Firstly, you might ask why would you need the Huawei E367 3G Broadband Dongle on Three? Especially given smartphones, with their built in 3G data connections, are great for taking care of your social networks and the occasional e-mail on the go, but they’re also somewhat limiting in what they can do.
You won’t have any problems typing out a 140 character tweet on a touchscreen keyboard, but what if you have some more serious work to attend to? Attempting to type out an essay or a series of long emails on any phone will undoubtedly leave your hands looking like they’ve been through a thumb war with Ivan Drago, and all of the auto-corrections will leave you more frustrated than, well, I’ll leave that one for you to finish off…
If you were able to take your laptop with you wherever you went, however, and use a 3G connection with that machine instead of your smartphone, your life would probably become a whole lot easier. If you don’t want to rely on free public WiFi access for your data fix on the go, then you may want to invest in a 3G dongle, such as the Huawei E367 from Three, to give you the flexibility of a data connection wherever you are and the reliability of your trusted personal computer.
A dongle has a similar shape to a USB flash drive that you might use to store your files on, and it simply connects to your computer via USB just like your flash drive would too. The Huawei E367 has a nice, discrete USB connector that folds away into the casing when you aren’t using it to maintain a flush appearance and protect it from picking up any dust. It has a smooth, black plastic finish which carries a minimalist look, although it is slightly large compared to most other USB peripherals you find on the market. Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend amongst most of these 3G devices that are available, but it’s still slightly inconvenient in that it may block another USB port when plugged in. There is a supplied USB extender cable to help combat this if you would prefer to keep all of your ports accessible.
Underneath the back cover of the device is a slot for the SIM card to slide in to, and this is the only step that you will need to take before inserting the dongle in to your computer. There is no installation CD present in the packaging; instead, the necessary software that’s required is pre-loaded on to the dongle itself, which is really convenient. Not only does this prevent you from picking up yet another disc to add to your ever-growing collection, but it also means that you don’t have to worry about finding anything else before you can use the dongle: just plug it in and you’re good to go.
Despite the hiccups that occurred during installation, activating the dongle after installation is a simple matter of clicking the “connect” button on the 3Connect application that has been installed. Although you aren’t going to get super fast speeds through the dongle – I did a speed test which reported 0.89mb/s download and 0.64mb/s upload (obviously depends on your location’s signal strength and Three’s ongoing rollout of HSPA+ across their network) – it’s certainly enough to do some light web browsing and research whilst you’re picking up emails and other feeds. Just don’t try to stream a movie on this thing!
All things considered, the Huawei E367 3G Broadband Dongle on Three is a well designed and easy to use way of providing an internet connection. Once the Mac OS X installation issues are ironed out I would certainly recommend it to someone looking to use their computers without having to rely on public networks, but I’d probably urge people to consider looking at Three’s One Plan which gives you unlimited data for £35 a month on smartphones such as the iPhone and Android phones, as you may get more bang for your buck, and can use your phone to tether to your computer wirelessly on this plan too.
Hoping to study Computer Science at University in the near future, you’ll seldom see John without a computer in touching distance! His interests include building computers, reading all sorts of literature and of course writing for Zath to keep you updated on all the latest in the world of tech!
