Huawei B525 VS B618 4G LTE Router

For most unprofessional users, it would be a challenging thing to buy a Huawei WiFi router with Ethernet port. Especially, there are many Huawei LTE Routers available in the market, which would make the selection harder. Huawei B525 and Huawei B618 are two latest LTE advanced routers, somebody may be interested in the two routers. If you don’t know what’s the difference between the Huawei B618 and B525 router. In this article, you will find the answer. And if you want to buy Huawei B525 router or Huawei B618 router, you may get some reference.

Appearance

Huawei B525 WiFi router was available earlier than B618 LTE CPE, and it’s technically similar to its predecessor Huawei E5186 WiFi router. The shape of Huawei B525 is in the shape of a traditional stationary wireless router, which could stand on the desktop, on the front, there are some LED indicators and there are 4 LAN ports on the back for an Ethernet connection to PC or other terminals. Two connectors are available on the top back of the router for connecting external 4G/LTE antennas. One RJ11 port for phone and one USB 2.0 port for data sharing are available.

The Huawei 4G Router B618 is not like the common router, it’s in a shape of the cube. However, the LED indicators and the Ethernet ports are still available but with different quantity. Huawei B618 Router has two LAN ports(One for LAN & WAN). The RJ11 port for telephone and USB 2.0 port are still available. The difference is that the Huawei B525 has two antenna connectors in the type of SMA while B618 LTE CPE has two TS-9 connectors, which is usually available for a Huawei LTE USB modem. What’s more, the two routers both use Micro SIM card and the SIM card slots are located at the bottom of the two routers.

Specifications

From the appearance, you may not really make a decision which one is better to select. The Huawei B525 specs and Huawei B618 specs are the key difference, which may influence the daily usage. This time, we take Huawei B618s-22d as an example. In below the table, you will see the difference of the specs difference:

 

Model Huawei B618 Huawei B525
Product type LTE WiFi Router LTE WiFi Router
Category LTE Cat.9/ Cat.11 LTE Cat.6
Chipset HiSilicon Balong 750 HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset
Data rates DL 600Mbps/UL 100Mbps DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps
Supported 4G LTE frequency bands B618s-22d: Band 1/3/7/8/20/38
B618s-65d: 1/3/5/7/8/28/40
B525s-23a: Band  1/3/7/8/20/32/38
B525s-65a: Band  1/3/4/5/7/8/20/19/26/28/32/38/40/41
WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz
Max supported users 64 users 64 users
MIMO 4 X 4 MIMO 2 x 2 MIMO
Connector for external antenna Two, TS-9 jacks Two, SMA-female jacks
Buy Antenna Huawei B618 Antenna Huawei B525 external antenna
App management Huawei Hilink APP Huawei Hilink APP
SIM Size Micro SIM Micro SIM
Battery NO NO
Dimensions 95 × 95 × 208mm 163 x 52 x 226 mm
Interfaces * 1 x LAN port(45)
* 1 x LAN/WAN port (45)
* 1 x telephone port(RJ11)
* 1 x USB 2.0 port
* 3 x LAN port(45)
* 1 x LAN/WAN port (45)
* 2 x telephone port(RJ11)
* Two external LTE antenna ports (SMA-J1.5)
* One micro-SIM card slot
* 1 x USB 2.0 port
Datasheet Huawei B618 Datasheet Huawei B525 Datasheet(PDF)
User Manual Huawei B618 User Manual Huawei B525 User Manual(PDF)
Other features DHCP Server, DNS RELAY and NAT, VoLTE, IPv4 /IPv6 dual stack  Firewall, CS Voice, VoIP, TR069 Remote Management, HTTP Online Upgrade, QoS, USB Share, UPnP, IPV6, DLNA, Fax, Print, VPN
Firmware download Huawei B618 firmware Huawei B525 firmware
Driver Huawei B618 driver Huawei B525 driver
Reviews Huawei B618s-22d Review Huawei B525 Review
Price/USD 449.00USD 259.00USD

 

 

Huawei B525 VS B618 Speed Test

If you want to know the speed performance of the two router, you can refer to the speed test on Youtube:

 

 

Conclusion

From the specs, we can see the Huawei B618 4G Router is more advanced for high-level LTE network. With more advanced technologies, Huawei B618 could support faster download speed and upload speed, which is almost double of that of Huawei B525. The Huawei B525 has more Ethernet port for connection. But the Huawei B618 and B525 both could support maximum up to 64 wireless users, which would be enough for most cases. Currently, most of the devices would connect via WiFi rather than Ethernet port. If you prefer to have more Ethernet ports, Huawei B525 may be good. Frankly speaking, Huawei B525 is good enough for our daily life internet demand at home for a family or in office for a small group.

 

As a top and latest new 4G LTE router, Huawei B618 is a future-proof home router. At least, before 5G router comes out, you will never worry about it’s out of date. However, the advanced feature makes it not in cheap price. If you want a budget router, Huawei B525 would be better.

Huawei B715 VS Huawei B525 LTE Router

In past few years, Huawei has presented many LTE WiFi routers to the market. Some are especially for the network provider in specific areas or countries; some are open for all the market (SIM-free for global travel). However, Huawei didn’t provide a full list of its 4G LTE Routers. Some models can’t be found on its official site, so as the specs of the Huawei LTE routers. Huawei B715 LTE router and Huawei B525 are the two models which cannot be found on Huawei official site, but they are definitely Huawei products for LTE-A networks. Some customers may have trouble to buy the unlocked version of the two routers for their applications at home or office etc…Today, we will have a general review of the difference between Huawei B715 and B525 router. You may get the reference if you want to buy one of them.

Appearance

Unlike the latest Huawei B618 LTE Cube, both the Huawei B715 and B525 are in the shape of a traditional wireless router. On the front, the Huawei logo and few LED indicators for power, WiFi, internet connection status and signal strength. On the back, 3 LAN ports and one LAN/WAN port with telephone port are listed at the below side. On the top side, two SMA connectors for external antennas are covered by a cap. Huawei B525 router had the label at the bottom, and we can see the crescentic shape from the bottom side. The label of Huawei B715 is just at the side of the external antenna connectors. The label and connectors are covered by a whole cap. However, like the Huawei B525 router, the SIM card slot of Huawei B715 is also located on the bottom side. Like other Huawei 4G wireless router, some important information would be printed on the label, such as the model number, IMEI number, S/N number, SSID, WiFi Key, web log in IP address, WPS pin, FCC ID, power plug voltage, WiFi certified, RoHS logo, Made in China and some model may have the supported LTE frequency bands if there is. Here now, the Huawei B715 has only white color available, but Huawei B525s-23a has black and white color available.

Variant models

Here now, the Huawei B715 has only one variant model Huawei B715s-23c with the support of 4G LTE Band 1/3/7/8/20/28/32/38 and 3G &2G network backward compatible. We are not sure whether Huawei will release more variant models to support different LTE frequency bands combination for other network providers. But as you can see, Huawei B525 has three variant models: B525s-23A, B525s-65a, B525s-95a. They support the frequency bands as below:

 

Huawei B525s-23a:

– Support 4G LTE Band 1/3/7/8/20/32/38 (FDD 800/900/1500/1800/2100/2600MHz, TDD 2600MHz)

– Support 3G DC-HSPA+/HSPA+/UMTS Band 900/2100MHz

– Support 2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz

 

Huawei B525s-65a:

– Support 4G LTE Band 1/3/4/5/7/8/20/19/26/28/32/38/40/41 (FDD 2600/2100/1900/1800/1700/1400/900/850/800/700MHz, TDD 2300/2500/2600MHz)

– Support 3G DC-HSPA+/HSPA+/UMTS Band 1/2/5/6/8/19

– Support 2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz

Huawei B525s-95a: Unknown yet!

Specifications

You may be attracted by the appearance of the two routers, but when if you want the router to work well at your location, you must see the specifications of the two router. Below is the list comparison of the Huawei B715s-23c and Huawei B525 WiFi router specs for your reference:

Model Huawei B715s-23c Huawei B525
Product type LTE WiFi Router LTE WiFi Router
Category LTE Cat.9 LTE Cat.6
Chipset ? HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset
Data rates DL 450Mbps/UL 50Mbps DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps
Supported 4G LTE frequency bands LTE B1, B3, B7, B8, B20, B28, B32, B38 B525s-23a: Band  1/3/7/8/20/32/38
B525s-65a: Band  1/3/4/5/7/8/20/19/26/28/32/38/40/41
WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz
Max supported users 64 users 64 users
MIMO 4 X 4 MIMO 2 x 2 MIMO
Connector for external antenna Two, SMA-female jacks Two, SMA-female jacks
Buy Antenna Huawei B715 External Antenna Huawei B525 external antenna
App management Huawei Hilink APP Huawei Hilink APP
SIM Size Micro SIM Micro SIM
Battery NO NO
Dimensions 240mm × 448mm × 47mm 163 x 52 x 226 mm
Interfaces * 1 x power adapter port
* 3 x LAN port(45)
* 1 x LAN/WAN port (45)
* 1 x telephone port(RJ11)
* Two external LTE antenna ports (SMA-J1.5)
* One micro-SIM card slot
* 1 x USB 2.0 port
* 3 x LAN port(45)
* 1 x LAN/WAN port (45)
* 2 x telephone port(RJ11)
* Two external LTE antenna ports (SMA-J1.5)
* One micro-SIM card slot
* 1 x USB 2.0 port
Datasheet Huawei B715 Datasheet(PDF) Huawei B525 Datasheet(PDF)
User Manual Huawei B715 User Manual(PDF) Huawei B525 User Manual(PDF)
Other features  VPN, VoLTE, IPv4 /IPv6 dual stack, DMZ, Port forwarding  Firewall, CS Voice, VoIP, TR069 Remote Management, HTTP Online Upgrade, QoS, USB Share, UPnP, IPV6, DLNA, Fax, Print, VPN
Reviews Huawei B715s-23c Review Huawei B525 Review
Price/USD 399.00USD 259.00USD

 

 

Huawei B715 VS B525 Speed Test

If you want to know the real speed performance, check the Huawei B715 VS Huawei B525 Speed Test in the video:

 

 

Conclusion

From the specs table, we can see Huawei B715s-23c is more advanced supporting higher LTE level networks with faster downlink. Huawei B525 provides more variant models for different LTE frequency band combination and more colors to select. Usually, the more advanced of the router, the price higher. So we can see the Huawei B715 is more expensive than Huawei B525 router. If you don’t care about the price, then Huawei B715 is the right one for you. Huawei B525 may not the most advanced, but for most customers, the downlink speed is enough for most applications cases. Almost same interfaces would not make you in trouble when you connect few devices simultaneously. The important is if you want to fulfill extra functions such as VPN, VoLTE, VoIP or DHCP, you may check the datasheet carefully to confirm.

However, if you don’t know how to select from the variant models, you may refer to this blog: Five Tips to Buy a Huawei 4G Router.