Hi all. So I have been looking a lot at new phones. Based on my budget I found myself looking at Chinese phones(ZTE, Elephone,DooGee). And WoW, There are some sweet ass phones out there and for really fair prices. A lot of which are 4g LTE compatible, but what I noticed is almost none of them are able to handle 4g lte in the US.
So my question is; Can this be changed? Are the missing bands limited by hardware or software? Could a skilled programmer make a Chinese phone work on local 4g networks? Or is it a hardware thing?
Thanks all. cheers
ps; I bought a Zen2 but this still is on my mind.
Related
Hi,
I made a search on the website and couldn't find anything related to the question abve. I am wondering why HTC is developing two band HSDPA devices as opposed to triband ones? It makes sense to have them world phone and not targeting certain areas!!! anyone can help on this. I sincerely apologize if this was discussed but I couldn't find anything about it. If it has been discussed, I apologize for doubling the effort/.
Thanks,
Gilbert
A reason why - this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands
Hi. Many thanks for your reply. I saw the chart but since I am not a techy, are you able to please tell me plain English what this all means? If I get it right, I see comapnies producing devices that are worldwide HSDPA ready but for some reason, HTC has been developing their recent devices to be targetted HSDPA. I know the chart explains the difference in frequency but why can't they cater to all of the bands in one device? Kaiser was worldwide for example. hwat happened apart from the introduction of 1700 band?
Thanks,
Gilbert
it' all about greed!
they want to sell it wholesale to bestbuy or wireless carriers and to make them happy!
Yes I think so. But can you image what a killer phone the HTC HD would be (the new one with a long screen similar to the iphone screen) with quad or tri band hsdpa!! these people at htc are really dumb to think narrow. In my opinion, even if i was living in Asia or Europe and I travel alot I would have a hesitation to buy it when I cannot make use of the technology when I am in USA or Canada. Simply not business friendly.
Gilbert
i lost all interests on touch hd after they annonced with no usa 3g! buy sony x1 !
htc wont give u everything at once! else what they have left to sell you in the future?
Hey everyone! I'm new to XDA and android and could use some help. Been looking for my first android phone and am currently living in the dominican republic. My carrier operates on the 850 band for their 3g network. I need to be able to purchase an unlocked phone or a phone off contract that i can unlock without complications. Some phones i have looked into are Nexus S, Desire HD, Atrix, G2x and a few others. Nexus S doesnt work with my carrier for their 3g and the desire hd lacks a front facing camera.
I could really use some help or guidance in finding the right phone... All your help is greatly appreciated. Have posted in a few other forums, but to not much avail. Thanks again everyone!
The Galaxy 4g phone has 850 band and FFC and is a decent choice. I do not know how good the Coverage of 4g is in Dominican so even though it is a great phone you may only have 3g reception. You could get a Galaxy S phone and install a FFC in it(or buy it that way) would save some money but it is older tech .... .........BUT there is a ALOT of support here in XDA for the Galaxy S. And there is multi language already installed in it.Or you could wait until the New S2 makes it here in June sometime.
If you went with a Galaxy S (Vibrant,Captivate, etc) here in the states you can get for about 175-250.00 right now vs 450-550.00 for a new phone.
So, there are some options. I would stay away from the Atrix, Motorola is not hacker friendly and there are some other quality issues about them I am not convinced it is worth the money.
BTW, Welcome to the forum. This is the best place to be to learn about Android phones. Look at the specific phone forums and read up. This will assist in understanding the phone and help you make a more informed decision.
Good Luck in your quest....... Cheers
Thanks for the helpful info. I have been reading up on the forums and have also heard about the Atrix issues.
As for the Galaxy S, I do like that phone, but as you mentioned, it does have some older tech especially compared to what is being released this month and next. I don't mind paying a little more having a more up to date phone. Hence my hesitation with something like the Desire HD or Inspire and it's lack of a FFC.
As for the network here, no 4g yet. One of the carriers "Orange" is looking into it, but wouldnt be for a while. Also, I'm quite exactly how much longer I'll be here.
Desperate to get a phone and was hoping to do it this week while my friend in back in the US and could pick it up for me so that I dont have to pay the rediculous taxes at customs when ordering electronics.
The G2X is looking like an option, but i dont know about unlocked nor exactly how much at this point. This is proving to be more difficult that i imagined, been at it for a few months now. Who would think that with so many choices there would actually be so few choices!
Any continued help is still greatly appreciated! thanks again!
I'm almost certain that I know the answer to my question. I have tried finding xda development on ROM's for numerous phones using the CDMA technology and find they are almost non-existent. I assume this is primarily due to the market share that GSM phones has...one internet post put it @ 70%. Is this theory plausible?
Probably, considering there are a lot more development going on GSM phones as opposed to CDMA. That doesn't mean CDMA development is non existent, specifically the Sprint HTC EVO, EVO 3D, E4GT, etc.
Non-Existent was too general, I should've mentioned my CDMA carriers and....
...specifically US Cellular and Verizon. I was looking at their various Samsung offerings. What can I say about that, <g>. They are the 2 major carriers where I "play." I am currently on i Wireless, a subsidiary of T-Mobile, which of course is GSM, and I have found lots of development for my Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant. I am considering switching to a 4G phone and one of those carriers which have signals where I play, as my carrier doesn't and probably never will. I have thoroughly enjoyed the after marker ROM's here and many know how "bad" Samsung is about firmware upgrades. I guess choices one way or the other need to be made.
Hello everyone,
I've been searching sometime for an answer but I seem to keep getting conflicting information. Here's the gist: I'm moving to South Korea long term and I have a Samsung Nexus S that was purchased through Koodoo. Works like a sweet machine and I'm loath to give it up. I'm just wondering if it will work when I bring it over instead of forking out money again for another smartphone.
Reasons I think it will work: Nexus S seems to have a wide range of frequencies that it is compatible with, designed to be a world phone, etc.
Reasons I think it might not work: I keep hearing different information on South Korean frequencies from CDMA only to god-knows-what.
Can anyone out here help? It's quite confusing to me. If it won't work then I'll likely try to resell it (still in pristine condition) before leaving instead of bringing it all the way over and it being unusable. However if it does work, again, it would save me buying a new smartphone over there which will probably cost me more in the long run.
Any advice is MUCH appreciated. Thanks!
I'd like to say that it should work fine in S.Korea givin that the i9020 is basically the m200(Korean nexus s). I'm not completely sure though, I can be wrong so don't count me in on it 100%. If it's possible I would contact a Korean GSM telco through email and ask, they'll know if your nexus s is compatible with their bands. I would do that JUST to make sure
What model of Nexus do you have? Do you what bands/frequencies South Korea service providers use?
morning guys
I've seen a few threads about buying in the US and using the N5 in different countries and the fact that although you can use it for 3G/GSM, being able to use 4G LTE is a no go due to the bands that are utilised.
Does/Would anyone know if this is changeable due to the radio being used or would it be a hardware matter as to me it would seem abit odd to produce 2 different phones using the same form factor where a piece of software enabling the bands would be more cost efficient. I appreciate that the software etc is probably being looked at by Dev's now but was wondering if anyone with previous knowledge of this would know.
Only reason I ask is as I'm in the US at the moment (the 32Gb works out considerably cheaper than in the UK) and the area I live in (in the UK) hasn't got 4G (and probably won't have for a while), whether or not to purchase one and then wait for a radio change, but if thats not possible I'll have to go with the expensive UK version
thanks for you help
There are two Nexus 5 models, the D820 (for the U.S) & D821 (for the rest of the world. According to this article by Android Central, it seems that there is a physical difference between the radios installed in each model. So I don't think you would have the option of flashing a radio from a D821 on to a D820 and suddenly have access to UK/European LTE bands. I'm no expert though so maybe others could confirm/deny this.
I too would like to know the same thing (hoping to take advantage of relatives in the US )
However reading around a bit I think it's a hardware limitation. They use the same software on the phones, but they enable the different LTE bands built into the hardware.
Pretty sure no amount of flashing radios will enable the different LTE bands...I'd love to be wrong though.
Shame, even after sales tax the saving would have been worth it. Might have to bite the bullet and buy UK price £££££££££