Huawei E5787 VS ZTE MF980

As the two important networking equipment vendors from China, Huawei and ZTE are always competing with each in the global market, so as their wireless products. Huawei E5787 and ZTE MF980 are two latest new 4G LTE pocket WiFi in 2017. Some users may feel interested in the two mobile WiFi hotspots, but somebody may be unfamiliar with the two portable 4G router and have questions: What’s the difference between Huawei E5787 and ZTE MF970? Which one is better to buy? We will review the specs and features of the two mobile routers to get the answers.

Huawei E5787 VS ZTE MF980 UFi Appearance and Interfaces

 

ZTE MF980 UFi was available earlier than Huawei E5787, it’s launched to Europe market. Like its predecessor ZTE MF970, it has a 1.44 TFT screen on the front and the ZTE and UFi are at the two side of the screen. On the top side, there is the Power and FUNC button to operate the settings. A small hole is at the side of the power button for Reset. Like other ZTE LTE UFi, On the opposite edge side, there are two connectors for an external LTE antenna, the connectors are located together covered by a small cap. The USB 3.0 port is in the middle, and the Micro SIM card slot is at the side of the USB port. The battery of ZTE MF980 is built-in, and the back cover can’t be opened.

Unlike the ZTE MF980, Huawei E5787 provides the better user experience. First, it has a 2.4 inch touchscreen to display internet connection status and a user can do settings through the screen like operating a smartphone. There is an only home button on the top edge side while the opposite side located the USB port and two connectors for antennas. The back cover of Huawei E5787 could be removed and different from its predecessor Huawei E5786, the battery could be removed for exchange. The SIM card slot is below the battery.

ZTE MF980 UFi VS Huawei E5787 Specs and Features

From the appearance, we can see the two mobile wifi have much difference in design. Then let’s have a look at the Huawei E5787 specs and ZTE MF980 Specs for a comparison:

 

Model Huawei E5787 ZTE MF980 Ufi
Product type LTE Mobile Hotspot LTE Mobile Hotspot
Category LTE Cat.6 LTE Cat.9
Chipset  HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset (Cortex A9 Processor) Qualcomm Cortex-A7 1.2GHz
Data rates DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps DL 450Mbps/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
* FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5(26)/B7/B8/B20/B28/B32* TDD-LTE: B40(or B38 or B41)
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 32 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 Antenna ZTE MF980 External antenna
App management Huawei Hilink APP ZTELINK APP
SIM type Micro SIM Micro SIM
Battery 3000mAh 2200mAh
Dimensions 109.00 x 58.00 x 7.50mm  122 * 65 * 10.6mm
Ethernet Port No No
Datasheet download Huawei E5787 Datasheet ZTE MF980 Datasheet
User Manual Huawei E5787 Manual ZTE MF980 User Manual
Other features 2 band CA 2 band CA
Firmware download Huawei E5787 Firmware ZTE MF980 Firmware
Drivers Huawei E5787 drivers ZTE MF980 Driver
Reviews Huawei E5787s-33a Review ZTE MF980 Review
Price 269.00USD 199.00USD
Buy Huawei E5787 Buy ZTE MF980 Buy

Summary

From the specs table, we can see the ZTE MF980 is technically more advanced which could support LTE download speed up to 450Mbps on LTE Cat.9. The Huawei E5787 supports LTE download speed to 300Mbps on LTE Cat.6. However, the newer model Huawei E5787 is more user-friendly, it has the touchscreen for settings and the removable battery is a very good feature for users. And Huawei E5787 has a large battery capacity which provides longer working time. They both have two connectors for two TS-9 external antennas, so users can use the same antenna as the two mobile routers. Like other Huawei Mobile WiFi, Huawei E5787 has two variant models, which covers different LTE band combination and could be used in more areas with the unlocked E5787.

In our opinion, the Huawei E5787 is recommended 4G LTE pocket WiFi with the good features for users. However, ZTE MF980 is also a good traditional mobile WiFi router. And the ZTE MF980 price is attractive now. If you care about the price, ZTE MF980 is a good budget one to buy.

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?

 

 

Difference between ZTE UFi MF980 and Netgear Aircard 810s

Since more and more network providers deployed LTE advanced networks, many vendors over the world are providing new LTE gadgets to support the latest new LTE networks. The US vendor Netgear Wireless and Chinese vendor ZTE are two of them. Netgear presents the Aircard 810s with support of LTE Category 11 and ZTE provides the UFi MF980 with support of LTE Category 9. In this article, we will check what the difference is between the two mobile 4G Routers.

Appearance

The Netgear Aircard 810s has a 2.44 inch LCD touchscreen, user can do simple settings like operating a smartphone. However, the ZTE MF980 UFi’s 1.44 inch TFT screen is not a touchscreen, so it can be operated by the power and func button, web interface or by ZTELink APP. Of course, the Aircard 810s could also be operated from web interface and Netgear aircard APP. The ZTE UFi MF980 is very thinner than Netgear Aircard 810s, so the feel in hand is better.

They both have two connectors for external LTE antennas and the connector type is TS-9. The connectors in Aircard 810s are located at the two sides of the USB ports with small caps, while the connectors of ZTE MF980 are together. And they both use Micro SIM.

Battery

The battery of Aircard 810s is removable and the SIM card slot is in the battery slot. The battery capacity is 2930mAh, which could support 11 hours for continuous use. The battery of ZTE MF980 UFi is built-in and can’t be removed. And its battery is 2200mAh, which is enough for daily use, but can’t be changed to backup battery. But they both don’t have slot for Micro SD card.

Technical Specifications

With Qualcomm Snapdragon X12 chipset and the support of LTE Category 11, Netgear Aircard 810s could support peak download speed to 600mbps. ZTE UFi MF980 could achieve download speed to 450mbps and upload speed to 50Mbps with the support of LTE Category 9.

 

Netgear Aircard 810s could connect up to 15 wireless users simultaneously while ZTE UFi MF980 could support up to 32 wireless users to access internet, on this point, ZTE UFi MF980 seems more powerful than Aircard 810s. Regarding the WLAN feature, they could support latest Wi-Fi 802.11ac with 2 X 2 MIMO on dual band(2.4GHz and 5GHz).

Other feature

The Netgear Aircard 810s has an extra function called Jump Boost, which makes it could work like a mobile power bank to charge other electric devices such as smartphone, Pads etc..ZTE MF980 UFi doesn’t have this function per the official description.

Conclusion

Comparing the features and specifications of the Netgear Aircard 810s and ZTE UFi MF980, it’s not doubt that Aircard 810s is better than ZTE MF980. With higher configuration, Netgear Aircard 810s can provide better performance for internet connection, but price would be higher. ZTE MF980 UFi is also good for most users with budget price. But the built-in battery may not be a good feature if you want it to work for long time.

 

Actually, there are many more 4G Routers for LTE advanced networks, if you want to check more devices, welcome to check on www.4gltemall.com .