A 5G Portable WiFi from ¥29/Month: ZTE U30 Air Unboxing & Speed Test

Also on Bilibili.

TL;DR

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Why I Needed a Portable WiFi

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Two very down-to-earth reasons:

1. Mobile plans are expensive. Carriers here charge ¥70–80/month for decent data. I downgraded to a cheap plan — and now I keep running out of data when I travel.
2. My laptop needs stable, high-volume connectivity. Phone tethering works, but a dedicated WiFi device is more stable, and the data economics are different: phone plans give you 40–50GB a month, while portable-WiFi plans go up to hundreds of GB — shareable across devices.

Why the U30 Air (and Not the Gexing MT700)

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I shortlisted two devices: the ZTE U30 Air and the Gexing MT700. My requirements were simple: 5G, lots of data, cheap. I went with ZTE for three reasons:

1. A big vendor that won’t disappear. This market has seen small brands shut down and strand their users. ZTE is a major telecom vendor with proper after-sales support.
2. Flexible month-to-month plans. ¥29/¥39/¥59 tiers, cancel anytime, no contract.
3. USB 3.0 tethering. Plug it into your laptop via Type-C and it works as a wired NIC — more stable than WiFi. For me that was the deciding factor.

Disclosure: I paid for this device myself. No sponsorship, no affiliation with ZTE.

Unboxing the Aerospace Edition

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What you get:

• 5G dual-SIM (China Unicom + China Mobile) with one-key network switching
• 4500mAh removable battery (mine was manufactured 2025-10-31 — fresh)
• NFC tap-to-connect, with a prominent 5G badge on the front
• Two red physical buttons: power + network switch
• 2.4G / 5G WiFi band switching

The battery is removable — there’s a small notch on the side; pop the clip and it slides out. The box includes an activation guide and a card with a QR code and the WiFi password. Take a photo of that card first — you’ll need it for activation.

Activation: The Pitfalls

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The process itself is straightforward:

1. Scan the QR code on the device with WeChat
2. Enter the device ID and bind it to your account
3. Complete real-name verification for both SIMs — front and back of your ID card, once for Unicom and once for Mobile

⚠️ The big gotcha: real-name verification only works between 07:45 and 21:00. If your device arrives in the evening, activation has to wait until the next morning.

Two pieces of good news: you get 3 days of free trial data — enough to properly test signal and speed — and there’s a 7-day no-questions-asked return window.

Speed Tests

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First, my 200 Mbps home broadband as the baseline:

Then, connected to the U30 Air’s WiFi:

Downstream hit ~280 Mbps — faster than my home broadband. Upload sat around 10 Mbps, which is typical for current 5G networks; if you upload large files regularly, set your expectations accordingly.

Plans & Pricing

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Month-to-month, no contract, cancel anytime. Prices follow the official ordering page.

Verdict: Who Is This For?

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Good fit:

• People on cheap phone plans who keep running out of data
• Anyone needing stable, high-volume connectivity for a laptop or multiple devices
• People who want monthly flexibility instead of a contract

Not a good fit:

• Heavy uploaders (~10 Mbps uplink)
• Areas with poor 5G coverage — test with the 3-day trial data before committing

Bottom line: if your pain is “data is expensive”, a portable WiFi with month-to-month plans is a very cost-effective fix, and the U30 Air hits a sweet spot of vendor credibility and plan flexibility.

This is the written companion to my video (top of this page). All numbers are my own measurements. Video is on YouTube and Bilibili — likes and subs appreciated.