Tag: Alcatel One Touch Y900

Alcatel Y900 LTE Router Review

Last year, Huawei was the only manufacturer that provided routers for LTE Advanced category 6 with download speeds of up to 300 Mbit/s offered in Europe. The Chinese company TCT Mobile has now also introduced the Alcatel Y900 hotspot LTE Cat6 modem on the market and provides this even considerably cheaper than the comparable Huawei E5786 router.  Today we will have a review about the new Alcatel Y900 4G Mobile hotspot.

Small in Pocket Size

 

The Alcatel Y900 LTE Hotspot is comparatively small and compact and weighs only 88 grams including the battery, considerably less than current smartphones. The body is made entirely of plastic, and is possible to remove the back to insert the battery, SIM card and a memory card. The Alcatel Y900 doesn’t have a display, instead, decorated with large LED which strips the front. The used mobile communications technology (2G, 3G, 4G) is signaled with lateral LEDs. In the test, the LED display made a good figure, with displaying consumed data volume, battery status and time spent online.

Fast Internet over LTE Cat6

The modem in Alcatel Y900 Hotspot supports speeds of up to 300 Mbit/s downstream and up to 50 Mbit/s upload speeds on the 4G mobile network. The LTE Advanced Cat6 has been activated at some locations in Europe and the tariff also allows these high speeds. Of course, the router is also backwards compatible with the previous LTE Stages Cat3 and Cat4, also of course, UMTS (3G) and GSM (2G) are supported. In the test under Telekom network, the speeds of almost 200 Mbit/s downstream and 50 Mbit/s in the upload can be achieved, which is very good compared with similar devices, even if the technical maximum speed was not reached initially. Which is important for many applications is latency when tested between 20 and 35 milliseconds in the LTE network of Telefónica O2. The reception was good, even with a weak signal, a speedy web surfing was still possible. Unfortunately, Alcatel Y900 has no external antenna to connect.

Dual Band WLAN and USB 3.0

For a mobile LTE router, not only a current and receiving strong Modem is important, but also a good Wi-Fi module and a fast USB or LAN connection, so devices such as computers, notebooks and tablets can also use the full internet speed of the modem. The Alcatel Y900 is well positioned here. The WLAN module works on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (dual-band WLAN) and even supports the current and very fast 802.11ac standard. If you want to use the router to a computer without a WLAN, you benefit from the fast USB 3.0 interface – A relevant cable is already included.

Unfortunately the internet is not encrypted, so you can connect without a password to the network. As a user you should quickly assigned a unique password so that foreign users do not get access to the WLAN of Alcatel Y900.

Operation via browser or via app

The configuration of the Alcatel Y900 could be done either in a browser via the web interface or via an app for smartphones and tablets. Supplied with a small piece of paper, the QR codes for easy installation of the app is provided for an Android or iOS device. Both the app and the web interface in the browser are attractively designed and very easy to use. In addition to common settings for wireless connection, you can also receive and send text messages and access the data on the memory card. In the test, both the smartphone application and web interface worked always reliable and fast.

Approximately 5 hours of battery life

The Alcatel Y900 battery has a capacity of 1,800 mAh and is very easy replaceable by the user, ie you can buy extra batteries and thus survive even during long trips without external power supply if required. The operating time of the test was constant subjection to the LTE network in about 5 hours. According to Alcatel, there is a much more powerful battery with 3,600 mAh for the Y900 4G Router, thus a useful life of about 10 hours would be possible. But the version with high battery capacity is not yet available.

Conclusion for Alcatel Y900

Anyone looking for a fast and secure future LTE hotspot, can safely pick up the Alcatel Link Y900.The small router convinced with good data rates in the LTE network and a fast dual-band wireless. The Alcatel Y900 is optionally available in black or in white, and works with all SIM cards, a SIM lock or NET-Lock does not exist. Directly from the network operator with the contract, you can buy the Alcatel Y900 without a contract from www.4gltemall.com. An alternative more expensive model is Huawei E5786 hotspot, which provides a small display, a more powerful battery and connections for an external antenna compared to Alcatel Y900.

Alcatel Y900 One Touch 4G+ LTE Cat6 Hotspot

Alcatel has unveiled a compact LTE Cat6 hotspot– the Alcatel One Touch Link 4G+ Y900 at MWC in February 2015. Now, the machine is finally available in stores after 9 months. As we had introduced before, the similar model Huawei E5786 has similar feature as Alcatel Y900. However, there is no display and connections for an external antenna in the Y900. In this article, you could see the full review about our test for Alcatel One Touch Link 4G+.


The Alcatel Link Y900 comes in a small cardboard box. In the box, there is a power supply for charging Alcatel Y900. The unit is supplied only with a USB cable, which can then be converted in conjunction with a standard USB power adapter for full charger. Alternatively, the router could also charge through the USB port from a computer or notebook.

The first impression of the Alcatel Y900: the router is equipped with 89 x 62 x 11.5 millimeters and a weight of only 88 grams including the battery. The build quality is good, the back cover on the battery is secure and can be removed quickly in order to insert the SIM card and optional memory card. Alcatel One Touch Link 4G+ Y900 has two colors: dark gray or white.


The operation is carried out via a web interface in the browser, as it is known by virtually every other router models. Alternatively, there is also an application for iOS and Android, so you can control the Y900 hotspot over an app. This works reliably, because the software is easy to understand and react quickly. A special praise has earned by Alcatel for the design, app and web interface look fresh and the functions can be easily distinguished from each other by different colors. This new software is already available from Alcatel Y858 for several months.

 

In the Web interface, you can see statistics such as online time and data volume consumed for use. In the settings, the wireless connection can be configured to change the password or modify the wireless network name. Also the settings for cellular connection can be done; usually, this is not necessary since the Alcatel Y900 automatically recognizes the network provider based on the inserted SIM card and the configuration performs automatically.


The Alcatel Y900 4G+ is based on a modern chipset with support for LTE category 6, so that up to 300 MBit/s in the downlink and up to 50 Mbit/s can be achieved in the uplink. Of course, the Alcatel Y900 is also backwards compatible with UMTS (up to 42.2 Mbit/s) and GSM including EDGE. In the test at 1800 and 2600 MHz (Carrier Aggregation was active), I reached up to 180 MBit/s in the downlink, which is at least already times faster than LTE Cat4 (up to 150 Mbit/s).

 

The reception and transmission performance of the Alcatel Y900 is good. But if you are at location of low signal strength, you’d probably want an external antenna. Unfortunately, there are no connections for such an external antenna, probably due to cost.


The Alcatel Y900 runs WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Up to 32 users can be connected to the router simultaneously, which already has a huge advantage in comparison with other mobile hotspots, because in other devices, a maximum of 8 to 15 users can be provided an Internet connection at the same time. The competitor Huawei E5786 has the function to work as a wireless extender but the Alcatel Y900 can not offer this. Even with the safety, the manufacturer Alcatel provides the Y900 hotspot from the factory without wireless encryption, so you should establish immediately a password so that no strangers can go online via the router.

The battery has a capacity of about 1,800 mAh and thus provides a runtime of about 5 hours. This is not particularly good, but the battery is removable, you can easily add a second or third battery and thus extend the duration accordingly. According to Alcatel, there is a version available with even a 3,600 mAh capacity. However, it seems not yet been available and of course you need a new cover for the back because the battery with 3600 mAh is likely to be considerably thicker than the original.


The Alcatel One Touch Link 4G+ Y900 is one of the fastest mobile LTE hotspots that are available at present. It provides a fast modem, fast WLAN and fast USB 3.0.The design with the large-area LED displays is simple and yet succeeded. Connectors for an external antenna is missing unfortunately. But if you simply looking for a fast and future-proof mobile LTE hotspot, Alcatel Y900 would never make you disappointed.

As an alternative, we would also recommend Netgear AC790S and the Huawei E5786. Both units feature an LTE Advanced Cat6 modem, a strong battery, terminals for an external antenna and a display, but a little bit more expensive than the tested here Alcatel Y900.