HSPA+ 3G USB modem PK review
(prepared and composed by 'coolstore' from lowyat.net forum)
link:
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2378783
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2320709
* u can link to this page but don't pretend to be your own work*The contestants are:
- Huawei E182e
- Huawei UMG1831
- Huawei E367
- Sierra 313u
To ensure a fair testing result, here are the predefined conditions:
a) Testing spot and time frame: same place, 1 done followed by another consequently.
b) Weather condition: sunny day
c) Time: daytime, morning (expected less users)
d) 3G provider: same simcard U-mobile (Malaysia). U-mobile use 2100MHz only, fair testing to all modem.
e) Location: indoor (best to test capabilities of modem instead of open space)
f) Environment brief info: within 5 storey buildings, surrounded by other 5 storey buildings. Test at 2nd floor. Base station unseen.
The procedure:
1) After successfully dial up into 3G HSPA+ network, wait 30 seconds to let the connection be stable first before doing speedtest (www.speedtest.net).
2) All speedtest will be choosing same testing server: Yes Server (Malaysia)
3) Every modem run speedtest 2 to 3 times at time interval of 5 seconds, then jot down the best showed result.
A) Starting with Huawei E182e
E182e Testing Results:
a) Signal level: -99dbm
b) Speedtest: 3.97Mbps downloads, 0.63Mbps uploads, 80ms latency.
2) Huawei UMG1831
Huawei UMG1831 Testing results:
1) signal level: -99dbm
2) speedtest: 4.08Mbps download, 0.85Mbps uploads, 66ms latency.
3) Huawei E367
E367 Testing Results:
1) signal level: -91dbm
2) speedtest: 5.15Mbps downloads, 1.42Mbps uploads, 65ms latency.
4) Sierra 313u
Sierra 313u Testing results:
1) signal level: -94dbm
2) speedtest: 6.59Mbps download, 1.68Mbps uploads, 56ms latency.
Apart from performance testing, also touching the modem casing to feel the reported heat matter of new generation HSPA+ modem:
The heat results:(Hottest) E182e > E367 > UMG1831 > Sierra 313u (Least hot)
The winner is Sierra 313u.
Conclusion:
1) The most interesting part of this PK review is that 313u which showed a lower signal level (-94dbm) compared to E367 (-91dbm) but able to outperformed E367 in terms of speed and latency (ping).
Thus signal level alone is not a conclusive say how good a modem is.
THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE IS THE WAY TO LOOK INTO.
2) It suggest that we can rank Huawei modem based on their model number, ie newer number is better than earlier model. And E3xx series is better than E1xx series.
