ericdabbs

I am afraid so. I am just trying to evaluate my options. I will definitely have to check out the LG G2 at a verizon/att store this weekend as a backup option OR maybe even the HTC One Max if it peaks my interest enough assuming its triband LTE.

Well we don't know if there will be a S variant hitting the FCC. Also I found this. I posted this earlier. Kinda spells out that the S model is for SK Telekom in Korea although I didn't know that there were going to be a K and L models as well for Korea which were not listed in the leaks. So if it is true that the S model is for SK Telekom we won't be seeing a FCC filing. http://techkiddy.blogspot.com/2013/08/samsung-galaxy-note-iiism-n900ssm.html#

Hmm if the Galaxy Note 3 is only single band LTE, it makes me question if Sprint would even make a triband LTE GS4 device.

Just when you thought we can all trust Sprint to do the right thing when it comes to these things. There has to be something up with Sprint and Samsung not being on the same page. We see what appears to be the GS4 mini pass through as triband LTE and they turn around and put the Note 3 as a single band LTE. I don't get it.

Hmm I have a very tough decision right now. I was pretty gunho about the Note 3 but if it is this P variant, I may have to consider an alternative because I really don't want that single band LTE.

Uh Oh....The P variant could be for Sprint. Crap!!! http://techkiddy.blogspot.com/2013/08/samsung-galaxy-note-iiism-n900ssm.html#

Interesting. Now I am questioning if it is for Sprint. Dammit!!! why can't it just be clear.

Well hopefully the "P" variant is not the Sprint model and that a "S" variant comes out.

What are you defining as sufficient capacity? I am thinking Clearwire backhaul must have enough capacity to be able to support 2 x 20 MHz TD-LTE carriers plus enough to support 1 x 10 MHz Wimax carrier to be safe for 3 sectors. I am looking at the future of what Sprint could deploy.

So I was reading from Robert's post below in the iPhone 5S wall post "Longer? How do you figure? It will be way faster. They just have to add a panel and a carrier card. Everything else will be there from the original Network Vision upgrade. It will be more like Tmo's upgrade...just an overlay. And now with SoftBank money and the fact that wireless crews should be a little less busy next year than this year, the Band 41 overlay should take less than 12 months start to finish on existing Network Vision sites. Also, Sprint will have the existing WiMax sites with a complete LTE Band 41 overlay complete in Spring 2014. So there will be a lot of Band 41 coverage that will be missed during the contract life of this device. But a supplemental Triband hotspot is not that expensive if one is ever needed/desired. Robert" I am curious if this estimate of Sprint 2014 is including the 40% Clearwire colocated sites (~14,000 * 0.40 = ~ 5600 sites) or just the Clearwire only sites (~14000 - 5600 = ~ 8400 sites). I guess what I am asking is if the plan is for Sprint to have the ~8400 Clearwire sites upgrades to TD-LTE complete by Spring 2014 OR all ~14,000 Clearwire sites which include the colocated sites by Spring 2014? I would surely hope that Sprint is not upgrading the colocated Clearwire sites unless the Sprint side has had backhaul installed. I want Sprint in colocated Clearwire sites to move all the Wimax/TD-LTE carrier cards and equipment into the Sprint MMBS and use Sprint fiber backhaul so that it makes things easier for integration and Sprint can get rid of the Clearwire base station and get rid of the extra Clearwire backhaul since it has lower capacity anyways (not sure if you can consolidate Sprint's own fiber backhaul and Clearwire's backhaul into one huge pipe...I doubt it).

Sprint is not decommissioning any Wimax sites yet. Sprint hasn't officially announced any shutdown of Wimax of any sort yet and all Clearwire is doing is just installing dual mode Wimax/LTE RRUs on its towers to be able to run both Wimax and LTE on its towers.

Thank goodness.

Of course there are two sides of the coin and I do understand that there some folks chose the HTC One over the GS4 due to the plastic feel of the GS4. Well whatever the reasons were, the sales of the HTC One were lacking compared to GS4 so there is a problem no matter how you want to spin it. From all the tech blogs I was reading (and trust me I read a lot) about the average consumer comparing the two devices for purchase, the largest overwhelming outcry was the lack of SD card slot in the HTC One which swayed them away from The One to the GS4 even though they acknowledged their disappointment in the plastic back. They felt that they were willing to compromise with the GS4 because they can add more storage via SD card and can just add a case around the GS4 so that they don't have to feel plastic. Also these comments don't just apply to the HTC One. The same comments were mentioned when the LG G2 and Moto X were announced of the lack of SD card slot and removable battery. People still love their flexibility of removable batteries and SD card slot to add a ton of storage even though they have to deal with the plastic feel. Now if HTC can somehow keep that unibody design while most importantly add a SD card slot for additional storage in the HTC One Max, it can win customers back and be a winner in this phablet space. Although the lack of removable battery would still be an issue for some that want to be able to add an extra capacity battery or be able to switch multiple battery packs but that is by far not as compelling as the lack of SD card slot. Oh and about the speakers, I think it remains to be seen for me because if the phone is able to produce great audio via bottom stereo speakers like the LG G2 and iPhone, I think I would prefer that much more than the front facing speakers since that extra height adds up too much. These smartphone behemoths are tall enough and if it can find ways to cut down the height, I welcome that much more. I have tested the HTC One front facing speakers at the store and they are loud but sound nice I give HTC that but I guess for me I wouldn't need such loud speakers.

Samsung said that an OTA update to support the Samsung smartwatch will come in October. There shouldn't be an OTA yet.

Well at the same time while the unibody made the HTC One unique and cool, it prevented HTC from creating a removable back and possible a microSD card slot which many customers still highlly covet. Maybe HTC came to the senses (no pun intended) and realized that customers do like their removable battery and microSD card slot still and lost a ton of sales since customers flocked to the GS4 because of it. Either way I am looking forward to hearing more about the HTC One Max and see what kinda material the HTC One Max is going to be made out of.

This is good news if the HTC One Max has a removable battery and microSD card slot. This will definitely win back some HTC customers who flocked to other phones due to the lack of these 2 key features.

I am not surprised at all that the HTC One Max is taller than the Note 3. The HTC One was taller than the GS4 already and the HTC One is only 4.7 inches. The blame can be put on the front facing stereo speakers which extend the height of the phone. So given that fact the HTC One Max is a no brainer why its taller than the Note 3. Its screen size is 0.2 inches more (5.9 in vs. 5.7 in) than the Note 3 and the stereo speakers adds more height. Personally I would much rather have speakers at the bottom to reduce the height of the phone. I look at the LG G2, iPhone and the Note 3 and they all have speakers at the bottom and they look really nice. You should be able to hear sound just fine with the speaker at the bottom vs. front of the phone.

Yes I am positive that Google will NOT release a smartwatch in 2013 because Google would have to had been working on a Nexus smartwatch since 2012 because products like this can't be whipped up like this in just a few months if you consider all the work that needs to be done. Products like this take at least a 1 year to 1.5 years from concept to product. I think until Apple releases an iWatch I don't think Google will need to release a Nexus smartwatch yet. Keep in mind that the Samsung Gear smartwatch only works with Samsung devices so it only has to be in Samsung code and we dont even know how popular the Samsung smartwatch is going to be. I would be very shocked if people are lining up to pay $300 for a smartwatch which frankly has poor battery life of real usage and is limited to only Samsung devices. If Google were to release a smartwatch it would have to appeal to the masses which means that the smartwatch would have to support all Android devices. This will mean that we would need to see some sort of software API in Android 4.4 KitKat to communicate between the smartwatch and phone/tablet device. Back to the HTC. I really hope that the HTC One Max does has a S-pen like feature in the scribe which can bring some Note taking capabilities. I just hope its not like the LG Optimus G Pro where there is no S-pen but just a large screen.

Its strange that Sprint didn't put out a press release to say that they will release an iPhone 5S on Sept 20th. Sprint is usually on point to put a press release out as soon as the event is over.

So are you holding out hoping that the HTC One Max will blow the Note 3 out of the water or at least offer some unique features to peak your interest? Google will not come out with a smartwatch for sure this year. They are too focused on getting Android KitKat out the door to worry about a new product launch this year. I just want to hear a darn HTC event date to announce this darn thing. The wait has gone on long enough.

So I take it that you won't be upgrading to the iPhone 5S?

I already understood your point from the time you made your post. Trust I have been there with the GS4 and how annoyed I was when it wasn't triband LTE and shouting "how dare ye Sprint still releaseth single band LTE phones in 2013 when LTE 800 and LTE 2600 are around the corner". If you don't believe me check out my posts right in the GS4 thread after the GS4 announcement. I have learned to deal with it and I am sure Sprint is not happy about this but what can you do. As for me this doesn't concern me since I have no plans to get an iPhone anyways. The 1900 band won't be as bad as you think if you think about it in the future especially when you consider that Sprint will most likely add another 5x5 LTE carrier in the next 2 years, 800 MHz LTE will be coming online soon to offload to and triband phone devices like the Note 3, LG G2, etc this year will be offloaded to LTE 2600 in those markets launched currently. As more LTE 2600 comes online those Android users will fall off onto LTE 2600 and won't be using up the LTE 1900 resources. I am not too worried about LTE 1900 only phones getting 1 Mbps speeds on LTE when there are so many opportunities for other devices in the very near future for offloading into new bands.

Sprint will deploy another 5x5 LTE carrier within the next 2 years to provide more capacity at 1900 due to the large number of devices in the future that can only support LTE 1900. I think once NV 1.0 is complete in another 1.5 years and 1xA can be deployed with 4x voice capacity on every Sprint tower, Sprint can shut down excess 1x voice carriers and 3G carriers if need be to free up more spectrum for another 5x5 LTE carrier.

I don't think anyone is arguing that the iPhone 5S should not have been triband because LTE 2600 network is not there. However we are dealing with Apple here and they dictate what specs will go into the phone. I am sure Sprint in a perfect world would have loved to see the iPhone 5S be triband but what can you do when you deal with Apple? As someone pointed out to me earlier, the Sprint/Softbank deal was not closed yet by the time Apple began building the iPhone 5S and might not have had the buying power to demand B41 to be included into its devices. You can bet that Softbank/Sprint will fight real hard next year to have B41 included in the iPhone 6. Yes it does suck that LTE phones such as the iPhone 5S that don't support all the LTE bands could still be in operation up until 2017 but keep in mind that the GS4 and HTC One were only single band LTE phones as well which have zero flexibility to offload onto other bands and fall victim to the same fate. At least the iPhone 5S can offload to 800 MHz. It would be unfair to put the blame all on the iPhone when HTC and Samsung are equally as guilty with the GS4 and HTC One. At the end of the day, customers just care about being connected to LTE and only nerds like us are analyzing the LTE traffic issue for the future.

Yup FCC docs confirm that there is no SVLTE support and B25 (1900) and B26 (800) LTE support.