ZTE MF823 Unlocked 4G/LTE 100 Mbps Mobile Broadband USB Dongle- White

This dongle is very good. I purchased the version sold directly from Amazon and it was not carrier branded or loaded with a carrier's own version of the firmware. I coupled this with the EE 6GB 90 day PAYG SIM and it works fine. The device automatically selects GPRS, 3G or 4G. You can over ride this to force a selection in the firmware. There is an indicator light on the top which goes red when you plug the dongle in as it starts up. This then goes to a solid colour to indicate the type of connection. For example green is 4G. When the light starts to flash that means it is connected and you can browse and email. The lights are Red: Start Up, Green, 4G, Blue 3G. Not sure of the colour for GPRS as I have not tried it.The firmware is very easy to use and shows total web usage meters and has the ability to store names and numbers to the SIM and there is a facility to send text messages. Can't try that as I have a data only SIM.Lastly, a really cool feature is the fact that as well as being a mobile dongle the device also can take a Micro SD card and doubles as a flash USB drive. I purchased the Samsung EVO Plus 64GB the following day when I discovered this neat addition. This is also working fine.So to sum up. A dongle you can own on a PAYG data system without the need to take out any lengthy contracts which can double as a USB flash drive.

This arrived with an instruction booklet in Spanish only and with software with a Spanish user interface. Only through the use of Google Translate and existing knowledge of data comms did I manage to configure the 4G LTE USB dongle and get it working. Just as I got it working, I found by accident a menu option that converted the user interface to English. That menu is hidden behind a button (on Windows) positioned where the Maximise/Restore button would normally be on the title bar of the application. Even in English, the app is truly awful (I’ve developed and tested Windows applications since the very first version of Windows, and this is one of the worst applications I’ve seen). If you have poor eyesight, you’ll want to use accessibility options to zoom in as the font is ridiculously small.I bought the dongle to plug into the side of my router so that it can failover automatically to use 4G LTE mobile broadband if the ADSL fails (we have OpenReach installing FTTP soon – I figure there’s a reasonable chance that something will go wrong). After battling the Spanish instructions, appalling application, and additionally miserable support from the router manufacturer (the router provided no useful diagnostics), it does now work. Prior to getting it working with the router, I got it working plugged into a Windows 10 desktop PC.We have a pretty good 4G signal here, so I haven’t used an external antenna yet. Hopefully, I won’t need to. Once the FTTP is in place and working, hopefully the 4G failover won’t get any use. However, until we have 5G in the area, it’s good to know the 4G failover is there in case somebody digging up the road manages to cut the fibre optic cable in future.I wouldn’t recommend this for anybody non-technical.

Product received was an unlocked ZTE MF823 4G dongle. However it was not a generic ZTE model as expected but an O2 branded device with the O2 logo on it - see picture. The internal webui anagement software is also O2, not generic ZTE. The box it came in says Hilink. The item was sold by Eternal Communications Ltd and fulfilled by Amazon.The product does work - I used it with EE and 3 SIM cards on a PC and also with a TP-Link TL-MR3420 router in a low signal area with an aerial connected to the USB dongle. So 4 stars for the product functionality reduced to 2 stars for the delivery of a O2 branded product instead of the generic manufacturer version.

I have 4 of these. The older ones work, the most recent one has had its firmware upgraded and is no longer fit for purpose.It will refuse to allow connecting to the Internet until you have read all SMS. As there is no way to downgrade to an earlier firmware this effectively makes it not fit for purpose and not usable.It also no longer indicates visually what network is it connected to. The older ones once again work - Green for GSM/GPRS, blue for high speed networks. The new one just blinks green so the most recent firmware (with which all of them ship now) is broken for that as well.

This is my first long-term experience with a dongle so it is possible that the small niggles are well-known to regular users. It was needed to give 3G or 4G connectivity to a router with a security camera attached so I was unable to use my usual faultless mi-fi. Set-up was simple but the main niggle is the need to re-boot occasionally for no obvious reason. It doesn't appear to be a network issue but almost something that the dongle needs to do. It is also used on a travelling laptop at the moment because I had taken advantage of a huge short-term gigabyte offer and it takes a little more setting up each time it is switched on than my usual mi-fi. Most importantly it does seem to be pretty good at picking up a signal in our weak rural reception area (3G only) and worked brilliantly when staying at a hotel with a strong 3G signal. I haven't visited anywhere that seemed to have a 4G signal so can't verify its capability there. To sum up, it does a good job but I realise that I should have paid somewhat more for a new router that would take a SIM because of my particular requirements.

i bought this to replace my Three dongle which came with the contract its meant to be a 4g dongle (old one). However been looking at this one for months if not years so thought its a good price so i bought it. So worth the money !!! 50mbps 4g connection its so fast and responsive and dead easy to use dont normally do reviews this quick but this was worth the review and the money