TCL LinkHub HH500E 5G CPE, Smarthome Dual Band Wi-Fi Router, Qualcomm X55 Snapdragon Chipset, Download Speeds of 2.8Gbps, Connects 128 Devices, Unlocked to any Network + UK Plug - White

After many years paying over the odds for fibre broadband I decided to see if there was a mobile alternative. I purchased this TCL LinkHub HH500E 5G CPE but was a little apprehensive after reading some of the reviews here on Amazon. I have had the unit for a week or so now and all I can say is the product is FANTASTIC, on the EE network with a good 4G signal I get around 100Mbps download and 30Mps upload. this is 3x the speed I was getting with fibre. The unit is stable and has not crashed once, I have tried it with giffaff and ID Mobile (3) sims and they all worked without any bother or need to change the default settings. The speed you achieve will depend on the signal you get on the network you use, but this also has external antenna sockets, so you could add an external antenna to improve this. I also drove to a 5G area with an inverter powering the unit and got neary 600Mbps download and 75Mbps upload (3 Network). I also did some tests with a TP Link M7650 on 4G to compare, this is a Cat11 device but download speeds were about 30% and upload speeds about 15% of what I get with the TCL placed in the same position in the house. There are some reviews on the internet saying that the antenna sockets are not TS9 (but they are incorrect), the sockets are TS9 and I tried to fit CRC9 to check and they are too small and will not push on. TCL tech support is brilliant, I did not have any reason to contact them but tried just to test their support capability. They have a Whatsapp support line which is very convenient and I only waited a couple of minutes to talk to a human (thank you Tom). So in summary, if you are looking for a permanent 4G or 5G mobile internet solution or a way of replacing you expensive or slow internet, this is something to consider, well done TCL I am very happy with it.

The only reason to chuck the bucks on this router is for its 5g capability. Sadly, given the choice of 4g or 5g this router will default to the slower 4g option. I have an adequate but weakish 4g and 5g signal. The signal strength is about the same for both and gives about -95db. This router will not connect to the 5g signal even though it delivers much higher download bandwidth. So, for my situation this is wasted money.The router is very easy to use. It looks great. The WiFi penetration is fantastic and gives a good signal round the house both with 2.5MHz and 5MHz bands. As a 4g router this is the dogsbollocks. As a 5g router it is a disaster.EDIT: After trying for a month, I managed to force the router to go for the 5g signal. And its the dogs bollocks. If they gave the firmware the option to make a 5g only connection this would be an excellent bit of kit. I have gone from a 2* to a 4* review based on the grounds that it is a very good 5g router.

Use this for events and conferences with work, and it worked amazingly well.You'll be dependant on the 4G/5G signal in the area you use it, but if you have good signal and good backhaul from your provider then the speeds are REALLY fast. We were getting over 300 Mbps, also tried it with the failover mode where you can plug an ethernet cable to the back of it and use that instead of the 5G/4G and on the wifi I could download at over 600Mbps.This was tested using both Three and EE sim cards, and both worked straight out the box no configuration needed.For those that have terrible home Internet but can get good 4g/5g signal, this might be the best option to get better Internet. All you need is a data sim card which are getting cheaper and cheaper now a days.

This router worked very well for around 2 years. The speeds started to drop or the the internet would just stop and a reboot was required. Now it needs rebooting 3 or 4 times a day so it's failing badly.

Sadly what a pile of rubbish the external aerial connections are not TS9 how can TCL get this wrong? Worst thing is the signal keeps dropping off put a much unit in it's place and no issues. Have chucked the packaging away. All I can say is don't waste your money

Perfect piece of kit. Great wifi signal and strength. Usually have at least 12 items connected and no issues. Easy set up. What more could you ask for.

I felt that the built is solid yet light, in the UK it is very hard to get a Sim router that doesn't have limitations set by mobile providers, so to get full access to the router i brought this . Even after paying such a huge amount for the router, the UI limits you to make custom changes. I couldn't select just 5G, I could have only selected 5G&4G. It is kind of annoying to have these limitations.Looks like these companies only want to sell these routers via mobile providers. any way i dint like the Ui and how the restrictions are put in place so i returned it .

I compared this with amongst others a Zyxel nr5101 (which gets pretty poor reviews). I liked this unit a lot, although was surprised by its largeness. It’s quite stylish. Easy to get working and performed well. I only get a 4g signal at my house and I was getting 60-80 mb/s download on both Vodafone and smarty.I preferred this model, however I returned it and kept the Zyxel because on Vodafone I get 250+ Mb/s on the Zyxel 4g vs 80 on this. The Zyxel just seems better at aggregating the lte. Also I thought the configuration options were a bit dumbed down on this unit whereas the zyxel is more tweakable and has a proper pass though mode. You can still make it work with a separate router, but it’s not as simple as the dedicated mode.Finally the zyxel was £50 cheaper and ( for me ) performed better.I can’t comment on the 5g performance, which may be superior and the performance on smarty 4g was comparable, but on Vodafone 4g the zyxel is more than 3 times faster for me!