Huawei E5788 VS ZTE MF980

With the development of LTE technology, LTE networks are evolving from basic to advanced, or LTE advanced Pro. To support the high-level LTE networks, many manufacturers are presenting their new LTE-A products to accomplishing the data transmission. Huawei, as the top telecom equipment supplier, had recently released the latest new LTE mobile hotspot E5788, the model number is E5788u-96a. The other Chinese competitor ZTE also has its own LTE advanced mobile hotspots named ZTE UFi MF980. You may ask what the difference between Huawei E5788 and ZTE MF980 is. And you want to select one between the two mobile routers, which one is better. In this article, you will find the answers.

Appearance

ZTE MF980 is earlier released than Huawei E5788. But the shape of the two LTE gadgets looks very similar. They are both in cuboids shape, but very thin. The Huawei E5788 has a 2.44-inch color touchscreen, where the user can easily set up the router on the screen. The screen of ZTE MF980 is 1.44 inch TFT screen, and the user can’t do settings on the screen. The Huawei E5788 screen is at the left part of the front while the ZTE MF980 has the screen in the middle.

The USB interface of ZTE MF980 is in Micro USB format while the Huawei E5788 using the USB 2.0 Type-C Interface. The MF980 has two connectors for external antennas while Huawei E5788 has no external antenna connector, which feature is a great disadvantage for the LTE Advanced Pro mobile hotspot. They both use SIM in Micro SIM size.

 

The batteries of both the two LTE mobile routers are non-removable. We think this feature is also not good comparing with another LTE-A pro mobile router Netgear Nighthawk M1, which has large battery capacity and could be removed for changing to spare battery.

As we know, the Huawei E5788 has many colors such as gold, black, blue etc. And the ZTE MF980 also has white, black colors which could be chosen for the customer’s preference. It’s good.

 

Specs

As the LTE advanced mobile hotspots, they both support high wireless download speed. ZTE MF980 supports LTE category 9 which could achieve download speed up to 450Mbps and upload speed to 50mbps while Huawei E5788 could support LTE Cat16 and could achieve download speed to 1Gigabit per second & upload speed more than 100mbps. They are both with WLAN standard on 802.11b/g/n/ac dual band (2.4Ghz & 5Ghz) and support maximum up to 32 wireless users. ZTE MF980 is with 2 x 2 MIMO technology while Huawei E5788 has 4 x 4 MIMO feature.

Below you will see the details for the Huawei E5788 Specs and ZTE MF980 Specs:

 

Model Huawei E5788u-96a ZTE MF980 Ufi
Product type LTE Mobile Hotspot LTE Mobile Hotspot
Category LTE Cat.16 LTE Cat.9
Chipset Qualcomm MDM9250 Qualcomm Cortex-A7 1.2GHz
Data rates DL 1Gbps/UL 100Mbps DL 450Mbps/UL 50Mbps
Supported 4G LTE frequency bands * FDD-LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/19/20/28
* TDD-LTE: Band 38/40/41/42
* FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5(26)/B7/B8/B20/B28/B32
* TDD-LTE: B40(or B38 or B41)
WiFi 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 32 users 32 users
MIMO 4 X 4 MIMO 2 x 2 MIMO
Connector for external antenna No connector Two, TS-9 jacks
App management Huawei Hilink APP ZTELINK APP
SIM type Micro SIM Micro SIM
Battery 3000mAh 2200mAh
Dimensions 129 x 65 x 13.5mm  122 * 65 * 10.6mm
Other features 3CC+256QAM
Price 499.00USD 259.00USD

 

From the above, it’s no doubt that Huawei E5788 is more advanced than ZTE MF980 technically. However, the Huawei E5788 doesn’t have the connector for external antenna, which may not be a good news for the users who are located at the areas of weak signal. With the advanced features, Huawei E5788 price is much higher than the ZTE MF980. So if you just need a decent LTE pocket WiFi with high speed, ZTE MF980 is comparably budget one for most users. But we believe the price of Huawei E5788 would be down when 5G devices coming out.

Huawei E5788 Mobile WiFi 2 Prime Highlights

As the latest Huawei Mobile WiFi Hotspot, Huawei E5788 attracts focus worldwide. With advanced technical specification for LTE-A Pro networks, Huawei E5788 is said to be the best pocket WiFi router. But many people may not know what the features of this high-level mobile router are. Today, we will have a look at the highlights of Huawei E5788.

The obvious feature of the Huawei E5788 is the 2.4 inch touch screen, where users can do almost all the setting for internet like operating a smartphone. In this way, users save much time and it makes settings easy. User can easily set and modify WiFi name and password.

 

As a mobile pocket WiFi, the most important function is to provide wireless network coverage for the people around to access internet. The Huawei E5788 could support maximum up to 32 wireless devices to surfing simultaneously. After optimization, huawei E5788 can provide intelligent power saving for more battery life with the dynamic tracking system. It can save 15% power consumption on same condition.

 

As a high-level mobile router, the internet speed must be as faster as possible. With support of LTE Cat.16, Huawei E5788 could provide up to 1Gigabit/s download speed, which is almost the triple times of that of Huawei E5787, which is a LTE cat6 mobile hotspot. So user don’t need worry about the multiple user may drag the internet speed slow. With the high speed, user can play video games at home, share internet with friends on the go, broadcast live in the outside world and enjoy in-car WiFi anytime freely. Actually, you can watch 4K HD online videos seamlessly.

What’s more, comparing with the predecessor mobile hotspots such as Huawei E5787 or E5885, the Huawei E5788 provides +40% wider coverage with +100% higher peak speed based on the 4 x 4 MIMO technology.

 

Some people may worry they don’t know how to use this high-level mobile router. Actually, the operation is Huawei E5788 is very easy to use, you just need plug a valid SIM card into the router, it would automatically connect the WLAN networks and provide the WiFi network. You don’t need to be a professional to use this pocket WiFi. The small size makes it also easy to carry in pocket.

 

 

The Huawei E5788 also provides the setting options for data usage in case of over-consumed. Users just need to setup the max data usage through the screen. And when data usage reaches the limit, the Huawei E5788 would automatically cut off the internet connection. This would be displayed in real-time on the screen. So you don’t need worry the over-use of data.

 

In summary, we can see the Huawei E5788 is becoming much smarter than its predecessors. With the advanced features and specs, we think Huawei E5788 would be a hot-seller in 2018.

Huawei E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Mobile Hotspot Review and Unboxing

Last weekend, we get the latest new Huawei New LTE Mobile Router – Huawei E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE hotspot(Huawei names it “Huawei Mobile WiFi 2 Prime”). After around two month waiting, the Huawei E5788u-96a is finally available on the market.

Huawei E5788 E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Hotspot

We get the Huawei E5788 in blue & black color(see below the images). The package box is in white, which shows the highlights & selling points of the Huawei E5788: LTE up to 1Gbps speed with 2.4inch touch screen. Unlike the competitor Nighthawk M1 from Netgear in squre shape, the Huawei E5788u-96a is in rectangle shape. And the screen is in left part on the front, where the Netgear Nighthawk M1 has round screen in the middle of the front.

Huawei E5788 E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Hotspot

The body of Huawei E5788 is made of plastic like the predecessor Huawei E5786 and E5787. The top side is the power button and the USB port is on the opposite side. Beside the USB 3.0 port, it’s the place for inserting the SIM card. Huawei E5788u-96a uses Micro SIM card. The slot is covered by a small cap. However, we didn’t find the connector for external antenna. Usually, the Huawei LTE mobile hotspots have the interface for external antennas, we don’t know why Huawei didn’t offer the external antenna connector. At the other side of the USB port, it’s a small hole for reset the router. The size of Huawei E5788 is not big, one hand operation is possible.

Huawei E5788 E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Hotspot

The battery of Huawei E5788u-96a is non-removable like the Huawei E5786, but the Huawei E5788 is very slimmer than E5786 and feels good. Press the power button, the screen would be bright and Huawei logo in red will appear, and few seconds, it showed “Welcome”. Then the screen shows some information. If you had already put a valid SIM card in, the Huawei E5788 would automatically detect the SIM card and setup the profile. In seconds, you can see the SIM card’s network provider’s name on the screen. And the signal strength, WiFi band, WiFi connected users, battery status are shown on the screen. The screen also indicates “Slide to unlock”. The touch screen is very similar to the Huawei E5787s-33a mobile hotspot, which also had a touch screen. On the screen, user can check the connection status, SMS, about the device. The most important is that users can do settings through the screen like operating a smarpthone.

Huawei E5788 E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Hotspot

In the setting menu, there are settings for Connected Users, Bluetooth, Profile Mangement, WiFi Extender, WPN, WiFi, Data usage, Data roaming, Network Settings, Pin Management, Password lock, Language, Remote Wake, Update and Restore Defaults. It includes almost all the settings for the Huawei E5788 mobile WiFi hotspot. Of course, user can also do the settings through the web interface 192.168.8.1 or download the Huawei Hilink APP from Google Play or Apple Store to setup the router.

Huawei E5788 E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Hotspot

With the Huawei E5788u-96a 4G hotspot, Huawei provides a USB cable and power adapter in EN standard, which may not be good for users who are located at American or Europe. The warranty card and user manual are also included in the package box.

Huawei E5788 E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Hotspot

We would take full test of this new LTE advanced Pro mobile hotspot E5788. So the potential user would see the performance of the Huawei E5788 and whether it’s better than other competitors.

Huawei E5788 E5788u-96a Gigabit LTE Hotspot