Database Users

[Q] Which version of Samsung Note 4 phone is a better buy?

Hello,
I'm trying to make sense of the LTE frequencies, so maybe you can help.
The situation: I'd like to buy the phone and use it on AT&T LTE in the US, but -- very important -- also use it for data when traveling outside the US. Also, I'd like the ability switch providers in the US (that's why I'm not buying a subsidized phone from AT&T).
The question: The Note 4 model SM-N910W8 has more LTE frequencies than the model SM-N910A. I assume it means that the SM-N910W8 is more likely to perform well in foreign countries and on other US carriers. If so, that's a better purchase than AT&T model of the phone (SM-N910A). Is this correct?
The data:
According to GSM Arena, the "North American" model SM-N910W8 supports
LTE 700 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17)
According to Samsung website, the specialized AT&T version of the phone SM-N910A supports
2G GSM : 850/900/1800/1900;
3G WCDMA : Band I/Band II/Band V;
4G (LTE Cat 4 150/50Mbps) : B2 / B4 / B5 / B12 / B17
(the system won't allow me to provide links to the data sources, but PM me if you'd like them)

I was also confused about all the band stuff. I am on AT&T myself and I just purchased a note 4 sm-n910c. it is the exynos version (some people don't want that) but it supposedly works great with AT&T lte. The phone arrives on Wednesday soo I personally don't know. But I did alot of research before purchasing.
My current att branded note edge (i assume same as note 4) supports
4G FDD LTE: B1(2100), B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B17(700), B20(800);
And the 910c supports:
LTE 800 / 700 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600
(Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 17, 20)
You may also want to look into the sm-n910u

Thanks! So according to the source below, a "band" is simply a range of radio frequencies. That's why there's an overlap between "radio frequencies" and "LTE bands".
radio-electronics.com/info/cellulartelecomms/lte-long-term-evolution/lte-frequency-spectrum.php
My impression is that the more frequencies a device has, the better it performs across carriers, when roaming. And of course, any carrier is better off selling a device that's customized to its own network, thereby making switching carriers more difficult. I guess that this is why the AT&T model has fewer frequencies than the non-AT&T model.
By the way, the seller of the SM-N910W8 assured me that the device is capable of the same LTE speeds at a SM-N910A.

Right every carrier uses specific bands of frequency. Some work on multiple carries. For instance the t-mobile note 4 work on ATT network.
I don't know much about the 910w8 but yes the more bands it supports the more universal it will be across carriers. Of course GSM phones will not work on CDMA networks like version and sprint

Craleb said:
Right every carrier uses specific bands of frequency. Some work on multiple carries.
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Click to collapse
That's right. And my hunch is that carriers limit their branded phones (the subsidized phones they sell). This way, the phone will perform best only on their network. At least in the case of AT&T, I can't find another explantion why their branded phone (SM-N910A) supports fewer bands than a non-AT&T branded phone (like the SM-N910W8).

Does iPhone have these restrictions... Just curious

magichoward said:
Does iPhone have these restrictions... Just curious
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Click to collapse
Yes, the iPhone is also frequency restricted. Manufacturers do it to help carriers (which are their big customers, not us retail customers). Carriers use the frequency restrictions to curb cross-border sales and limit your ability to switch to a competitor, even if you paid for your device.
Iphone 6 A1522 (GSM)
LTE (band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29)
Iphone 6 A1524 (CDMA):
FDD-LTE (band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29)
TD-LTE (band 38, 39, 40, 41)
(I found the data in "Galaxy Note4 Firmware - All Models")

The version that ends in W8 is the Latin American version. The T-Mobile version is compatible with most bands.

Att has locked boot loader, as well as vzw. If your into rooting and flashing custom Roms, stay away from those phone's.

jaxenroth said:
Att has locked boot loader, as well as vzw
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Click to collapse
Thanks! I didn't know that. So now the AT&T version (SM-N910A) is definitely off the table. It's down to two models. Both will support all of AT&T LTE bands, but one adds full support for European LTE and the other adds full support for T-Mobile US.
SM-N910C, which has Exynos CPU and supports 800 Mhz and 4G band 20, which one of the three bands common in Europe.
SM-N910W8, which has Snapdragon CPU and supports 4G band 12, which means full support for T-Mobile 4G.

arjun90 said:
The version that ends in W8 is the Latin American version. The T-Mobile version is compatible with most bands.
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Yes, the T-Mobile version (which I see is the one you one) has the same bands as the 910W8 and the same CPU. The advantage (for me) is that I can buy it from T-Mobile and receive warranty.

The T-Mobile version is the appropriate one for you, especially since you will receive warranty from Samsung USA.
NYCgirl said:
Yes, the T-Mobile version (which I see is the one you one) has the same bands as the 910W8 and the same CPU. The advantage (for me) is that I can buy it from T-Mobile and receive warranty.
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Hong Kong

Hey everyone, thanks for taking the time to try and help me out! I am possibly going to spend about 4 months in Hong Kong, starting with this upcoming January. I am really having trouble figuring out if this phone can be used there. It seems like it has the bands for most of the 3G networks there, but can anyone possibly help me confirm this? I would also love LTE, but I don't think this phone has the proper LTE bands for Hong Kong. I tried contacting T-Mobile (I currently have Verizon but may get T-Mobile there), and they told me to contact a Hong Kong carrier. I found the number 2 carrier there, and sent them emails and Facebook messages, and have not heard back. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Basically, I just want to know if the MXPE supports 3G and/or LTE bands in Hong Kong. If it does, I won't have to buy a phone to use while I am there. Thanks!
P.S. The Hong Kong carrier I am looking at is Hong Kong China Mobile.

Well here are the bands that the US MXPE supports:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700 (AWS),1900, 2100 MHz)
CDMA (800, 850, 1900 MHz)
4G LTE† (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, 38, 41)
According to the LTE wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks#Asia
HKCM uses LTE bands 3, 7, and 40
Looks like bands 3 and 7 are pretty prevalent in HK, so chances are that you'll get LTE (but obviously not 100% guaranteed).
3G wise it looks like they use: UMTS 850, UMTS 900, UMTS 2100 - so you should at least get 3G.

pinoymutt said:
Well here are the bands that the US MXPE supports:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700 (AWS),1900, 2100 MHz)
CDMA (800, 850, 1900 MHz)
4G LTE† (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, 38, 41)
According to the LTE wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks#Asia
HKCM uses LTE bands 3, 7, and 40
Looks like bands 3 and 7 are pretty prevalent in HK, so chances are that you'll get LTE (but obviously not 100% guaranteed).
3G wise it looks like they use: UMTS 850, UMTS 900, UMTS 2100 - so you should at least get 3G.
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Awesome! It seemed like I was gonna get 3G but I was having trouble making sure that I would get LTE. Mainly because I looked at a Xiaomi Hong Kong phone and it mentioned FDD and I think TDP LTE and I was really confused!

My wife's Nexus 6 got LTE on the local PCCW carrier (now called csl) in Hong Kong earlier this year. So if the Moto X has the same bands for LTE you should be good to go.
As a side note my Nexus 5 did not get LTE but I was still very impressed with the 3G speeds. Wish the US has speeds like that for 3G.

dplcj said:
My wife's Nexus 6 got LTE on the local PCCW carrier (now called csl) in Hong Kong earlier this year. So if the Moto X has the same bands for LTE you should be good to go.
As a side note my Nexus 5 did not get LTE but I was still very impressed with the 3G speeds. Wish the US has speeds like that for 3G.
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Really appreciate the feedback. I will most likely do either csl or China Mobile Hong Kong, depending on pricing and reception.

chris23445 said:
Really appreciate the feedback. I will most likely do either csl or China Mobile Hong Kong, depending on pricing and reception.
Click to expand...
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Smartone might be worth taking a look at also.
FYI not all prepaid plans have 4G or LTE. csl just started offering it on prepaid within the last year. I don't know what other carriers have LTE on prepaid so you will need to do some research.

I am a local HKer, using CSL and my Moto X Style from the UK can access all the LTE band in HK. We mostly on 1800/2600 Mhz that is Band 3/7. I remember the Pure from the US do support the HK bands. I almost bought the US version to use in HK, but given up because Moto Maker doesn't allow me to proceed without a US credit card.

mic325 said:
I am a local HKer, using CSL and my Moto X Style from the UK can access all the LTE band in HK. We mostly on 1800/2600 Mhz that is Band 3/7. I remember the Pure from the US do support the HK bands. I almost bought the US version to use in HK, but given up because Moto Maker doesn't allow me to proceed without a US credit card.
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Click to collapse
I use UK version of the MOTO X STYLE in Hong Kong too:good:

Not fully LTE Compatible

The Moto Z Play GSM unlocked releases tomorrow in the U.S., and it's not fully compatible with AT&T LTE. So basically its a T-mobile phone. What the hell! I'm so angry they did this. Anyone know where I can pick up the mexican or brazilian model from the States?

What makes you say its not compatible with AT&T?
Sent from my ASUS_Z00A using Tapatalk

According to GSM Arena, the only supported bands on AT&T are 2 and 4. AT&T uses Bands 17, 5, 2 and 4

I think the odds are that is not correct, but I can't guarantee that.

it is correct unfortunately... I already called them. Like I said. Super pissed about it. I really really wanted this phone because of the battery life. Looks like I have to go with the one plus 3 now.

You're right — the Moto US website shows 4G LTE (B2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 13)
If you're interested in getting the Mexican version, send me a private message.

My US Moto Z Play works perfectly with AT&T, LTE Detector shows that I am connected using band 17. https://imgur.com/a/V16ip
How accurate the app is i dont know, but LTE does infact work fine.

People assumed what Moto had for the supported bands was correct, but people have gotten their phones and all the bands for ATT are there with the GSM model.

metalmike6 said:
The Moto Z Play GSM unlocked releases tomorrow in the U.S., and it's not fully compatible with AT&T LTE. So basically its a T-mobile phone. What the hell! I'm so angry they did this. Anyone know where I can pick up the mexican or brazilian model from the States?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It supports LTE band 17, in fact all bands for AT&T. It was mentioned on the box. I got it yesterday and its working just fine. On Best Buy and Motorola website its bad copy paste job from Moto Z Droid.

Going to be picking mine up from best buy in a bit... I will also report back my findings. Hoping everyone is correct about the bad copy pasta

LTE bands confirmed for unlocked gsm model

metalmike6 said:
LTE bands confirmed for unlocked gsm model
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Awesome, I actually didnt notice that on the box when I got it. Hopefully not too many people got scared away by the misunderstanding.

I just bought my phone from ebay, the language on the box is spanish, i am guessing its from Mexico.
On the phone itself it says "MODELO:XT1635-02", TYPE:M1D64
I am in Houghton, Michigan right now and am on an H2O network, which uses AT&T networks.
I am checking network info repetetively, and HSPA is displayed in the settings and not LTE.
Dail *#*#4636#*#* in your phone's dailer for more info on your network.
I tried choosing "Only LTE" here and upon choosing this, the phone doesnt catch any network!
Is the US version same as the Mexican version?
Is the Mexican version same as the International version?
WTF is this bull**** and why Motorola have this in the first place?
Anyone with additional info please reply ASAP, because if this mexican phone wont catch LTE, i will give it back to the seller and buy a new US version of the phone,
(provided the US version is compatible with AT&T networks)

Confirming again, us model does have band 17. Just got mine today.

Ak Ankit said:
I just bought my phone from ebay, the language on the box is spanish, i am guessing its from Mexico.
On the phone itself it says "MODELO:XT1635-02", TYPE:M1D64
I am in Houghton, Michigan right now and am on an H2O network, which uses AT&T networks.
I am checking network info repetetively, and HSPA is displayed in the settings and not LTE.
Dail *#*#4636#*#* in your phone's dailer for more info on your network.
I tried choosing "Only LTE" here and upon choosing this, the phone doesnt catch any network!
Is the US version same as the Mexican version?
Is the Mexican version same as the International version?
WTF is this bull**** and why Motorola have this in the first place?
Anyone with additional info please reply ASAP, because if this mexican phone wont catch LTE, i will give it back to the seller and buy a new US version of the phone,
(provided the US version is compatible with AT&T networks)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Mexican version of the phone should be 100% compatible. Make sure however you dont have the euro model or the Peru model.

Works with att lte here but not as good as my s7e att phone. But i still get lte in areas
Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk

jon7701 said:
My US Moto Z Play works perfectly with AT&T, LTE Detector shows that I am connected using band 17.
How accurate the app is i dont know, but LTE does infact work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought the unlocked US Moto Z play from best buy and can't get on the LTE network. I live in a major US city too, philadelphia. Can you maybe share your APN settings with me? What else could it be?
Thanks!

Using LTE Discovery, I can see I'm currently connected to band 17 on my unlocked Moto Z Play. It appears the specs on Moto's website are incorrect.

Motorola updated their website
Network Bands - US GSM Unlocked:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz)
4G LTE (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 19, 20, 28, 38, 40)
People confirmed that volte works on tmobile
Unsure about volte on att, or wifi calling on any network
Now, im going to complain about the lack of band 66(aws-3)

paperWastage said:
Motorola updated their website
Network Bands - US GSM Unlocked:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz)
4G LTE (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 19, 20, 28, 38, 40)
People confirmed that volte works on tmobile
Unsure about volte on att, or wifi calling on any network
Now, im going to complain about the lack of band 66(aws-3)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So there are 2 model numbers for the moto z play. XT1635-01 and XT1635-02. I believe 01 is the US version and 02 is an international version. 01 doesn't seem to come w/ a usb type A to type C cable, and 02 seems horribly inconsistent where the versions shipped to india do seem to come w/ a usb type c cable and the versions to the EU don't seem to have said cable.
According to the box on -02 imgur.com/wBTrUhY, it does support band 17.
Has anyone that has -02 tried cyanogen 14.1 yet? Curious to know if they had any issues w/ flashing twrp or cyanogen to -02. Also curious if -01 takes a full size sim or only a nano-sim.

Sprint HTC 10 LTE Bands

Does the Sprint HTC 10 have LTE Band 3 (1800mhz)?

zlebors said:
Does the Sprint HTC 10 have LTE Band 3 (1800mhz)?
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The unlocked US 10 has support for the following:
4G LTE (up to 450Mbps)
FDD: Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 28, 29, 30
While the Sprint variant has support for
B2 (1900 PCS) LTE
B4 (1700/2100 AWS 1) LTE
B5 (850) LTE
B7 (2600) LTE
B12 (700 ac) LTE
B13 (700 c) LTE
B25 (1900 +) LTE
B26 (850 +) LTE
B41 (TD 2500)
That could just be software restricted and if you unlcoked the sprint variant you might get band 3.

deakelem said:
The unlocked US 10 has support for the following:
4G LTE (up to 450Mbps)
FDD: Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 28, 29, 30
While the Sprint variant has support for
B2 (1900 PCS) LTE
B4 (1700/2100 AWS 1) LTE
B5 (850) LTE
B7 (2600) LTE
B12 (700 ac) LTE
B13 (700 c) LTE
B25 (1900 +) LTE
B26 (850 +) LTE
B41 (TD 2500)
That could just be software restricted and if you unlcoked the sprint variant you might get band 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx for the info,

guys using sprint htc 10 in europe, gsm, can you guys pick 4g?

dentedilupo said:
guys using sprint htc 10 in europe, gsm, can you guys pick 4g?
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Click to collapse
Try unlocking LTE bands manually. That might fix it.

jblparisi said:
Try unlocking LTE bands manually. That might fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
only can get 4g in city center
its normal because sprint phone dont have other lte bands
thanks

unlock
jblparisi said:
Try unlocking LTE bands manually. That might fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you tell me how can i unlock manualy? have you same instruction or other tutorial

jacobtvaliashvili said:
can you tell me how can i unlock manualy? have you same instruction or other tutorial
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Click to collapse
Sorry for the delay,
this will point you into the right direction: https://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-10/help/unlock-lte-bands-t3375736/page2
Basically as long as your Sprint and Android 7 you should not run into issues, only thing I could never get to work is WiFi Calling. Everything else is 100% spot on, I tested LTE bands here in Phoenix ,AZ (on AT&T)
If you get stuck or have any questions feel free to ask.

zlebors said:
Does the Sprint HTC 10 have LTE Band 3 (1800mhz)?
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Click to collapse
did you get your sprint htc 10 LTE band 3 working?

I was trying to enable it on friend's phone few months ago, but didnt work.
I dont have the device to test

Intl Version - No T-Mobile LTE?

Hi I have an international version of Moto G5 Plus and sadly, there is no LTE on T-Mobile. The only network it connects to automatically is Edge (E). Is there a way to get LTE/4G on this device?

It alll depends on the bands. Tmobile has some unique LTE Bands
Carrier 4G LTE Bands Frequencies
AT&T 2, 4, 5, 17 1900, 1700 abcde, 700 bc
Verizon 2, 4, 13 1900, 1700 f, 700 c
T-Mobile 2, 4, 12 1900, 1700 def, 700 a
Sprint 25, 26, 41 1900 g, 850, 2500
Per http://www.phonearena.com/news/Chea...on-T-Mobile-and-Sprint-use-in-the-USA_id77933

So am I correct in assuming that a missing/unsupported band is more of a hardware issue than a software one and that there basically isn't anything that can be done (like flashing a different radio) to try and get the T-Mo LTE up and running on an international device?