi to change this information on the fly, using the keyboard displayed briefly on the screen, as well as by clicking, the usage statistics will be possible to have a quick overview on your data plan, with a lot of data (in GB) used from the start day of the plan, the number of days remaining before renewal and a button to reset the counter at any time.

aircard 790s vs Aircard 785s

 

Finally, there are three additional buttons located on the bottom bar. With WiFi you can access the WiFi network information, enable or disable the 5 GHz network, activate a guest network to temporarily connect a host, manage the connected devices (maximum 15 together), block unwanted ones even if they know the password, give priority on the amount of data used by one rather than others, decide the standby time, increase WiFi coverage at the expense of the autonomy and more.

netgear aircard 790s and 785s power button no top side

 

On the Messages panel, you can only read text messages received in the microSIM in use, being able to eliminate them with a single touch. Finally, the Settings tab, you will have quick access to the display settings (language, brightness LEDs, the display timeout, WiFi info on the screen, etc.), to the mobile broadband (3G/4G, roaming, etc.), mode plane (useful to use the device in Battery Boost mode which will be discussed below), the tethering mode and general information, including the software for upgrade cards, restore factory settings, and little else.

netgear aircard 790s and 785s interfaces

 

In our tests, we cannot say enough about the touchscreen of aircard 790, as it completely eliminates the need to access the router via web or mobile application panel (both are options still available, but are no longer essential or necessary to start using the router immediately or modify one or more parameters if it is considered necessary). Have everything at your fingertips at any time is one of those features that, after having made a habit, you will find it hard to give up.

 

aircard 790s antenna socket

Battery Boost Function

Another new offer of Netgear AirCard 790 is the ability to leverage the internal battery (thanks to the supplied cable) to charge a device if needed. Our tests showed that the 2,930 mAh of 790s routers are able to restore about 60% of the energy of an iPhone 6 Plus, this means that if the phone is completely power off, you have the ability to charge roughly 10-20 %.

 

 

The battery of aircard 790 has larger capacity than the aircard 785S (2,000 mAh), but we did not find benefits in this difference in everyday use, because we were able to use for more than 8 hours in the whole office with two devices connected via WiFi.

 

aircard 790s back cover

USB tethering

Thanks to the tethering function, another novelty that we find in AirCard 790 is that you can surf the Internet by connecting the router to the computer’s USB socket: in this way you will avoid the WiFi connection and at the same time recharge the internal battery of the router.

This option is useful especially in the home, since in this way a single power outlet will be occupied. Also when you want to quickly connect a computer to the Internet without activating the guest network (just in case a friend), or when the netgear 790’s energy is running low and you need a few more hours for surfing, the only way is to recharge the internal battery by the USB connection.

aircard 790s speed test

Same Good Performance

Here, an obvious difference between the two routers is more difficult. Theoretically, the AirCard 790 could in fact provide connections up to 300 Megabits on LTE Advanced (Cat6), but it also support up to 100 Megabits of the LTE Cat4 which is also supported in the AirCard 785S. In reality, we did not notice obvious differences in navigation. At the same location and same time, they provide network connection at similar speed; Aircard 790s didn’t provide much faster speed as described. Perhaps the LTE Advanced network is not available here. Aircard 790s can’t connect the fastest possible network.

 

Aircard 790s package

Conclusions

Those who are using a 4G router every day, especially those who usually travel abroad, we would recommend Netgear Aircard 790 to buy. Even those who have the need to frequently access the router settings may find useful from the touchscreen in the new model.

 

However, we believe that the AirCard 785S is still a great 4G router at a budget price, and could provide the best choice for those who simply use a router occasionally, to use perhaps only at weekends.

 

Huawei E5351 3G 42Mbps Mobile WiFi Hotspot Review

We had introduced the Huawei E5151 pocket WiFi years ago, which is a 3G mobile WiFi router supporting download speed to 21Mbps and the most important feature of this pocket WiFi is that the E5151 has a port for LAN/WAN, which could connect with an Ethernet cable to get or share internet connection. At that time, some customers were wondering if there is newer model which could support higher speed connection, i.e. download speed is faster than 21Mbps.

Huawei E5351 E5351s-2

Actually, we had introduced the latest Huawei E5770 mobile WiFi Pro, which has LAN/WAN ports and supports download speed to 150Mbps on LTE Category 4 technology. And the Huawei E5770 has large battery of 5200mAh, which not only keeps itself long time working, but also works like a mobile power bank to charge other electronics such as smartphone or tablets. However, many customers said the price of Huawei E5770 is a little bit high; it’s not a budget pocket router. Really, it’s a high-end partner for wireless connection.

Huawei E5351 E5351s-2

Today, we will introduce another new mobile pocket router. The model number is Huawei E5351. It’s still a 3G mobile router and upgraded from huawei E5151 MiFi. From the appearance, we can see the Huawei E5351 is very similar to Huawei E5151, they both have a port for an Ethernet cable and USB interface. The LED indicators on the front and back logs are almost the same.

Huawei E5351 E5351s-2

 

The battery capacity of E5351 MiFi is still the same to E5151, only 1500mAh. For most users, it’s not enough for common use. The lucky thing is the battery can be removable, so if there is a spare battery or mobile power bank, it would be OK to use for long time. From this point, we would recommend the Huawei E5770 with large battery; users don’t worry about the power off when working with E5770.

Huawei E5351 E5351s-2

The key features of Huawei E5351 are listed below (same to E5151):

  1. Provide wireless internet connection through WiFi from the Ethernet cable
  2. Provide wireless internet connection through WiFi from the inserted SIM card
  3. Provide internet connection through Ethernet cable from inserted SIM card

 

The SIM card slot of Huawei E5351 is for a standard 6-pin SIM card, which is the same to E5151. But there is no slot for Micro SD card. The most important features should be the improvement of the wireless data transmission speed. Huawei E5351 could support almost double speed of that of E5151. With 3G DC-HSPA+ technology, Huawei E5351 could achieve peak download speed to 42Mbps while E5151 only support speed to 21Mbps. Like E5151, up to 10 wireless devices could access internet through Huawei E5351.

Huawei E5351 E5351s-2

In all, Huawei E5351 is a powerful mobile pocket router for traveling or business trip. It provides more option for wireless internet connection. But if you don’t need the LAN port, you may try other budget Huawei mobile WiFi hotspots options such as Huawei E587 or E5730s, which has good performance for internet connection.

ZTE Ufi MF970 4G LTE Cat6 Mobile Router Overview

We had known the model ZTE UFi MF970 4G Mobile Hotspot around the beginning of last year. It was first released by Chinese manufacturer ZTE almost at the same time like its competitor Huawei E5786. The Huawei E5786 was sold for one and a half year, but we still can’t get the ZTE UFi MF970 in the past year. Now we get the ZTE MF970 LTE Moible WiFi hotspot and we have the overview in this article.

ZTE MF970 Screen

Actually, when we get the ZTE MF970, we are not quite sure which model it is, because there is no model number indication on the body of the device. The ZTE UFi MF970 is in white color, and touch feel is good in hand. There is “ZTE UFi” on the front of the device and there is a little screen in the middle of the UFi.

 

On the back of the MF970, there are only the logos for CE, ROHS and WiFi. No more information is showed about the model number, WiFi key word, SSID and IMEI number, which should be printed on a label with the device.

ZTE MF970 Ufi Back

On the top side of the ZTE MF970, there is a USB 2.0 interface and two connectors for external antenna. The connectors are covered by a small cap, if user want to connect the external antenna, the cap has to be opened. The small caps are still connected with the ZTE UFi body. At the low side of the body, there are power button, function button (“FUNC”) and the slot for SIM card. The back cover can’t be opened because the battery is built-in. And there is no slot for MicroSD card.

ZTE MF970 USB interface

The battery capacity of the ZTE UFi MF970 is 2300mAh, which can make the device keep working for 8 hours. It’s just like other 4G mobile hotspots, and is enough for normal use, if user want to extend the working time, mobile power bank may be necessary to charge the MF970 when power is low.

ZTE MF970 external antenna connectors

ZTE UFi MF970 should be the first LTE category 6 mobile pocket router from ZTE to support LTE-advanced network. Its competitor Huawei E5786 is the first LTE Cat 6 pocket WiFi in the world. ZTE always follow the Huawei’s step to present its new products. The chipset of ZTE MF970 is Qualcomm MDM9230. Whether the processor Qualcomm MDM9230 is better or not than Huawei Hisilicon chipset, we haven’t taken such test. The ZTE MF970 could support up to 14 wireless devices to access internet through the WiFi, but Huawei E5786 could support maximum users only up to 10. But the most attractive feature for the two mobile hotspots is that they both support peak download speed to 300Mbps and upload speed to 50mbps.

ZTE MF970 Ufi power and function button

After plugging the SIM card and power on the ZTE UFi, the device quick starts in seconds. There comes Vodafone logo in red and then the screen shows the network provider’s name, network signal, network mode, WiFi signal, battery status. Press the FUNC button and it comes the options, including the “Data Connection”, “Device info”, “WiFi QR code”, and options for “Global Roaming” and “Quick Boot”. The power button is “OK” button and the “FUNC” is for Next. Press power button(Ok) when on the “Device info”, we can see the information about device name(Vodafone R226-Z), SSID, WiFi key, phone number, web URL(http://vodafonemobile.wifi), and password(admin). We can also see other features when choose other options. User can do basic settings through the two buttons “FUNC” and power button.

ZTE MF970 SIM card slot

At the beginning, we didn’t know the ZTE MF970 is the original factory model for Vodafone R226-Z, but now everything is clear. The ZTE MF970 was released and then Vodafone introduced the MF970 UFi to its product range. The Vodafone R226-Z is the same model to ZTE UFi MF970. And as we know, Vodafone R226 is the same model to Huawei E5786. Vodafone uses the two models for its own contract plans.

ZTE MF970

Just like the Huawei E5786, ZTE MF970 UFi also has two connectors for external antenna. If using the ZTE MF970 at the places with weak signal, it’s necessary to connect the external antenna. We had connected with the ZTE UFi from the smartphone, the surfing speed is good and stable. We will take a full test for the wireless connection next time.

ZTE MF970 Ufi external antenna 4g

In all, the ZTE MF970 UFi is a good pocket WiFi router which supports the latest network technology and could achieve high speed network connection wirelessly. Multiple users could connect with the ZTE MF970 pocket router. The battery is enough for common use. If user want better signal in rural area, there is ports for external antenna. And Vodafone has introduced the ZTE UFi to its product range, it proves the quality of ZT MF970 is trustful.

 

If you don’t like ZTE brand, you can turn to Huawei E5786. And there is better model to recommend, such as Netgear Aircard 790s, Alcatel One Touch Y900. They all could support LTE advanced Cat6 networks.