Hi all,
After sorting through xda for a few hours and pouring through the wiki entry and LTE references, I have come to the conclusion that I'm utterly confused about LTE compatability.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_G2#Network_compatibility
Is LTE compatibility so bad that you cannot easily move between countries and still get LTE coverage? Is it foreseeable that this will continue for a long time?
I'm living in NZ right now, and spend quite a bit of time in the United States, so I'm looking for the best LG G2 model to bridge the gap. Near as I can find, I think it will be the Canadian D803 since it covers LTE bands 4,7,and 17. NZ and Australia seem to be going for bands 7 and 8, and the US seems be in 4 (except sprint), and 2 and 17 (except verizon and sprint), with ATT alone on 5 and Verizon alone on 13. Al least according to the wiki for the G2 versions for the US linked above.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands#Deployments_by_region
Is this data correct?
Am I also correct in reasoning that the D802 'global' version in supporting bands 1, 3, 7, 8, and 20, would not get and LTE support in the US? Has anyone tried this yet?
Thanks for the help and sorry if I missed an existing discussion on this.
Kia Ora mate.
The information i believe is correct regarding the D802. I pulled one from mobicity.co.nz. Was recently in the US with a Vodafone HTC One tri-band i purchased from clove.co.uk. (same freqs) With a T-Mobile prepaid simm i was not able to pull any LTE in San Francisco or Manhattan. That said the H band was plenty fast enough (compared to slow as sht NZ anyway) so i wasn't unhappy to not get LTE, but i understand, if you have it why not get it!
The LTE rubbish is reminding me of 3G/H issue where phones came in tri-band with 4 GSM bands to cover all. Its only since the Quad-bands have appeared that the 'portability' problem has gone, now with LTE its all back to sht again! to many bands. I notice one model at least (one from expansys.co.nz) of the Galaxy Note 3 has a massive list of LTE frequencies which of course is the only way phones going forward are going to meet international travellers expectations and capture sufficient LTE bands to be useful and portable. sigh. back to 'come on you plonkers sort it' level of deployment for our phones..
I'd personaly lean towards getting the more international (D802) model and take what you get from the provider of choice in the states. No way i'd want a verizon, at, or tmob purchased model; what with all the bollocks poor yanks have to put up with - stick to international versions.
thats my opinion anyway. good luck bro.
WuZhiHe said:
Hi all,
After sorting through xda for a few hours and pouring through the wiki entry and LTE references, I have come to the conclusion that I'm utterly confused about LTE compatability.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_G2#Network_compatibility
Is LTE compatibility so bad that you cannot easily move between countries and still get LTE coverage? Is it foreseeable that this will continue for a long time?
I'm living in NZ right now, and spend quite a bit of time in the United States, so I'm looking for the best LG G2 model to bridge the gap. Near as I can find, I think it will be the Canadian D803 since it covers LTE bands 4,7,and 17. NZ and Australia seem to be going for bands 7 and 8, and the US seems be in 4 (except sprint), and 2 and 17 (except verizon and sprint), with ATT alone on 5 and Verizon alone on 13. Al least according to the wiki for the G2 versions for the US linked above.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands#Deployments_by_region
Is this data correct?
Am I also correct in reasoning that the D802 'global' version in supporting bands 1, 3, 7, 8, and 20, would not get and LTE support in the US? Has anyone tried this yet?
Thanks for the help and sorry if I missed an existing discussion on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I am going to be buying the G2 in a couple of days. I am in Pakistan and apparently, every G2 variant is available here. I am not a developer but I do like to customize my phones due to the generosity of all the developers creating flashable zips on XDA .
Which G2 Variant is the best for flashing and modding wise and which Variant is just considered the best? Are there any hardware differences between the variants? Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you
Only major hardware differences I'm aware of is that the Verizon G2 has a different shape back, different (some consider them worse) buttons on the back, and added wireless charging that others do not have.
If I had to say for overall use, the Verizon variant because of the wireless charging capability. The negative aspect of that model is some ROMs have issues with it to some degrees and of course because it's capable of wireless charging that means it's slightly thicker front to back (like 1-2mm) that means you can't use just any old case for it - if it's not a case designed specifically for the Verizon variant to account for that additional thickness, the case just won't fit and there ain't a whole lot of Verizon variant cases available.
Just pointing out the positive and the negative - there is ROM support for the VS980 obviously and those unlock the SIM for use with most any provider (just like the Sprint LS980 variant does too). The button thing on the Verizon variant is a personal preference I suppose: they work exactly the same, they just have a different form factor in how they're laid out because of the addition of the Qi wireless charging antenna inside the battery cover on the Verizon variant.
The International model(s) are nice because they're free of such limitations from the gitgo and SIM unlocked (as I understand them to be).
You'll get arguments about which one ends up being better, I suppose, so the International variants are very popular for those reasons, but with the Verizon model supporting wireless charging (Qi standard) that kinda puts it slightly out front hardware-wise. Of course, some folks don't give a damn about wireless charging just like some don't care about NFC, etc.
Just have to decide for yourself which one might fit your needs and requirements best of all.
br0adband said:
If I had to say for overall use, the Verizon variant because of the wireless charging capability. The negative aspect of that model is some ROMs have issues with it to some degrees and of course because it's capable of wireless charging that means it's slightly thicker front to back (like 1-2mm) that means you can't use just any old case for it - if it's not a case designed specifically for the Verizon variant to account for that additional thickness, the case just won't fit and there ain't a whole lot of Verizon variant cases available.
Just pointing out the positive and the negative - there is ROM support for the VS980 obviously and those unlock the SIM for use with most any provider (just like the Sprint LS980 variant does too). The button thing on the Verizon variant is a personal preference I suppose: they work exactly the same, they just have a different form factor in how they're laid out because of the addition of the Qi wireless charging antenna inside the battery cover on the Verizon variant.
The International model(s) are nice because they're free of such limitations from the gitgo and SIM unlocked (as I understand them to be).
You'll get arguments about which one ends up being better, I suppose, so the International variants are very popular for those reasons, but with the Verizon model supporting wireless charging (Qi standard) that kinda puts it slightly out front hardware-wise. Of course, some folks don't give a damn about wireless charging just like some don't care about NFC, etc.
Just have to decide for yourself which one might fit your needs and requirements best of all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would really like to have the wireless charging feature, I'll be going with Verizon than. Thanks for all the info, greatly appreciate it
p.s just my luck Verizon model is 5-10% cheaper here for some reason
dont buy verizon one, go for D802
mahmoodt said:
I would really like to have the wireless charging feature, I'll be going with Verizon than. Thanks for all the info, greatly appreciate it
p.s just my luck Verizon model is 5-10% cheaper here for some reason
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dont buy verizon one, it doesn't have the LTE Band for Pakistan, so there will be no 4G for you, go for LG G2 D802, if you need more details you can inbox me
nothanks91 said:
dont buy verizon one, it doesn't have the LTE Band for Pakistan, so there will be no 4G for you, go for LG G2 D802, if you need more details you can inbox me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People have this misunderstanding about 4G: it's a term, it means the 4th generation of cellular technology, and because of that LTE is just one 4G technology - it's not the only one.
HSPA/HSPA+ is a 4G technology (actually it's a 3.5G technology but whatever) and can be just as fast as LTE in most markets, even faster in some respects because HSPA/HSPA+ allows for deeper building/structure penetration aka you get a stronger signal when you're indoors, your phone doesn't have to waste as much power to maintain it, hence you get better speeds.
Sure would be nice if people would realize all this someday and that LTE is not the end-all-be-all when it comes to 4G... it's just one side of 4G technology, another object under the 4G "umbrella" and HSPA/HSPA+ is more than capable of providing very high speed data just as well if not better.
HSPA/HSPA+ is more widespread than LTE too, at least based on looking at coverage charts worldwide - it's a slightly older technology (which means it's had more time to be put into action around the world) but again, it can be just as fast and even faster than LTE in some markets so, it's not something that should be dismissed outright.
I had a chance to sell my G2 the other day, the person that came to buy it was disappointed because it didn't show "4G LTE" on the status bar and I tried to explain that it was pulling down 38Mbps using HSPA+ and using LTE would be slower (on this phone, it actually is) and it would use more battery power, but he didn't care or didn't even comprehend what I was saying:
All he cared about was seeing "4G LTE" in the status bar so he decided not to buy it. I swear, ignorance is a horrible thing, especially in today's world where the info is right there and it's available and people willfully choose to stay ignorant of it.
Anyway, LTE ain't everything...
dont buy verizon one, go for D802
br0adband said:
People have this misunderstanding about 4G: it's a term, it means the 4th generation of cellular technology, and because of that LTE is just one 4G technology - it's not the only one.
HSPA/HSPA+ is a 4G technology (actually it's a 3.5G technology but whatever) and can be just as fast as LTE in most markets, even faster in some respects because HSPA/HSPA+ allows for deeper building/structure penetration aka you get a stronger signal when you're indoors, your phone doesn't have to waste as much power to maintain it, hence you get better speeds.
Sure would be nice if people would realize all this someday and that LTE is not the end-all-be-all when it comes to 4G... it's just one side of 4G technology, another object under the 4G "umbrella" and HSPA/HSPA+ is more than capable of providing very high speed data just as well if not better.
HSPA/HSPA+ is more widespread than LTE too, at least based on looking at coverage charts worldwide - it's a slightly older technology (which means it's had more time to be put into action around the world) but again, it can be just as fast and even faster than LTE in some markets so, it's not something that should be dismissed outright.
I had a chance to sell my G2 the other day, the person that came to buy it was disappointed because it didn't show "4G LTE" on the status bar and I tried to explain that it was pulling down 38Mbps using HSPA+ and using LTE would be slower (on this phone, it actually is) and it would use more battery power, but he didn't care or didn't even comprehend what I was saying:
All he cared about was seeing "4G LTE" in the status bar so he decided not to buy it. I swear, ignorance is a horrible thing, especially in today's world where the info is right there and it's available and people willfully choose to stay ignorant of it.
Anyway, LTE ain't everything...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because American Carriers brand HSPA/HSPA+ as 4G doesn't mean that they are actually 4G, hack even LTE is not truly 4G, i was just explaining to the guy that the verizon model doesn't have 1800 MHZ LTE frequency band which is being used by local carriers (Waridtel, Zong) in pakistan, so he wont be able to access LTE which is Branded as 4G in Pakistan, i hope you got my point
br0adband said:
People have this misunderstanding about 4G: it's a term, it means the 4th generation of cellular technology, and because of that LTE is just one 4G technology - it's not the only one.
HSPA/HSPA+ is a 4G technology (actually it's a 3.5G technology but whatever) and can be just as fast as LTE in most markets, even faster in some respects because HSPA/HSPA+ allows for deeper building/structure penetration aka you get a stronger signal when you're indoors, your phone doesn't have to waste as much power to maintain it, hence you get better speeds.
Sure would be nice if people would realize all this someday and that LTE is not the end-all-be-all when it comes to 4G... it's just one side of 4G technology, another object under the 4G "umbrella" and HSPA/HSPA+ is more than capable of providing very high speed data just as well if not better.
HSPA/HSPA+ is more widespread than LTE too, at least based on looking at coverage charts worldwide - it's a slightly older technology (which means it's had more time to be put into action around the world) but again, it can be just as fast and even faster than LTE in some markets so, it's not something that should be dismissed outright.
I had a chance to sell my G2 the other day, the person that came to buy it was disappointed because it didn't show "4G LTE" on the status bar and I tried to explain that it was pulling down 38Mbps using HSPA+ and using LTE would be slower (on this phone, it actually is) and it would use more battery power, but he didn't care or didn't even comprehend what I was saying:
All he cared about was seeing "4G LTE" in the status bar so he decided not to buy it. I swear, ignorance is a horrible thing, especially in today's world where the info is right there and it's available and people willfully choose to stay ignorant of it.
Anyway, LTE ain't everything...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Was just gonna post my opinion on which variant to choose, LTE is a real thing to consider.
I opted to go with the Verizon variant because of this, in my country (Dominican Republic) this is the only variant that allows me to use LTE here, so I went with this one, and I'm glad I did, I didn't even know about the wireless charging, it was a pleasant surprise to me as fate would have it, my sister got a Nokia Wireless charger as a gift from her carrier (She has an iPhone) she came to me to know if she could sell it, as soon as I saw it, I tried it on my phone and it worked great! Needless to say I took it from her hands instantly.
Anyways, when I finally used LTE I was blown away! 100 Mbits/s was something Id never experienced. no matter how good HSPA+ is, it will never be as fast as LTE, and the battery life is great even if you leave it on all day. I never turn it off, though its good to know that I can if i want to.
If you get the Verizon variant you will need to at least root the phone to enjoy it completely. Because the wifi hotspot doesn't work if you are using a non Verizon SIM, there is a thread here which allows you to bypass it VERY easily, and it works awesomely.
Besides that, everything else is pretty much on par, there are at least 2 "Best Roms" for the G2 and they both work on the Verizon Variant. One of those two best is developed by XDABBEB who is the awesome Dev who brought us the Camera mod which is insanely good! and he also made a ROM specifically for the Verizon Variant which I installed on a friends VS980 and is working great with ART and his camera mod, the G3 UI preinstalled, and other cool things preinstalled.
Its your choice in the end.
Sorry for the long post, just wanted to give you the VS980 perspective from someone who owns and uses it as a daily driver.
If you have any other questions regarding this variant, do not hesitate to ask.
-X
Xer0 WindKey said:
Hello,
Was just gonna post my opinion on which variant to choose, LTE is a real thing to consider.
I opted to go with the Verizon variant because of this, in my country (Dominican Republic) this is the only variant that allows me to use LTE here, so I went with this one, and I'm glad I did, I didn't even know about the wireless charging, it was a pleasant surprise to me as fate would have it, my sister got a Nokia Wireless charger as a gift from her carrier (She has an iPhone) she came to me to know if she could sell it, as soon as I saw it, I tried it on my phone and it worked great! Needless to say I took it from her hands instantly.
Anyways, when I finally used LTE I was blown away! 100 Mbits/s was something Id never experienced. no matter how good HSPA+ is, it will never be as fast as LTE, and the battery life is great even if you leave it on all day. I never turn it off, though its good to know that I can if i want to.
If you get the Verizon variant you will need to at least root the phone to enjoy it completely. Because the wifi hotspot doesn't work if you are using a non Verizon SIM, there is a thread here which allows you to bypass it VERY easily, and it works awesomely.
Besides that, everything else is pretty much on par, there are at least 2 "Best Roms" for the G2 and they both work on the Verizon Variant. One of those two best is developed by XDABBEB who is the awesome Dev who brought us the Camera mod which is insanely good! and he also made a ROM specifically for the Verizon Variant which I installed on a friends VS980 and is working great with ART and his camera mod, the G3 UI preinstalled, and other cool things preinstalled.
Its your choice in the end.
Sorry for the long post, just wanted to give you the VS980 perspective from someone who owns and uses it as a daily driver.
If you have any other questions regarding this variant, do not hesitate to ask.
-X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, Nice to see a fellow Dominican around. The Verizon version as you said has surprisingly excellent support around here (For a LG Phone anyways). Would you mind telling how you got 4g to work? what carrier was it with? Claro,tricom or Orange?
thanks in advance.
elander said:
Hello, Nice to see a fellow Dominican around. The Verizon version as you said has surprisingly excellent support around here (For a LG Phone anyways). Would you mind telling how you got 4g to work? what carrier was it with? Claro,tricom or Orange?
thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, nice to know I'm not the only one!
I didn't do anything special to make it work, I'm on Claro, just popped in my 4G LTE Sim on the phone and it worked automagically.
In the settings menu I have "Global" selected. Then I used xposed to get rid of that annoying invalid Sim notification.
sorry for being off topic but instead making a new thread i just wanna know why my lg g2 it doesn't have the update software option. i have the ls980 version the sprint and not only that but the camera makes blurry photos and videos .
And when i apply some light pressure on the screen i get blotches which it is very weird and ugly
thank you
nothanks91 said:
dont buy verizon one, it doesn't have the LTE Band for Pakistan, so there will be no 4G for you, go for LG G2 D802, if you need more details you can inbox me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, I went to buy the Verizon variant but LTE was not working on it (My provider is Warid). I ended up checking all the variants except D802 and LTE was not working on any of them. I was unable to find the D802, people were actually selling it, however, they were all frauds, they had ported different models to the D802 rom, so it showed D802 in the Phone Information (so they could charge more). Even after the port none of the phones I tested were able to run Warid LTE. After searching for hours I was unable to find the D802 in the market, so my question now is that if i buy any of the models is there a way to have Warid LTE work on it, I am not in favor of messing with basebands though unless it's completely safe.
You need to do some research and find out specifically which LTE bands that carrier you want to sign on with is using, then find the G2 that matches it. There's a chance you might be out of luck with the actual LTE support because no G2 variant will support it (which is a possibility) so be aware of this.
This chart page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks#Asia
shows WaridTel using Band 3, apparently. On this page:
http://www.waridtel.com/lte/handset-compatibility
it clearly shows they have support for the LG G2 D802 and D802TA (whatever variant that is) so that's what you should be looking for, obviously.
You just might not be able to get LTE support for both reasons: hardware on the G2 not having it as well as your carrier not being a match for whatever G2 variant you happen to be looking for.
Do the research, then you'll be able to figure things out. Warid must be getting their network access from one of the more major providers, you just have to figure out which LTE band(s) are being utilized and go from there. The D802 might just be your ticket, so to speak, now you have to find a real one.
Do not buy Verizon LG G2. I used this model for a month and found it problematic in Pakistan. That's the only reason it is cheaper than other G2 models.
Sent from my Samsung phone using XDA Free mobile app.
br0adband said:
You need to do some research and find out specifically which LTE bands that carrier you want to sign on with is using, then find the G2 that matches it. There's a chance you might be out of luck with the actual LTE support because no G2 variant will support it (which is a possibility) so be aware of this.
it clearly shows they have support for the LG G2 D802 and D802TA (whatever variant that is) so that's what you should be looking for, obviously.
You just might not be able to get LTE support for both reasons: hardware on the G2 not having it as well as your carrier not being a match for whatever G2 variant you happen to be looking for.
Do the research, then you'll be able to figure things out. Warid must be getting their network access from one of the more major providers, you just have to figure out which LTE band(s) are being utilized and go from there. The D802 might just be your ticket, so to speak, now you have to find a real one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went with your suggestion and pinpointed D802 as the variant that would work for me. However, the issue here was that most people had ported D802 ROMs on American or Korean variants and it was really hard finding out if it was the original D802. So, after testing my SIM card and configuring almost 2 dozen sets for LTE, I decided to not buy the G2 . Good news though I ended up buying the G3, LTE working and I am loving it
I had to spend $120 extra, which was a way out of my budget but I don't regret it, G3 is just too good
Thank you so much for taking the time and giving me all the advice, I really appreciate it
You're welcome, and congrats on the choice/purchase, I wish I could afford a G3 myself to be honest but, maybe someday.
I had first D802 16gb with 7 icons in dock but latest android 4.2.2 from UK, next was 32 but from local shop (europe), but only with 6 icons in dock. I prefer UK roms.
I am leaving post paid service and going pre paid.
I since majority if prepaid US carriers are Sprint, T-Mobile and some AT&T. I want a GS 7 that will support all three carriers with as much bands possible.
Any suggestions or does the Sprint version support (once unlocked) support AT&T and T-Mobile.
Technically, any GSM unlocked phone would work on any GSM network, but that wasn't your question.
I ordered the sprint version to use with cricket (at&t network). What I read, the sprint version will support AT&T better than tmobile. In the end, once rooted, you could add in the band's not supported by default.
Music to my ears!
Will have to get the Sprint version and hope for the best.
S7E's sprint version can't turn off shutter camera. But im still happy with the 50%off promo
Has it been confirmed that the s7 uses sprints LTE advanced signal. I can't find a place where it says for sure like the g5's page .
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
bdsullivan said:
Has it been confirmed that the s7 uses sprints LTE advanced signal. I can't find a place where it says for sure like the g5's page .
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like to know this as well. I seem to get better 4G coverage in my area with the advanced signal enabled compared to my friends who don't support it.
Yes, my new s7 uses lte adavanced
Splash screen says so
VandyCWG said:
Yes, my new s7 uses lte adavanced
Splash screen says so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet. I have the nexus 6 now and considering getting one for the SD card access alone. Is there a noticeable difference in data speeds with the LTE advanced, does it offer data and voice at the same time?
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
TehPirate_ said:
I'd like to know this as well. I seem to get better 4G coverage in my area with the advanced signal enabled compared to my friends who don't support it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It just seems that way, or it's because it has a better antenna in general. LTE Plus doesn't get you a stronger signal. The beamforming that helps at the cell edge is a tower-side enhancement. As long as your phone supports band 41, you're able to take advantage of LTE Plus - just not the Carrier Aggregation component.
I am very eager to see what happens in this regard as well. Sprint is notorious about locking down their phones to include very few LTE modes so that the phone is truly only for Sprint. Samsung's CDMA version of the Galaxy phones have been crippled in this way all the way up to the S6.
You can see various phones like the S4, S6, LG G4 and the S7. The S7 CMDA variant does not appear on this comparison chart yet but I'm hoping that it won't need to.
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/compare.php?p=4066,4769,4773,5081,4928
The last phone in that comparison is the iPhone 6s Plus, which is the same no matter which carrier you use worldwide. I really, really hope Samsung does the same thing.
The only other phones with lots of LTE bands like the iPhone on Sprint is the Nexus 5s/6p and Moto X Pure.
PLEASE let LG and Samsung include all the default LTE modes by default on the CDMA versions of their phones!
Edit: nope, Sprint made Samsung get rid of the most important worldwide LTE band, 7, along with 13 and 20. LAME.
More info here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=65825260&postcount=14
I'm thinking of buying the SM-G730P (Sprint) version of the Galaxy S7 even though I was all the years on Verizon and they are for sure the better service and have more coverage, at least here where I live, but the reason I wanna buy Sprint is just because Verizon just makes Samsung phones much more secure, and locks the boot loader, now the question is, First of all does Sprint still lock their LTE phones? And second of all, will an unlocked Sprint phone work on the Verizon network, and will it work overall perfectly when I'm aboard, on the International GSM network? And last of all is there a different in the build of this 2 phones, Verizon S7 and the Sprint S7, besides the bands
YankyA said:
I'm thinking of buying the SM-G730P (Sprint) version of the Galaxy S7 even though I was all the years on Verizon and they are for sure the better service and have more coverage, at least here where I live, but the reason I wanna buy Sprint is just because Verizon just makes Samsung phones much more secure, and locks the boot loader, now the question is, First of all does Sprint still lock their LTE phones? And second of all, will an unlocked Sprint phone work on the Verizon network, and will it work overall perfectly when I'm aboard, on the International GSM network? And last of all is there a different in the build of this 2 phones, Verizon S7 and the Sprint S7, besides the bands
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Today's news concludes that all US (Qualcomm) variants of the S7 indeed have a locked bootloader except for a select few apparently. Verizon and AT&T lock the bootloader tighter than others, such as Sprint. Sprint and T-Mobile didn't lock the bootloader themselves but rather Samsung. Samsung locked the bootloader to better add security to their consumers and there's been hints they may release an unlock kit/tool for developers but this hasn't been confirmed.
I got Sprint to unlock my G930P and works perfectly with AT&T. The S7, at a hardware level, is the same phone for all US variants where the only thing that changes is the software. Meaning a Sprint phone on the Verizon network would essentially have the same network performance as if you were to use an actual Verizon variant. Once the device is unlocked, at least for me, it knew my sim was on the AT&T network and switched the bands to AT&T on reboot.
Internationally, I'm not sure. There is an option to enable Global bands in one of the hidden menus in self-service but I'd assume it'll cover enough bands to provide you with what you need minimally. (I've never gone international before so can't say from experience)
TehPirate_ said:
Internationally, I'm not sure. There is an option to enable Global bands in one of the hidden menus in self-service but I'd assume it'll cover enough bands to provide you with what you need minimally. (I've never gone international before so can't say from experience)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GSM will work as expected.
LTE, however, will be crippled depending on the country you go to.
The updated spec list:
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=5081
According to that list, Sprint purposely took out three very important LTE bands: 7/13/20. Why does that matter? Because much of the world uses these three bands, especially band 7 and especially Europe! Sprint purposely crippled the LTE radio modes for this phone and I cannot understand why.
So yes, you'll probably get normal GSM and some LTE if they offer one of the other bands but Sprint purposely disabling or deleting the commonly used international LTE modes abroad is just anti-competitive and backwards.
Will rooting or unlocking this phone allow the use of the bands that were locked by Sprint?
asuh said:
The updated spec list:
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=5081
but Sprint purposely disabling or deleting the commonly used international LTE modes abroad is just anti-competitive and backwards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gigadigit said:
Will rooting or unlocking this phone allow the use of the bands that were locked by Sprint?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/general/how-to-add-rf-lte-frequency-bands-to-t2886059
VandyCWG said:
Yes, my new s7 uses lte adavanced
Splash screen says so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The splash screen says LTE Plus, not LTE Advanced. LTE Plus is simply the new branding for Sprint SPARK. Was that the OPs question?
LTE Plus is not Sprint Spark , its more in depth. Carrier aggregation by antenna beam forming.
For those interested, Sprint is releasing an unlocked S7 that works on all the carriers and has a full range of US LTE bands:
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=17870
Is it more compatible/capable with at&t rather than tmobile? For TMob the F would be lacking a 3g band which might affect calling. For atnt the F version would be lacking LTE band 30 which I'm sure nobody is concerned about at the moment.
Trying to figure this out. Looking at the s7 edge F possibly but would rather have the note6 F version if Samsung keeps up this bootloader bs. I'm still on my note4 and have never owned a phone this long. Moto X is probably a no go. They've gone mad. Sony is too expensive and not my style. LG is just weak sauce all around. HTC might get my cash but they need a bigger phone comparable to note series with big battery. Nexus doesn't have microSD support. I'm going mad. Need new phone.
You will lack VOLTE, and band 30 which is hardly anywhere. Everything else is a dream, and, they don't block the built in hotspot feature so unlimited data plans on the F are awesome.
When you make a call you will get H+, which has the same download speed for me as LTE. Upload is much slower though but I don't really care about that when on the phone.
Volte and band 30 are not issues. Just wondering if atnt is a better option for the int'l version. I think 1700 will be missing for tmobile for voice. Or 1900. Forgot. That's an issue because I don't like running 2g. Waste of battery these days.
I use mine on t-mobile and haven't noticed any difference reception wise with t-mobile's own variant (I have both), except wifi calling and volte (which I don't use)
Not worried about reception. Worried about usability. WiFi calling isn't even an issue with hangouts. Do users not miss a beat on T-Mobile or is atnt the better option for int'l version?
Root is essential to my use. Custom Roms aren't. Custom kernels can be but most are junk to me these days and a few devs have burned me so I usually stay stock kernels. But what I'm really getting at I need as much bands available as available. Atnt is a better choice but way oversaturated in Houston and data speeds suffer. Was hoping to see 600mhz bamds supported this generation but looks like probably won't happen til next gen or two. I'd rather stay with tmobile, but if they aren't gonna keep unlocked bootloaders for the minority that need it then I need to change phone variations and carriers.