With the development of LTE networks, LTE Advanced is now becoming the mainstream. So the LTE-A WiFi Routers are more and more popular, which would provide faster speed than that on LTE category 3 or LTE category 4. Huawei E5186 is the world’s first LTE-A router and was very popular in 2016 and 2017. Now the new upgraded Huawei B715 router is available. In this article, we will compare Huawei E5186 and B715 router to see what the difference between the two routers is and which one is better.
Appearance and Interfaces
Since Huawei LTE CPE E5186 was popular in Europe and Australia in past two years, many people may know it well. Like many other Huawei stationary routers, there are few indicators on the front, such as Power, Mode, WiFi, Voice, Signal. And Huawei logo is in the middle front face. On the back, there are 4 LAN ports (one for LAN/WAN), two RJ11 Telephone port, and USB 2.0 port available. The power switch on/off button is also lined with the interfaces. Huawei Router B715 also has 4 LAN ports (One for LAN/WAN), but it has only one telephone port with the USB 2.0 port. They both use Micro SIM card size. The difference is that the SIM card of Huawei E5186 is located at the edge side while Huawei B715 router has the SIM card slot at the bottom. And they both have two SMA connectors for an external antenna. If you would buy 4G LTE Antenna with two SMA connectors, you can switch the internal antenna to external antenna in the web interface.
Specs and variant models
The predecessor Huawei B593 LTE router has more than 10 variant models. Unlike Huawei 4G CPE B593, Huawei E5186 has two variant models: Huawei E5186s-61a and E5186s-22a, even though it’s available for two years. The Huawei B715 was presented to market since the end of 2017, so it has only one sub-model Huawei B715s-23c. In the table below, you will see the details specs and features of Huawei B715 and E5186:
| Model | Huawei B715s-23c | Huawei E5186s-22a/E5186s-61a |
| 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 | E5186s-22a: Band 1/3/7/8/20/38 E5186s-61a: Band 3/7/28/40 |
| WLAN | 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 | 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 |
| App management | Huawei Hilink APP | Huawei Hilink APP |
| SIM type | Micro SIM | Micro SIM |
| Battery | NO | NO |
| Dimensions | 240mm × 448mm × 47mm | 190 mm × 200 mm × 32 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 E5186 Datasheet(PDF) |
| User Manual | Huawei B715 User Manual(PDF) | Huawei E5186 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 |
| Price | 399.00USD | 259.00USD |
Conclusion
It’s obvious to see that the Huawei B715s-23c router is more advanced than Huawei E5186. The Huawei E5186 supports LTE category 6 technology which could achieve download speed up to 300Mbps, which is good for most people in daily life. However, the more advanced Huawei B715 would support peak download speed up to 450Mbps, which is 1.5 times faster than that of E5186. Although we didn’t know the chipset model of Huawei B715, the Huawei B715 seems powerful on the LTE technology, including carrier aggregation, 4 x 4 MIMO, TDD&FDD networks support.
So if you want to buy a better Huawei LTE-A router, it’s no doubt that Huawei B715 is the right model. However, as we said, the Huawei E5186 is enough for most cases in daily life or small office. With budget price, if you want to get a decent router without a high price, Huawei E5186 is highly recommended. It’s popular in the past two years and gains high praise from thousands of users worldwide.
As time goes, Huawei is always presenting new 4G WiFi routers to the public. Most of the end-users may know the old router model but may be unfamiliar with the new LTE router. Many people may know the Huawei Router B315, but may not know the latest Huawei B525 router, which is similar to the Huawei E5186 Specs. If they would buy a Huawei 4G WiFi router, you may ask what the difference between Huawei B525 and B315 LTE CPE is, and which one is better between the Huawei B315 and B525?
Appearance and Interfaces
Huawei Router B315 and B525 are both in the shape of a traditional home router. They look similar from the appearance. On the front, there are few LED indicators for power, mode, WiFi, LAN, and signal. The Huawei logo is in the middle of the front face. On the back, there are 4 LAN ports(One for LAN/WAN), One RJ11 for telephone, One USB 2.0 port for data sharing and Reset hole listed on a line. However, Huawei B315 has many variant models; the interfaces may vary on some variant models. There are two SMA-female connectors for external antenna, if you would buy Huawei B315s antenna, remember the connector should be SMA-male. The connectors are covered by a small cap.
The power and WPS buttons of the two routers are located at the top edge side. The SIM card slot of Huawei B525 router is located at the bottom of the device, where the label is also there with some important information such as model number, IMEI & S/N number, SSID, WiFi key, WPS pin, FCC ID, Manufacturer, and Made-in-China. The label of Huawei B315 is also at the bottom, however, the SIM card slot is on the side of the body. The Huawei B525 uses Micro-SIM size while the B315s uses standard SIM size.
Specs
From the appearance, you may not get the key point about the difference between the two router because they are very similar in the appearance. Then we have to check the specs of Huawei B525 router and B315 LTE CPE for reference:
| Model | Huawei B525 | Huawei B315s |
| Product type | LTE WiFi Router with Ethernet port | LTE WiFi Router with Ethernet port |
| Category | LTE Cat.6 | LTE Cat.4 |
| Chipset | HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset | Hisilicon Balong |
| Data rates | DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps | DL 150Mbps/UL 50Mbps |
| Supported 4G LTE frequency bands | 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 | * Huawei B315s-22: 4G LTE B1/B3/B7/B8/B20/B38 * Huawei B315s-607: 4G Band 1/3/7/8/28/40 * Huawei B315s-936: 4G Band 1/3/40/41 * Huawei B315s-608: 4G Band 1/3/5/7/28 |
| WLAN | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz | 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz |
| Max supported users | 64 users | 32 users |
| MIMO | 2 x 2 MIMO | n/a |
| Connector for external antenna | Two, SMA-female jacks | Two, SMA-female jacks |
| Buy Antenna | Huawei B525 external antenna | Huawei B315 external antenna |
| App management | Huawei Hilink APP | Huawei Hilink APP |
| SIM Size | Micro SIM | Standard SIM |
| Battery | NO | No |
| Dimensions | 163 x 52 x 226 mm | 186.0mm x 139.0mm x 46.0mm |
| Interfaces | * 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 | * 1 x power adapter port * 3 x LAN port(RJ45) * 1 x LAN/WAN port (45) * 1 x telephone port(RJ11)(depends) * Two external LTE antenna ports (SMA-J1.5) * One SIM card slot * 1 x USB 2.0 port(depends) |
| Datasheet | Huawei B525 Datasheet(PDF) | Huawei B315 Datasheet(PDF) |
| User Manual | Huawei B525 User Manual(PDF) | Huawei B315 Manual(PDF) |
| Other features | Firewall, CS Voice, VoIP, TR069 Remote Management, HTTP Online Upgrade, QoS, USB Share, UPnP, IPV6, DLNA, Fax, Print, VPN | VoIP, DHCP, NAT, IPv6/IPv4 dual stack, Firewall, Port forwarding, DMZ, ALG, Remote management |
| Firmware download | Huawei B525 firmware | Huawei B315s Firmware |
| Driver | Huawei B525 driver | Huawei B315s driver |
| Reviews | Huawei B525 Review | Huawei B315 Review |
| Price | 259.00USD | 169.00USD |
Conclusion
From the specs of the two routers in the table, we can see the Huawei 4G Router B525 supports LTE Category 6 networks with carrier aggregation, so it could achieve download speed up to 300Mbps, which is almost the double of that of B315 Router. This should be the key difference between the two routers. As we can see, the Huawei B525 has only two variant models: Huawei B525s-23a and B525s-65a. Huawei B315 has more variant models such as B315s-936, B315s-22, B315s-607 and B315s-608 etc.. The variant models support different LTE frequency bands for various network carriers worldwide.
So if you will use the Huawei router with rare LTE frequency bands, you may not get support from Huawei B525 currently. However, if the Huawei B525 could support the LTE bands from your network providers, buy a Huawei B525 router would be right. Of course, the advanced Huawei B525 with CA would be with a higher price than B315, but not too much. And the LTE-A router Huawei B525 would definitely provide faster speed than B315 with same network conditions.
Sourcing from https://www.4gltemall.com/blog/huawei-b525-vs-huawei-b315/