Related
Hi,
I'm finding I'm connecting only to UMTS, which is certainly nice, but I know I'm well within the HSDPA coverage zone so I'm wondering why it's not using that. I emailed T-Mo to check that HSDPA is enabled for my account (because I've read about people having some troubles with it) but they've verified that it is, so that's ruled out.
So now I'm wondering if it could have anything to do with the various new builds I've installed since I got it, or whether that could have no possible effect whatsoever. At the moment, settings is saying (And i don't really understand this so any explanation would also be very appreciated, even if you don't solve my problem at all):
Firmware version - 1.5
Baseband version - 62.50S.20.17H_2.22.19.26I
Kernel version - 2.6.27-00392-g8312baf [email protected] )
Build number - dream_devphone-userdebug 1.5 CRB21 147201 test-keys
Does it make any difference that I'm in the UK, or do the ADP build settings for picking up wireless internet (radio? is that the word I want? an explanation for that would be nice as well) work the same in the US as the UK?
Cheers,
Luke =)
Did you perform a speed test to determine your downstream speed? Anything greater than 384kb/s is HSDPA. All released Dream builds are configured for HSXPA. Check the build.prop.
Just ring T-Mo on 150 and speak to technical support, ask for HSDPA to be enabled because you want the better download speed. I'm currently on hold waiting for somebody to sort it out for me as I've never breached 384kb/s in an area where I should be able to get 4.5mb/s.
EDIT: Update time, managed to get HSDPA enabled but had to add web'n'walk plus to my contract, it took effect straight away and now I'm browsing at roughly 1.5mb/s though it does go quicker sometimes.
The phone status menu still states that it is connected via UMTS, so I think that the only reliable way to tell is by your speed.
All sounds interesting..
I wondering, is the reception for HSDPA vs UTMS any different/better?
Im constantly disappointed by my phones reception, 3G seems to be good outside, but crap indoors :-/
I guess I loose around 50% of all calls due to network issues. If HSDPA is a better signal then maybe it could help with this!
Although according to the signal bar icon, my phones is never truly without GPRS reception.. although im not sure I believe it! Sometimes I'm wondering if its sending data over the GPRS alot, and thats blocking the incoming calls (I know data over GPRS will block a call, but Im just not sure how much the G1 does this when its 'asleep').
Thanks for the heads up
I think HSDPA just piggybacks on the UMTS protocol to provide higher packet data rates, the actual phone call portion should remain the same. I've not had any improvement in call quality from the upgrade but then again calls were pretty awesome quality to begin with.
Also had the issue with both incoming and outgoing calls not getting through when in 3G mode on the phone, turned out that it was an issue with their masts and equipment but eventually they got it fixed, took like a month or so and not had anything too bad happen since.
(From OP)
Okay, so i'm in Central London, I usually get about 9-12 asu signal strength, and yet I've still never got more than that 384kb/s internet on the many speed tests I've run. Just got off the phone to tmobile tech support and they've double checked everything as much as possible and HSDPA services are definitely enabled on my account, so they keep reassuring me that HSDPA is variable based on signal strength and we can't guarantee you'll connect, but I'm really not convinced because I've never actually got HSDPA speeds.
Any ideas on what I should do? I'm paying for HSDPA but I'm not convinced I'm getting it. Anywhere I can go with such an insanely high signal strength that I can definitively prove somethings wrong if I still don't surpass 384kb/s?
The person at the desk said to try and find somebody with a G1 who is connecting to HSDPA, stand by them and see if I connect myself; I'm wondering if I could go to a west end t-mobile shop and boot up their model G1 and run a speed test on that, then compare it to mine.
Any of you guys in the UK actually getting more than 384kb/s, and if so any advice?
Thanks again, Luke.
insperatum said:
(From OP)
Any of you guys in the UK actually getting more than 384kb/s, and if so any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in Burgess Hill in West Sussex, running JF ADP 1.5 rom with the associated radio update and according to Xtremelabs Speedtest app I just got 671.6Kbit/s down and 143Kbit/s up, my mobile network type is shown as UTMS and my Baseband, Kernel and Build versions match yours exactly.
Does that help at all?
atconc said:
I'm in Burgess Hill in West Sussex, running JF ADP 1.5 rom with the associated radio update and according to Xtremelabs Speedtest app I just got 671.6Kbit/s down and 143Kbit/s up, my mobile network type is shown as UTMS and my Baseband, Kernel and Build versions match yours exactly.
Does that help at all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, well it certainly was very helpful. Narrows a lot of stuff out =D
As for useful, I'm not too sure All that's changed is I know there's somebody out there in seemingly exactly the same situation as me but without a problem
Oh also, what's your signal strength? I tend to max out at 11 or 12 asu.
insperatum said:
so they keep reassuring me that HSDPA is variable based on signal strength and we can't guarantee you'll connect, but I'm really not convinced because I've never actually got HSDPA speeds.
Any ideas on what I should do? I'm paying for HSDPA but I'm not convinced I'm getting it. Anywhere I can go with such an insanely high signal strength that I can definitively prove somethings wrong if I still don't surpass 384kb/s?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem isnt so much signal strength as bandwidth saturation. Unlike Time-Division based access schemes, WCDMA allows theoretically for an infinite number (limited only by how much bandwidth loss is considered acceptable by the carrier) of users to connect to a cell node over the same swath of frequency. By encoding each user's data stream with a unique code, the cell node can pick out a user's signal by looking for the expected coding (all the other user's streams appear as overlapping noise basically). Of course the more users on that same band of frequency, the more perceived "noise" there will be, which will result in reduced bandwidth for each individual user (you).
If you run a speed test at night, it should have a much better outcome.
jashsu said:
If you run a speed test at night, it should have a much better outcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Midnight, 113Kb/s, and I'm off to bed. I'll see how it's doing in the morning. Night ^.^
insperatum said:
Midnight, 113Kb/s, and I'm off to bed. I'll see how it's doing in the morning. Night ^.^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yikes. How many bars signal do you have for 3G?
Morning -yawn-
jashsu said:
Yikes. How many bars signal do you have for 3G?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally 3 bars, and settings saying something between 9 and 12 asu. I think I was on 11asu when I ran the test last night I think I was on 11asu. This morning for some reason I'm down to 2 bars, 6 asu and up to 190kb/s. *sigh*
Oh, and by the way, t-mobile list my postcode as being within the 4 bar (out of 5 this time) 'very good coverage' area for 3G.
Recommendations?
Update: Blimey. Just went up to 12 asu and scored 350kb/s. Soooo close!
Oh my god! UPDATE!
So a couple of days ago I bought a packet of those crappy chinese £2 signal booster stickers which you just stick to your phone and supposedly you get insanely better reception, not expecting it to work at all but hey, what's £2 for a chance at amazing signal.
And it worked! Turned off phone, stuck it inside behind the battery, rebooted and BAM: first speed test I ran I got 550kb/s. Next one I got over 700!
So I'm really surprised. Anybody having similar trouble getting an HSDPA signal should definitely try getting a a pack of these on ebay to see if it helps.
=D
Update: Turns out all of the above is total bull****. Please disregard.
I have 4 full bars - My signal strength shows -77dBm 18 asu
Today I'm hitting up to 1288.0 Kbit/s too I guess that Burgess Hill is probably not too heavily saturated in terms of 3G use and it probably helps that I can see the 3g masts on the building across the street from the office window.
insperatum said:
And it worked! Turned off phone, stuck it inside behind the battery, rebooted and BAM: first speed test I ran I got 550kb/s. Next one I got over 700!\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those stickers are pretty widely regarded as junk science. The reboot probably did the trick.
jashsu said:
Those stickers are pretty widely regarded as junk science. The reboot probably did the trick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah okay, I'll try again with a control and see how it does. Thanks.
________________________________________________________
Yep, you're entirely right. It was the reboot that helped (also coincidence played a nice part; it just happened that I got really high the first time I tried with the stickers in). I tried a few times without them, and didn't score too well the first two times, but got over 800 the third =)
So this leads me to my last question in my journey then. Why is it that my internet is really fast when I first boot up, and then sinks down again. No matter how many speed tests I did, nor when I did them I could never get more than about 350kb/s until I rebooted. Why should rebooting help - Programs I've installed using up resources? Overheating?
And thanks again Jashsu, you saved me from continuing to be a massive idiot.
Since it doesnt feature the 850mhz frequency, how well does this perform on AT&T's service? particularly the southeast region?
it's a Quad band phone in GSM
as long as your carrier can use any of those, then you'll be fine
Voice calls are great. (quick story):
I drive home from work along Route 202 in NJ and have always had 3 really bad dead zones (actually 4 but the last one is hit or miss). I know the dead zones so well that I start telling people that I will call them back when I lose signal (before its dropped). Well I stopped using my iPhone 3G and migrated to the Samsung Galaxy S and what is amazing is that I have only one area that is still dropping calls (the longest dead zone). So this was not saying the galaxy S is good, it just says that most of the cursing of AT&T that I did was possibly because of the crappy iPhone.
Regarding Data; I see no difference that with my iPhone, except when I go to Manhattan (NYC) where I get mainly Edge and some 3G. At home and work (most places in NJ) I get HSDPA (?) (you know the "H" signal) and I have great download speeds (upload sucks so does latency)
The results here:
http://www.speedtest.net/android/7113153.png
Great (super) Phone
3 issue remain for me though:
1) Fix the Damn GPS issues
2) Properly support the enterprise email (sorry Exchange is a requirement for most serious business phone....the definition of a smart phone) *
3) Get a standard and solid copy and paste solution (iPhone is the best, Blackberry is also good, android SUCKS)*
* only issue (1) is unique to hardware/firmware issues (2-3) are for google to fix!
Updatelease note I have an unlocked/imported SGS. the only ones I would have trusted to not be too dumbed down are the Sprint, Tmobile and Verizon versions (I needed a GSM phone and I hate Tmobile). AT&T's version changes things too much and the phone scores less than the other (rebranded) SGS's on all the benchmarks.
hmm, so should i grab the tmobile version of it or should i get the unlocked SGS? i think the main differences is the tmobile/att versions add the gyroscope, but take away the front camera...theres no other real changes correct?
kurtkbee said:
Voice calls are great. (quick story):
So this was not saying the galaxy S is good, it just says that most of the cursing of AT&T that I did was possibly because of the crappy iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From June 14th
"Samsung claims the Galaxy S showed 20 percent greater success rate of transmission and reception than any other smartphone out on market when they were tested in mountainous and major commercial areas."
I assume this relates to the international version, with possible similar service levels for US carriers but that would depend partially on the carrier and frequencies (though it still could be relatively better than the carriers other offerings). Then again, it is Samsung, so it's biased and we don't know their testing procedure.
http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=103976&code=Ne2&category=2
so should i get the captivate or should i get the unlocked i9000? the only differences are the front camera and gyroscope right?
Hey guys,
Once again thanks to all the developers who work so hard at making my phones so awesome.
Anyway, I just got the desire z from canada yesterday and I am using it on At&t here in southern california. The bell version has 3G bands on 850/1900 and the reception around riverside/san bernardino/inland empire here in california on At&t is usually quite good (go figure!). Anyhow, I have multiple cell phones including samsung focus, palm pre plus, and iPhone 4, and each one of them is pushing harder and faster data speeds than my desire Z When I run the speed test.net program on my iPhone 4, I average 1.2mps down, 0.5 up roughly. I have never seen my desire z go past 0.5mbs down/0.4 mps up. And yes, I have the "H" symbol with my settings on gsm/wcdma (I have even tried gsm only, wcdma only). Now, when I run the speed test on my verizon fios 25 down/25up, it pull something like 16mps down/9mps up! Also, when running the speed test over the network (cellular), I see it initially jump into 1.0mps down but then it starts to stutter and eventually gives me a slow ass connection When running wireless on fios however, it is butter smooth! (Yes I have changed servers on the speed tests all the way from kansas to new york!). Any thoughts?
BTW --> running stock bell rom with no rooting done yet.....might end up returning this
another BTW --> this phone is amazing! flawless in all aspects except data speed
Any feedback is always highly appreciated!
Happy New Year everyone,
Paul
Are you sure you entered the APN for AT&T correctly? On Bell I can pull anywhere from 1.5 to 6 mbps depending on where I am, so if your particular phone actually has reception issues it's an isolated incident.
Although it's worth noting that you're not actually doing all that bad speed wise when compared with your iPhone 4. You're getting half the speed, but it's really only 0.7 mbps less. If your iPhone was getting 3 mbps consistently and your Desire Z was getting 1.5 or less consistently, then there would be a major issue. It sounds like AT&T in your area just really, really sucks.
*#*#4636#*#* > Phone Information > Menu key > Select Radio Band > USA Band
Worth a try?
Hot_Hands said:
*#*#4636#*#* > Phone Information > Menu key > Select Radio Band > USA Band
Worth a try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think changing that actually does anything. The radio bands are set in hardware and can't be changed.
I have the same device running on AT&T in Northern California.
I get decent speeds here, about 1.75-2.5 mb/s download on average. I am rooted and did not run the speed test prior to root to have a figure to compare against.
One thing I would check would be the settings in speedtest. When I originally ran it, it went off of a server in Kansas for some reason. I updated the list to a nearby location and the speeds were back to normal. I would set it to connect to the same servers as your other devices and then compare the speeds.
So I really had to do a double take on this, and I honestly wouldn't believe it if I didn't have this evidence(after all, isn't the saying "pic or it didn't happen!") you're about to see. I have been checking the news lately and ATT had a quiet 4G announcement ceremony 20 hours ago, and a number of places are getting the HSPA+ switchover. Well, I decided to run speedtest and after running a wifi test first, I ran one HSPA test....1406 down, 1744 UP!!!!! I was shocked, and I immediately logged onto xda, excited to report the switch has been flipped, at least the software one; my Fuze running energy can get 2000 up from where I'm sitting; right before I was going to post this thread saying hey everyone they changed it, I thought wait, I don't want to cry wolf, so I went back into the app for 3 more tests. NO MORE HSUPA! I even walked to line of sight with the damn HSUPA enabled tower, and it was off again! WTFFFFFFFFFF!
Here are the pictures of said insanity:
imbx,us/Gys.jpg
imbx,us/GLm.jpg
imbx,us/G2E.jpg
in a sense of irony, I found a weird ball of spiders today, when I uploaded the picture it assigned it the label:
imbx,us/GSM.jpg[/url]
I would like to stick this ball of spiders inside Steve Jobs or the ATT CEO's mouth, for what they've done to GSM. Apple made them cripple the HSUPA, and they probably had a year exclusivity deal, which is why a year after the iphone 4 has HSUPA, we get it. Just my guess, I haven't heard anyone say that, but damn, my Fuze has had 2400 upload for years...
Here's another picture of that weird ball I found. It explodes when you touch it...
imbx,us/GBU.jpg
If you can test your Atrix and provide a location in your reply, then we can make this a thread for reporting in areas that have gotten a possible switch. I have a feeling that over the next week changes are going to be made
And in case anyone is wondering why this is in development, well, as far as I'm concerned, this is a DEVELOPMENT, in ANDROID, for the ATRIX. It happens to be a developing situation,
Semantics, I love em!
PS I had to replace the periods with commas in the picture links because I've been a 3 year lurker, not poster.
Addendum
Sorry if I come off a little bit frustrated in my post, but I literally NEED HSUPA in 3 days for some work I'm doing with the national guard and homeland security. If the ATT network permissions are not changed in a couple days, I'm screwed and stuck with my damn Fuze. And that thing sucks! Call/End/Home/Back buttons broken, cannot answer calls because slide to answer disappears when I GET a call, and when I plug in the audio/charging dongle, it will randomly dial people in my contact list...including ex girlfriends...
Anybody dealing with that, would be irate.
No offense. this still doesn't deserve to be in this forum.
And just in case I'm not clear.. You should move it to general..
Xda app via atrix
In retrospect, no problem with that, except I tried editing and I didn't see a parameter to make this post jump to the other subsection; I'll try again, as I have no problem moving it...
Checked, and yeah, I feel like a boner, as I am failing to see any button to delete this post or another item to move it to a more appropriate spot. Hopefully the wise and all knowing Mr. Clown will swoop down on this stupidity of mine. Note to self: pay more attention during 2 am postings....
:S
Yes this should be in General, but also FYI... AT&T can't just "flip" a "software switch" and enable HSUPA on ANY phone. HSUPA is enabled or disabled by the modem installed on the phone, and ANY phone with HSUPA (say, a Captivate running an i9000 modem/kernel) will be able to use it on AT&T's network and they will get those speeds. The Atrix didn't ship with a modem that even HAS the REV6, it shipped with hardware that was "capable" of it, but a modem that was not, and as of the 4.1.57 update, they still haven't released a modem that is. You just stated that you did a wifi speed test right before... It is likely a result of cache files that you got the results you saw... In other words, a fluke.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Rich, I wish I could say it was a fluke, but a couple of things here don't make sense for a fluke: if it was wifi, then why was the 1700 kbps down SUSTAINED? it didn't cut out, it only reverted to baseline UMTS after trying again a few minutes later. Second, my wifi would never put out such a low upload speed, I'm right next to the router, full bars 802.11n on a high speed connection that often upload reports 9 to 5 mbps, never lower. Third, my Fuze, a 3.5 year old device with an olllllld rom, most likely without the release 6 handshake, can connect to HSUPA at 1500-1900 kbps from my office chair, where I have been testing. LOS I get even better, but still, I don't think it was a mistake:
ATT is deploying their "4G". They are going to go live with higher HSPA+ speeds VERY soon, they just had the announcement. What I think happened is this, our phones, being the very well connected devices they are, are provisioned according to device type. I think when I momentarily connected for the first time in several hours, it provisioned me the HSUPA packetstream for a moment. Perhaps because they are changing software and/or equipment at many towers right now, there was a glitch, but right now I see zero evidence for the ookla app royally screwing up; check the pictures, it assigned me a HSUPA stream upon initial connection, sustained it for about 15 seconds, and then I rechecked it about 5 minutes later, and it was back to 360, the practical maximum for UMTS. So since these postings are getting pageviews despite its improper location(I haven't got the powers to move it to general), I would like people reading this to test their phone and chime in, especially if you don't live in the east bay in california like me. I know Orlando airport is supposed to be running HSPA+ right now....
The most convincing thing to me was, when it first ran and i got the typical dl speed of 1500, and then the ul of 1704, it behaved exactly like it was onthe network: the speed oscillated up and down like a realtime connection, losing or gaining dozens of bits during the test. It behaved like it connected with hsdpa and hsupa during every other connection i made with my fuze in ookla, winmo or aosp. And seeing as it(fuze) has the original radio and modem, idk about att's handshake explanation. Then again i make no pretentions of being a high speed packet access engineer....
It is a fluke. Same thing happens to my phone since day o f release. I get good upload once out of 10 tests
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
This ins not development. Moved
different phenomena
Hi jay, i think you may be describing something else; I've run speedtest literally 100 times since release, and during those many tests i saw what you may think i'm describing: for a split second, the speed would jump really high and then plummet to baseline. Saw that many times never sustained. Last night i got a SUSTAINED hsupa stream. If you guys type in at&t 4G into google news and parse by recent, MANY cities are getting the goods, with postings across the country over the past 4 days. AT&T is pumping$ 19 billion dollars into their network this yea and next. I think the transition has already begun. Thats why i made this thread, i want other hspa users tocheck the network around them, i know this misplaced posting is getting way more pageviews than posters....orlando intl should have 6+ mbps connections active right now for example
Guys he is right. Remember AT&T said they would be deploying HSPA+ in April. Well it is April. Now they never said when in April, but I can see them turning region by region on. I do agree it is more than just a switch. They add two more carrots in front of the donkey's to make them run faster so there network runs faster.
I wish someone would post what hspa hspa+ are and sticky it. Just because we get hsupa enabled still does not mean we get hspa+. This is device is capable of 14 mbps down. When we see speeds lime that then hspa + will be enabled... the iphone 3gs tops off at 7 mbs so do the math people. Enabling hsupa will benefit some but most of us wont notice any difference until hspa+ is enabled. Id rather have that right now than faster upload speeds
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
crashingout said:
Hi jay, i think you may be describing something else; I've run speedtest literally 100 times since release, and during those many tests i saw what you may think i'm describing: for a split second, the speed would jump really high and then plummet to baseline. Saw that many times never sustained. Last night i got a SUSTAINED hsupa stream. If you guys type in at&t 4G into google news and parse by recent, MANY cities are getting the goods, with postings across the country over the past 4 days. AT&T is pumping$ 19 billion dollars into their network this yea and next. I think the transition has already begun. Thats why i made this thread, i want other hspa users tocheck the network around them, i know this misplaced posting is getting way more pageviews than posters....orlando intl should have 6+ mbps connections active right now for example
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope that jump happens everytime. I just ran 10 tests and one uploaded at 1700.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
The speedtest apps on the market have very shoddy coding. It's a known fact. As everyone has been saying, it was a fluke, nothing more.
Bell Canada has HSUPA enabled network since Day 1,
but the software on the Atrix has been disabled HSUPA
so still not works
Smallsmx3 said:
I wish someone would post what hspa hspa+ are and sticky it. Just because we get hsupa enabled still does not mean we get hspa+. This is device is capable of 14 mbps down. When we see speeds lime that then hspa + will be enabled... the iphone 3gs tops off at 7 mbs so do the math people. Enabling hsupa will benefit some but most of us wont notice any difference until hspa+ is enabled. Id rather have that right now than faster upload speeds
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. HSUPA is available now but the modems on the Atrix are limiting us to 300 kbps. I have a Captivate that was limited to 300 kbps uploads. After rooting and flashing (with a different rom and modem) it gets 1500+ kbps upload.
HSPA+ is a different animal that won't translate to the Captivate.
So we're looking for two updates on the atrix.
1) HSUPA enabled...which can be done by AT&T w/ another OTA update that includes a new modem. This will work on the existing infrastructure and should give similar upload performance to the iphones.
2) HSPA+ enabled. I assume this will also require an OTA update but with the updated infrastructure, will bring much faster upload and download speeds (4G).
Didn't know if it had the necessary Hardware and might be possible with a new SIM card.
No.
Lol
Thought I read somewhere that the V20 won't be exactly compatible with 5G, but will get a slight speed boost when in 5G markets. Thoughts?
baldybill said:
Thought I read somewhere that the V20 won't be exactly compatible with 5G, but will get a slight speed boost when in 5G markets. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way if you are still using v20 when 5g fully rolls out is when majority of lte users move onto 5g. Thereby freeing up bandwidth space for the now legacy lte for you to use so it will be faster.
joaovictorsouza said:
Lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic contribution
darkknight200 said:
The only way if you are still using v20 when 5g fully rolls out is when majority of lte users move onto 5g. Thereby freeing up bandwidth space for the now legacy lte for you to use so it will be faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most insightful comment I have read in a while.
That is exactly what happened when they rolled out LTE. I stayed on HSPA+ and got great speeds because everyone else was jumping on the LTE bandwagon.
Once LTE was fully deployed, and you couldn't buy a phone anymore without LTE support, things were much better -- 120mbits average for the area I am in.
Once T-Mobile fully deploys band 71 (600Mhz) with 5g, then I will bite the bullet and buy the least sucky flagship phone that is available and supports it (I think I will have my V20s for many years yet )
-- Brian
runningnak3d said:
Most insightful comment I have read in a while.
That is exactly what happened when they rolled out LTE. I stayed on HSPA+ and got great speeds because everyone else was jumping on the LTE bandwagon.
Once LTE was fully deployed, and you couldn't buy a phone anymore without LTE support, things were much better -- 120mbits average for the area I am in.
Once T-Mobile fully deploys band 71 (600Mhz) with 5g, then I will bite the bullet and buy the least sucky flagship phone that is available and supports it (I think I will have my V20s for many years yet )
-- Brian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like to hear that! . Still Loving my v20 also. Guess I am a little bit old school and like the Legacy device
runningnak3d said:
Once T-Mobile fully deploys band 71 (600Mhz) with 5g, then I will bite the bullet and buy the least sucky flagship phone that is available and supports it (I think I will have my V20s for many years yet )
-- Brian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is mainly what I'm waiting on for a new phone. My next phone I would definitely want that band to have as future proofing but since I'm in a rather low populated part, I don't think I will be seeing this band on a tower in my area for quite a few years at least.
Thanks for the replies and information everybody. Hope you're all having an awesome weekend. Or soon-to-be weekend that is
It is not possible as the radio inside the phone would need to be changed. So 5g compatibility is something on the hardware level that needs to be available not something able to be turned on with software.
Unfortunately the v20 seems as if it will be the last phone to have removable battery everyone has since moved to the glass laminate design apple uses.
mirrin said:
It is not possible as the radio inside the phone would need to be changed. So 5g compatibility is something on the hardware level that needs to be available not something able to be turned on with software.
Unfortunately the v20 seems as if it will be the last phone to have removable battery everyone has since moved to the glass laminate design apple uses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am hoping that when 5G fully rolls out that a manufacturer releases one more smartphone with a removable battery. As long as the specs are ok, and by ok I mean a minimum of 4 GB of RAM and a 4K (or greater) display resolution and of course Micro SD card support then it would be up for my consideration.
I recently purchased a brand new LG V20 H918 (the Unlocked T-Mobile variant) phone. The very first purchase that I did was getting the PowerBear extended battery on Amazon, with the 2 day prime shipping that's what I got much sooner than the actual phone since the phone I also got it brand new but on Ebay since there it was significantly cheaper ($150) compared to any price I was seeing for a new phone for any variant on Amazon, you could only get a "renewed" (another way of Amazon saying "refurbished" I guess) for the same price I got my new phone on Ebay. (I guess the price inflation could be another way of Amazon getting back their 5% cash back they pay their Amazon Chase Visa card holders).
The V20 replaces my Samsung Galaxy S5 that also had an extended battery (the iPossible battery) and then it dropped onto a hard porcelain floor facing down, and while the screen didn't crack, it started zooming and unzooming erratically at random times and it would only reset back to normal if I power off the screen and turn it back on. Faced with having to purchase a new LCD screen and having to do the repair something that I know how to do since I have done it many times to other users I took the opportunity to search for a newer phone with a removable battery since I didn't have the time to dedicate to perform this repair with my super busy schedule, replacing an LCD screen off any smartphone is a tedious task, I just didn't wanted to bother this time. So after 3 days of hard research I finally discovered that the LG V20 is the latest smartphone to actually support a removable battery and then my next research turned on to determine what variant should I exactly go for: I had many options, I could have gone with Sprint's variant (the LS995) the Verizon's variant (VS995) or the T-Mobile's variant (H918). The Sprint's unlocked variant seemed very promising, being compatible with most networks here in the USA, except that it didn't support one of T-Mobile newer LTE Band 66 but other than that it supported every LTE band the Galaxy S5 supported and I guess it could have been a great compromise giving me the future option to go with Sprint or any of their MVNO's, except that when I checked if that phone was rootable I was dissapointed to hear that if my phone came with a certain firmware version or greater then it was unrootable and there has been more than 1 year without a method being discovered yet, um I need to be able to root, certain producttivity apps that I use depends on rooting, including the use of Titanium backup that allows me to import all of my Google Authenticator keys that aren't backed up in any other ways. Next to my list: the verizon's variant: it was a good choice except it didn't support all of Sprint's LTE bands which would mean a spotty Sprint coverage shall I go with Sprint in the future, and no Band 12 support for T-mobile either, that automatically was a no-go. At the end, I just went with the T-Mobile's unlocked variant and T-Mobile is my actual carrier too. In my area I used to get 25 Mbps speed test on my old Galaxy S5 phone that lacked Band 66 support, on this new phone with B66 support I got 100 Mbps. I got surprised when I saw that speed and I was only able to get that speed after I changed the Access Point Name from the default IPv6 only configuration into IPv4 only, under IPv6 I only got 35 Mbps don't exactly know why IPv4 outperformed IPv6 by a factor greater than 3 but those were my results here in the city of New York.
Overall, I am very happy with this phone. Its a super fast performing phone for a phone that was introduced in 2016 and by the looks of it, this phone can continue being relevant for many years to come.
Once again, I really hope to see another phone with removable battery being introduced somewhere in the future that actually supports 5G.
kaluna00 said:
Didn't know if it had the necessary Hardware and might be possible with a new SIM card.
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this is a fuzzy answer and not one many would tackle due to the efforts gained. the V20 series can NOT handle the data (think volume) rates of 5G , BUT...
i have no doubts the physical device would work on a 5G network. 5G is a VERY short wave, but the V20 is unique because the antennas are easy access with room to spare. ( top/bottom cases)
so with time , a 30,000.00$ -S2-test set- network analyzer, YES its quite simple. but no matter what is done, the core of the device is only capable of the original design for MAX 4G speeds (100-300megs/sec?) PLUS i cant say how the device would hold up to the MAX rates 100% of the time. would be a cool experiment, but this is far out for a 2016 spec phone. T-mobile network would be the best bet for easy tune, but again, how will hardware handle
i wouldn't know where to start for the software side, but tuning an antenna isn't too bad.
Speeds are often be more down to what your network provider is capable of giving you rather than your fones capability.
3G working at full speed as advertised can be absolutely fine for streaming video.
4G+ is more than good enough for me, not all the time but most of the time. Don't care less I don't have 5g on my V20, my fave fone ever.
kaluna00 said:
Didn't know if it had the necessary Hardware and might be possible with a new SIM card.
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No, as that would require changes on the SoC level and I don't think any of us have the hardware or qualifications to do stuff like that.