Huawei B618 and Huawei B525 are both Huawei WiFi routers with Ethernet port . Most people are not quite familiar with the two routers. For those who want to buy from the LTE CPE B618 and B525, what is the difference between the Huawei B525 and B618 router? Which one is better to use at home or in an office? We will look at the difference from the appearance, the interfaces, the variant model, the specs and other features to conclude for the buyers.
Huawei B618 vs B525 Router Appearance
The Huawei 4G Router B618 is not like the common router, it’s in a shape of cube. However, the LED indicators and the Ethernet ports are still available but with different quantity. Huawei B618 Router has two LAN ports(One for LAN & WAN). The RJ11 port for telephone and USB 2.0 port are still available. The difference is that the Huawei B525 has two antenna connectors in the type of SMA while B618 LTE CPE has two TS-9 connectors, which is usually available for a Huawei LTE USB modem. What’s more, the two routers both use Micro SIM card and the SIM card slots are located at the bottom of the two routers.
Huawei B525 WiFi router was available earlier than B618 LTE CPE, and it’s technically similar to its predecessor Huawei E5186 WiFi router. The shape of Huawei B525 is in the shape of traditional stationary wireless router, which could stand on the desktop, on the front, there are some LED indicators and there are 4 LAN ports on the back for Ethernet connection to PC or other terminals. Two connectors are available on the top back of the router for connecting external 4G/LTE antennas. One RJ11 port for phone and one USB 2.0 port for data sharing are available.
Huawei B618 vs B525 Specifications
From the appearance, you may not really make a decision which one is better to select. The Huawei B525 specs and Huawei B618 specs are the key difference, which may influence the daily usage. This time, we take Huawei B618s-22d as example. In below the table, you will see the difference of the specs difference:
| Model | Huawei B525 | Huawei B618 |
| Product type | LTE WiFi Router | LTE WiFi Router |
| Category | LTE Cat.6 | LTE Cat.9/ Cat.11 |
| Chipset | HiSilicon LTE Cat6 Chipset | HiSilicon Balong 750 |
| Data rates | DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps | DL 600Mbps/UL 100Mbps |
| Supported 4G LTE frequency bands | B525s-23a: Band 1/3/7/8/20/32/38 B525s-65a: Band 1/3/4/5/7/8/20/19/26/28/32/38/40/41 | B618s-22d: Band 1/3/7/8/20/38 B618s-65d: 1/3/5/7/8/28/40 |
| WLAN | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz |
| Max supported users | 64 users | 64 users |
| MIMO | 2 x 2 MIMO | 4 X 4 MIMO |
| Connector for external antenna | Two, SMA-female jacks | Two, TS-9 jacks |
| Buy Antenna | Huawei B525 external antenna | Huawei B618 Antenna |
| App management | Huawei Hilink APP | Huawei Hilink APP |
| SIM Size | Micro SIM | Micro SIM |
| Battery | NO | NO |
| Dimensions | 163 x 52 x 226 mm | 95 × 95 × 208mm |
| Interfaces | * 3 x LAN port(45) * 1 x LAN/WAN port (45) * 2 x telephone port(RJ11) * Two external LTE antenna ports (SMA-J1.5) * One micro-SIM card slot * 1 x USB 2.0 port | * 1 x LAN port(45) * 1 x LAN/WAN port (45) * 1 x telephone port(RJ11) * 1 x USB 2.0 port |
| Datasheet | Huawei B525 Datasheet(PDF) | Huawei B618 Datasheet |
| User Manual | Huawei B525 User Manual(PDF) | Huawei B618 User Manual |
| Other features | Firewall, CS Voice, VoIP, TR069 Remote Management, HTTP Online Upgrade, QoS, USB Share, UPnP, IPV6, DLNA, Fax, Print, VPN | DHCP Server, DNS RELAY and NAT, VoLTE, IPv4 /IPv6 dual stack |
| Reviews | Huawei B525 Review | Huawei B618s-22d Review |
| Price/USD | 259.00USD | 449.00USD |
Conclusion In the specs, we can see the Huawei B618 4G Router is more advanced LTE router with support of LTE category 11. With more advanced technologies, Huawei B618 could support faster download speed up to 600Mbps, which is almost double of that of Huawei B525. The Huawei B525 has more Ethernet port for connection. But the Huawei B618 and B525 both could support maximum up to 64 wireless users, which would be enough for most cases. Currently, most of the devices would connect via WiFi rather than Ethernet port. If you will connect to the router mostly vis Ethernet ports, Huawei B525 may be the right one. However, if your devices will access internet through WiFi, you may consider the Huawei B618. And Huawei B618 is a future-proof home router with the advanced features.
However, the advanced Huawei B618 router has a higher price than that of Huawei B525. Frankly speaking, the Huawei B525 could work for us. Huawei B525 would be great for most people.
