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.