Considering getting online using the Three 5G Hub?
In this article, we’ve tested and reviewed Three 5G Broadband, including doing some speed tests, to see if it’s any good.
We’ve assessed the 5G Hub based on its speeds, latency, ease of setup, and value for money.
Our verdict:we rate this 5G router 4.7 out of 5. It’s a cheap, easy-to-setup way of getting online, that offers download speeds of 500-700 Mbps from our testing. The only real downside is the higher latency compared to using fibre broadband.
Before we begin, make sure to check the Three website to see if you can get their 5G broadband service at your address.
Contents
- Three 5G Hub overview
- Three 5G Hub speed tests
- Three 5G Hub gaming test
- Three 5G Hub value for money
- Is Three 5G broadband worth buying? Our verdict
- Three 5G Hub alternatives
- Conclusion
Three 5G Hub overview
| Brand | Three |
| Name | 5G Hub |
| Manufacturer brand | Zyxel |
| Manufacturer name | NR5103EV2 |
| Dimensions | 132.5 x 134 x 230mm |
| Speed rating | Cat 22 |
| Ethernet ports | 2 (1Gb) |
| External antenna sockets | 2 |
| WiFi | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax (WiFi 6), dual-band, 4x4 MIMO |
| Maximum connected devices | 64 |
| Colour | White |
| Rating | 4.7 (out of 5) |
| Price | Check on Three |
The Three 5G Hub is a 5G home broadband router sold in the UK.
Rather than plugging into a phone line or broadband socket like most Wi-Fi routers, the 3 5G Hub takes a SIM card (which comes included when you buy), and connects to the mobile network, just like your phone.
Once plugged in, the Hub will connect to 5G, and create a Wi-Fi hotspot you can connect to from your laptop, phone, iPad, or any other device. There are also two Ethernet ports on the back of the router, which you can use to plug computers or game consoles into it directly.
This router is actually a Zyxel NR5103EV2, just with Three branding. From a specs point of view, this router is quite a good bit of kit. It supports WiFi 6, the latest standard, and you can connect up to 64 devices to the Wi-Fi hotspot at once.
It supports dual-band 2.4Ghz and 5.0Ghz Wi-Fi, helping it to maximise download speeds over short distances, as well as deliver good signal strength when passing through walls and other obstacles.
To use the Three 5G Hub, you need to have good Three 5G signal at your address – you can check this using their network coverage map.
You can use the 5G Hub anywhere with Three mobile network signal, meaning you can take it on holiday with you inside the UK, if you’d like. If you can’t get 5G signal, the 5G Hub will connect to 4G instead.
Buying the 5G Hub
To buy the Three 5G Hub, you first need to put in your postcode on the Three website, to check the 5G coverage where you live.
If you don’t have 5G signal, Three will direct you to buy their 4G Hub router instead. This is a very similar device – the main difference is it only supports 4G signal, instead of 5G, meaning its average download speeds are slower.
Then, you have the choice of getting Three home broadband on a 1 month or 24 month contract. There are no upfront costs, but you will need to pass a credit check before buying this router.
Once the 5G Hub arrives in the mail, you have 30 days to test it and see what the speeds are like. If you’re not happy with the router’s performance, you have the option to send it back to Three and leave the contract.
Three 5G Hub unboxing & setup
After placing the order, our 5G Hub arrived in the mail in two business days.
Inside the box, you’ll find:
- The Zyxel NR5103EV2 5G Hub router.
- A power cable.
- An Ethernet cable.
- A Three unlimited data SIM card.
- A quick-start guide.
- An ErP conformity notice.
To begin using your Three broadband router, here’s what you need to do.
1. Punch out the micro SIM card
Take out the SIM from its packaging, and remove it from its plastic holding card.
There are three sizes of SIM you can punch out – you want the second-biggest one, the micro SIM.
2. Insert the SIM card into the router
Once you have the right size SIM, turn the router upside down, and pull back the black rubber SIM card flap on the base of the router.
Push the SIM card into the slot, until you hear it click into place. Insert the SIM oriented as shown below, with the Three logo face-down (in relation to the text on the label on the bottom of the router), and the edge of the SIM with the cut corner going in first.
Then, push the SIM card slot cover back into place.
3. Plug in the router
Grab the power cable, and plug the router into a power outlet.
Then, push the power button, which is located just above where the power cord plugs into.
At this stage, the router will turn itself on. The first time it powers on, the 5G Hub will take a few minutes to set itself up, find a 5G signal, and create a Wi-Fi hotspot.
When the signal bars and Wi-Fi symbol are green or blue, this means the router is ready to use. A green signal bar symbol means that you have medium signal, while blue means that you have good signal strength. If the Wi-Fi light is blinking, the SIM card is not inserted properly.
If the signal bar remains red, try to move the router to a different position.
4. Connect to Wi-Fi
At this point, you can connect to Wi-Fi.
The included quick-start guide says that the WI-Fi login details are printed on the base of the router, but this wasn’t the case for us.
Instead, the login details are on a sticker on the side of the router where you plug the power cord into, near the external antenna ports. There is also a QR code you can scan to log in more quickly on your phone.
5. Test the router in different positions
With 4G and 5G routers, it’s important to test them in a few different positions to ensure you pick up the strongest possible mobile network signal. Otherwise, your speeds might not be as good as they could be.
Generally, the best place to put your 5G Hub is an upstairs windowsill.
We were quite lucky in that we got good download and upload speeds in the first position we tried the router in. If your download speeds are slow to begin with, we’d recommend trying to place the router on a different windowsill on the other side of the house, to see which is closest to the local 5G mast.
It’s also worth trying to rotate the router in different directions, to see if this improves your speeds.
When testing, we recommend using the Three Broadband mobile app. It shows your 5G signal strength in real time, helping you find the best location for your router.
Three 5G Hub speed tests
On the whole, we were very impressed with the download speeds received using the Three 5G Hub.
We performed a number of speed tests using Wi-Fi and a wired Ethernet connection, which we’ve shown below.
1. Wi-Fi speed test, same room as the router, optimal router position
This test was performed over Wi-Fi on a phone in the same room as the 5G Hub, with the router in the best position we could find for it (on an upstairs windowsill).
2. Wi-Fi speed test, same room as the router, suboptimal router position
This speed test was performed using the same conditions as the first result, except the router wasn’t in the best possible position.
3. Ethernet speed test, suboptimal router position
This test was done using an Ethernet cable, plugged into a PC. The download speed is slower because we had to move the router next to the PC in order to connect it, meaning the 5G Hub wasn’t able to pick up a good 5G signal.
Speed test conclusion
We were able to get speeds much faster than Three’s advertised average 150 Mbps download speed using their home broadband router. A 500 Mbps download speed was not uncommon, and we were able to get more than 700 Mbps after getting the router in the perfect position.
Our latency we feel was reasonable. A ping of 35-40ms over Wi-Fi is not too high. While 34ms over Ethernet is a bit higher than you might expect from a home broadband connection, this level of latency still offers a good experience, even when online gaming.
The upload speed was a bit low over Wi-Fi, at around 7 Mbps on average, but was much higher when plugged into the router directly.
Compared to Three’s old 5G Hub, the ZTE MC801A, which we have also tested at the same address, their Zyxel NR5103EV2 router is much faster. We were only able to get download speeds of about 300 Mbps using the old ZTE Wi-Fi router.
Three 5G Hub gaming test
We tested this 5G router’s gaming performance by plugging it into a computer using the supplied Ethernet cable, and playing a number of different Steam games, including Battlefield 2042, and Rocket League.
As is to be expected when using mobile broadband, our ping was a bit higher than it is when using our fibre broadband connection.
We typically saw a latency of 40-50ms when connected to nearby servers.
However, in the games we tested, our experience was still very good overall. We did not notice any lag spikes or packet loss, and our gaming experience was near-flawless.
We think that for most first-person shooter and sports games, the Three 5G Hub performs well, when plugged into a games console or PC using an Ethernet cable.
In saying this, if you’re used to a ping of 15-20ms, using Three 5G broadband will feel a bit less responsive, especially in highly competitive online games.
Three 5G Hub value for money
The Three 5G Hub typically costs around £20-£25 per month, depending on the contract length you choose, and any promotions Three is currently running.
This is about the same as a 36-75 Mbps broadband deal would cost with a provider like NOW Broadband, or Vodafone.
Your monthly cost will increase each April by the rate of inflation plus 3.9%, but this is the same as with all broadband providers at the moment.
In our opinion, Three broadband is excellent value for money, given it offers download speeds about 5-10 times faster than what you’d get if you paid the same amount of money for a normal home broadband plan.
This is especially true given Three doesn’t charge an upfront cost, unlike most other broadband providers.
It is worth noting, the 5G Hub’s upload speed is nothing amazing – it’s quite similar to what you get with most superfast fibre broadband deals. However, this isn’t an issue for most households, since most of us tend to download a lot more data than we upload.
If you want to get a mobile broadband plan for even less money, we recommend checking out the Three 4G MiFi device. It only offers 4G download and upload speeds, but you can get it for a lower monthly cost, if you don’t mind having a data usage limit.
Overall, we rate the Three 5G Hub 4.7 out of 5.Given what it costs, and the speeds it offers, we definitely recommend trying out this Wi-Fi router if you can get Three 5G signal at your address. If the speeds or latency aren’t to your liking, you can always return it.
If you’re not sure about buying the Three 5G Hub, here are some other similar ways to get online using 4G or 5G, and how they differ from Three’s Zyxel NR5103EV2 offering.
If you only have 4G signal at your address, you also have the choice of getting Three’s 4G Hub router.
It works in the same way as the 5G Hub, although its Wi-Fi signal isn’t as good, and it’s slightly cheaper.
You can buy it from Three with unlimited data on a 24 month contract – no pay as you go plans are available – and with 4G signal, you can expect download speeds of about 40-50 Mbps on average.
Like Three and EE, Vodafone also sells a 5G broadband router, known as the GigaCube.
This router performs very similarly to the Zyxel NR5103EV2. It can support up to 64 devices connected to Wi-Fi at once, and it offers similar theoretical speeds. However, the Vodafone 5G network isn’t as fast as Three’s, in most locations.
The other issue with Vodafone is, they’re very expensive. You can expect to pay more than twice as much money to get an unlimited data 5G internet plan, compared to using Three.
EE also sells 5G broadband deals – confusingly, their router is called the “Smart 5G Hub”.
The difference between Three and EE is, EE offers better 5G signal in some parts of the country. They tend to offer better 4G coverage in remote areas as well, but unlike with Three, EE’s terms and conditions only allow you to use their 5G router at home, meaning you can’t take it with you when travelling.
The other issue with EE is, their 5G router deals are much more expensive than Three’s. The only reason you might like to consider EE is if they have 5G coverage at your address, and Three doesn’t.
This is the end of our review of Three’s 5G Hub router.
Still not sure whether this mobile broadband offer is a good choice for you? Leave a comment below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
