Hotspot review of the Huawei Mobile WiFi E5577

 In this article we review Huawei Mobile WiFi E5577 as a solution to providing and meeting your WiFi needs whilst touring in your motorhome. The E5577 is a mobile 3/4G MiFi (meaning ‘My WiFi’) device which connects to the cellular network and provides a WiFi connection inside your motorhome or indeed on the go if you carry it on your person for up to 10 devices to connect to.

If you’re unsure or want suggestions to how to get Wi-Fi solutions for your motorhome then read our other article on that here.

Hardware and setup

The Huawei E5577 comes in a small white cardboard box and is available in black or white. A power adapter is not supplied but the USB cable can connect to the power adapter that you already use for your smartphones or tablets.

The Huawei E5577 is a very compact and lightweight unit at only 85 grams making it effortless should you want to take it with you in your pocket, back pack or purse.

Setting it up is fairly easy if you follow the instructions. Start by inserting the sim card then charging the battery. The password or other information can be found in the battery bay of the device. By pressing the ‘Menu’ button you will be able to see the SSID and Wi-Fi key. It’s strongly recommend that you change the default SSID and Wi-Fi key to keep your data secure. 

You can also configure the device from your phone by downloading the Huawei Hi-Link app from the app store for your phone. You can also manage your Mobile WiFi through the web interface at http://192.168.8.1.   The default username and password is admin. 

 

Speed

With the Huawei E5577 you can expect download speeds of up to 150 MBit/s. To put that in perspective Netflix suggest a download speed of 5Mbps to stream full HD content and 25Mbps to stream 4k Ultra HD content. That means you should have enough download speed to stream and dow work on your laptop or other devices at the same time.

For those who need to upload content, for examples photos, posting to faceboook or YouTube then the device has an upload speed of 50Mbps, again ample speeds for your usual workloads.

Battery life

If the device is running off it’s own battery power for example whilst it’s in your pocket, on a train journey etc then the battery can provide up to 6 hours operating time without being plugged in. If you needed to then the battery could always be replaced, a great advantage to other mobile hotspots with a fixed battery. However this isn’t applicable when I use it in my motorhome as it’s left plugged into a USB socket so it’s always on.

Network

When using the Huawei E5577 you are in essence connecting to the mobile data network in exactly the same way as your phone. If you don’t have a phone data signal then unfortunately you wont have a WIFI signal. So a top tip is to ensure your sim card is on a separate network provider to your phone to make sure you have the best opportunity to have a data  network signal. I have made the mistake in the past of having both my phone and MiFi device on the same provider network meaning if I couldn’t get a signal on one then I definitely couldn’t get one on the other. 

Pricing

You can pick up Huawei E5577 WiFi device on Amzon for prices between £79.99 and with special offers of £62

Verdict

The Huawei E5577 is a good value, solid means of providing a personal WiFi signal for your devices in your motorhome. It’s efficient and quick and has the ability to connect multiple devices at once in a more efficient way than your phone hotspot could ever hope to do.