As the top telecommunication equipment suppliers in China, ZTE and Huawei are always competing from 3G to 4G market. To share the global market, they may release similar telecom products for wireless network. Huawei E398u-11 4G LTE Surfstick and ZTE MF820 4G USB dongle are two similar modems that both works for 4G LTE FDD network band 1800/2100/2600MHz.
Then here comes the question: which one is better between Huawei E398u-11 and ZTE MF820 4G LTE USB Modem?
Appearance
From the appearance, they both in rotatable USB design and the modem body is somewhat bigger than common 3G USB dongles. Huawei E398u-11 seems cooler because the design is inspired by luxury car.
External Antenna Connector
There are two external antenna connectors in HUAWEI E398u-11 but there is no external antenna port in ZTE MF820. With 2 x 2 MIMO antenna, the speed would be double or may even triple faster.
Operation
If you want to plug 4G SIM card to the modem ZTE MF820, you need to open the whole back cover of MF820. And according the writer’s experience, the design is not user-friendly, because the first question is you don’t know where to open it, second, after you find the little cap to open, you may be unable to open it if you don’t too much effort. And you must two hands together to work. But if taking too much effort, you may worry to break the modem. You will never wish to break the modem before using it.
In this case, Huawei E398u-11 is easy to operate. There is only a short cap of a third of back cover. One hand can open it easily.
Mobile partner operation
Most of HUAWEI E398u-11 4G Modem is with mobile partner, like ZTE, it also has its own operation software. Both of them would take a little bit long time to install and get ready for connection. With large firmware, sometimes, they may let your PC run very slowly. But I personally like HUAWEI mobile partner more, because it seems HUAWEI Mobile partner is more simple and easier to setup than ZTE.
Connection speed
HUAWEI E398u-11 and ZTE MF820 could both connect in few seconds, actually, it may depends on the external network situation to determine which could connects faster. Under the same condition, HUAWEI E398u-11 may connect faster than ZTE MF820 for only 2-4 seconds, usually, we can’t notice that.
The above factors are important for a user to choose a 4G LTE USB modem, but it seems the two modems are equal to buy. HUAWEI E398u-11 is just better in appearance and antenna function, other factors are almost same, in this case, users can choose per their preference. If you like cool model and better signal and speed to surf, you should choose HUAWEI E398u-11, but if you want practical modem with better price, ZTE MF820 should be taken into your consideration.
If you want to have more options for 4G LTE USB dongles, please check http://www.4gltemall.com/4g-usb-modem.html .