Huawei AICube B900-230 4G LTE FDD B1/B3/B7/B8/B20/B32/B38 Cat6 300Mbps speaker with built-in Alexa

Design

The Huawei AI Cube’s name is somewhat misleading, as it doesn’t look like any cube we’ve ever seen. It’s more of a cylinder, with a speaker on the bottom half and a plain white plastic finish above, along with a ring of lights on the top, similar to Amazon’s Echo devices.

The design is fairly plain and generally reminiscent of other smart speakers. Indeed, it has far more visually in common with a smart speaker than a typical mobile broadband device. And while the design is plain, that helps ensure it will fit seamlessly into most home décor, which is important, because this is designed to replace home broadband.

The AI Cube has an ethernet port and power supply on the bottom, and volume keys and a button to mute the microphone on the top – of course, when not muted the device will mostly be controlled by voice, more on which below.

Setup

Setup of the Huawei AI Cube is similar to most other mobile broadband devices, in that it’s virtually just plug and play once you’ve stuck a SIM card in it. 

That means there’s no need to get an engineer out so you don’t need to wait for it to be installed, you can get it up and running yourself within minutes of receiving it. You will of course be able and want to change the Wi-Fi password and the like once the AI Cube is broadcasting a network, but that’s simple too as all the details you need to login to the WiFi network and the web panel are on the sticker on the bottom of the device.

Where things become a bit more involved than a typical mobile broadband device is in its smart speaker functionality, as you’ll need to get the Alexa app for one of your mobile devices, create or log into an Amazon account and link the Huawei AI Cube, but none of this is too tricky, it’s just a few extra steps that are required in order to get full functionality.

Performance

The Huawei AI Cube supports LTE Cat 6, meaning that it’s theoretically capable of 4G download speeds of up to 300Mbps. 

The Huawei AI Cube can also theoretically manage upload speeds of 50Mbps over 4G. Again, actual speeds are likely to be lower, but still higher than most of the competition.

That’s good news, because some home broadband can be faster than 4G, so for a 4G alternative to compete it needs to be able to make full use of 4G speeds.

On a related note, the Huawei AI Cube can get up to 64 devices online at once, which should be far more than most people will need and is at least double what most mobile broadband devices allow.

And it’s not limited just to 4G, as using the ethernet port you can also use the Huawei AI Cube as a Wi-Fi router, with support for 802.11ac, capable of broadcasting on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and with speeds theoretically up to 1,200Mbps over LAN.

Features

The main feature of the Huawei AI Cube beyond providing 4G home broadband, is its smart speaker credentials.

With Alexa built-in plus four far-field microphones, so it can hear you clearly, you can use your voice to turn smart lights on and off, adjust smart thermostats and control other smart home devices. You can also ask for weather and travel information, ask Alexa to play music and ask it to look up information.

That makes it the potential heart of any smart home and a very versatile device. And it’s a speaker that you’ll likely want to listen to music through, as it includes a 400ml sound cavity and an aluminium diaphragm.

This allows for high quality audio, including strong but not overwhelming bass. Huawei’s Histen tech is also used, adding virtual bass, adaptive gain control, a linear phase equalizer and more. This isn’t going to compete with a high-end speaker, but the sound is better than you might expect for a device of this size.

On an unrelated note one thing to be aware of is that this doesn’t have a battery, so this isn’t ideal as a portable MiFi device. As it’s plug and play you can use it anywhere with power, but this won’t work for getting you online in the car or on a train.

Software

The router can be controlled via a web panel which you can login to using the credentials on the sticker on the bottom of the device. It offers all the features you would expect, including the option to change WiFi settings and channels along with advanced features such as VPNs, NAT, Mac filtering and more. You can also monitor data usage and users connected to the network.

Similar functionality is available through the Huawei HiLink and SmartHome applications, although they lack some of the advanced features of the web panel. While, the Amazon Alexa elements are controlled through the Alexa app which is easy to use and improving all the time.

Alternatives

Fibre Broadband is a one of the main alternatives delivering potentially higher speeds and lower latency, but they require a landline and setup by an engineer whereas with the Huawei AI Cube you can setup instantly, don't need a landline and can take the device anywhere with a network signal and mains supply.

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