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Huawei E5787 VS ZTE MF970

More and more people are looking for LTE-A mobile WiFi for daily lives. Huawei E5787 and ZTE MF970 are the two popular LTE-A mobile WiFi hotspots. For those who are unfamiliar with ZTE and Huawei mobile WiFi hotspots, they may feel confused if they want to buy one from the two. They may ask: What’s the difference between Huawei E5787 and ZTE MF970? Which one is better to buy? We will review the appearance, interfaces, specs and other features for a comparison to find answers.

ZTE MF970 VS Huawei E5787 Appearance and Interfaces

ZTE MF970, also called ZTE UFi MF970 was available in the market for some network providers in Europe since 2016. It has black and grey colors. On the front, there is a 1.44 inch screen to show the network providers, internet connection status. The ZTE and UFi are located on the two sides of the screen. On the top edge side, there are two TS-9 connectors for external antennas. The USB port is in the middle of the two antenna connectors. On the opposite edge side, the SIM card slot, power and Func buttons are located. The battery of ZTE MF970 is built-in, so the back cover and battery both can’t be removed.

Huawei E5787, also called Huawei Mobile WiFi touch, was available since 2017. Since the mobile WiFi touchscreen become the mainstream, the Huawei E5787 was also configured with a 2.4-inch touchscreen, where it will show the network providers, data, WiFi, battery, signal etc…Users can do simple settings from the touchscreen. On the top edge side, the power button is available while the opposite edge side located the two TS-9 connectors for 4G LTE external antenna with USB 3.0 port. Unlike ZTE UFi MF970, the back cover could be opened and the battery of Huawei E5787 300Mbps could be removed. After removing the battery, the Micro SIM card slot is there.

Huawei E5787 VS ZTE MF970 Specifications

From the appearance, we can see the Huawei E5787 seems better than ZTE MF970 based on the highlight feature of touchscreen and removable battery. The operation of ZTE MF970 could be done via the power and Func buttons, however, the operation is not user-friendly per our test. Now let’s have a comparison of the Huawei E5787 specs and ZTE MF970 specs:

Model	Huawei E5787	ZTE MF970 Ufi
Product type	LTE Mobile Hotspot	LTE Mobile Hotspot
Category	LTE Cat.6	LTE Cat.6
Chipset	HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset (Cortex A9 Processor)	Qualcomm MDM9230
Data rates	DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps	DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps
Supported 4G LTE frequency bands	* Huawei E5787s-33a: Band 1/3/5/7/8/20 * Huawei E5787Ph-67a: Band 1/3/5/7/8/28	B1/2/3/4/7/8/20/28/12&17
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	10 users	14 users
MIMO	2 X 2 MIMO	2 x 2 MIMO
Connector for external antenna	Two, TS-9 jacks	Two, TS-9 jacks
Buy Antenna	Huawei E5787 External Antenna	ZTE MF970 External antenna
App management	Huawei Hilink APP	ZTELINK APP
SIM type	Micro SIM	Micro SIM
Battery	3000mAh	2300mAh
Dimensions	109.00 x 58.00 x 7.50mm	104 x 65 x 14.3mm
Ethernet Port	No	No
Datasheet download	Huawei E5787 Datasheet	ZTE MF970 Datasheet
User Manual	Huawei E5787 Manual	ZTE MF970 User Manual
Other features	2 band CA	2 band CA
Firmware download	Huawei E5787 Firmware	ZTE MF970 Firmware
Drivers	Huawei E5787 drivers	ZTE MF970 Driver
Reviews	Huawei E5787 Review	ZTE MF970 Review
Price	269.00USD	179.00USD

Summary

From the specs, we can see the Huawei E5787 and ZTE MF970 both support download speed to 300Mbps and upload speed to 50Mbps based on the LTE category 6. The Huawei E5787 has two variant models mainly for Australia, Europe, and Middle East markets while the ZTE MF970 Rogers covers the popular LTE frequency bands all over the world, especially the band 4, which is the most popular band in American countries. Huawei E5787 could support maximum up to 10 WiFi-enabled devices while ZTE MF970 supports maximum 14 users. However, Huawei E5787 has a removable battery of 3000mAh while ZTE MF970 has a non-removable battery of 2300mAh, which is a little bit weak.

The Huawei E5787 seems to be better in all the aspects; however, the latest Huawei E5787 price is much higher than ZTE MF970 price. If you don’t care about the price, we would recommend Huawei E5787 mobile WiFi touch to you. The ZTE MF970 is also technically WiFi router best buy and the price of ZTE MF970 is very good now even though it’s not a new model. The performance is not bad based on Qualcomm chipset.

ZTE UFi MF980 VS UFi MF970

With the upgrade of LTE network to LTE Advanced or Advanced PRO, the vendors are also trying to upgrade their wireless gadgets so as to meet the market demand. As we introduced the ZTE MF970 UFi last year, ZTE presented a new 4G LTE Router ZTE UFi MF980 as a successor. In this article, we will see what has been improved on the new ZTE MF980 UFi comparing to ZTE MF970.

Appearance

As we showed the images, ZTE MF970 UFi is in white color and the screen is on the middle of front with “ZTE” and “UFi” listed at each side of the 1.44 inch screen. Following this design, ZTE MF980 UFi also has a 1.44 inch screen and the same two words ZTE and UFi, but MF980 is in black color. But ZTE MF980 is thinner than MF970 and has long body.

ZTE MF980 has power and func button on the top edge, which is same to ZTE MF970, but the SIM card slot is also with the two buttons in MF970, while the SIM card slot is at the opposite edge in ZTE MF980. The two connectors for external antenna for ZTE MF980 are located together while the MF970 has two connectors located at each side of the USB 2.0 port, where ZTE UFi MF980 has USB3.0 port. On the back, UFi MF980 has ZTE logo on while the MF970 shows some information about certificate for CE, WiFi and RoHS.

Technical Specifications

As we introduced before, the ZTE UFi MF970 is a LTE Category 6 mobile router which could support peak download speed to 300mbps and upload speed to 50mbps. In real product, it may be the Vodafone R226 or R226Z model. As the upgraded model for LTE advanced network, ZTE MF980 UFi supports LTE category 9 technologies and peak download speed to 450Mbps and upload speed to 50Mbps. They both support the common LTE FDD & TDD networks with 3G UMTS and 2G GSM networks backward. On this point, there is no doubt that ZTE MF980 UFi is more powerful than ZTE MF970 if working on LTE-A networks.

ZTE UFi MF970 could support up 14 wireless terminals to access internet when working with a valid SIM card, while the new MF980 UFi can support almost double of the qty to 32 WiFi-enabled devices. They both provide the WLAN standard to latest 802.11 ac with dual-band.

Battery

Like Huawei E5786 4G Mobile Hotspot, the ZTE MF970 and MF980 are both with the built-in battery, which can’t be removed for change. One question that we don’t understand is that the newer model ZTE UFi MF980 has battery capacity to 2200mAh when the predecessor MF970 has larger battery to 2300mAh. Many of the current 4G mobile router with same level are with 3000mAh battery or even more. What frustrating is the battery can’t be removed for backup battery. So if you would keep them working for long time, you’d better to take a bank power with large capacity. On this point, the latest Huawei E5885Ls-93a seems more powerful with LTE-A support and built-in large battery.

Summary

There is no doubt that the ZTE MF980 UFi is powerful on technical features, especially working on LTE advanced Pro networks for multiple users with group activities. But the decent battery would limit its long term performance. ZTE MF970 UFi is also good if you don’t quite need the LTE advanced pro network and just need a budget mobile pocket router. After reviewing the two ZTE LTE UFi, which one will you buy?

Four LTE Category 6 Mobile Hotspots to Recommend

LTE networks are becoming the mainstream available in many countries and areas. With LTE technology, users can enjoy high speed surfing, online games or watching videos etc..The good news is that this is not the end. The LTE technologies are also evolved to LTE advanced and it’s said the 5G network is under test now.

Currently, many carriers are trying to upgrade the LTE Category 3 or 4 to the latest advanced Category 6 with carrier aggregation technology (in short: CA). With LTE-advanced technology, the LTE data rate could be improved to double faster than that of the current LTE cat4. Theoretically, the peak download speed could reach 300mbps and upload speed to 50Mbps. Here comes a question, which device could support the LTE Cat6 advanced networks and achieve this speed? Today, we would recommend a few similar mobile WiFi hotspot supporting LTE advanced carrier aggregation technology from vendors.

Huawei E5786

Huawei E5786 should be the first LTE Cat6 mobile WiFi available in the market with Huawei own Hisilicon chipset. It has three branch models: E5786s-32a, E5786s-62a, E5786s-63a. The Huawei E5786s-63a and E5786s-62a are for the network providers in Australia and they had new name “Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced Pro X” and “Optu 4G WiFi modem” respectively. There are white and black colors available. But you can get the unlocked version from www.4gltemall.com for global use. Like its predecessors Huawei E5573 and E5577, the branch models could support different LTE frequency bands for different carriers and areas. Up to 10 wireless users could connect to Huawei E5786 and surf at high speed. There is a LCD screen in the front with power button. The back cover could be removed, but the 3000mAh battery is built-in. The SIM card and Micro SD card slots could be seen when back cover removed. There are two TS-9 connectors for external 4G LTE/3G antenna.

As the world’s first LTE Cat6 mobile 4G router, Huawei E5786 is the best seller in similar gadgets. If you like this mobile hotspot, you’d better to check the network frequency bands and choose the right in the branch models.

Check more specification and details about Huawei E5786:

http://www.4gltemall.com/huawei-e5786-4g-lte-cat6-mobile-wifi.html

Netgear Aircard 790s

Netgear Aircard 790s is the second LTE cat6 mobile router available in the market. Based the predecessor Netgear Aircard 782s, it looks similar to the 782s aircard. Unlike the Huawei E5786, the screen of Aircard 790s is capacitive screen, where user can operate and do simple settings for the mobile hotspot. The power button is on the top side, the bottom side has two connectors for external antenna (TS-9 type). The USB port is also special with 3.0 port, but with the device, Netgear provides the USB 2.0 cable. The back cover could also be removed, so as the battery. The battery capacity is 2930mAh. The SIM card slot could be seen after battery is pulled out. No slot for Micro SD card. With Qualcomm MDM9230 chipset, Aircard 790s could support up to 15 wireless WiFi-enabled devices. With the touchscreen, Netgear Aircard 790s is attractive for many users in practical functions.

Check more specification and details about Netgear Aircard 790s: http://www.4gltemall.com/netgear-aircard-790s-4g-mobile-hotspot.html

ZTE UFi MF970

Following the steps of the above two vendors, ZTE released the UFi MF970. It looks common like its predecessor MF910. MF970 was already available for Vodafone 4G contract. The front middle is the screen to indicate the connection status. User can do simple settings through the power and menu button. The power and menu button is on the top side. The back cover can’t be removed, so the battery can’t be changed. And there are also two connectors for external LTE/3G antenna. Like Netgear Aircard 790s, there is no slot for Micro SD card. Also with Qualcomm chipset MDM9230, ZTE UFi MF970 could support up to 14 wireless users. The battery is only 2300mAh, which is much lower than the above two similar hotspots. The design of ZTE MF970 looks cool. Other features are very similar to the competitors above.

Check more specification and details about ZTE UFi MF970:

http://www.4gltemall.com/zte-ufi-mf970-lte-cat6-mobile-wifi-hotspot.html

Alcatel One Touch Y900

Alcatel One Touch Y900, also called Alcatel Link Y900 4G+, looks special in the appearance. The signal bars on the front side looks cool but are not really interesting. In all the four LTE cat6 mobile routers, the Y900 is the only which doesn’t have a LCD display. There is only a power button on the body with the WPS button on the other side of the button. The back cover could be removed for changing the battery and inserting SIM card and SD storage card. The big battery is interesting, which has 3600mAh capacity and not only working long time, but also charge other electronics to work like a power bank. What’s amazing, the Alcatel Y900 could support up to 32 wireless users to access internet. In the four devices, Alcatel Y900 seems to be the most powerful mobile hotspot. I personally like this one more.

Check more specification and details about Alcatel One Touch Y900: http://www.4gltemall.com/alcatel-link-y900-4g-led-mobile-hotspot.html

The above four LTE 4G+ cat6 MiFi hotspot should be the most popular for LTE advanced networks. You need prefer to the vendor brands, prices, or the functions. We suppose you would choose the right one for the high-speed surfing on the go!

More images about the features:

huawei-e5786-netgear-790s-zte-mf970-alcatel-y900-antenna-connectors

ZTE Ufi MF970 4G LTE Cat6 Mobile Router Overview

We had known the model ZTE UFi MF970 4G Mobile Hotspot around the beginning of last year. It was first released by Chinese manufacturer ZTE almost at the same time like its competitor Huawei E5786. The Huawei E5786 was sold for one and a half year, but we still can’t get the ZTE UFi MF970 in the past year. Now we get the ZTE MF970 LTE Moible WiFi hotspot and we have the overview in this article.

ZTE MF970 Screen

Actually, when we get the ZTE MF970, we are not quite sure which model it is, because there is no model number indication on the body of the device. The ZTE UFi MF970 is in white color, and touch feel is good in hand. There is “ZTE UFi” on the front of the device and there is a little screen in the middle of the UFi.

On the back of the MF970, there are only the logos for CE, ROHS and WiFi. No more information is showed about the model number, WiFi key word, SSID and IMEI number, which should be printed on a label with the device.

ZTE MF970 Ufi Back

On the top side of the ZTE MF970, there is a USB 2.0 interface and two connectors for external antenna. The connectors are covered by a small cap, if user want to connect the external antenna, the cap has to be opened. The small caps are still connected with the ZTE UFi body. At the low side of the body, there are power button, function button (“FUNC”) and the slot for SIM card. The back cover can’t be opened because the battery is built-in. And there is no slot for MicroSD card.

ZTE MF970 USB interface

The battery capacity of the ZTE UFi MF970 is 2300mAh, which can make the device keep working for 8 hours. It’s just like other 4G mobile hotspots, and is enough for normal use, if user want to extend the working time, mobile power bank may be necessary to charge the MF970 when power is low.

ZTE MF970 external antenna connectors

ZTE UFi MF970 should be the first LTE category 6 mobile pocket router from ZTE to support LTE-advanced network. Its competitor Huawei E5786 is the first LTE Cat 6 pocket WiFi in the world. ZTE always follow the Huawei’s step to present its new products. The chipset of ZTE MF970 is Qualcomm MDM9230. Whether the processor Qualcomm MDM9230 is better or not than Huawei Hisilicon chipset, we haven’t taken such test. The ZTE MF970 could support up to 14 wireless devices to access internet through the WiFi, but Huawei E5786 could support maximum users only up to 10. But the most attractive feature for the two mobile hotspots is that they both support peak download speed to 300Mbps and upload speed to 50mbps.

ZTE MF970 Ufi power and function button

After plugging the SIM card and power on the ZTE UFi, the device quick starts in seconds. There comes Vodafone logo in red and then the screen shows the network provider’s name, network signal, network mode, WiFi signal, battery status. Press the FUNC button and it comes the options, including the “Data Connection”, “Device info”, “WiFi QR code”, and options for “Global Roaming” and “Quick Boot”. The power button is “OK” button and the “FUNC” is for Next. Press power button(Ok) when on the “Device info”, we can see the information about device name(Vodafone R226-Z), SSID, WiFi key, phone number, web URL(http://vodafonemobile.wifi), and password(admin). We can also see other features when choose other options. User can do basic settings through the two buttons “FUNC” and power button.

ZTE MF970 SIM card slot

At the beginning, we didn’t know the ZTE MF970 is the original factory model for Vodafone R226-Z, but now everything is clear. The ZTE MF970 was released and then Vodafone introduced the MF970 UFi to its product range. The Vodafone R226-Z is the same model to ZTE UFi MF970. And as we know, Vodafone R226 is the same model to Huawei E5786. Vodafone uses the two models for its own contract plans.

ZTE MF970

Just like the Huawei E5786, ZTE MF970 UFi also has two connectors for external antenna. If using the ZTE MF970 at the places with weak signal, it’s necessary to connect the external antenna. We had connected with the ZTE UFi from the smartphone, the surfing speed is good and stable. We will take a full test for the wireless connection next time.

ZTE MF970 Ufi external antenna 4g

In all, the ZTE MF970 UFi is a good pocket WiFi router which supports the latest network technology and could achieve high speed network connection wirelessly. Multiple users could connect with the ZTE MF970 pocket router. The battery is enough for common use. If user want better signal in rural area, there is ports for external antenna. And Vodafone has introduced the ZTE UFi to its product range, it proves the quality of ZT MF970 is trustful.

If you don’t like ZTE brand, you can turn to Huawei E5786. And there is better model to recommend, such as Netgear Aircard 790s, Alcatel One Touch Y900. They all could support LTE advanced Cat6 networks.

ZTE Presented MF970 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot

ZTE has presented a new 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MF970 with ZTE MF285 LTE Router at the Mobile World Congress 2015. The special feature of ZTE MF970 is like Huawei E5786: it supports the LTE Advanced Cat6 with up to 300mbps speed for the downlink and has WiFi ac in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz range. We had seen the ZTE MF970 at the booth. You can see some features in this article.

The demo at the booth is at white color. There is a 1.4 inch TFT LCD screen which gives the user an overview of the WiFi signal strength, speed and device battery status. Beside the screen, it shows the name “ZTE UFi”. On the top side, there are two connectors for external antenna. At the below side, there is a slot for SIM card. And the power button is also there. On the back cover, we can see the device model, IMEI number, serial number, SSID and password.

ZTE MF970 is one of the few mobile LTE routers that support LTE Category 6, thus they could achieve the peak data rates up to 300Mbps in the downlink and 50mbps in the uplink. Of course, user must make sure a suitable LTE mobile network availability and a corresponding data plan. As we know, the LTE-Advanced Cat6 networks are available for many network providers in Europe and Asia. ZTE MF970 could support FDD-LTE Band 1/2/3/7/8/20/28/12/17 and TD-LTE Band 38/40. In addition to LTE cat6, MF970 also supports UMTS and GSM networks. ZTE MF970 4G Hotspot is based on the chipset Qualcomm MDM9230, which is reliable brand.

ZTE MF970 also has a fast WLAN module for a mobile hotspot. It supports WLAN 802.11 ac which transmits both in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz. According to ZTE, the maximum connected users could reach to 14 devices via WLAN. The MF970 has a strong battery of 2300mAh, the battery could enable the operating time of approximately 8 hours. But the battery is irremovable, user must use re-charge it if power off.

At the current market, there are already few LTE Category 6 mobile hotspots available, such as Huawei E5786, Netgear Aircard 790s. They are very popular in many countries. We will write new articles to show what the difference between them is and which one is better between them. So user will choose preferred the model.