Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Huawei E3276 LTE 4G Modem Test and Review

The Huawei E3276 LTE Surfstick is the successor of Huawei E398, which is probably the best sell LTE stick worldwide. For many users, the E398 was the best surf stick on the market, it was characterized by above-average reception levels and a very good quality. With the E3276, the Chinese manufacturer trumps its predecessor again significantly: download speed up to 150 megabits / s should now be possible - LTE category 4. We have tested the Huawei E3276 for two weeks through its paces and one thing is certain: the E398 was replaced as prime surfstick. If you want to know why, then you should read the full test.

Huawei E3276 is a new 4G USB modem, it is the first devices that is equipped with an in-house modem HI Silicon, strictly speaking, the Hi9620 chipset. To date, Qualcomm is the industry leader in the field of puttering cellular modems, in virtually any device with wireless connectivity so far a Qualcomm chip. On the sheet of Hi6920 chip is the best thing there currently on the world market are: LTE Category 4 with up to 150 Mbit / s downstream and 50 Mbit / s upload represent only a world first, the other is in the UMTS chip installed: DC-HSPA + in the UMTS network with up to 84 Mbit / s downstream and 23 Mbit / s upload speeds are nowhere around at Qualcomm.

E3276 First Impression

The Huawei E3276 4G Date Card is currently sold in Austria, Portugal, Poland and Russia, the world's course in many more countries. The packaging is very small and contains, besides the E3276 only a few paper leaflets with information about the device. The first impression is very good: the design meets the predecessor Huawei E398, the USB port can be swiveled. What is new is that the USB port firmly snaps into place and a click mechanism can be folded back. In terms of size, there are no major changes, the workmanship is good and the design more beautiful than most other surf sticks. To insert the SIM card, the entire top has to be removed, even when E3276 sets Huawei continues to sim cards in standard size.


Its decor is what you expect from a high-end modem expects: in addition to a slot for Micro SD memory cards there are two connectors for external antennas. The connections have the format CRC 9, the short trip to TS-9 connectors such as the E392 or E398 seems to be over. Which terminal thereof is the diversity port, but unfortunately is not it - if you want to connect only one antenna (eg for UMTS), so you have to try a little bit.

E3276 Appliances and Software


Commissioning is quite easy: after the sim card and port insert the USB port, the drivers are automatically installed. If you already have a current Huawei Dashboard software on the computer, so you can use them if necessary. Directly. Otherwise, the connection software will be installed on request and after entering the PIN, and connection settings (APN) you can connect to the Internet. So much nothing unusual. Huawei advertises the E3276 in some cases even as HiLink stick, but our testers do not have this functionality. HiLink means: on the PC software must be no longer installed and the connection is established within a few seconds - we were on the Huawei E303 tested times and were quite impressed! If you configure the auto-connect, the connection attempt takes but without HiLink just 20 seconds. The E3276 on Windows

The software on the E3276 can of course vary depending on the network operator, the branding-free version comes with original Huawei Dashboard in version 23.009.05.00.03, and the stick has the firmware version 21.192.03.01.07. An LED on the front of the LTE stick shows the current connection status, for UMTS and LTE Stick the cyan light. More specifically, the power in the software will be displayed: in addition to the signal strength indicator is either LTE or DC HSPA +, HSPA +, etc. - the signal strength indicator in dBm, however, seems to not work in the LTE network, only the bar display shows correct values.

E3276 Speed ​​and Connection


The Huawei E3276 is ahead of his time: in Germany there are (in contrast to other EU countries) currently only LTE category 3, a maximum of 100 Mbit / s. Correspondingly, the data rates up to 86 Mbit / s in LTE1800 network of Telekom we could measure. In the UMTS network of the stick is far better than the mobile network: expanded maximum 42.2 Mbit / s via DC - HSPA +, but the Surf Stick can hold up to 84.4 megabits / s download - this is achieved by combining speed DC - HSPA + and MIMO, the network operators have announced some time ago that they completely focus on LTE and MIMO in the use of 3G networks is not planned. So you will probably have to live with the maximum of 31 Mbit / s in the future, we have measured the DC - HSPA + network with the E3276.

E3276 External Antenna

If you have bought the necessary CRC9 to SMA adapter, so can also be commercially available connect external LTE antennas. In the test we measured a good signal amplification in the Vodafone network with the LTE TS9 MIMO antenna and also in the Telekom network at 1800 MHz brought a LTE MIMO antenna 1800 significantly improved data rates. However, one should pay attention to a stable mounting because the small CRC9 ports are quite delicate and therefore prone to damage.


Conclusion: new star among surfsticks


After our testing thing is certain: the Huawei E3276 is a worthy successor of the Huawei E398 and affords almost no weaknesses. The Hi9620 modem from Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon is the modem from Qualcomm and Huawei least equal therefore deserves great respect for the development of its own chipset, which works so well. Now you can shop unlocked Huawei E3276 without contract from www.Smart4GWiFi.com.


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