Huawei Ascend Mate 7 Smartphone Test

Large smartphones are in vogue. The Chinese manufacturer Huawei offers an extremely large device Huawei Ascend Mate 7 that can almost be described as small tablet. They have put considerable effort on technical facilities and the design. Almost the entire housing of the Ascend Mate 7 is made of metal, only above, below and the back material are plastic out of consideration for the antennas. The software relies on its “Emotion UI”. To learn more about the Ascend Mate 7 smartphone, we will take a test on this phone.

 

High-quality packaging and good first impression
Huawei provides Ascend Mate 7 in an attractive package, which is definitely necessary for an expensive device. In addition to the smartphone, there is of course a power supply (output: 2A) and a USB cable included for charging. The USB cable can be used for data transfer to the PC. Furthermore, a headset and various instructions are included, and a small “tool” to insert the SIM and SD card, which is also urgently needed, because the card slots are laterally inserted in the body as seen, such as from the Apple iPhone or the HTC One ago.


The first reaction of most people when they take the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 for the first time in the hand: “The mobile phone is extremely large.” For most users, it is even much too large. But for Huawei, the size is a clear argument. According to statistics, more and more people want to buy but a great smartphone. Regarding the materials and workmanship, the Ascend Mate 7 is processed not only high quality, it also feels very good. It’s a high end smarpthone to compete with other brands.

 

Brilliant display, decent camera
The display is certainly one of the highlights of the Huawei Ascend Mate 7. The frame on the sides is very thin, so the screen takes up most of the front and thus looks very good. With a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels on a diagonal of 6 inches, the display is very sharp. The brightness is desired very well, so even in direct sunlight, there is no trouble reading the screen.

 

The camera in the Ascend Mate 7 can take pictures with up to 13 megapixel resolution, and there is even a front camera with 5 megapixel resolution for self-portraits or video calls. The quality of the camera was very well in the test under good light conditions, however if in dimly lit rooms, the camera was comparatively slow and the picture quality was not satisfying. Overall, the camera is decent, but in other smart phones we can find some better cameras. We suppose Huawei will improve this on newer upgraded model.
The chipset in Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is a self-developed HiSilicon Kirin 925 Octa-core processor with ARM big LITTLE technology which could work with up to 4 cores and provides a very good speed. We can’t see any stutter or delays when Huawei Ascend Mate 7 working, which is certainly because of the emotion UI surface Android 4.4 KitKat that Huawei has put over. Emotion UI looks tidy and has many useful features. In addition, we noticed that many pre-installed Apps by Huawei (system) come up with a uniform design.

The integrated memory size is just right with 16 gigabytes. Although the memory can be with a microSD card to expand, but at a maximum of card storage is 32 GB. This is very little for use nowadays, because there are already MicroSD card with 128 GB commercially.

 

Amazingly good fingerprint reader
Fingerprint scanners are at least on the rise in smartphones increasingly. But they often do not work as desired, and are unreliable. Here is where the Huawei Ascend Mate 7: The scanner is extremely fast, reacts with virtually no delay even when the finger is very dry or moist.  Huawei has currently (Feb 2015) clearly built the best fingerprint scanner, which you can find in a smartphone. Unfortunately, there are also two disadvantages: the largest is certainly the positioning of the scanner at the back of the device under the camera. In particular, if the device is on the table, the scanner is unusable. The second drawback is that only three fingerprints can be enrolled simultaneously. Devices from Apple and Samsung allow at least five different fingers.

LTE-Advanced Cat6
The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is one of the first devices to support LTE-Advanced category 6 with up to 300 Mbit/s in the downlink and 50 Mbit/s for uplink. Although in our test, LTE-Advanced with great increase in speed was invisible, the Ascend Mate 7 is well prepared for the future anyway. Of course, GSM and UMTS are also supported and the 3G network via DC-HSPA+ is up to 42.2 Mbit/s. The receiving and transmit power of the Ascend Mate 7 is very good, even at low power supply; there is often a stable LTE reception. Also, the built-in (and not replaceable) battery can be proud of. Despite of a large display and good performance, the device can easily work for two days in normal use.

Conclusion: Huawei Ascend Mate 7
The Huawei Ascend Mate is in my opinion the best smartphone that Huawei has been put on the market. It offers a good design, qualified workmanship and is technically very well equipped. Particularly noteworthy is the support for LTE-Advanced Cat6 and extremely good fingerprint sensor. For me personally, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is much too large – in a normal jeans pocket, the device is hardly convenient to transport. But if that does not bother, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is a very good smartphone with an attractive price.

 

 

 

Vodafone R226 LTE Mobile Router Test

We had introduced the Vodafone R226 4G LTE Mobile Router last year. But we just introduced a few simple features. Today we get the sample of Vodafone R226 and we will test the new LTE mobile router.

The mobile LTE Router Vodafone R226 is packed in a stylish cardboard box with the Vodafone design. In the package, there is a power supply for an output of 5V/2A and a USB cable to charge the battery and connect to the computer. A brief guide to setup as well as a small sticker with Wi-Fi name and password is on the back of R226.

The design of the Vodafone R226 is very spectacular and it’s very similar to the Huawei E5786 and Telekom Speedbox LTE mini II. The reason is that the Vodafone R226 is manufactured by Huawei and comes from factory model Huawei E5786, so as Telekom Speedbox LTE Mini II. Due to the large Vodafone logo on the back and the front, the R226 could be immediately identified as Vodafone device. On the front there is a 1.45-inch screen and the power button. The button to turn on and off is illuminated, the press button to power on and offer. Compared to other mobile LTE hotspots such as the Huawei E5377, Vodafone R226 is a little bit large and heavy, which is mainly due to the strong battery.

 

A few functions can be controlled directly from the display, the menu and power button of the Vodafone R226, for example, the choice of the WLAN frequency band. The important status information such as battery level, network availability, consumed data volume and online time are displayed on the easily readable screen. If you want do more adjustments, you have to do it either via a browser (address: vodafonemobile.wifi or alternatively 192.168 .0.1) or control it via the app.

The Vodafone Mobile Wi-Fi app is available for both Android and for iOS and displays status information such as battery level and the data consumption. Manufacturer Huawei shows here with the HiLink app that it can be done much better, sleeker and faster, but unfortunately this app can only work with the Vodafone R226. The Web Interface is very fast when logging in it via a browser on the desktop. It is decorated in typical Vodafone design and is more reminiscent as a user interface of a wireless router. All functions and settings are provided with brief instructions in German, so there are also “normal” users to quickly setup the connection. The individual functions are divided into different categories, such as Wi-Fi routers and mobile broadband. A lateral sidebar always displays the current status information such as the reception level, no matter which side of the settings you currently are doing.

 

The options are quite extensive, but not exceptional. So you can create another connection profile if you want to use a SIM card from another provider different from Vodafone (Vodafone R226 has no SIM lock). The network technology can be set, such as the “only 4G” in areas with weak signals. As can be seen on the menu, the Vodafone R226 is already prepared for IPv6, a corresponding profile can be selected.

 

Up to 300 Mbit/s in the downlink on LTE network are possible via the Vodafone R226, at least in theory. The Vodafone network allows ideally a maximum of 225 Mbit/s, providing the LTE 800 and LTE 2600Mhz matching rate and corresponding radio coverage. But in the future Vodafone could also offer higher speeds on LTE Cat6. Since Vodafone R226 has no SIM lock, it could work well with other LTE network providers in Europe. In the test, unfortunately I could not test LTE-Advanced Cat6, since the corresponding technology was not enabled on my test site. But even without Cat6, the R226 router is very fast: up to 155 Mbit/s in the downlink and 44 Mbit/s in the uplink could be achieved.

 

In addition, the Vodafone R226 LTE router supports both UMTS and GSM. In the UMTS network, DC-HSPA+ with up to 42.2 Mbit/s downlink speed is possible. The reception on both LTE (800, 1800 and 2600 megahertz tested) as well as UMTS is very good, the Vodafone R226 is without doubt one of the mobile LTE hotspots with the best reception. The Vodafone R226 has the possibility to connect an external antenna. These are two TS-9 connectors under a cover on the side of the hotspots.

The built-in Vodafone R226 battery has a capacity of 3,000 mAh, the running time is about 9 to 10 hours. In continuous mode, the device is quite warm. Unfortunately, the battery is not replaceable by the user, although the back for MicroSIM and MicroSD card is removable.

 

The WLAN module transmits not only in the range of 2.4 GHz, but also 5 GHz. This is particularly advantageous if the 2.4 GHz band is overloaded. Unfortunately, the R226 only supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, the latest wireless standard ac is not supported. The maximum bandwidth over wireless is 300 Mbit/s when connected with multiple devices. This is very surprising, because the identical devices Huawei E5786 and Telekom Speedbox mini II LTE support Wi-ac with up to 866 Mbit/s. A serious disadvantage arising from the comparatively slow WLAN module: the full LTE Cat6 speed of 300 Mbit/s via WLAN does not begin to be used, so that the maximum speed of the USB 3.0 cable must be connected always. In practice, few users will interfere, but it is absolutely inexplicable why Vodafone and Huawei have installed this bottleneck.

 

Here now Vodafone R226 is available on www.4gltemall.com with good price. If you like it, welcome to check more details about it.

Huawei E5377 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot Test

We had generally reviewed the new mobile WiFi Hotspot Huawei E5377. This week, we get the sample and it’s time to do a test with this new gadget. Users can get some useful information.
The Huawei E5377 comes in a very small cardboard box like other Huawei mobile WiFi hotspots. There is only a short USB 2.0 Cable in the box, no other accessories could be found except for Quick Reference Guide and the security warning. Thus, users must unfortunately get a power supply, but this should not be a problem for most users, because ordinary AC adapter with micro USB port can connect the USB cable. If user has a mobile phone, the power adapter would work.

When we take Huawei E5377 in the hand, we feel the E5377 is very small and light. The black surface is quite valuable and not prone to fingerprints. Compared to other mobile hotspots such as the predecessor Huawei E5372 or the big brother Huawei E5786, Huawei E5377 is much more compact, which is quite an advantage if you want to carry the device in one hand or in the pocket. It is simple to power on the Huawei E5377: remove battery cover, Insert SIM (nano-SIM), insert battery and press power button on the front.

 

Operation of the Huawei E5377 is done via any browser on the web interface (address: 192.168.8.1) or via the Huawei HiLink app on your smartphone or tablet. The app is available for Android and iOS; if you are using a Windows Phone, you are forced to use the web interface to setup the mobile Wifi E5377. User can do the most important settings through the two methods. Further things such as the choice of mobile technology or the establishment of the wireless repeater can be made. Overall, the web interface is very fast and has many features; the design is now a little dusty and in need of optimization. On the other hand, the HiLink app on smartphones and tablets looks very modern and fresh, and it offers a wide range of functions. All information is quickly and easily visible via the APP, so most users may not be relevant to the web interface in the browser. To load the HiLink app, you can find a QR code is displayed on the Huawei E5377 and it leads directly into the App Store.

A few functions can be set using the button on the front of the Huawei E5377 for example, the WLAN frequency band (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz), the use of data roaming, or wireless repeater. The LED displays status information, such as the consumption data, the online time or receipt. Also, the battery status (in percent) and the network technology are displayed. The display of the Huawei E5377 is easy to read in spite of low resolution. The link data such as the correct access point (APN) will be entered automatically by the device based on the SIM card. In our test on Huawei E5377, the APN for the network provider need to set manually.


Huawei E5377 has a modem chipset from Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon. The modem can support FDD-LTE by Category 4 with up to 150 Mbit/s in the downlink and 50 Mbit/s in the uplink on the frequency bands around 800/850/900/1800/2100/2600 MHz. In addition, TDD-LTE is supported in the frequency range 2300 MHz, this can be quite useful for a trip to Asia. Of course, the device is backward compatible with UMTS and GSM; On UMTS networks, Huawei E5377 supports DC-HSPA+ downlink speed to 42.2 Mbps.

The receiver performance is good on LTE networks. The reception brother Huawei E5786 is a bit better especially with LTE on 800MHz. Huawei E5377 with UMTS 2100 MHz has good performance in the test. Next to the micro-USB connector under a cover, two connections for an external antenna (type TS-9) are available (Buy Huawei E5377 antenna from here: http://www.4gltemall.com/4g-antenna-two-ts-9-connector.html ) . Means Pigtail Adapter TS-9 to SMA can use all standard antennas with SMA connector. In the test with a LTE Antenna with two connectors, data rates in both uplink and downlink could be significantly increased.

HUAWEI E5377 Antenna connectors
The WLAN module of the Huawei E5377 can supply up to 10 devices simultaneously with wireless Internet. Another extra device can be connected using a USB connection to the E5377 router. The maximum data rate when tested at the 300 Mbit/s (according to Windows). Despite support for wireless 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, the latest WLAN standard ac is not integrated. The connection speed is absolutely sufficient for the full 150 Mbit/s. The particular feature of Huawei E5377 is the integrated wireless repeater. Once configured, it will automatically move from mobile to WLAN.  Here you can then connect the E5377, which sends the signal via its own Wi-Fi at up to 10 devices.

 

The unsatisfied feature at the Huawei E5377 is the battery: it has a capacity of 1500 mAh and provides an operating time of more than 6 hours, for outdoor use, it could ever become shorter. Fortunately, the battery is removable, so you can have a spare battery type HB554666RAW to replace it when power off. Alternatively, there is a battery with 1780 mAh for the Huawei E5377, this provides a longer operating time and costs little more.

The Huawei E5377 LTE Hotspot is available with dimensions of 9.35 x 5.71 x 1.44 inches and a weight of just 82 grams including the battery; it’s one of the smallest and lightest mobile LTE routers on the market. Nevertheless, Huawei E5377 offers a very good quality. Huawei mobile WiFi series provides wonderful experience for network connection. The Huawei E5377 is the latest one and would become a new star!

 

Vodafone R216 and R216-Z 4G LTE Router

Vodafone Introduced new mobile hotspots this year from the manufacturer Huawei and ZTE. Vodafone customized its brand to them and put them in its product range. As we introduced before, Vodafone R226 is a high-end LTE Pocket WiFi Router, now Vodafone Group introduced two new mid-price range MiFi hotspot Vodafone R216 (manufacturer by Huawei) and Vodafone R216-Z (manufacturer by ZTE). Both of them can support LTE Cat4 with up to 150Mbit/s in the downlink and have a powerful module with 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

 

Vodafone R216 is the successor of the Vodafone R215 mobile WiFi. They are both made by Huawei. There are three LEDs on the front of R216. The battery, message and network status can be shown on the LEDs. If user wantS to know more information, the Vodafone Mobile WiFi App (for smartphone and tablet) may help. User can also log in the web interface in browser to check more details. The Vodafone R216 is available for black and white color with replaceable battery for capacity of 1500mAh, which can continue working for 6 to 8 hours.

The R216 could support almost all the mainstream LTE frequency bands (800/850/900/1800/2600 MHz) in Europe. The chipset in Vodafone R216 comes from Huawei HiSilicon Balong 711. It can support the maximum download speed to 150mbps based on the LTE category 4 technologies. In addition, the DC-HSPA+ and GSM/EDGE network could also be backward supported. On the DC-HSPA+ download speed to 42.2Mbps and upload speed to 5.76Mbps.

 

Vodafoe R216-Z is manufactured by ZTE, so it’s also called ZTE R216-z. The R216-Z is better than Huawei R216 because R216-Z has a battery of 2300mAh capacity, which is slightly stronger and there is a wireless repeater function. The R216-Z supports the same frequencies and radio technologies as Huawei R216, but the chipset comes from Qualcomm MDM9225, not Hisilicon modem.

 

Vodafone R216 and R216-Z both look cool, but it seems Vodafone R216-Z is better than R216-Z. We will introduce more details when we get the sample and test them. We suppose users may get some tips from our test.

Huawei E5786 – World’s first LTE Advanced Router

You may think the device is a new Huawei quite cheap-looking phone as you want. However, as the unique representative, Huawei E5786 is on behalf of the Chinese network technology. The E5786 makes Huawei became the first company to introduce a router for new technologies of LTE Category 6.  It is the world’s first mobile wireless router that also supports LTE networks of Category 6, the so-called LTE Advanced, which provides the double speed than the current LTE category 4 technology.


So the Huawei E5786 router offers data rates up to 300 Mbit/s, while previous cat-4 models provides only peak speed to 150 Mbit/s. Of course, a network operator must also once support these speeds – currently 100 Mbit/s is available in most European countries. However, you will already be prepared for the future with the E5786. Just recently, the German Telekom has proven that at least in theory, he could realize data rates of 580 Mbps. In addition, the E5786 LTE router of course also offers the possibility those 3G networks with up to 42 Mbit/s to use downstream. On WLAN all current standards are supported: 802.11 a / b/g/n/ac.


The E5786 router equipment is thin and in pocket size, and there is only one interface for USB. The SIM card slot is just at the side of a microSD memory card slot. The Huawei E5786 router could be managed via the web interface or via an app(Huawei Mobile WiFi app), the top-mounted display also allows the retrieval of the current settings from an extensive menu. Further more, there is even a connection for an external antenna hiding behind the removable cover.

A 3000mAh battery should make for enough battery life to last a working day with one or two devices connected. Add more phones or tablets or start leaning heavily on the Wi-Fi and you’ll see battery life drop quickly, though. The E5786 is 15.9mm thick, weighs 149g, and is apparently inspired by the curve of a rainbow.

 

Here now, many network providers introduced the Huawei E5786 to their plan, which makes E5786 have many variant models. As we know, there are Huawei E5786s-32a (Speedbox LTE mini II), E5786s-62a (Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced Pro X), and E5786s-63a (Optus WiFi Modem) LTE products. But there is unlocked units of Huawei E5786 on www.4gltemall.com and user can use the Huawe E5786 freely without limit.