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Upgrade to a current gen Spark phone or wait?

jreuschl

By jreuschl
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jreuschl Member Level: 4G WiMax

jreuschl

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I have a Note II and qualify for an upgrade.  My natural upgrade path would be get the Note 4 in September.  However, phone radio-wise it sounds like it will be the same as other tri-band phones now.

 

So is it worth waiting until newer chipset phones come out that would support carrier aggregation?  Also phones that could support the rural band 12 700MHz coming next year, too?

 

I know the saying, something always new can come out.  Have a hard time committing 2 years to a headset not supporting the latest network technology though.  I can hope the Nexus 6 (assuming that is coming) supports at least aggregation and save having to do a contract.

 

Anyone else facing the same issue? :)  Really, if it wasn't for my phone being single-band only I wouldn't upgrade at all.

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transitwatch889 Member Level: eHRPD

transitwatch889

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I have a Note II and qualify for an upgrade.  My natural upgrade path would be get the Note 4 in September.  However, phone radio-wise it sounds like it will be the same as other tri-band phones now.

 

So is it worth waiting until newer chipset phones come out that would support carrier aggregation?  Also phones that could support the rural band 12 700MHz coming next year, too?

 

I know the saying, something always new can come out.  Have a hard time committing 2 years to a headset not supporting the latest network technology though.  I can hope the Nexus 6 (assuming that is coming) supports at least aggregation and save having to do a contract.

 

Anyone else facing the same issue? :)  Really, if it wasn't for my phone being single-band only I wouldn't upgrade at all.

Could you afford buying off contract second hand tri band to hold u over? Wait for something you really want to use your upgrade on?
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jreuschl Member Level: 4G WiMax

jreuschl

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Could you afford buying off contract second hand tri band to hold u over? Wait for something you really want to use your upgrade on?

 

Well one possibility that did pop in my head was getting a S4 T on eBay and selling my Note II while it is still getting decent $$ to hold me over...

 

http://www.sammobile.com/2014/06/20/samsung-galaxy-note-4-appears-in-benchmark-in-exynos-sm-n910c-and-snapdragon-sm-n910s-flavors/

 

Some rumors though list the 805 on the Note 4.  I think I'll hold tight for a month and see.

 

I was even going to add to my first post saying what about T-Mobile bands with a merge offer..  don't have to think about that now ;)

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transitwatch889 Member Level: eHRPD

transitwatch889

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Well one possibility that did pop in my head was getting a S4 T on eBay and selling my Note II while it is still getting decent $$ to hold me over...

 

http://www.sammobile.com/2014/06/20/samsung-galaxy-note-4-appears-in-benchmark-in-exynos-sm-n910c-and-snapdragon-sm-n910s-flavors/

 

Some rumors though list the 805 on the Note 4. I think I'll hold tight for a month and see.

 

I was even going to add to my first post saying what about T-Mobile bands with a merge offer.. don't have to think about that now ;)

the s4t is a good device to get with similar performance radio wise as the nexus 5 so that would be a good update Tbh. I am looking at getting one for my partner the s4t as well to hold him over. All the good toys are coming out first and second quarter of next year. It would be kinda a miracle and a big deal if the note 4 had a catergory 6 radio chipset. I wouldn't bet on that being the case.
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Rawvega Member Level: 4G LTE

Rawvega

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If you're wanting to hold out for carrier aggregation, wait for a phone with the Snapdragon 805.

 

Will the Snapdragon 805 support CA though? I'm a bit confused. Looking here: http://www.qualcomm.com/snapdragon/processors/800 the 805 supports Cat. 6 speeds when used with a 4th gen. LTE modem. However, nothing specifically is mentioned about CA, at least that I can see.

 

The 808 & 810 specifically mention CA (3x20 FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE). As for the OP, I'd see about getting something off eBay or whatever to hold me over for the moment and use my upgrade next year on a Snapdragon 810 device.

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afazel Member Level: 3G EVDO

afazel

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Will the Snapdragon 805 support CA though? I'm a bit confused. Looking here: http://www.qualcomm.com/snapdragon/processors/800 the 805 supports Cat. 6 speeds when used with a 4th gen. LTE modem. However, nothing specifically is mentioned about CA, at least that I can see.

 

The 808 & 810 specifically mention CA (3x20 FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE). As for the OP, I'd see about getting something off eBay or whatever to hold me over for the moment and use my upgrade next year on a Snapdragon 810 device.

You could be right there.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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EvanA Member Level: 4G WiMax

EvanA

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Will the Snapdragon 805 support CA though? I'm a bit confused. Looking here: http://www.qualcomm.com/snapdragon/processors/800 the 805 supports Cat. 6 speeds when used with a 4th gen. LTE modem. However, nothing specifically is mentioned about CA, at least that I can see.

 

The 808 & 810 specifically mention CA (3x20 FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE). As for the OP, I'd see about getting something off eBay or whatever to hold me over for the moment and use my upgrade next year on a Snapdragon 810 device.

Snapdragon 805 does not have an built-in modem.  It must be paired with an MDM9x35 series modem, which is Cat 6 and supports carrier aggregation.  

 

More on the 9x35: http://www.qualcomm.com/media/blog/2014/01/08/qualcomm-gobi-9x35-makes-first-300-mbps-lte-advanced-ca-data-call

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hescominsoon Member Level: 3G EVDO

hescominsoon

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I have a Note II and qualify for an upgrade.  My natural upgrade path would be get the Note 4 in September.  However, phone radio-wise it sounds like it will be the same as other tri-band phones now.

 

So is it worth waiting until newer chipset phones come out that would support carrier aggregation?  Also phones that could support the rural band 12 700MHz coming next year, too?

 

I know the saying, something always new can come out.  Have a hard time committing 2 years to a headset not supporting the latest network technology though.  I can hope the Nexus 6 (assuming that is coming) supports at least aggregation and save having to do a contract.

 

Anyone else facing the same issue? :)  Really, if it wasn't for my phone being single-band only I wouldn't upgrade at all.

it depends on your market.  if you are in a market with substantial upgrades a new phone is great.  if you are in a market like mine that has had little to nearly zero upgrades the spark phones are problematic.  They don't handle the transition from a non-nv system to an nv system well.  I usually loose all connectivity going either way for a couple of minutes while the phone figures out how to connect.  

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afazel Member Level: 3G EVDO

afazel

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Snapdragon 805 does not have an built-in modem.  It must be paired with an MDM9x35 series modem, which is Cat 6 and supports carrier aggregation.  

 

More on the 9x35: http://www.qualcomm.com/media/blog/2014/01/08/qualcomm-gobi-9x35-makes-first-300-mbps-lte-advanced-ca-data-call

 

Ah, there we go. That also means the battery life could really suck until they get the baseband integrated with the SOC.

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afazel Member Level: 3G EVDO

afazel

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Battery isn't really affected.

 

I'm not sure about that. The first-gen LTE phones didn't have the modem baseband integrated with the SOC, and the battery life was atrocious. Remember the HTC Thunderbolt? LTE was a new technology then, but there is a correlation with battery life and modem integration.

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EvanA Member Level: 4G WiMax

EvanA

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I'm not sure about that. The first-gen LTE phones didn't have the modem baseband integrated with the SOC, and the battery life was atrocious. Remember the HTC Thunderbolt? LTE was a new technology then, but there is a correlation with battery life and modem integration.

Of course first gen devices had terrible battery life. They've improved leaps and bounds since then. The Korean Galaxy S5 has a snapdragon 805 with a separate modem and Anandtech found that the battery life was basically unchanged from the other models.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8314/galaxy-s5-ltea-battery-life-performance

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dleewee Member Level: 1x Advanced

dleewee

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You mean off contract?

Yeah, why on earth would I pay $250 for a 9 month old phone with a 2-Year contract?

 

[emoji1] just busting your chops a little bit.

 

I typically always look for phones that are 6-9 months old and had the best specs at the time they launched. By doing this, I'm able to have damn close to top end handsets at about half the list price.

 

Usually I buy them 2nd hand, but in this case I got very lucky with the Microcenter flash sale and got one brand new.

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jamesinclair Member Level: 4G WiMax

jamesinclair

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Yeah, why on earth would I pay $250 for a 9 month old phone with a 2-Year contract?

 

[emoji1] just busting your chops a little bit.

 

I typically always look for phones that are 6-9 months old and had the best specs at the time they launched. By doing this, I'm able to have damn close to top end handsets at about half the list price.

 

Usually I buy them 2nd hand, but in this case I got very lucky with the Microcenter flash sale and got one brand new.

 

It just seems to good to be true. That was a one-off deal?

 

I ask because my dad needs a new phone, and my sister used his upgrade.

 

Hes using a Moto Photon - Wimax.

 

I was thinking Nexus 5 but Im worried the new one will be out in 2 months.

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dleewee Member Level: 1x Advanced

dleewee

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It just seems to good to be true. That was a one-off deal?

 

I ask because my dad needs a new phone, and my sister used his upgrade.

 

Hes using a Moto Photon - Wimax.

 

I was thinking Nexus 5 but Im worried the new one will be out in 2 months.

Yep, it was sold out in a couple of days.

 

The MotoX (not tri-band [emoji32]) keeps going on sale and the Nexus 5 is a solid buy too.

 

I also see the G2 used for around $230 on CL and swappa.

 

Cowboom is another good place to watch, (they sell phones that come in the best buy buyback program) I bought a Galaxy S2 from them a couple years ago and it's still working great.

Edited by dleewee
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dleewee Member Level: 1x Advanced

dleewee

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If you are willing to take the risk to buy a phone 2nd hand there are always great deals to be had (but you have to be careful). If you want a brand new one I would suggest setting up some deal alerts over at slickdeals and keep a few hundred dollars at the ready for when a sale happens.

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