Difference between ZTE MF831 and MF823

Aug. 11, 2014 - PRLog -- ZTE MF831 is the new 4G LTE Wireless modem which supports TDD & FDD networks. It’s a LTE Category 4 Internet USB Stick, which support peak download speed up to 150Mbps on FDD network and upload speed to 50Mbps. Since we had introduced the predecessor ZTE MF823 USB Stick, what’s the difference between the two sticks? Today, we will have a look at the difference between them.



 Model
ZTE MF831 (http://www.4gltemall.com/zte-mf831-4g-lte-usb-modem.html)

ZTE MF823 (http://www.4gltemall.com/zte-mf823-4g-lte-fdd-datacard.html)

 Form Type   4G Datacard   4G Datacard

 Brand   ZTE   ZTE

 Category   LTE Cat4   LTE Cat3

 Network Technology   4G TD-LTE/FDD-LTE/UMTS/DC-HSPA+/EGPRS/GSM   4G FDD-LTE/UMTS/DC-HSPA+/EGPRS/GSM

 Frequency Bands   LTE-FDD 800(B20)/900(B8)/1800(B3)/2600(B7)/2100MHz
LTE TDD 2600(B38) OR 2300M(B40)   LTE-FDD: 800/900/1800/2600MHz

 UMTS 900/2100MHz   UMTS 900/2100MHz

 GPRS/GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz   GPRS/GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz

 Data Rates   LTE Peak Download Speed to 150Mbps
LTE Upload Speed to 50Mbps   LTE Peak Download Speed to 100Mbps
LTE Upload Speed to 50Mbps

 DC-HSPA+ DL Speed to 42Mbps, UL Speed to 11Mbps   DC-HSPA+ DL Speed to 42Mbps, UL Speed to 5.76Mbps

 MIMO   Yes   Yes

 Interface   USB   USB

 Antenna   Built-in Antenna   Built-in Antenna, Two external Antenna Connectors

 Storage SD card   MicroSD card expandable to 32GB   MicroSD card expandable to 32GB

 SMS   ?   YES

 Supported OS   Win7, Windows XP, Vista, Win8, Mac OS   Win8，Win7，Vista，Windows XP，Mac OS

 Online Upgrade   Yes   Yes

 Dimension   90×28.4×13mm   90×28.4×13mm

From the blank, we can see ZTE MF831 and MF823 are in the same dimension. ZTE MF831 is the upgraded version of ZTE MF823. MF831 is LTE Category 4 Stick which supports peak download speed to 150mbps, and it’s first ZTE LTE Cat4 Stick. With the support TDD network, ZTE MF831 could work well with more network providers. It supports more LTE Bands than MF823, and data rate speed is almost 1.5 times than MF823.

They are both compatible with 3G UMTS 900/2100MHz networks; with DC-HSPA+ technology, they could reach peak download speed to 42mbps. When LTE networks are not available, they would automatically switch to UMTS network to get the reliable network with fastest speed. But ZTE MF831 support upload speed to 11Mbps while MF823 supports 5.76Mbps.

However, it seems there is no external antenna connector in MF831, while MF823 has two external antenna connectors which will be more useful for MIMO connection. They both support microSD storage card expandable to 32GB. And they can both works with the latest operation system: Win7, Windows XP, Vista, Win8, Mac OS etc..

So ZTE MF831 is better with upgraded function, but if you want the 4G datacard with antenna connector, MF823 seems to be the right model.