Motorola IHDT56QC7 (LTE Moto E)

[lilotimz]

Motorola IHDT56QC7 Model 4242 

 

What do yall think it is? A LTE version of the Moto G is expected soon...

[Terrell352]

Interestesting no carrier aggregation but support for T-Mobile, sprint and At&t. Similar the nexus 5 except with band 12

[JossMan]

It looks to be the LTE version of the Moto G 2nd Gen. 

[newboyx]

I am guessing Boost/Virgin Mobile

 

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

[JossMan]

Well this little guy just popped out into the mobile world sometime in the last few days, found it on BestBuy's website.

Sprint Prepaid Motorola Moto E 4G LTE

• Qualcomm quad-core processor @ 1.2GHz
• Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box
• 1GB RAM
• 4.5'' qHD 540 x 960 screen
• 8GB of memory, expandable to 32GB with SD card

Link provided below.

 

Sprint Prepaid Motorola Moto E 4G LTE

[lilotimz]

Well this little guy just popped out into the mobile world sometime in the last few days, found it on BestBuy's website.

Sprint Prepaid Motorola Moto E 4G LTE

• Qualcomm quad-core processor @ 1.2GHz
• Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box
• 1GB RAM
• 4.5'' qHD 540 x 960 screen
• 8GB of memory, expandable to 32GB with SD card

Link provided below.

 

Sprint Prepaid Motorola Moto E 4G LTE

 

Ran the IMEI of the test device through IMEI checker on swappa.. and lo and behold

 

[JossMan]

UPDATE:  Bestbuy has pulled the Sprint prepaid variant Moto E LTE off their website.  Did Bestbuy jump the gun and leak this little bundle of LTE joy on accident?  

[bill875]

Can this new Moto E LTE be activated on a Family Share plan or will it be Sprint Pre-Paid only?  Looks like a nice device for a great price.

[UserDemos]

It is now available on Boost and Sprint Prepaid. Virgin coming soon. I'm really interested in picking one up, however, is it Band 41 compatible? I can't find a good answer anywhere on the official materials.

[JossMan]

It is now available on Boost and Sprint Prepaid. Virgin coming soon. I'm really interested in picking one up, however, is it Band 41 compatible? I can't find a good answer anywhere on the official materials.

Yep the Moto E is tri-band, Bands 25, 26, and 41 Spark capable.  

 

http://shop.sprint.com/mysprint/shop/phone_details.jsp?deviceSKUId=89000409

[WiWavelength]

Yep the Moto E is tri-band, Bands 25, 26, and 41 Spark capable.  

 

http://shop.sprint.com/mysprint/shop/phone_details.jsp?deviceSKUId=89000409

 

I am sorry.  But that thing is a fat, fugly, low res piece of plastic.  I guess that is what $99 buys.

 

AJ

[UserDemos]

For $99, it is a great phone to try out Sprint for someone that doesn't currently have Sprint. Then, if I do decide to get it: I can give it to a member of my family that uses it for calling only basically while I grab something more high end. Plus, it runs stock and has great radios that Motorola is known for.

[S4GRU]

It's also a great phone to downgrade a teenager to who has destroyed his more expensive phone being careless.  

[WiWavelength]

It's also a great phone to downgrade a teenager to who has destroyed his more expensive phone being careless.  

 

I wholeheartedly agree.  But I believe that is called punishment.

 

 

AJ

[JossMan]

I am sorry.  But that thing is a fat, fugly, low res piece of plastic.  I guess that is what $99 buys.

 

AJ

Its not ugly, hogly, its fugly!  I agree 100% there are better options out there for a little bit more cabbage.  

[GW1973]

Question, if you buy the moto E from Motorola, can you activate it on the Postpaid Sprint network?

[caspar347]

Cool! Last time I checked the only model anyone knew anything about only had AT&T bands.

 

Good to know it'll probably be on Sprint. Now the question is whether it will be allowed on postpaid.

[GW1973]

Cool! Last time I checked the only model anyone knew anything about only had AT&T bands.

 

Good to know it'll probably be on Sprint. Now the question is whether it will be allowed on postpaid.

Went into a local store, only on prepaid & Boost.

[caspar347]

Went into a local store, only on prepaid & Boost.

Aw. Oh well. At least it's available in some form on Sprint's network.

[ufergus]

I would like to understand the logic behind not offering this phone for post-paid customers.  Given the move away from subsidies, you would think a nice low cost post-paid option would be encouraged.  They obviously did all the work to make it available on the network.  Why cut off half your potential users?  Doesn't make sense...

[GW1973]

I would like to understand the logic behind not offering this phone for post-paid customers. Given the move away from subsidies, you would think a nice low cost post-paid option would be encouraged. They obviously did all the work to make it available on the network. Why cut off half your potential users? Doesn't make sense...

Yeah, they did it with the Sharp Aquos Crystal, both prepaid and post.

[acadiel]

I got the "Unlocked Universal" version of this very device from Amazon.  The FCC indicates it does indeed support Sprint frequency bands.  No reason why it really couldn't work other than Sprint not wanting to whitelist the stupid thing.  

 

I made a nice comparison on XDA Developers about the *C7 and *C8.  

Compiled from FCC information and Wikipedia for two of the Moto E LTE models:

FCC ID IHDT56QC8 (XT1528) -
This LTE transceiver supports high-speed wireless data communications within LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, and 13, with channels up to 20 MHz in bandwidth.

FCC ID IHDT56QC7 (XT1527) -
This LTE transceiver supports high-speed wireless data communications within LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 17, 25, 26, and 41, with channels up to 20 MHz in bandwidth. 

From Wikipedia:
2 = 1900Mhz (PCS)
4 = 1700Mhz (AWS)
5 = 850 (Cellular?)
12 = 700 a
13 = 700 c
17 = 700 b
25 = 1900 g
26 = 850 (SMR?)
41 = 2500 (old WiMax)

So, the Verizon model (1528) will technically support LTE on AT&T and T-Mobile bands 2 & 4. It has all three Verizon LTE bands (obviously) - 2, 4, 13. You would be missing LTE on AT&T band 17 and LTE on T-Mobile band 12.

The other model (1527) will support LTE on AT&T in 2, 4, and 17. Will support Sprint on 2, 25, 26, and 41. Will support T-Mobile on 2, 4, and 12. Technically it might also support Verizon on 2 and 4. (Verizon is currently using 4 as part of XLTE in certain markets, and I don't know if think are running LTE on 2 at all. )

It appears that the 1527 model is the better one to get for band coverage, unless you want Verizon LTE on band 13.

Found a third model. From FCC docs:

FCC ID: IHDT56QC1.
This mobile device is also equipped with an LTE transceiver. This LTE transceiver supports high-speed wireless data communications within LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, and 17, with channels up to 20 MHz in bandwidth. 

This particular variant will work on LTE on AT&T in bands 2, 4, and 17. It will work on LTE on T-Mobile in 2, 4, and 12. It will work on Verizon's LTE on 2 and 4, but is missing Verizon's core band 13 (700c). Not sure which provider is using it with on band 5 (850). This model apparently (compared to QC7) is missing the Sprint LTE bands completely (25, 26, 41).

[S4GRU]

FCC ID: IHDT56QC1.

This mobile device is also equipped with an LTE transceiver. This LTE transceiver supports high-speed wireless data communications within LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, and 17, with channels up to 20 MHz in bandwidth.

 

This particular variant will work on LTE on AT&T in bands 2, 4, and 17. It will work on LTE on T-Mobile in 2, 4, and 12. It will work on Verizon's LTE on 2 and 4, but is missing Verizon's core band 13 (700c). Not sure which provider is using it with on band 5 (850). This model apparently (compared to QC7) is missing the Sprint LTE bands completely (25, 26, 41).

 

AT&T also uses LTE B5 in places (like around here). So it will work on ATT B5 too.

 

 

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

[caspar347]

Tl;dr the Verizon LTE (gen2 XT1528) model can be GSM-enabled if you have access to a computer even after the 5.1 patched update.

 

Story time: My friend's unlocked Moto X broke so he decided he wanted a Moto E to tide him over until he could get the X fixed. The Cricket model you can purchase in a retail store is listed at $30 but after fees and stuff its about $60. So I told him I could take a shot at convincing the Verizon Prepaid model to take a Cricket SIM. (Verizon phones are supposed to be unlocked, right?)

 

So we grab one from Walmart for $35 and then we realize we need a nano to micro adapter. We track one of those down and then I get to work on the radio side of things. Of note, this is model XT1528; not the Boost model. Some old articles on the internet indicate you just have to run a couple shell commands over adb to restore the GSM/LTE option to the settings menu and everything should work from there. We run the commands a couple times and nothing happens. Then I started to realize all of these articles were written back when the phone shipped with 5.0. Apparently Verizon patched the menu in the 5.1 update. I found another old forum post on XDA by someone in the same situation who gave instructions for flashing the old modem. A couple hours later (all of the stock firmware repos only have the 5.1 and 5.1.1 files) I found someone hosting the original 5.0 files. The fastboot modem flash worked, and the commands enabled the LTE/GSM option! I'm still not sure how Verizon was able to manipulate a UI feature (admittedly radio-related) with a modem update, but the rollback worked so I'm not gonna complain.

 

The model supports 2 and 4 (among others) but all I've seen it connect to so far is AWS. My point in posting is that the Verizon model is the cheapest way to get a Moto E at the moment and it can be made to accept any SIM if you're willing to put an hour into it.

 

Working with this thing made me wish even more that Sprint carried it on postpaid. For normal tasks it's just as good as my 5X and it would make a great backup. And it's cheap enough that I wouldn't be worried about losing it.