Following the leader Huawei, many vendors are trying to supply their new devices supporting LTE Category 4. Here now we get a new a small, mobile hotspot with LTE: Alcatel One Touch Link Y858. The Y858 has a fast LTE modem for speeds of up to 150 Mbit/s and up to 15 devices can access internet via Y858 simultaneously. The Alcatel Y858 has improved much on the performance and we will see what the difference between it and its predecessor Alcatel Y850 are.
Alcatel Link Y858 Specifications
It’s necessary to list the specifications of Alcatel Y858 in a compact table:
| Features | Data |
| Manufacturer & Model: | Alcatel One Touch Link LTE (Model Number: Y858) |
| Technologies: | LTE (4G), UMTS (3G) GSM (2G) |
| Frequencies: | * LTE: 800/900/1800/2100/2600* UMTS: 900/1800/2100* GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 |
| Maximum speed: | LTE: 150 Mbit/s download, 50Mbit/s upload* UMTS: 42.2 Mbit/s down, 5.76 Mbit/s up (when using DC-HSPA+)* GSM: 238 kbit/s (when using EDGE ) |
| WIFI: | 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz), support up to 15 users simultaneously |
| Dimensions: | 89 x 62 x 11.5 mm |
| Others: | MicroSD slot up to 32 GB | Changeable battery 1800 mAh | MicroSIM |
Appearance
The Alcatel One Touch Link Y858 comes in a small cardboard box, along with a power adapter to charge the battery, a USB cable and a rechargeable battery. The unit is designed quite compact and light, making a good first impression. There are four LED indicators on the front for displaying power, WiFi, SMS and battery. But we can’t find the connections for an external antenna.
The power button is placed together with the WPS button on the top. This solution seems little happy, the Chinese manufacturer TCT Mobile had power and WPS button performed better separated. Other keys do not exist. The battery compartment can be easily opened, there also the MicroSIM card and a MicroSD card slots. The two slots for the cards are designed exemplary: the cards are inserted and locked with a metal slide. So the use of Nano sim cards with adapter is safe.
Although the Alcatel One Touch Link looks rather unspectacular from the outside, the software has it all: the Web interface is accessed through the address 192.168.1.1 and comes with a design. There are some “cards”, which are particularly useful in the operation via a touchscreen. Based on the good design, users do not suffer from the functions: all the usual configuration options which you could expect from a mobile hotspot are available. This includes, for example, the ability to set the device to a particular network technology such as LTE. In addition to the web interface, there is yet another way to serve: the Alcatel One Touch Link App. It is available for iOS and Android devices and works reliably.
Network Technology
The Alcatel One Touch Link supports all the latest mobile technologies, from GSM via UMTS to LTE. The maximum speed is 150 Mbit/s provided via LTE category 4, according to an extensive network and an appropriate tariff. In the test, the peak download speed could reach 52 Mbit/s in the downlink and 21 Mbit/s in the uplink, the latencies were between 20 and 40 milliseconds in LTE. On UMTS up to 42.2 Mbit/s are possible with a telecom card in the downlink and 4.2 Mbit/s in the uplink measured. In stationary use the Internet was very stable, but in mobile use, however, we noticed that the reception in the UMTS network is not optimal in particular.
The wireless range is fine, but no better than other mobile wireless hotspots. The speed was in the test often significantly below 120 Mbit/s, at least according to the display in Windows connection manager and the MacBook. The problem is that with such a slow wireless connection, you cannot exploit the maximum LTE speed of 150 Mbit/s initially. Here a WLAN module that supports 802.11ac would have made sense.
The battery lasted approximately 6 hours at permanent use in the test; this is a very good value, if you consider the capacity of only 1800 mAh, perhaps due to the low energy consumption on the waiver of a display on the router.
Conclusion
The Alcatel One Touch Link LTE Y858 operates reliably and quickly on any cellular network, and has a good, replaceable battery, especially the software that the Web Interface has an innovative design and yet offers all the important settings which is easy to operate even on smartphone and tablet. Overall, the Alcatel One Touch Link Y858 is a good device, and it’s enough for common use for network connection.