Samsung Galaxy S4 preview thread (was "The Galaxy S4 gets announced today, Are you excited?")

[S4GRU]

 

Not all that surprising given that this month T-Mobile is supposed to start selling a new variant of the S3 with LTE.

 

I think that every Tmo flagship phone from now on will support LTE AWS. Also, if memory serves, the Tmo GS3 always supported LTE AWS, it just needs to be software enabled.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[GoWireless]

It's a nice bump up but the Note 2 I have is a nice phone too and I have no real choice but to wait till the contract is up.

 

When the FCC filings start being reported and we know for sure which bands I could get a lot more interested. If it does 800 and/or 2500 (2600?) mhz LTE I would be excited and bummed I have to wait.

 

Based on what Samsung said in their press release, a 2600Mhz LTE-TDD variant won't be released until later in the year. What might happen is that the initial variant would include neither 800 nor 2600 LTE, then a variant that supports both gets released later. In any case, at this point I am thinking that Sprint probably won't even start deploying 2600 until when they're well into 800 deployment. By then, it will probably be time for another upgrade anyway

[GoWireless]

 

I think that every Tmo flagship phone from now on will support LTE AWS. Also, if memory serves, the Tmo GS3 always supported LTE AWS, it just needs to be software enabled.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

I believe you are thinking about their Note II variant which has dormant AWS LTE capabilities, but to the best of my knowledge, their original S3 variant does not.

Edited March 17, 2013 by GoWireless

[S4GRU]

 

I believe you are thinking about their Note II variant which has dormant AWS LTE capabilities, but to the best of my knowledge, their original S3 variant does not.

 

Ah, yes. I believe you're right about that.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[GoWireless]

Ah, yes. I believe you're right about that.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

Yep, this month the SGH-T999L gets released. The added "L" at the end of the model number is indicative of LTE. As expected, this variant also has big brother LTE band 17 support in addition to AWS LTE.

 

Apropos T-Mobile LTE... It's been spotted in NYC: http://www.tmonews.com/2013/03/t-mobile-2/

[irev210]

It's a nice bump up but the Note 2 I have is a nice phone too and I have no real choice but to wait till the contract is up.

 

When the FCC filings start being reported and we know for sure which bands I could get a lot more interested. If it does 800 and/or 2500 (2600?) mhz LTE I would be excited and bummed I have to wait.

 

It's not going to.

 

Handset update. Today Sprint feels good about its mix of iPhone and

Galaxy devices, and it is excited about the next generation of Galaxy

launching soon. Getting the iPad in the device lineup in 4Q should improve

adds somewhat directly, but it may have a bigger impact on enterprise

customers for whom that was a requirement. Sprint expects to have a

mobile broadband card including TD-LTE in mid 2013 and a handset in

late 2013, though the first “iconic” device will likely wait until 1H14.

source: sprint management (hesse and co.)

[DaQue]

Cool that will be about time to replace the note 2.

[Rukin1]

It's not going to.

 

 

source: sprint management (hesse and co.)

So no 800 support until next year?

[irev210]

So no 800 support until next year?

 

They only commented on TD-LTE - not sure on ESMR support.

 

Either way, no ESMR LTE or EBS/BRS TD-LTE for the Galaxy S 4.

[Rukin1]

They only commented on TD-LTE - not sure on ESMR support.

 

Either way, no ESMR LTE or EBS/BRS TD-LTE for the Galaxy S 4.

DANG, I wish they would go further into detail about that stuff

[TheForce627]

if there is no esmr LTE they are making a huge mistake. people will be locked into a 2 year contract only able to access 1900 LTE which isnt all that great from my experience. i feel like its gonna be a hit to the sprint brand with only having access to 1900 LTE with a flagship phone like that

[WiWavelength]

if there is no esmr LTE they are making a huge mistake. people will be locked into a 2 year contract only able to access 1900 LTE which isnt all that great from my experience. i feel like its gonna be a hit to the sprint brand with only having access to 1900 LTE with a flagship phone like that

 

A "mistake" or a "hit to the brand"? Why? VZW has been selling single band LTE 750 handsets for a good two years. No current VZW handsets will be able to take advantage of LTE 2100+1700 when VZW launches its AWS overlay later this year. But subs are certainly not complaining loudly nor leaving VZW en masse.

 

AJ

[digiblur]

I think people still have a 14 day return window on things if they don't like the coverage of their new device. Apple's phones have had huge drawbacks in them from the very first 2G model and people still bought them up like crazy.

[TheForce627]

A "mistake" or a "hit to the brand"? Why? VZW has been selling single band LTE 750 handsets for a good two years. No current VZW handsets will be able to take advantage of LTE 2100+1700 when VZW launches its AWS overlay later this year. But subs are certainly not complaining loudly nor leaving VZW en masse.

 

AJ

ok you already know 750>1900 coverage wise. sprint users will be stuck with 1900 only coverage which in my opinion will be lacking and insufficient in alot of places. this is a flagship phone and people will be using this for two years with no access to better coverage wich smr LTE would offer. there would be plenty of people wanting to leave sprint if a sprint user cant access lte on 1900 in a building while vzw users will asssuming its on the same tower on a non rf freidnly buulding. simple as that. i just fell like they should be putting it in phones by now

[lordsutch]

Because of VZW's 750 tower spacing, I'd expect a lot of folks can't get Verizon LTE at decent speeds inside buildings either. There are always going to be places where Verizon will have better coverage than Sprint, and there are always going to be places where Sprint has better coverage than Verizon.

 

And, given that Sprint probably isn't putting ESMR LTE on every tower either (we haven't seen the FITs yet, but my guess is Sprint will be preferring range over density to improve its POPs coverage numbers and cut data roaming costs), the building penetration "win" probably will be less than people are anticipating, particularly given the fragility of LTE compared to 1X.

[ericdabbs]

ok you already know 750>1900 coverage wise. sprint users will be stuck with 1900 only coverage which in my opinion will be lacking and insufficient in alot of places. this is a flagship phone and people will be using this for two years with no access to better coverage wich smr LTE would offer. there would be plenty of people wanting to leave sprint if a sprint user cant access lte on 1900 in a building while vzw users will asssuming its on the same tower on a non rf freidnly buulding. simple as that. i just fell like they should be putting it in phones by now

 

I completely agree with you that Sprint should be adding Tri-band LTE phones to its flagship phones at this stage to prepare customers to be able to take full advantage of all 3 LTE bands later on this year. But its really up to Sprint and Samsung to agree and work together on this. My guess is that since the S4 is going to be released sometime in May or early June that only LTE 1900 will be added unfortunately given that the HTC One only contains LTE 1900.

 

IMO Verizon is in a different situation which allows them to get away with just having the LTE 750 for these last 2 years because it has great coverage, great building penetration and is a 10x10 carrier and has twice the capacity to provide a good LTE experience. For Verizon adding LTE 1700/2100 will be entirely seamless and customers will just see a more consistent data speed increase when it gets deployed. However Sprint is in a different situation where they only have a single 5x5 carrier on LTE 1900 currently and has half the capacity as Verizon's LTE 750 carrier and customers will see a similar or a worse signal to voice when going indoors.

 

If Sprint continues to just add LTE 1900 only phones throughout 2013, it tells me that Sprint plans to focus on deploying another 5x5 carrier on LTE 1900 rather than building out LTE 800 and LTE 2500 for added capacity.

[jefbal99]

if there is no esmr LTE they are making a huge mistake. people will be locked into a 2 year contract only able to access 1900 LTE which isnt all that great from my experience. i feel like its gonna be a hit to the sprint brand with only having access to 1900 LTE with a flagship phone like that

 

Your experience is with a partially built, under construction network. I bet if you were living in a house that was under construction that you wouldn't have a great experience either. Sorry you are cold, the windows are not in yet and the electric company can't install the hook up so no furnace either.

 

It's really freaking annoying how users are comparing a partial network build out to Verizon fully built/launched networks. Once Sprint has all the sites upgraded, you'll have LTE just about everywhere you have EVDO. Fringe coverage will be intermittent due to the airlink, but Verizon has that issue in fringe areas too.

[TheForce627]

 

 

Your experience is with a partially built, under construction network. I bet if you were living in a house that was under construction that you wouldn't have a great experience either. Sorry you are cold, the windows are not in yet and the electric company can't install the hook up so no furnace either.

 

It's really freaking annoying how users are comparing a partial network build out to Verizon fully built/launched networks. Once Sprint has all the sites upgraded, you'll have LTE just about everywhere you have EVDO. Fringe coverage will be intermittent due to the airlink, but Verizon has that issue in fringe areas too.

I can comment in this because I've been in an area where all the Sprint towers around me were upgraded. I see what it would be like once it's complete.

[jefbal99]

I can comment in this because I've been in an area where all the Sprint towers around me were upgraded. I see what it would be like once it's complete.

 

No market has been fully completed

[TheForce627]

 

 

No market has been fully completed

that's why I said area. I understand no market is complete, but this area I frequently visit has all of the Sprint sites in that area upgraded ( around three sites and I'm in the middle).

[jefbal99]

that's why I said area. I understand no market is complete, but this area I frequently visit has all of the Sprint sites in that area upgraded ( around three sites and I'm in the middle).

 

3 towers?!?!?! huge area to have a coverage/device test

[jefbal99]

Not really surprising news from Team Haxsung and the other Samsung CM maintainers, they are not planning on supporting the Galaxy S4. After all the issues with the GS2 and GS3 with incomplete GPL releases, code that wouldn't compile, broken drivers, the Super Brick bug, etc, they've finally had it.

 

If you'd like some history, this is a great saga by Andrew Dodd on Google+ - https://plus.google....sts/aoAGK5yo13Y

 

Here is an XDA post from Team Hacksung - http://forum.xda-dev...32&postcount=27

 

Source article - http://www.androidce...y-s4-should-you

 

TouchWiz on my Note 2 was much better than my GS2, but I still ended up on CM10.1 (this was just before digiblur's ROM came out). I've been using CM since my first Android device and that is a definite point that I look for when purchasing a new device. If Samsung helps devs, then CM will come to the GS4, if not a new hero/dev will need to be found.

 

Edit in:

 

Official updates from CM -

- Clarified to the points I made above, the articles today were only for support by Team Haxsung and a few other maintainers. The GS4 may get official CM support, but it will most likely be a new group of maintainers.

 

And a note from Ricardo Cerqueira -

Edited March 19, 2013 by jefbal99

[P_M_G]

I guess nobody here ever owned the OG Evo...or an Epic 4G....or any WIMAX phone when they were promised the awesomeness of a speed demon 4G network...and waited....and waited....and then WIMAX got scrapped for promise of Network Vision and upgraded to a EVO LTE or a GS3 or other LTE phone when there was minimal LTE network completed (and probably how they end up here) and still in many areas just a hint of LTE on the odd tower or not even on the radar yet?

 

If I bought a phone NOW without 800LTE support, I can almost guarantee with 100% certainty that I will be eligible for another upgrade by the time that part of NV is done in my area.

 

Unless you have the ability to know exactly when the next level upgrades will be completed on NV beyond the initial LTE roll out, then crying about the lack of phones supporting a non-existent part of a network is plain useless.

[adhrty]

Not really surprising news from Team Haxsung and the other Samsung CM maintainers, they are not planning on supporting the Galaxy S4. After all the issues with the GS2 and GS3 with incomplete GPL releases, code that wouldn't compile, broken drivers, the Super Brick bug, etc, they've finally had it.

 

If you'd like some history, this is a great saga by Andrew Dodd on Google+ - https://plus.google....sts/aoAGK5yo13Y

 

Here is an XDA post from Team Hacksung - http://forum.xda-dev...32&postcount=27

 

Source article - http://www.androidce...y-s4-should-you

 

TouchWiz on my Note 2 was much better than my GS2, but I still ended up on CM10.1 (this was just before digiblur's ROM came out). I've been using CM since my first Android device and that is a definite point that I look for when purchasing a new device. If Samsung helps devs, then CM will come to the GS4, if not a new hero/dev will need to be found.

 

Edit in:

 

Official updates from CM - https://plus.google....sts/7jywLJdswki - Clarified to the points I made above, the articles today were only for support by Team Haxsung and a few other maintainers. The GS4 may get official CM support, but it will most likely be a new group of maintainers.

 

And a note from Ricardo Cerqueira- https://plus.google....sts/GegMJpRWAt5

 

Of course, there is a big exception here. All these people are talking about the Exynos SoC. It appears that there will again be a split, with the North American version containing a Qualacomm SoC while the international version ships with the Exynos 5. Qualacomm, through Code Aurora Forum, provides excellent support (and GPLed code) that makes the NA GS3 one of the best supported CM devices. Too bad Sony dosen't make CDMA phones though...

[jefbal99]

Of course, there is a big exception here. All these people are talking about the Exynos SoC. It appears that there will again be a split, with the North American version containing a Qualacomm SoC while the international version ships with the Exynos 5. Qualacomm, through Code Aurora Forum, provides excellent support (and GPLed code) that makes the NA GS3 one of the best supported CM devices. Too bad Sony dosen't make CDMA phones though...

 

Agreed, it will all depend on what chipset ends up in the NA devices.