Huawei E5788 is new LTE Advanced Pro mobile hotspot and was available on the market for few months. Upgrading from the predecessor Huawei E5787 LTE Cat.6 mobile hotspot, Huawei E5788 has many new features to highlight. However, some people don’t know the new Huawei hotspot 4G or don’t know what has been improved in the new hotspot. Someone may ask what the difference is between Huawei E5788 and E5787. Today, we will have a review of the difference between the new Huawei 4G hotspots.
Huawei E5788 VS E5787 Appearance and Interfaces
If you had used the Huawei E5787 Mobile WiFi hotspot, you may know the touchscreen, which is the first 4G Mobile hotspot with a 2.4-inch touchscreen. As a high-level LTE hotspot, Huawei E5788 followed this feature but unlike the Huawei E5787, the touchscreen is on the left half of the front body. The touchscreen of Huawei E5787 is in the middle of the front body. They both have standard Micro USB 3.0 interface. The Huawei E5787 has two TS-9 connectors for external antenna, however, the Huawei E5788 doesn’t have a connector for external antenna, which is widely criticized. The two connectors of Huawei E5787 are covered by a small cap, and it’s at the side of the USB port. At the side of Huawei E5788 USB port, it’s the SIM card slot. The two mobile hotspots both use Micro SIM card size. They both have the power button on the top edge side of the body.
The one point of the difference between of Huawei E5787 and E5788 is that the back cover of Huawei E5787 could be removed so that the users could insert the SIM card to the slot. And the Huawei E5787 could be removed for exchange. However, the back cover and battery of Huawei E5788 are non-removable. The non-removed battery feature is very similar to Huawei E5786.
Huawei E5787 VS E5788 Specifications and variant models
Like Huawei E5786, the Huawei E5787 has a few variant models for different LTE frequency bands from many network providers worldwide. As we know, Huawei E5787 has three variant models: Huawei E5787s-33a, Huawei E5787Ph-67a, and Huawei E5787Ph-92a. Huawei E5788 has only one variant model now and the specific model is E5788u-96a. But we believe there will be more variant models for the E5788 Hotspot in near future. From the appearance, we can see some difference, but the key difference is on the Huawei E5787 specs and E5788 specs. In the table below, we list the full specs and features for your reference:
| Model | Huawei E5788u-96a | Huawei E5787 |
| Product type | LTE Mobile Hotspot | LTE Mobile Hotspot |
| Category | LTE Cat.16 | LTE Cat.6 |
| Chipset | Qualcomm MDM9250 | HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset |
| Data rates | DL 1Gbps/UL 100Mbps | DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps |
| Supported 4G LTE frequency bands | * FDD-LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/19/20/28 * TDD-LTE: Band 38/40/41/42 |
* Huawei E5787s-33a: Band 1/3/5/7/8/20/38/40/41 * Huawei E5787Ph-67a: Band 1/3/5/7/8/20/38/40/41 |
| 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 | 32 users | 10 users |
| MIMO | 4 X 4 MIMO | 2 X 2 MIMO |
| Connector for external antenna | No connector | Yes, two TS-9 connectors |
| Buy Antenna | N/A | Huawei E5787 external Antenna |
| App management | Huawei Hilink APP | Huawei Hilink APP |
| SIM type | Micro SIM | Micro SIM |
| Battery | 3000mAh | 3000mAh |
| Dimensions | 129 x 65 x 13.5mm | 109.00 x 58.00 x 7.50mm |
| Ethernet Port | No | No |
| Datasheet download | Huawei E5788 Datasheet | Huawei E5787 Datasheet |
| User Manual | Huawei E5788 Manual | Huawei E5787 Manual |
| Other features | 4CC CA | 2 band CA |
| Reviews | Huawei E5788 Review | Huawei E5787 Review |
| Price | 499.00USD | 299.00USD |
Summary
From the specs table, we can see the Huawei E5788 is much more advanced than E5787. It could achieve download speed up to 1Gbps, which is almost three times than that of E5787. The advanced LTE features make the E5788 more expensive than Huawei Router E5787. However, the missing of an external antenna connector in Huawei E5788 is not good for many users if you are located in areas of weak signal. The Huawei E5787 antenna and the removable feature is good to mention.
Huawei E5788 LTE Router could support the maximum of up to 32 users while Huawei E5787 only supports to 10 WiFi-enabled devices. So if you have a group of people for internet access more than 10 users, the Huawei E5788 would meet your requirement. The Huawei E5788 is powerful in functions; however, the Huawei E5788 price is in high level now. Huawei E5787 price is much lower than E5788, and for most users, it could fully meet the requirements for daily internet access.