• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Does metro pcs have 3g?

aliciaa1

aliciaa1

Member
does metro pcs have 3g at all?
I'm looking into buying a new phone and was wondering if they have 3g? or not.

I'm looking on buying either the Hauwei ascend or LG Optimus.
 
aliciaa1 said:
does metro pcs have 3g at all?
I'm looking into buying a new phone and was wondering if they have 3g? or not.

I'm looking on buying either the Hauwei ascend or LG Optimus.
Click to expand...

Vance is right about the 1xRTT vs EVDO. 1xRTT was the first 3g but EVDO came out later and is faster.

I've got the Huawei Ascend and it's a great phone. If you don't want to root it and go to a custom rom then you should get the TapOut edition because it comes with 2.2 (and who know when Metro is going to release the update for the rest of them). But right now there is a Cyanogen based rom that is 2.3.4 that has been developed for the Ascend (most of the higher end phones don't even have that yet, but there are a couple guys who are doing it to prove a point). Look around the Ascend and Optimus forums and read about each phone before you buy it. Good luck and enjoy your new Android (whichever one you choose).
 
11.png
 
uh, no. read above 1xRTT IS 3G. its not as fast as EV-Do (which most people think as 3G, i mean it is, but its not the first 3g technology. Kinda like how Sprint is saying WiMax is 4g, when really its the very low end of 4g, glorified WiFi signal is all it is.)

And you can not pick up a 3G signal through roaming. metroPCS has not yet signed a DATA roaming agreement with anybody (DATA as in a 3g evdo based network or higher, I say yet because the term light^2 keeps popping up)
 
if you're not willing to modify your phone aka root and cm7 then just stay away from huawei period...

optimus has way more power out of the box than the ascend, and some people have come extremely close to greatness with the optimus m on these forums. just search around on here...

stock for ascend and optimus m:
ascend:
processor: 512mhz
ram: 256MB

optimus: 600mhz
ram: 512MB

the ram alone says it. i have modded many phones, and in all honesty, when modding the ascend with cm7 and upping the processor to 710 it runs nicely, but the optimus has way more capabilities...

also, have you looked at the indulge? that will end your issues with data speed pretty much. their lte is nicer than evdo on other's, but not as good as verizon's lte by any means...
 
3G ... yes, but not what you would expect. There are two types of 3G.
1) 1xRTT
2) EVDO

EVDO is the one you are expecting where speeds are moderate and good enough for daily usage. MPCS does not have EVDO, so you are limited to much slower 1xRTT network. If you are in a 4G zone, I would consider buying a 4G smartphone for MPCS. Surprisingly, the speeds are quite nice.
 
Depending on its price, I would be interested in buying an Evo Shift 4G but they told me at one of the stores that I would not be able to use it at MPCS why is that?
 
godsdragon said:
Depending on its price, I would be interested in buying an Evo Shift 4G but they told me at one of the stores that I would not be able to use it at MPCS why is that?
Click to expand...

Metro PCS and Sprint are CDMA networks, which means to activate the phone, the carrier needs to do it from their end. How is done? By the unique ESN number on each phone. The problem is, the ESNs are not interchangeable among networks so Metro PCS has to flash the ESNs to get it running on their network. (I'm not sure how they do this since I thought it was illegal, but anyways ...)

Here's their website for flashing phones. They only can flash the HTC Evo to their network right now

MetroPCS | MetroFLASH

I assume the reason they can't flash the Evo Shift 4G is because they haven't figured out a way to do that yet.
 
godsdragon said:
Depending on its price, I would be interested in buying an Evo Shift 4G but they told me at one of the stores that I would not be able to use it at MPCS why is that?
Click to expand...

you can use it in a 1900mhz market only. if you're in a 1700mhz only market then it's a no go. some markets utilize 1900mhz only, some utilize 1700mhz only, and some utilize both. for instance the detroit area has both, but if i were to drive to flint, saginaw, lansing, etc then it's 1700mhz only...
 
godsdragon said:
Depending on its price, I would be interested in buying an Evo Shift 4G but they told me at one of the stores that I would not be able to use it at MPCS why is that?
Click to expand...

The main reason you can't use the Evo's 4G is that it is Wimax (Sprint) and not LTE (Metro and Verizon).

Metro will flash almost any non-sim card phone over but they will only flash for talk and text. If you know the codes, you can get into the phones programming and get data to work (I can only verify 3G, because I'm using a HTC Incredible on Metro right now). There may be a way to get a Verizon LTE phone to work but I'm not aware of it.
 
Well, apparently in some areas it has come to pass. I am getting 3G in the NE suburbs of Dallas; see this thread here. Now, the funny thing is, not everyone in the same areas is getting it. For instance, my wife's phone (also an Optimus M) had it the 1st day, and then hasn't had it. Our PRL's had updated to 3020, mine has stayed at that, and her's has gone back to 3019. Others in the same areas aren't getting it as well. There are several threads over on the Optimus M and it root sub forum. Go take a look and see.
 
allmanallpimp -

I bought my girlfriend an LG Optimus M in April 2011 (it seemed like the best choice at the time via MPCS). She's finishing college in West Palm Beach, FL and has had MCPS for a few years.

I have a Droid X with Verizon & was helping her this weekend free up space on her Optimus M.

You listed this back in July: optimus: 600mhz....ram: 512MB

I had her check the specs on her phone and it said 16.95MB available/201MB total. A few minutes later (after cleanup) it said 24.79MB available/201MB total. She doesn't have too much on the phone (mp3's on SD card and only a few apps). But 201MB total seems absurd. I agree with the specs you listed as that's what LG's web site said, but why does her phone say only 201MB total? Is there something wrong with the phone? Did she get (or did I buy) a sub par phone that was manufactured with the wrong RAM?

Please share with me your thoughts when you have a moment to reply. Thanks

ps Reply here or send me a PM
 
AndroidxGuy said:
Some android phones seem to pre allocate some ram for OS use only and the optimus may be one of those phones
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughts.

I can understand what you said, but this means 60% of the RAM was "pre allocated"? Is this possible? If so, how can LG manufacture a phone knowing the customer will only have 201MB+/- available in its RAM? That amount of space doesn't allow much room for apps.

What can be moved to the SD card has been moved (16GB SD card in her phone), but there are apps, as I'm sure you're aware, that cannot be moved to the SD card. Texts, gmail and other messaging/email (Yahoo in her case) take up valuable space - before being deleted or moved to SD.

Discovering this now, I can understand why the Optimus M is no longer offered at MPCS. I'll have to see what MPCS hits the streets with beginning next year so I can get her a phone that's worth the money and something she'll get more use out of then, maybe, one full year.

Thanks again for your reply
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom