At the MWC, we saw the new 4G LTE cat4 USB Stick Huawei E3272. At the first glance of the LTE cat4 modem, it reminds us the Huawei E3276, the world’s first LTE cat4 4G Surfstick. Since they both support 4G LTE cat4, here comes a question: what’s the difference between them?
Huawei E3276 is an elder model which was released at the beginning of 2012. Here now, there are various sub-models available for many operators. The model Huawei E3276s-151 is the most popular model. Huawei E3272 comes out on MWC 2013.
The first difference between Huawei E3276 and E3272 is chipset platform, Huawei researched how own brand chipset Hisilicon, before that, Huawei always use Qualcomm 4G chipset, which arise the cost of Huawei 4G modems. Now with Huawei chipset, we suppose the price of its 4G modem would be much cheaper than before and acceptable for most users.
As the same feature of Huawei E3276, Huawei E3272 also supports 4G FDD and TDD networks. In the sub-models, they may support only TDD or FDD network, or together. Under TDD network, the peak download speed up to 112Mbps while upload peak speed is 10Mbps. With FDD network, the speed may reach 150Mbps for downlink and 50Mbps for uplink. The difference lies on the 2G network.
Huawei E3272 could not only support TDD/FDD/UMTS/GSM/GPRS, it could also support the American standard EVDO. So Huawei E3272 would be most likely to be available for American operators.
In addition to the appearance, Huawei E3272 LTE cat4 USB modem has a unique feature: HiLink technology. In Huawei 3G USB stick, this technology has been commonly used. It’s a user friendly system for modem application. No Driver installation, after the modem plug to PC, it would automatically connects in 15 seconds. Huawei use this technology in 4G USB modems, which makes Huawei E3272 more attractive, especially for the users who are bored about setup or configure the parameter. With simple operation, Huawei E3272 would response quick and get connected. Huawei E3272 should be the first 4G dongle with HiLink technology.
In conclusion, Huawei E3272 improves many functions and should performance much better than Huawei E3276. But whether Huawei chipset Hisilicon would be reliable, time will tell.