ZTE MF286 VS Huawei B525s

Huawei had many LTE Cat6 routers available now but the competitor ZTE has very few Cat6 routers in the market. ZTE MF286 router is one of the ZTE LTE Cat6 routers, since Huawei B525s LTE Cat6 router, some people want to know what the difference between Huawei B525 and ZTE MF286 is. We would compare the Huawei B525s with ZTE MF286 from the appearance, interfaces, specs, and features in this blog.

Huawei B525s VS ZTE MF286 Appearance and Interfaces

 

ZTE MF286 and Huawei B525s are both in the typical design of 4G WiFi router. On the front, there are some indicators for Power, WiFi, and Signal. The ZTE MF286 has also the indicators for Telephone, 3G/4G Data and Battery. Huawei B525 doesn’t have the indicator for telephone and battery. But it has the indicator for Ethernet connection. On the back, they both have 3 LAN ports and one LAN/WAN ports. Huawei B525 has only one telephone port while ZTE MF286 has two telephone ports. They both have the power adapter plug and USB port, but the ZTE MF286 has the power on/off button.

 

The SIM card slot of Huawei B525 is located at the bottom while the ZTE MF286 sim card slot is at the edge side. They both have two SMA connectors for external LTE antennas. The unique feature of ZTE MF286 is the removable battery which makes it work like a mobile WiFi router. Huawei B525s has the WPS and Power buttons on the top side while the ZTE MF286 has the WLAN and WPS buttons with the Reset hole on the top side.

 

ZTE MF286 VS Huawei B525 Specs and Features

 

From the appearance, we can see the interface difference and then let’s have a check the ZTE MF286 specs and Huawei B525 specs for a comparison:

 

Model Huawei B525 ZTE MF286
Product type Huawei WiFi Router with Ethernet port LTE WiFi Router with Ethernet port
Category LTE Cat.6 LTE Cat.6
Chipset HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset Qualcomm MDM9230
LTE Data rates DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps
Supported 4G LTE frequency bands Huawei B525s-23a: Band  1/3/7/8/20/32/38
Huawei B525s-65a: Band  1/3/4/5/7/8/20/19/26/28/32/38/40/41
ZTE MF286: Band 1/3/7/8/28
WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz
Max supported users 64 users 64 users
MIMO 2 x 2 MIMO 3 x 3 MIMO
Antenna Two, SMA-female jacks Two, SMA-female jacks
Buy Antenna Huawei B525 antenna ZTE MF286 outdoor antenna
App management Huawei Hilink APP ZTELink APP
SIM Size Micro SIM Standard SIM
Battery NO Removable, 3000mAh
Dimensions 163 x 52 x 226 mm 180 × 170 × 30 mm
Interfaces * 3 x LAN port(RJ45)
* 1 x LAN/WAN port (RJ45)
* 1 x telephone port(RJ11)
* Two external LTE antenna ports(SMA-female)
* One micro-SIM card slot
* 1 x USB 2.0 port
* 3 x LAN port(RJ45)
* 1 x LAN/WAN port (RJ45)
* 2 x telephone port(RJ11)
* Two external LTE antenna ports (SMA-Female)
* One micro-SIM card slot
* 1 x USB 2.0 port
Datasheet Huawei B525 Datasheet(PDF) ZTE MF286 Datasheet(PDF)
User Manual Huawei B525 User Manual(PDF) ZTE MF286 User Manual(PDF)
Other features  Firewall, CS Voice, VoIP, TR069 Remote Management, HTTP Online Upgrade, QoS, USB Share, UPnP, IPV6, DLNA, Fax, Print, VPN  Firewall, CS Voice, VoIP, TR069 Remote Management, HTTP Online Upgrade, QoS, USB Share, UPnP, IPV6, DLNA, Fax, Print, VPN
Firmware download Huawei B525 firmware ZTE MF286 firmware
Driver Huawei B525 driver ZTE MF286 driver
Reviews Huawei B525 Review ZTE MF286 Review
Price/USD 259.00USD 199.00USD

 

Summary

From the specs table, we can see the Huawei B525s and ZTE MF286 are both LTE Cat6 router which could achieve download speed up to 300Mbps and upload speed to 50Mbps. The Huawei B525 router has two variant models now but ZTE MF286 has only one variant model. They both support maximum up to 64 wireless devices but ZTE MF286 supports 3 X 3 MIMO while Huawei B525 supports 2 X 2 MIMO. The removable battery adds many bonuses for ZTE MF286 router because it can make the MF286 router used as a mobile WiFi router. Then the ZTE MF286 could be used in much more circumstances. With the similar technical feature, ZTE MF286 price is cheaper than Huawei B525 price. Perhaps because the Huawei B525 is the latest router and ZTE MF286 is an old model. We didn’t take the speed test for Huawei B525 and ZTE MF286, but from the specs, we think the ZTE MF286 is better than Huawei B525 Router.

Huawei B525 VS Huawei E5186

As the top telecom equipment supplier, Huawei 4G Routers are very popular in many countries based on high quality and stable performance for internet connection. And we also find some huawei wireless routers have similar specifications, i.e they support same LTE category, same LTE download speed etc. For example, we found Huawei had presented the LTE cat.6 routers such as Huawei B525 (new model) and E5186 (old model). Those who want to buy Huawei 4G LTE cat6 routers may feel confused which one to choose because they are too similar. Today, we will have a look at what’s the difference between the two Huawei LTE routers.

Huawei E5186 and B525 are both 4G LTE Wireless router supporting LTE CAT6, which means they both could achieve LTE download speed to 300mbps and upload speed to 50mbps technically. As the old model, huawei E5186 had been available for almost two years and very popular in Europe and Australia. The Huawei B525 was just available from second half of 2017.

 

Here now in the market, the most popular model for the two Huawei routers are Huawei B525s-23a and Huawei E5186s-22a. They cover the most common LTE frequency bands in Europe, Middle East and Asia. With support of LTE band 32, B525s-23a is more up to date than E5186. However, they both work for LTE-A network and have Ethernet interfaces for WAN & LAN. And as the typical feature for 4G LTE Routers, they both have the SIM card slot. So they are both 4G WiFi Routers with SIM card slot and Ethernet port.

Appearance 

 

Huawei B525 is the most recent desktop LTE gateway from Huawei, which is in littler size than E5186. With the measurement of 163 mm x 52 mm x 226 mm, there are control, Wi-Fi, flag quality, organize mode and LAN/WAN marker at the front board of the B525. At the back interface of the B525, there are 4 x RJ45 ports for WAN/LAN, 1 x RJ11 port, 1 x USB port and power connector plug. Furthermore, there are additionally two connectors for external antennas. Regarding the Huawei E5186, the dimension is 194 x 177 x 64 mm, and there are control, arrange mode, WiFi, voice and flag pointers on the front board. Two SMA connectors for external antenna, 4 x RJ45 ports for WAN/LAN, 2 x RJ11 ports for VoLTE and phone, 1 x USB port for capacity and power connector plug are located in a line.

From the appearance, we could get little contrast from the B525 and E5186, one is with 1 RJ45 port, and the other is with 2 RJ45 port. If you prefer black color, Huawei B525 has black color available. Huawei E5186 has only white color available.

 

From the appearance, we can’t see what the real difference is. To be perfectly honest, for single client who needs to purchase Huawei LTE CPE, they both could do well. One could fully replace the other.

Technical Features

 

The band bolt is supported by Huawei B525, which can’t discover in LTE CPE E5186. That implies you could run the B525 to a particular frequency bands from the setup menu of web UI. This is a helpful element when the administrator wants to select preferred network frequency to surf internet. Huawei B525 supports L2TP VPN setting. At the point when L2TP VPN is enabled, the throughput execution will back off, the maximum speed can up to 50Mbps (subject to network environment). On this point, Huawei E5186 doesn’t have such feature.

 

 

For all Huawei LTE CPEs, there are diverse sub-variant models for various network frequency bands and carriers. For Huawei E5186, there are two adaptations accessible: E5186s-61a (Band 3/7/28/40) and E5186S-22a (Band 1/3/7/8/20/38).  The new model Huawei B525, provides the most well known sub-models B525s-23a (Band 1/3/7/8/20/32/38), in addition to Huawei B525s-65a (Band 1/3/5/7/8/19/20/26/28/38/40/41 FDD1700/1400mhz) and Huawei B525s-95a (supported LTE bands unknown now). From the sub variants, we can see that the B525 seems more powerful on the LTE bands support than that of E5186, which means Huawei B525 could be used more widely with more network providers.

 

Conclusion 

 

From the appearance and technical features, we can there are some difference between the Huawei E5186 and B525. However, for most users, the different features may not influence the usage of the Huawei LTE router. And even Huawei B525 is newer model with new features, the Huawei B525 price is not as good as Huawei E5186, which is also an important factor for users to consider. But if you need to purchase band 32 CPE, Huawei B525 is the right model. In summary, huawei B525 is newer with more feature and powerful, but with higher price. Huawei E5186 has decent functions for common use, if you don’t have specific requirements, the lower price may be attracting.