Huawei E355 Mobile Wi-Fi Smart 3G dongle–the solution to the Microsoft Surface’s lack of 3G?

We have ranted in the past about the absence of a compatible 3G dongle for the Microsoft Surface. Now a potential solution has popped up.

At the time many said to simply use a MIFI-type WIFI hotspot, which does not really address the issues of bulk and having to keep two gadgets charged, not to mention being rather inelegant.

The Huawei E355 Mobile Wi-Fi Smart 3G dongle however seems to solve those two issues pretty well. Much smaller than the average MIFI-type device due to not needing a battery, the dongle is USB powered while still providing the internet access over WIFI, meaning no software needs to be installed on the device (a sore point for a Windows RT).

The dongle supports connection by up to 5 devices, supports HSDPA+ and  comes pre-loaded with settings for UK Pre and Post-paid networks, which can also be added to via their web-based Dashboard Manager.

The gadget apparently also works as a USB thumb drive (up to 32GB) with that storage available via FTP from other devices.

The device is only £52.31 on Amazon UK (affiliate link) and $72.74 from Amazon US here.

We have not tested it ourselves yet, but aim to as soon as it hits our doorstep, but so far we can not see any reason why it will not work without any issue.