ericdabbs

I did find it strange given that the 16 GB iPhone retail price is $650 but yet they were only charging $100 + $20/mo for 24 months = $580 which indeed is a $70 savings. Its got to be a typo for the iPhone since the rest of the other phones make sense like the Galaxy S3 retails at $550 and Tmobile charges $70 + $20 for 24 months = $550. There is no way some finance guy at Tmobile USA corporate did not pick up on the $70 discrepancy. Its got to either be a promotion to get iPhone users from other carriers to switch to Tmobile and are willing to eat the cost temporarily OR some how Tmobile was able to get Apple to sell the iPhone to Tmobile wholesale for $580 (which I highly doubt).

Don't jinx it yet. I am hoping for it as well . It is still unconfirmed whether 800 MHz LTE support will be added to the Galaxy S4. Hopefully when the FCC OET filings come out for the Sprint Galaxy S4 we can find out more information about which LTE frequency bands will be supported.

Ouch...T-Mobile is going to have LTE ready in 2 cities (Phoenix and Las Vegas) where Sprint currently does NOT have any LTE. That has gotta sting especially in Phoenix where those customers feel burned for not ever getting Wimax and tired of waiting so long just to get LTE as well. I can definitely see some Sprint customers defect to T-Mobile for LTE for this reason. Phoenix is starting to pick up some NV sites which hopefully should turn into LTE soon. I am curious however to see how much LTE coverage T-Mobile will have in its initial rollout in all these 7 launch cities.

According to Android Authority it looks like AT&T might strike first as the first US carrier to carry the LG Optimus G Pro. Hopefully Sprint will carry this device at some point. http://www.androidau...s-g-pro-176244/ FCC - It appears it has all the right LTE BC support (700 MHz, PCS, AWS and Cellular) for a AT&T phone https://apps.fcc.gov...;fcc_id=ZNFE980

OH ATT...reaching now to get a higher market number count.

Good to hear that this merger process isn't being held up due to Dish trying to counterbid for Clearwire. Hopefully there aren't any snags given that the FCC recently approved the Tmobile/MetroPCS deal which is good for competition.

I think it will be great for competition if HTC would make a Galaxy Note like device for 2014. LG has stepped up to the plate in 2013 with the the LG Optimus G Pro device which will compete with the Galaxy Note 2. No word yet on whether Sprint plans to carry the LG Optimus G Pro device which will begin to sell in the US in Q2 2013. If only HTC and possibly a Motorola/Google could also make a competing device that would be great for competition and customer selection given HTC's material build quality is superb over Samsung and LG's plastic phones.

Hopefully sprint begins to launch some LTE towers in the san bernardino market soon. La metro and orange county have already seen some LTE love. Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

From my understanding is that in the initial install for CDMA/LTE 1900 for any NV installation, the new NV antenna panels on top of the tower already contain 800 MHz support. I believe all that needs to be done to add LTE 800 is a single carrier card at the base station and some internal testing and it should be good to go. If it had required a new panel then it would take a lot longer to do for each tower since they would have to re-climb the tower to do so.

Do you guys think Sprint will try to carry the LG Optimus G Pro when LG begins shipping it in the US in Q2 2013? I know it looks similar to the Note 2 minus the S-pen. Its got some things going for it like the Full HD IPS display which is superior to the Super Amoled display on the Note 2 and the has the Qualcomm S4 Pro processor. The LG Optimus G phone seemed to sell well and I can see customers willing to give LG a chance again. I say that Sprint should go for it this year and see if it can gauge interest from those away from the Note 2/Note 3 this year

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.

I am curious if smartphones in 2013 will now include micro usb 3.0 connectors instead of just micro usb 2.0. I would love to see 2013 smartphones with micro usb 3.0 connectors not only because of faster transfer speeds but battery charging will be faster due to the 3.0 standard being able to draw more current (500 mA USB 2.0 vs 900 mA USB 3.0) for devices.

I actually hope the HTC One does real well this year in terms of sales over the Samsung galaxy s4 so it starts putting some pressure on Samsung to continue to innovate and not resort to the shenanigans that have plagued the iPhone with small incremental upgrades in terms of build design.

The 4 applications Calculator, Flashlight, Ringtone Trimmer and Sound Recorder don't seem to be too critical. The more important thing is that the bootloader is unlockable and able to accept custom roms. Keep in mind that the unit reviewed is probably the international version which may be different than the US versions. Once the devices are released in the US, I am sure people will be looking to see if these rumors are true.

Yeah I saw the bit from the presentation about FDD-LTE and TD-LTE dual support which is good news and hopefully Sprint will add the 800 and 2600 MHz bands. We shall see in the next few weeks what Sprint and Samsung have decided to do.

I am very interested in this as well. It will help me make my decision on my next phone.

So this is an improvement over last year correct? Hopefully the feel of the sides now are much better than all plastic.

Are the sides made of aluminum like it was rumored or is it still plastic?

I am curious for those that are familiar with the situation...at what point does Clearwire need to make a decision on whether they will accept a Sprint or Dish deal? I know that Clearwire has started tapping into Sprint funding which I thought Sprint had put a condition in the merger agreement that if Clearwire ever accepted any funding it could NOT consider any other transaction but that doesn't seem to be case. Does Dish still even have a chance of a Clearwire deal given this condition? It appears from reading articles about Clearwire that they stated that they are still mulling over the Dish deal which doesn't make sense to me. I just want Clearwire to make a darn decision already so that the whole Sprint/Softbank/Clearwire transaction can be analyzed by the FCC and DOJ. Doesn't Clearwire have a deadline to make such a decision. I don't believe Clearwire can drag on this saga forever. Clearwire needs to quickly decide on who they want to be bought out by so that they can move on and start building their TD-LTE network.

Looks like Samsung has confirmed the SGS4 announcement for March 14th. The bigger question is whether Sprint or Samsung will screw it up by only offering 1900 MHz LTE support like they did with the HTC One. I am really hoping to see the first tri band LTE phone with 800/1900/2500 MHz support. It would show a great sign that Sprint is acknowledging that 800 MHz LTE is indeed going to be a reality this year and owners of LTE phones from this point forward is expected to get 800 MHz LTE support. http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/samsung-confirms-galaxy-s-iv-launch-on-march-14th-in-nyc/

I am very shocked that sprint will allow one of their flagship phones this year to only have the 1900 mhz LTE band support given that 800 and 2500 mhz LTE will be live this year. You would think that sprint would want to start setting up their LTE phones to allow them the capability to start shifting resources around to take advantage of the 800 and the 2500 mhz capacity that sprint paid clearwire to begin using in mid year 2013 to ensure a good 4g access LTE experience that they botched with wimax so that the carriers are not overloaded so quickly. Had the 'G' block been a 10x10 carrier instead of a 5x5 carrier, i wouldnt be as worried as much for the next 2 years but a single 5x5 carrier is not enough to sustain for another 2 years as more and more folks pile onto LTE. I just hope the remaining flagship phones (sgs4, gn3, optimus g 2, moto x, etc) dont fall victim to this mistake. Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

Its sad to see sprint still opting to sell phones with only 1900 MHz LTE support. If the sgs4 released later on this year contains 800 and/or 2500 MHz LTE support as well, I'm afraid the HTC one won't sell well on sprint. I highly doubt the HTC website would be incorrect. Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk 2

The 800 and 1900 MHz frequencies are on the same panel with two antennas on 1900 MHz and one antenna on 800 MHz inside the panel.

I don't think that is true at all. Clearwire is suppose to have at least 2000 sites by mid year 2013 and 5000 sites completed by end of 2013. Also Sprint is deploying 800 MHz LTE starting 4th quarter 2013 so there will definitely be some users able to take advantage of the 800 and 2500 LTE bands in 2013. IMO there is no excuse to not include the 800 and 2500 LTE bands in the 2013 flagship phones. By having only the 1900 MHz LTE band, it is going to put more stress on the single 5x5 G block carrier for the next 2-3 years which alone cannot sustain the growing LTE adoption going forward especially in 2013 when the POed 2011 Wimax customers contracts are up and are looking to renew with LTE phones. It is clear that Sprint plans to add LTE capacity for the near future on the 800 MHz and 2500 MHz spectrum bands. I don't see Sprint adding another 1900 MHz carrier in the A-F blocks in the near future since there are still plenty of markets that have 20 MHz and lower that do not have enough spectrum to add another 5x5 carrier. I suspect that the next 5x5 1900 Mhz carrier being deployed will have to be the 5x5 H block which Sprint will need to aggressively bid for this year and try to get nationwide licenses to add more PCS spectrum depth. However even if this were to occur, the H block would require its own band class which would be an extension of BC 25 and the 2012 and possibly 1H 2013 LTE phones won't support that H block BC. IMO the 2013 LTE phones MUST include 800 and 2500 Mhz LTE support. It just gives Sprint more flexibility on how to stretch out its resources if the handsets are able to accommodate more LTE bands. Sprint was able to place 800 MHz CDMA support since early 2011 phones (EVO 3D, SGS2) which was 2 years before 800 MHz CDMA support is even available so that is no excuse.

I feel the same way. The htc one looks like a pretty good phone but only having 1900 mhz LTE support is an instant deal breaker for me. Why on earth would sprint dare to put out LTE devices in 2013 with only single band support. Sprint can easily add 800 and 2500 mhz LTE support without needing to have an existing network out there. Even the att version has support for 4 LTE bands even though they havent deployed LTE in the 850/1700/1900 mhz bands. Does sprint seriously think they have enough capacity on the 'G' block to support future LTE growth. I just hope the article is plain wrong and i really hope the SGS4 does not repeat the same mistake. Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2