I have a question for the community. I have an upgrade for my primary verizon wireless line and now I have a bevy of choices. Here is my problem. The Iphone 4 is now available but Verizon is rolling out LTE in my area (this year sometime). I might wait for the HTC thunderbolt or Motorola Bionic. I am not in any hurry even though I have a little Iphone envy right now but if I need to wait for either the HTC or Motorola I will. Any recommendations would be recommended.
Need advice on new smart phone - verizon wireless
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If you do lots of data and look at video content on your phone, I'd wait for LTE version of whatever OS you like. Probably the phones you mentioned will be obsolete by mid summer.
I think the answer is easy... If you get impatient and upgrade now, you'll REALLY have to wait to take advantage of LTE (at least with the heavily discounted upgrade price).
I would wait out the iPhone 5 for VZW on LTE and then everything should be at a much better comparison and price
No, its not software, but hardware. Think about the days of using modems. I'm dating myself, but when you had a 2400 baud rate modem, you had to replace it for a faster 56K one. (Actually my first modem was 1200 baud rate!).
The Thunderbolt and Bionic will be available for around 6-12 month time frame but I could wait forever and I think the Bionic and Thunderbolt would work best (I have a Droid 2 for work and it works great right now).
Reading between the lines on Iphone 5 I doubt that the Iphone 5 is going to be LTE. So I am going to look at the Bionic and Thunderbolt more heavily. I might wait until June to see what Apple says but I doubt we will see an LTE Iphone because Apple wants to make a device that works on both networks. From what it sounds like AT&T won't start heavy LTE deployment until next year.
LTE is more a hardware thing not software. So none of the current line up will work. I think I am waiting on the Bionic or Thunderbolt unless Apple gives us a pleasant suprise in June.
Same issue. The phone would have to be capable of that technology via hardware not software. I think AT&T will wait until both networks are LTE capable (for AT&T it will be 18 month or longer, Verizon much sooner).
But isn't HSPA+ just a faster version of HSPA? It is not the phone that is limiting network speed, it is the network. Speed up the network with the same technology, the phone should access that same network faster as well
I don't doubt it. Don't even need to read between the lines. Not after hearing what the CFO at Verizon said about the iphone 4 and 5 with respect to LTE last week. He said Apple needed more time to test the LTE hardware changes to iphone so they decided not to hold up the Verizon release and just go with EVDO for now in the iphone 4. I recall the chip to be used in the iphone 5, he said, is the Qualcomm 9600. It takes BOTH hardware and software to make the phone work for LTE/ EVDO Rev A Rev B/1RXTT backward compatibility. There is no doubt for me that the iphone 5 will be LTE capable at the hardware end but the iOS software to make everything work may be an upgrade in the Fall. The hardware will be LTE. Jail breakers take note!
This would not be out of character for Apple to do this. Hardware crippled by limited iOS first and later an iOS upgrade to access complete feature set. Meanwhile Jailbreakers will be hot to trot on some form of hack to access this early on.As I understand it Dodgerking it is a faster version of HSPA but the phone would need to have a HSPA+ radio (hardware antenna) to work with that network.
I don't doubt it. Don't even need to read between the lines. Not after hearing what the CFO at Verizon said about the iphone 4 and 5 with respect to LTE last week. He said Apple needed more time to test the LTE hardware changes to iphone so they decided not to hold up the Verizon release and just go with EVDO for now in the iphone 4. I recall the chip to be used in the iphone 5, he said, is the Qualcomm 9600. It takes BOTH hardware and software to make the phone work for LTE/ EVDO Rev A Rev B/1RXTT backward compatibility. There is no doubt for me that the iphone 5 will be LTE capable at the hardware end but the iOS software to make everything work may be an upgrade in the Fall. The hardware will be LTE. Jail breakers take note!
I agree it would not be in character for Apple to do. But I know there will be customers who want to wait and see what the Iphone 5 brings before jumping to Verizon (I have Verizon but I want to hedge my bet just in case).
One thing we come to learn about iphone vs Android phones- With iphone the upgrade happens once per year for one phone. With Android, unhappy? wait a couple weeks and you'll have a new selection of phone models with new and better to pick from. Strategy with iphone5 Wait to see what the actual hardware is as there will be a disection list published in a couple days after release. If the hardware does indeed support LTE and the iOS doesn't, you can wait for Apple iOS of wait for jailbreak hackers to offer it. Then jump on Android if things don't work out. If iphone is not important, just go for the LTE phone in Android now. Important to definitely get an LTE model regardless of OS
Don, I agree. With Android you get more flexibility for handsets especially since I am want an LTE compatible phone (both the Bionic and Thunderbolt are coming out relatively soon).
The VZ version of the iphone 4 has the 14.4mbit HSPA+ capability, the ATT iPhone 4 has 7.2mbit. It is definitely a limitation of the chipset.
Verizon iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Verizon iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
I had a feeling about that Mike. I would doubt the Iphone 5 will alleviate the issue to be honest. O well. I will wait for an Iphone or probably stick with the Droid platform.
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