HTCandroid

First!

Interesting that HTC will just swap devices. Pretty cool offering. Good write up.

I may be a 2nd device that is compatible with Project Fi...

Just a speculation, correct me if I'm missing something says otherwise.

I can only steam music reliably about 50% as it is.. This can't bode well. This is not the "value proposition" I hoped they were going for.

 

(I realize I'm not talking apples for apples)

Unfortunately I know what you mean. I'm in Orange County, CA and I can only stream music reliably if I'm connected to band 41. Band 25 and 3g is just awful for streaming with 3g almost unusable for any data related tasks.

600kbps = 75 KB/s. So, this is about equivalent to watching video on a decent 3G connection. Back when I had my iPhone 4S on Sprint (3G only), this seemed okay.

 

If a capped, reliable stream of 75KB/s is attainable, I don't think video should be choppy, however it may force the video provider to use a lower quality stream. Again, my 4S never looked *awful* when streaming over a mediocre 3G connection, so I don't think this would be noticeable by the majority of users.

 

Where 600kbps will cause issues is with buffering. You'll basically never have a buffered connection if signal drops or degrades below 600kbps.

I would say this would be "alright" if phones still had 3.5 inch screens and were not 2K...which I would expect 4K devices to be out either later this year or next. I'd say anything lower than 720p on the current devices would look grainy or blurry.

Great editorial!

 

Sprint, just call the plan what it is: "Unlimited Email."

Or "unlimited everything except video." Next they will impose speed limits on music like pandora, iheartradio, google music, etc.

I am hoping, a long shot hope... Hear me out. That HTC will make a model that performs like the N5 RF wise and is a Google Play addition with the ability to activate on Sprint. 

Tri-band

Great RF performance

GSM/CDMA capable

Google Edition

If it has those I will scoop ONE up so fast!

The only problem is waiting! Sprint loyalist right here <---

Just to make sure I am reading the report correctly. The note 3 is not tri-band or even dual-band? It is only single band 25 1900mhz?

If they sell this off-contract, this will be my next phone (my S III will go to another family member).

 

If they sell this on-contract, this will probably be my next phone. Sprint will probably take my S III in the name of early upgrades.

 

I really, really hope that this is sold unlocked. Because then I can just swap out my AT&T (AirVoice), T-Mobile (data-only) and Sprint SIMs as needed with one device. And I'd have LTE on whatever service I was using. That's powerful.

If you want to hold on to your S III, swap with an older phone and you don't mind Sprint recycling and then go in and do the early upgrade. The reps have to take the handset currently activated at the time of the early upgrade. Ex, swap phones with the family member that is getting the S III and recycle their old handset.

I will tell you why no contract for a nexus is so important. Its because for me two reasons. 1. It will get updates straight from google and will not be a repeat of the nexus s or galaxy nexus because Sprint won't sell it directly but it would be compatible with the bands on their network. 2. If you get the nexus off contract then you still have a upgrade available when Sprint releases next year's phones and hey if Sprint does not move fast enough in your neck of the woods with network vision you could leave and take that same nexus 5 to T-mobile or At&t without having to worry about a termination fee. Anymore questions?

Sprint does not want customers to be able buy their phones for cheap because that would mean people are not renewing their contracts making them "high risk" customers. I am sure the system setup will be similar to the iphone in the sense that the device will already need to be in the Sprint system in order to activate on a subscriber.

A "good thing"? That depends on your perspective. What it does mean, though, is that you are roaming on some other operator's EV-DO 850. Where are you located? And what PRL are you running?AJ

My prl is 25014. I'm for sure not roaming, in northern oc with LTE. Unless the phone shows band 0 on evdo when connected to LTE.

So it is a good thing my evolte is showing band class 0 on the evdo engineering screen which has better distance coverage and in building penetration?

J.

with how smartphones are being able to back up everything are various cloud services, why is sprint move towards sim card? does that mean they are slowly converting to gsm? i know this is kind of a dumb question

Just saw and held the s4 yesterday. Its a solid feeling device when comparing to the s2 and s3. Played with it a little. Interesting to see how the HTC one and galaxy s4 hold against each other. Personally I'm favoring the HTC one due to their sense ui over touchwiz.

Awesome article regarding several different point of views and in great detail. Sorry to hear about the site near you, hopefully Dan hears ya and changes it haha.

At least they are doing something rather than do nothing. Is there going to be location specific information about all this in the sponsor section?

First! =]

I don't know if its on iPhone but there's an app called sensorly that tracks all networks and coverage including sprint lte.

Hello Fellow Sprint Users! I have a quick question. I have decided to purchase one of Apple's new iPad Models, however I am torn as to which carrier I should chose. I live in Orange County, CA but no LTE yet, should I go with AT&T or buy the Sprint model and hope to receive LTE soon?

What part of OC? I have heard people are getting bits of lte in bellflower and Lakewood which means almost in northern oc.