NateC

LTE at 1900 MHz should be much better penetration-wise than WiMax at 2500 MHz. To get an idea about the penetration, note that Sprint currently uses 1900 MHz for its EVDO (3G) data network.

800 MHz will be much better still, of course.

Strange you would think an iPhone has less value in the end. I bought an iPhone 4 32GB in July of 2010 for $299 on at&t, I sold it in February 2011 for $750 on eBay jailbroken & unlocked. That was $450 over the price I paid and I could have gotten more if I had tried hard enough.

 

My Evo Shift 4G is worth $200 at most on eBay & I paid $280 for it in February 2011. Most android phones I have seen are selling for less than full price even with root and custom ROM's. Even some GSM phones are selling for less than full retail value even when they are brand new in the box sealed. (I was gonna try with T-Mobile phones last summer.)

Ah, I didn't mean to imply that an iPhone has less value on the market. It definitely holds value better than others. I was merely referring to my own personal value that I would have for it. I happen to be a big Android fan so I'm admittedly biased to value an iPhone less.

By that logic, shouldn't everybody buy the iPhone since it's subsidized the heaviest?

 

And isn't having what you want is worth waiting a few months for, even if it costs you $14.58 a month?

I guess it's up to the individual and how much they're willing to sacrifice to get what they want. $14.58 may even be a conservative estimate since I was only assuming break-even for Sprint. T-Mobile charges $20 more per month for their subsidized plans. Are you willing to pay ~$90 more for your new phone just because you waited 6 months after your contract ended? To some it's a big deal, others might not care.

Regarding your iPhone question -- iPhone may be subsidized the most, but to me personally it would have much less value to me compared to an Android device, so I wouldn't buy that. Maybe it would make sense if I were going to sell it right away new like pyroscott is mentioning though

No one says you have to upgrade the *moment* you become eligible. I'm also in that April 1 upgrade group and have no problem sitting back for a few months for the right handset. We know the Galaxy Nexus are LG Viper are just around the corner, that the next HTC flagship is coming in June, and the Galaxy S 3 is coming after that.

Every month after the 2 year period, you're basically throwing away an extra ~$14 ^[*] per month to Sprint if you don't upgrade. So, no, you don't have to upgrade, but it's in your best interest financially to do so.

^{[*] Assuming that Sprint prices plans to ensure break-even for the subsidized phones that cost Sprint the most. e.g., a $550 phone sold for $200 means $350 is made up over the course of 24 months at $14.58/month.}

For what it's worth, Minneapolis was unofficially announced today. NV deployment is scheduled to begin Fall 2012:

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-143-the-sprint-markets-of-memphis-minnesota-are-slated-to-begin-network-visionlte-in-the-2nd-half-of-2012/

We have some unofficial WiMAX support in Madison, WI. The Clearwire coverage map does show service in Madison, though it says they are not selling service in this area. Sprint does not acknowledge WiMAX support here. However, I was able to get WiMAX to work on my Evo 4G if I drove really close to the tower. I'm not sure if this is considered a protection site or not.

Thanks TS. What I gather from everything I've read, LTE is coming to Minneapolis, but not anytime soon.

 

I've had the EVO for almost two years and have the itch because I'm a spoiled gadget nerd. I'd love to buy a Sprint LTE device in April when I'm eligible, I just don't want to wait a year to be able to use LTE. I was really hoping someone would say LTE would be here sooner rather than later, but if Chicago is going to be delayed into 2013, that likely means Minneapolis is even farther out.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. It's slightly worse for me, since I'm in Madison, WI where we don't really have WiMAX. The Twin Cities WiMAX coverage is spotty, but it's way better than Madison's. In Madison we have one or two towers I think on Clearwire's map, and I can get a weak signal if I'm really close to it outside.

I also got the Evo 4G on launch day and have an upgrade coming up. Like the Twin Cities, there has been no announcement (officially or unofficial) about the Network Vision / LTE rollout schedule for the Milwaukee/Madison market. I also think the Evo screen is about as big as I'd ever want, so I'm still not sold on these newer huge devices.

The Galaxy Nexus and One X don't really excite me. The size of the One X and the non-removable battery are backward steps from the Evo 4G in my opinion. The Galaxy Nexus has a huge bevel and has a lot of hardware problems reported. LTE support in itself doesn't matter a lot since most likely we won't have good LTE support for at least half of our new 2 year contract period.

A used Photon isn't a bad idea, but it looks like they are still being sold for at least $200-$250 on average. It's hard to swallow paying more than what we originally paid for the Evo 4G for a device that's already outdated and just slightly better than the Evo 4G. I wish Sprint gave discounts for when you're no longer in your "subsidized" contract period like T-Mobile does. Since we pay the same monthly rate in and out of contract, you're basically throwing money away if you don't upgrade when eligible. It's an unfortunate system (this was actually the topic of a recent article here -- http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-139-the-subsidy-quandrydo-you-prefer-cheaper-phones-or-cheaper-plans/). I've always opposed the subsidized model we're forced into.

U.S. Cellular in Madison just got LTE, so there's another option for me. They partnered with King Street wireless to get LTE in the 700 MHz band. But their phone selection is always a year behind everyone else.

in regards to the size of the device....youll get used to it...I remember when the evo4G came out people thought it was too big as it was a big jump from previous phone sizes....now its the norm...yes there is a point where it gets too big and I believe anything bigger than the Note would be that level...The size of the Nexus and Razor are fine imho, same with the OneX.

 

As far as resolution goes, after having the EVO3D, I hate having to pick up my EVO4G for testing as the resolution is so much worse on it...icons look like giants on the thing and not near as sharp as the 3D.

 

Besides the screen size thing and 800MHz LTE support, everything you list is in the HTC One Series...

You may be right about getting used to the overall size, and I hope it turns out that way because it doesn't look like manufacturers are focusing much on OG EVO-sized devices or smaller. Assuming I could get used to the overall size, I still have these gripes about the HTC One series:

• (One X) Screen height. The HTC One X has a screen larger than even the Galaxy Nexus and it has separate capacitive buttons. It's about 1cm more than the Evo 4G. It should be fine for me, but I could see it being awkward using it one-handed sometimes when I have to stretch my thumb further (think about holding it in one hand and pulling down the notification bar with your thumb).
  
• (One X/S) Embedded non-replaceable battery. I'm assuming they will have a way to hard reset to alleviate the need to pull the battery, but I don't like not being able to replace it. What if I want to install a larger battery? What if I want to keep a spare charged battery with me for emergencies to swap out? If the battery goes bad, I don't want to have to send my phone in to the manufacturer to get it fixed. It's a step backwards.
  
• (One S) Lack of NFC support
  
• (One S) Lack of Micro-SD card support, but only 16 GB of internal memory. The X has 32 GB at least.
  

I like the size of the One S, but dislike the lack of NFC and SD card support. I don't think the size itself is too small to support NFC since much smaller phones support it, so I get the feeling that they left it out to distinguish their S and X line more, which is unfortunate.

I'm really frustrated with the trend of focusing on increasing screen sizes and quad cores.

I currently have an original Evo 4G, and what I would would like to see in a successor is:

• Dual core with at least ~1.2 GHz max clock frequency. 1.5+ GHz is OK as long as it scales down to lower clock frequencies when possible to save battery
  
• Improved manufacturing process on the CPU (i.e., 28nm) to reduce power consumption. The dual core Snapdragon S4 seems like the preferred CPU to me.
  
• Switch from a 4.3" screen + separate capacitive buttons to a single screen that's in the range of 4.3 to 4.7 inches without separate buttons. This would be roughly similar to a screen that's between 4" and 4.4" when considering the elimination of the discrete buttons.
  
• Overall dimensions should not exceed the current Evo 4G's within reason. The Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound, RAZR, and HTC One X are all too tall in my opinion. The HTC One S at least is very thin and has a nice width, but is still just a little taller than I'd like. Look at this size comparison of the Galaxy Nexus vs. Evo 4G - http://phone-size.com/?s=3%2C36 - The Galaxy Nexus screen itself is actually a good size considering it replaces the capacitive buttons, but there is a ton of vertical bevel space on this device compared to the Evo. The HTC One X is also too tall and too wide (69.9mm vs the Evo at 66mm). Remember that when the Evo 4G was released, it was considered a huge device and many people didn't like the size of it. These newer high-end devices make the Evo look small.
  
• (Obviously) Android ICS 4.x support
  
• Increase stock battery size (Evo 4G was 1500mAh - its successor should be at least 1800mAh)
  
• Increase internal memory size. 16GB is acceptable as long as MicroSD card support exists, otherwise 32GB minimum required
  
• (Obviously) Increase RAM from 512MB to 1GB+
  
• NFC support
  
• LTE radio support for 1900 and 800 MHz bands
  

Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any upcoming or existing phones that meet these requirements.

Here are some things that I don't want or care about in the Evo successor:

• Bigger screen (other than increasing it to compensate for removal of capacitive buttons). The Evo 4G's screen is big enough, and is about as large as I'd ever want to be able to comfortably swipe across the entire width and height of the device while holding it with one hand. Slightly smaller would be fine with me even. The Nexus S was a good size.
  
• Unibody / non-removable battery (HTC One, sigh). This is a silly trend.
  
• Removal of MicroSD card support (I could tolerate this, but I'd rather not have to)
  
• Quad core 1.5 GHz+ processors. I'd rather have longer battery life with a slower processor. I've never felt CPU-limited by the Evo 4G even, although I acknowledge that it'd be nice to have a second core purely for the parallel processing aspect of it. Yes, you could have software intelligently power down or clock down unused cores, but overall I just don't care about having this additional CPU speed.
  
• Unnecessarily large screen resolutions. Honestly the 800x480 display on the Evo 4G is fine for me. 1280x720 is nice I guess, and I wouldn't mind it as long as they keep power consumption down. Increasing resolution can significantly increase the processing power required without much noticeable benefit beyond a certain point.
  

Does anyone have any more information on the estimated schedule for the Milwaukee market (which is really Southern Wisconsin as it includes Madison as well based on the S4GRU market map)?

And, sorry if this has been mentioned before, but Sprint rolling out NV in the Milwaukee market would really refer to every area covered in the market map (e.g., Madison as well)?

Finally, what exactly do the gray circles mean in the S4GRU market maps? http://s4gru.com/ind...-map-milwaukee/

Great site, thanks!

Edit: Add link to market map