Acer Connect M6E – A New 5G Global, Unlocked Mobile Hotspot With Physical, eSIM and vSIM

Acer is a major electronics company that recently introduced an interesting new 5G mobile hotspot device, the Acer Connect M6E, priced at $299.

This new hotspot comes with some unusual features for mobile hotspots, like multiple SIM options, and features typically found in travel routers.

Is this a worthy addition to a mobile internet arsenal? Read on for all the details....

Acer M6E Video Overview

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Acer M6E Specifications

The first notable thing about this new Acer hotspot is the design. It uses a ruggedized case and meets IP68 and MIL-STD-810H durability ratings, making it appropriate for use in wet or dusty environments and more resistant to shock and drops. It also has an integrated carry strap, allowing it to be securely attached.

The hotspot lacks antenna ports and an Ethernet port - these are likely compromises driven by the durability standards. Still, antenna ports on modern 5G hotspots are relatively rare and do come with downsides, and the lack of an Ethernet port can be mitigated with a USB-C-to-Ethernet adapter.

The hotspot also supports Wi-Fi 6e for LAN connections, including the 6 GHz frequency.

Global Modem

The M6E hotspot uses the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 system-on-a-chip (SOC) design with an integrated 5G modem. The modem itself supports 3GPP Rel. 16 standards and 3x carrier aggregation with 140 MHz of bandwidth, which means it's roughly equivalent to an X62/65 in terms of performance. Peak theoretical cellular performance is rated at 3.27 Gbps.

This is intended as a global hotspot that can be used almost anywhere and supports many cellular bands. However, there is one strange and notable absence:

• 5G Sub-6GHz: n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n20, n28, n38, n40, n41, n66, n71, n75, n77, n78, n79
• LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 38, 40, 41, 42, 48, 66, 71

The major missing band is 25/n25, which is a core T-Mobile band. It's unclear why Acer doesn't support this band, and its absence will negatively affect coverage and performance on the T-Mobile network. Hopefully, Acer will add support for this band in a future firmware update.

The Acer has a good mix of bands used globally, so this should work well for international travelers.

Like most hotspots, millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G isn't supported, but this isn't a major downside, since adding the capability is expensive and mmWave is generally deployed only in dense urban cores and major venues like stadiums and airports.

SIM Diversity

One of the more exciting aspects of the M6E is SIM diversity. The hotspot has a single physical nano SIM slot, but it also supports eSIM and SIMO's cloud/virtual SIM system. 

This allows you to have more than one plan active on the hotspot at once, though with only a single modem, you cannot connect to multiple plans simultaneously.

The implementation in the M6E is basic in the sense that failover is not supported - the user must manually switch from one SIM type to another.

Another downside is that adding an eSIM profile can only be done via an Acer web portal, and the procedure requires the hotspot to be connected to a Wi-Fi network via the Wi-Fi Extender feature (more on that below), using a smartphone that is also connected to the M6E.

The third SIM option is a virtual/cloud SIM using SIMO. SIMO is a proprietary cloud SIM provider that has been around for several years and is often sold under the Solis brand. The Acer M6E is specifically designed to support SIMO's service, and SIMO sells the M6E, although not yet to customers in North America.

Getting connected with SIMO is much simpler than creating an eSIM profile, but SIMO's plan options are generally not great on a cost-per-gigabyte basis, especially for those looking for lots of high-speed data.

But having more options is nice, and three SIM options give the M6E a lot of flexibility and future-proofing compared to a traditional physical SIM-only device.

Other Features

The Acer Connect M6E also has several features that are relatively new or rarely seen in mobile hotspot devices. This evolution of the mobile hotspot device is something we plan to cover in more depth in a future industry update article.

Limited Wi-Fi-as-WAN

The M6E offers limited Wi-Fi-as-WAN functionality via Acer's "Wi-Fi Extending" feature. This allows the hotspot to connect to an existing Wi-Fi Access Point and share the internet with other devices connected to M6E, similar to a travel router.

While not specified in the technical documents, this feature will surely come with a performance and battery usage hit, as the Wi-Fi radios will have to do double duty serving both WAN and LAN clients. But this is a nice feature to have that gives the M6E more flexibility than many other hotspot devices.

NFC Touch To Connect

Another nice quality-of-life feature is using NFC (Near Field Communication) to let other NFC devices quickly connect to the mobile hotspot via tap-to-connect without having to enter passwords. The downside is that this is compatible only with Android smartphones and tablets that support NFC for quick Wi-Fi sharing.

VPN Support

VPN support is built into the M6E, but only for the OpenVPN standard. Fortunately, OpenVPN is a widely used option, and Acer says it is compatible with popular commercial providers such as NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, and many others.

This is another nice-to-have feature that is becoming increasingly common on higher-end mobile hotspot devices, again blurring the line between a traditional mobile hotspot and a travel router.

Large Battery

The Acer Connect M6E also comes with an unusually large 8,000 mAh battery. Acer claims the battery will support a 1080p stream for up to 28 hours without a recharge, 36 hours in normal use, and up to 48 hours in standby.

For comparison, the new Netgear M7 eSIM mobile hotspot has a 3,850 mAh battery with a claimed 10 hours of average use per charge, while most smartphones average about 5,000 mAh for battery capacity.

The hotspot can also act as a battery bank for other devices.

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Concluding Thoughts

The Acer M6E is a very interesting and well-priced mobile hotspot, given its on-paper performance and features. It's part of a growing evolution of the mobile hotspot category, with new and expanded features that make mobile hotspots more useful and interesting.

The M6E has a lot going for it - a ruggedized design, a huge battery, Wi-Fi 6e, and an interesting feature set. It is, however, disappointing that support for T-Mobile's critical n25 band is not included, at least for now. 

The M6E is available now from major retailers for $299.

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