| Pros: | Cons: |
| + Easy to use | - Mediocre battery life |
| + Pocket friendly | - Could be more secure |
| + Solid performance |
"The Huawei E5372 does what it sets out to and it’s easy to use, but is put in the shade by newer devices, such as the E5783B-230."
With 4G actually making mobile internet a somewhat pleasant experience, mobile Wi-Fi devices are becoming a whole lot more useful, as they’re a simple way to get devices without a SIM card, such as laptops and most tablets, online when away from a proper Wi-Fi connection.
Huawei is an experienced player in this arena and its back with the catchily named E5372, but just what do you get for your money? And is it worth it?
The Huawei E5372 is an unassuming device. It’s a simple white or black plastic box, with a small square screen. Other than the screen there’s a power button and a Huawei logo on the front and a micro USB port on the side to plug in a charger or connect it to a device by cable.
There are no real design flourishes here but if there was ever a device where utility comes first this is it, as beyond setting it up there’s no real need to look at it.
Not that it looks bad at all and it seems well built, plus at just 99 x 62.2 x 14.4mm it’s small enough to easily fit in your pocket or bag and it’s light at 130g, all of which is good because it’s yet another thing to carry around with you, so it needs to be as small as possible.
Getting started with the Huawei E5372 is a breeze. It comes with some basic instructions but essentially all you do is remove the back, put in a SIM card, microSD card and the battery, put the cover back on, hit the power button and wait for it to start up and connect to a network, which shouldn’t take more than around 30 seconds.
One of the major selling points of the Huawei E5372 is that you can connect up to 10 devices at the same time. Getting multiple devices connected was very simple and far easier and more reliable than using tethering on a smartphone.
Generally that network will probably be Three, as that’s the only network selling it, but you can also buy it SIM free from various retailers.
Once you get it up and running performance can be variable. The good news is that it supports both 3G and 4G, so it will use the faster 4G option when available but switch to 3G when it’s not. Coverage of each is network dependant and Three’s 4G coverage isn’t great yet, but on the plus side Three has high 3G speeds, which surprisingly actually outpaced its 4G in some cases, at least when using the E5372.
Technically it supports download speeds of up to 150Mbps and upload speeds of up to 50Mbps, but in practice you’re not likely to see more than about 15Mbps download speeds and 10Mbps upload speeds, though of course that might change as networks get faster.
In general it didn’t seem quite as fast as running 4G on our phone, but the speeds were adequate to get things done, whether streaming music and videos or checking our email and web browsing. For gaming mobile broadband devices are never going to be ideal due to increased pings, but they get the job done and being on 4G improves things further.
Perhaps the Huawei E5372’s biggest problem is its battery life. It has a fairly small 1780mAh juice pack in it and its life tops out at around six hours, which is fine a lot of the time but if you’re on a long journey or just away from Wi-Fi and a charger for an extended period it might not be enough, especially if you’re planning to connect multiple devices to it, as that just increases the drain.
Beyond simply providing a portable internet connection the Huawei E5372 has a few other notable features. For one thing there’s that screen on the front. It allows you to view useful information such as the connection speed and type and the remaining battery of the device, but curiously it also displays its network password.
If you’re using it in private or keep it in your bag or pocket that’s not such a problem, but if you have it out there’s a risk that someone nearby could get online and if it gets lost or stolen there’s nothing to stop anyone using it.
More positive features include the ability to connect up to ten devices at once on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz channels and the ability to put in a microSD card of up to 32GB and share its contents with devices on the network. There’s also a Mobile Control 2.0 app which allows you to control the E5372 from your smartphone or tablet.
The Huawei E5372 is a good mobile Wi-Fi device with most of the features you could hope for and even a few extras. It’s let down slightly by a battery life of just six hours, but if you can live with that you won’t go wrong with it.
It’s priced well too, coming in at just £60 on Three pay as you go or free of charge on 24 month plans from £10.87 per month. If you’d rather use it on a different network you can get it SIM free but the price there is more like £90.
Either way it’s a good device and worth the money if you have laptops, tablets or consoles that you’d like to be able to get online when away from home and with a simple setup and straightforward controls it’s about as frustration free as you could hope for too
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Dimensions : 99 x 62.2 x 14.4mm Weight: 130 grams Display: TFT LCD Modem: 4G Wi-Fi Standard: 802.11n Bands: 2.4GHz, 5GHz Speed: Up to 150Mbps download, up to 50Mbps upload Battery capacity: 1780mAh Colours: Black, White Launch Date: Out Now Price: £60 |
