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I do a lot to save battery but keep the phone flying, but one thing i havent tried is using LTE only. I live outside of philly, so im thinking since im blanketed in all those 4g emvs and dont travel far i can pull this off all day without switching to 3g and back and forth. Anyone in cities centers doing this?
If you set it to LTE only and lose 4G service, you'll drop to 1X.
How do you set it to 4g only?
I use LTE Only mode, I live in L.A. and the entire city/county is pretty much blanketed in 4G, I've never seen my phone drop to anything else besides 4G but I'm sure it would if I went somewhere with bad service. Battery life is great for me on LTE only.
Yup I use LTE only in NYC. Not a single issue.
Use 4g only here in san Diego.. no issues
4G only here in Jersey City, no problems.
LTE only here in DC and all is well until I go too far from the city. Then I just switched it to 3G only. TeamAndIRC ftw.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Cleveland with 4g only in LTE mode checking in. Good battery saver.
Good battery life with LTE? LOL yeah, if you don't use data. Try using it hard for a couple hours and see where your battery is.
Yep in Houston. Very rare does it drop service (usually only if I'm in the rear of a store) and it drops to 3G. *using *#*#4636#*#* method
I use it all the time.
I have a few spots on my commute that 4g drops for a sec and if I don't have it on lte only my tethering will stay on 3G until I turn off data and turn it back on.
So when I leave it on lte only it might cut out for a sec but comes back on.
I only use LTE in Nashville as well. No issues.
I haven't lost service since I went LTE only a few hours ago n I've been playing on it ever since. Pretty good. Maybe the device takes on 3g if that signal is stronger? Every other time I use it In my house I notice it flipping between them. ill have to really take a few days n see if it makes a difference w battery
how are you guys turning on 4g in the settings? i dont see a setting for 4g anywhere
wardo5757 said:
how are you guys turning on 4g in the settings? i dont see a setting for 4g anywhere
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
phone/dialer, *#*#4636#*#*
tap phone info, scroll down, choose LTE only from drop down menu, wait or optionally tap radio off and then radio on
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
LTE mode on in Denver - spotty as your head towards the mountains
LTE only in Seattle area, no problems.
I use an app called Network by mangelow to manage the radio.
jmz768 said:
If you set it to LTE only and lose 4G service, you'll drop to 1X.
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Click to collapse
I've experienced the same problem, it hardly ever drops to 3g, always straight to 1x. I also live in a extended service zone and usually only get 1 or 2 bars of 4g at home. One thing I noticed is that if I have my whole hand gripped tightly on the phone, I will lose 4g. Kind of annoying at times. Hope it is just an automatic switching software problem and they can update it to seamless 4g/3g switching with no 1x!
I am going to try lte only in Pittsburgh... will post status update tomorrow
Since purchasing my phone almost 2 weeks ago I have never gotten 3g. I have replaced my sim and also upgraded data. I have one day left to return and I'm wondering if you guys too are having this issue. Or perhaps is it a tower/radio issue?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
It won't ever show 3g
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Yeah i saw the same thing. I think it's has a lot to do with TMO's 4G not actually being a different technology than it's 3G. So in most cases if you have 3G you also have 4G. Are there any areas where you know that TMO's HSPA+ network doesn't have coverage but the normal 3G coverage does? I'd be interested in that. I couldn't test in my area because the 3G coverage is the exact same as the 4G so the indicator would only change if I entered an edge only area.
The G2 only displays an H which can either be 3G or 4G but it's not differentiated on the phone. So I think it's just because of TMO's network not being a separate technology that requires a different radio. So the phone won't go from 4G to 3G to Edge. It goes straight to 2G because 3g and 4G is the same in technology. Only difference is speed and that that's with any network where you have different speeds in different places.
The 4G is a souped up version of their 3G so you won't see 3G ever AFAIK.
Thought i was the only one that noticed
As a t-mob tech rep I can confirm that this is true. The phone will either display 2 or 4. It was even in the brief training we received. No need to return it
Get Mobile Signal Widget if you want to see it go between 3G(UMTS) or H(HSPA+)
It will not show 3G/4G because it would flip between the two too much.
Yesterday I saw it just said "G". Phone was slow as ****. I love this thing.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
joeyklatzko said:
The 4G is a souped up version of their 3G so you won't see 3G ever AFAIK.
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Click to collapse
It's the same on the G2x that I had briefly.
good to know cause im in love with my phone and didnt wanna chance a exchange! its really not enough good about this phone on here but for any of you on the edge its a great phone coming from a hd2 which was also the SH!T !!
Just a little extra info on this. EVERY 3G cell site in T-Mobile's network is HSPA capable so whenever you are on a 3G site your have HSPA access BUT not every site is HSPA+ (4G speeds). With that said, your phone does not know the difference so even if we wanted an icon to show the difference we couldn't have it. There is one more mode and that is UMTS. This only shows when your phone is idle and not doing data (not very often). It does NOT mean your don't have HSPA access on that site, it just means your phone is not currently doing data. So, we could have a 3G icon for when your idle but your phone would be constantly switching from 3G icon to 4G or H (whichever you have) and that would be annoying. Hope this helps.
setzer715 said:
There is one more mode and that is UMTS. This only shows when your phone is idle and not doing data (not very often). It does NOT mean your don't have HSPA access on that site, it just means your phone is not currently doing data. So, we could have a 3G icon for when your idle but your phone would be constantly switching from 3G icon to 4G or H (whichever you have) and that would be annoying. Hope this helps.
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Click to collapse
That's what it did for the HD2 & it let me know when I was actually pulling down data, just look for 3G or the H
xnifex said:
That's what it did for the HD2 & it let me know when I was actually pulling down data, just look for 3G or the H
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Click to collapse
You will still know with the data activity arrows.
setzer715 said:
You will still know with the data activity arrows.
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Click to collapse
On the Sensation yes, HD2 running WM though it was about the only way to know
Its a lie. It just says 4G instead of 3G. Never 3G. Its a ploy to make you believe they have 4G everywhere.
I have an unbranded Asian Sensation and it shows 3G once and a while. There is this one area I notice it switches from the H(4G) to 3G. I know TMO changed the H icon with a 4G one so maybe they removed the 3G one show it always shows 4G even if on 3G??
Ive seen it switch to 3g and its like not having internet. Speeds around 50-100 kbps . A friend with mt4g confirmed.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
~~Tito~~ said:
Its a lie. It just says 4G instead of 3G. Never 3G. Its a ploy to make you believe they have 4G everywhere.
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Click to collapse
Tito, long time no see!
LOL, true that t-Mob is trying to brainwash the XDA gang
DeezNotes said:
Yesterday I saw it just said "G". Phone was slow as ****. I love this thing.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
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Click to collapse
You were on a regular GSM connection, those are old and slow. Not your phones fault, it was basically trying to use data over a rotary phone.
Is your device from tmobile?
So on my phone It says 3G at the top. Sometimes. It says H. But I have miui Tom currently and probably forever? Most of the time when I wana download something from the market I have to pull down the drop down menu and turn off the data icon and turn it back on to refresh the data. Wait for a few seconds and let it work again. I have no problems texting and receiving them. Or browsing the internet. But for the market I'm having to refresh the data. Wondering if there is anything I could do
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
the lack of an h or 4g is just indicating that you dont have a hspa connection which has more to do with your area than your phone. the infuse is a 3g device but t-mo started advertising the hspa+ as 4g and att followed. it still operates on the same network and technology as 3g but is faster. 4g is lte (which the infuse doesn't have.) or wimax i guess but that is crappy sprint 4g that is not faster than att 3g and is only deserving of the 4g title because it is literally there 4th generation data network, not because it is actually comperable.
in other countries h and h+ are refered to as 3.5g and/or 3g+ because it is not truely a new generation of network, just 3g made faster.
the market problem is probably do to it being a i9000 port. i dont know what the nature of the bug is but it shows on the i9000 roms and i havent run an aosp rom so i dont know if it is normal for miui or not.
Dani897 said:
the lack of an h or 4g is just indicating that you dont have a hspa connection which has more to do with your area than your phone. the infuse is a 3g device but t-mo started advertising the hspa+ as 4g and att followed. it still operates on the same network and technology as 3g but is faster. 4g is lte (which the infuse doesn't have.) or wimax i guess but that is crappy sprint 4g that is not faster than att 3g and is only deserving of the 4g title because it is literally there 4th generation data network, not because it is actually comperable.
in other countries h and h+ are refered to as 3.5g and/or 3g+ because it is not truely a new generation of network, just 3g made faster.
the market problem is probably do to it being a i9000 port. i dont know what the nature of the bug is but it shows on the i9000 roms and i havent run an aosp rom so i dont know if it is normal for miui or not.
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Click to collapse
Ohh OK. So 4G doesn't mean 4G speeds. It means 4th generation. As in new. I always thought 4G meant speed 4 ghz or something of high speed data. Something to do with speed. Now that I think of it. G stands for Generation. Anyway thanks
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
technokid said:
Ohh OK. So 4G doesn't mean 4G speeds. It means 4th generation. As in new. I always thought 4G meant speed 4 ghz or something of high speed data. Something to do with speed. Now that I think of it. G stands for Generation. Anyway thanks
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The speeds do get faster as the generations progresses, but actual 4g speeds were supposed to be 100mb lol that failed haha. Anyway the market problem happens to me too. If you search apns in CM7 or the MIUI forum there is a fix. I applied it before, and it worked. I am just too lazy to do it again because for me it is not that big of a pain lol.
You won't always have 4G speeds. It's more like 3G+ lol. HSPA+. Get it? Lol if you want 4G speeds for LTE
Sent from Optimus-Prime's Asus Transformer.
Seriously? Another dumb post about phones not getting 4g. Some 4g phones have h and some have 3g icons. Read other threads and maybe you will learn something for once in your life.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium
Ryanscool said:
The speeds do get faster as the generations progresses, but actual 4g speeds were supposed to be 100mb lol that failed haha. Anyway the market problem happens to me too. If you search apns in CM7 or the MIUI forum there is a fix. I applied it before, and it worked. I am just too lazy to do it again because for me it is not that big of a pain lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I'll look That uhp
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
I heard somewhere that MIUI doesn't support 4G the same as the stock ROM. When I used MIUI I got slower speeds than stock. Not significantly slower, but "meh" speeds. Otherwise there isn't much of a difference, it only switched to actual "4G" when you're downloading something anyway..
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed the same thing.... my girlfriend has the Galaxy S3 and has better signal then me all the time... WTF?!?!?!?!?!
I'm tempted to go to the Note 3. I can deal with alot of things, but signal issues isn't 1 of them.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
s13silviaguy said:
I've noticed the same thing.... my girlfriend has the Galaxy S3 and has better signal then me all the time... WTF?!?!?!?!?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone is showing data signal hers is showing cdma 1x voice. .. please download signal check app and you will see true db of 1x 3g lte signal. .. so you can compare
Sent from my SM-G900P using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Signal bars lie. Do this on both of your samsung phones:
Go in to your phone app, and dial ##DEBUG#
Enter 777468 for your lock code
Select LTE Engineering
Go down to RSRP. The number next to RSRP shown in dBm is your LTE signal strength.
Compare numbers.
I did this vs my wife's iPhone 5 and found that although her signal indicator was showing 3-4 more bars than my s5 we both actually had the same signal strength.
Thanks I'll do that asap. The only reason I'm thinking something is wrong is because in areas I had 4G all the time on my Note 3 and S4 I'm barely get 4G or I'll drop to 3G. Then when I'm watching YouTube, if I stop a video , fast forward, or rewind, if I'm on cellular I can never get the video to play back. I get the error tap to retry. But when on WiFi I can I can.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Eckono said:
Thanks I'll do that asap. The only reason I'm thinking something is wrong is because in areas I had 4G all the time on my Note 3 and S4 I'm barely get 4G or I'll drop to 3G. Then when I'm watching YouTube, if I stop a video , fast forward, or rewind, if I'm on cellular I can never get the video to play back. I get the error tap to retry. But when on WiFi I can I can.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You also have to read about cfbs and triband phones ... which can cause the data issues
Sent from my SM-N900P using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
well if i dont remember note 3 and s3 dont use the spark network and the s5 does soo,.,.its prob a bad spark connection they are still upgrading the towers ..
The s5 signal bar shows data strength instead of voice strength
When you make a phone call, it switches to the voice signal strength, which is why it seems to get higher all of a sudden
-Sent from Tapatalk
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you disable certain bands? I want to try it as well as something seems to be killing my battery. Thanks
Yea, in the last year I have had an iphone 5, Note2, and Note3. New Orleans is newly upgraded to LTE (not yet Spark), and coverage was great on those three phones. This S5, however, constantly switches from LTE to 3G in areas where the other three phones stayed on LTE. It also drops to no data at all way too often in areas where data is fine. (I play Ingress, so I am VERY familiar with the signal capabilities all over town)
Is there any hope of this phone's signal strength being improved with software updates? Will Spark make a difference when it hits New Orleans?
This piece of garbage is pretty pathetic signal-wise compared to my other devices I've recently used. I've got Sprint to agree to a phone swap, but if that's not going to make a difference, perhaps I should just go back to my Note3.
I have this phone it does drop lte alot plus I have spark. But I have an offer to trade for a note 3 idk if I want ..I like yhe fingerprint scanner but this signal is boo boo ....
gregg37 said:
Yea, in the last year I have had an iphone 5, Note2, and Note3. New Orleans is newly upgraded to LTE (not yet Spark), and coverage was great on those three phones. This S5, however, constantly switches from LTE to 3G in areas where the other three phones stayed on LTE. It also drops to no data at all way too often in areas where data is fine. (I play Ingress, so I am VERY familiar with the signal capabilities all over town)
Is there any hope of this phone's signal strength being improved with software updates? Will Spark make a difference when it hits New Orleans?
This piece of garbage is pretty pathetic signal-wise compared to my other devices I've recently used. I've got Sprint to agree to a phone swap, but if that's not going to make a difference, perhaps I should just go back to my Note3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldnt worry about the phone swap. I skeptically did it to see if it would work and ended up wasting an hour in ths store. between my friends and family we have 4 GS5s that all have the same issues.
None of your previous phones were triband. They only could connect to 1900mhz LTE. The GS5 is a triband phone, aka spark, that can connect to 800/1900/2600mhz LTE. Unfortunately there are issues with the software on the towers (search eCSFB) that changes you between bands. I have turned off band 41 and it has helped a lot even tho my area is a "spark" area. I turn it back on once in a while to see if things are fixed.
There have been complaints that the GS5 has worse connectivity because of the water resistant design compared to phones such as the GS4. its really only a couple dbm from what i have seen when looking at actual signal values from engineering screens and when comparing the same band of LTE.
As far as shutting off bands, you will need your MSL code. you can either get it from a sprint rep (all i did was ask) or you can use the MSL reader here
tools.flashingtools.com
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
Shiftlock said:
As far as shutting off bands, you will need your MSL code. you can either get it from a sprint rep (all i did was ask) or you can use the MSL reader here
tools.flashingtools.com
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, Shiftlock! This is the kind of help I was hoping for. I'll give that a try!
:good:
Shiftlock said:
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I've got this turned off. Will it persist through resets and restarts? Or will I have to keep turning it off?
(have to remember to bookmark this so I remember how to turn it back on when Spark hits New Orleans, which I think is somewhat soon)
gregg37 said:
Ok I've got this turned off. Will it persist through resets and restarts? Or will I have to keep turning it off?
(have to remember to bookmark this so I remember how to turn it back on when Spark hits New Orleans, which I think is somewhat soon)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes this will stay until you either change it back or do a system update. I noticed that nd2 changed it back. You may want to check it after clearing data/cache if you flash any mods or roms. Luckily the msl won't change so it's easy enough to fix if needed
I'm getting LTE coverage in places I wouldn't with my s4. The data is definitely better
-Sent from Tapatalk
eyecon82 said:
I'm getting LTE coverage in places I wouldn't with my s4. The data is definitely better
-Sent from Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Better because of turning off band 41 or just comparing the S5 to the S4?
CCallahan said:
Better because of turning off band 41 or just comparing the S5 to the S4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess we'll never know....
(mine still sucks after trying that, btw)
Unless I stand next to an open window I have to revert to 3G.
Is there anything I can do to improve 4G reception?
RoadToNever said:
Unless I stand next to an open window I have to revert to 3G.
Is there anything I can do to improve 4G reception?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sort of a signal repeater/whatever, no.
How about software wise (outside of standard settings)? Sometimes it seems "stuck" at 3G, once I force 'LTE only' 4G becomes available. Can I make 4G more preferential?
RoadToNever said:
How about software wise (outside of standard settings)? Sometimes it seems "stuck" at 3G, once I force 'LTE only' 4G becomes available. Can I make 4G more preferential?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't make it get better reception.
Forcing LTE only is a bad idea, as a better 3G signal will use much, much less battery than a terrible LTE signal. This is why devices also still have 2G radios; if 4G is not available/weak, it will switch to 3G. If 3G is not available/weak, it will switch to 2G.