Difference between ZTE MF831 and MF823

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	ZTE MF823
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.