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The S2 and 4G..

K

KValor

Newbie
So besides the S2 being an absolutely stunning phone, one of the main reasons I can justify spending $750+ dollars on it is that it should be "relatively" future proof. Obviously next year they will have a bigger and better phone that crushes this one but I think with the list of specs presently being offered it should be alright, HOWEVER.

One of my major concerns with this phone is whether or not it will be released with 4G capabilty or not. I'd be rather unimpressed if I spent a huge wad of cash on this phone only to find it that the 4G model was released 2 months later. With every wireless provider in the world forging ahead with 4G it seems a little silly for them NOT to release with 4G or at least 4G upgrade-ability. The Galaxy S was released in June of 2010 (?) and the Galaxy S 4G in Feb of 2011, 8 months wait. (Correct me if I am wrong) you'd think they would release with 4G and follow suit.

My other thoughts are on 4G itself, I haven't done a lot of research on this and I probably should. HSPA+ offers 21Mbps but does anyone realisticly EVER get that kind of speeds? Can you justify worrying about 4G when you are doubtful to even use the system that is presently in place to its full potential? Enlighten me ;(

I'll take a slightly thicker phone with 4G off the bat rather wanting to upgrade in 3 months.

The other worry is that if they release the S2 4G months later whether or not it will have a SUPER AMOLED+ Screen or not, with the demand being so high for them.

Thanks,

David (first post on Android forums)
 
It depends on which carrier you are on. I think SGS2 will probably have HSPA+ up to 21Mbps at least for AT&T-mobile since it had that spec at MWC announcement. 4G WiMax for Sprint is also safe bet, given that they had Epic 4G last year.

However, I am not optimistic that it will have 4G LTE for Verizon. LTE is the most advanced 4G technology and requires pretty big dedicated modem chip making the phone somewhat thick, so it's not so trivial to combine it with dual core processors. Samsung will release their first 4G LTE phone called Droid Charge (1Ghz single core Hummingbird, 4.3 Super AMOLED+) for VZW soon. So I'm not expecting SGS2 will come with LTE for VZW later this year. But I hope to be wrong.
 
In Australia currently, Telstra NextG (what they have been passing off as 4G for the past 3 years) Has a theoretical max of 14Mbps download.

Speed Tests on 4G devices report speeds of:

Mirror: Telstra Bigpond
Data: 3 MB
Test Time: 10.41 secs

Your line speed is 2.35 Mbps (2353 kbps).
Your download speed is 294 KB/s (0.29 MB/s).

Not too bad...
--------------------------------------------

Optus Speed

3G+ on my phone i8910
972kbps or 0.972Mbps
that's about a download speed of 121KB/s

Optus are currently trialing LTE technology on it's existing 3G network reaching download speeds of over 50Mbps, which they will classify as (4G).
With network traffic, one can expect the actual line speed to be near 6 to 10Mbps.

4G is just a name given to the next level of 3G, which is different fom one carrier to another.
All 3G phones that are 21Mbps capable and can use HSDPA 850 to 2100 can be classified as 4G phones. If anyone says differently, it's just a marketing ploy.

Speeds reported my manufacturers are a network median (most typical). actual speeds will greatly depend on what the carrier will limit you to.
Yes they can program your sim card to a limited bandwidth.
and make you pay more, or even buy a new phone to upgrade to "4G"
 
jinwons said:
It depends on which carrier you are on. I think SGS2 will probably have HSPA+ up to 21Mbps at least for AT&T-mobile since it had that spec at MWC announcement. 4G WiMax for Sprint is also safe bet, given that they had Epic 4G last year.

However, I am not optimistic that it will have 4G LTE for Verizon. LTE is the most advanced 4G technology and requires pretty big dedicated modem chip making the phone somewhat thick, so it's not so trivial to combine it with dual core processors. Samsung will release their first 4G LTE phone called Droid Charge (1Ghz single core Hummingbird, 4.3 Super AMOLED+) for VZW soon. So I'm not expecting SGS2 will come with LTE for VZW later this year. But I hope to be wrong.
Click to expand...
I'm actually in Canada, so the outlook is even more grim for us up north I think. The expansion of 4G up here is...Slow.. And I expect to pay a premium once it is up and running.


Uber-duper
That's exactly what I meant, they are advertising potential speeds of 42Mbps but from what I read no one comes close to maxing out the full capabilities of the present networks in place. I guess any change in this direction is good change though, right? :)
 
Yeah there's no point even worrying about LTE chipped phones (if they even exist).

Carriers are still experimenting with 1st generation LTE on their existing bands. Current 3G phones have the capacity to use this already. It's more of an infrastructure problem for the carriers, who will burden customers with the inherent costs of remodelling, by misleading us into believing that; what we have isn't compatible with their premium services.

Bandwidth was really slow on my mum's phone. I called 3, and after jumping through a few hoops, spoke to someone who was able to increase it. work's great now.
 
Also add the fact that it devours battery life like unicron eats planets I rather have it with hspa+ and good battery than LTE and horrible thunderbolt style battery life
 
HSPA+ is not 4G no matter how you slice it. They're able to achieve higher max theoretical speeds through channel bonding, but the standard remains unchanged. It's great news if you're stationary and relatively close to a tower, but the intention of 4G standards was to encompass high throughput and low latency, all while mobile (that is, while on the move). HSPA in any enhanced flavor doesn't buy you the latter, but often you'll hear good things about it based on someone running a speed test while stationary. Even 1st gen WiMax and LTE isn't quite meeting the intended 4G definition, but it was fundementally developed around the basic principles of 4G so it will get there with future generations. HSPA was released as a 3G standard and always will be. Period.
 
HSPA+ is kind of 3.5G technology used for GSM wireless network. It's a bit older technology than LTE but seems to be less power draining than LTE. The actual speed will vary with location, but in general it averages at about half of peak speed. So if peak speed is 21Mbps, you might be getting around 10Mbps most of time.

As for LTE, I will reserve my judge on the first round of phones until I see more phones from Samsung, LG, Motorola. HTC has bad record on battery life like Evo, Incredible, and this first LTE phone Thunderbolt. But its speed is quite remarkable.
 
jinwons said:
HSPA+ is kind of 3.5G technology used for GSM wireless network. It's a bit older technology than LTE but seems to be less power draining than LTE. The actually speed will vary with location, but in general it averages at about half of peak speed. So if peak speed is 21Mbps, you might be getting around 10Mbps most of time.

As for LTE, I will reserve my judge on the first round of phones until I see more phones from Samsung, LG, Motorola. HTC has bad record on battery life like Evo, Incredible, and this first LTE phone Thunderbolt. But its speed is quite remarkable.
Click to expand...


From the testing I've seen, it's more like 1/3 on average as the speed drops exponentially with distance from an HSPA tower until you hit the fringe. The one positive aspect of HSPA+ service is that it tends to benefit devices of lower speed rating. For example, I've seen in the past where testing a 7.2Mbps HSPA phone on an HSPA network (max 7.2Mbps) would yield speeds around 2-3 Mbps whereas that same HSPA phone would hit 6-7Mbps riding on a 21Mbps HSPA+ network.
 
kyler13 said:
HSPA+ is not 4G no matter how you slice it. They're able to achieve higher max theoretical speeds through channel bonding, but the standard remains unchanged. It's great news if you're stationary and relatively close to a tower, but the intention of 4G standards was to encompass high throughput and low latency, all while mobile (that is, while on the move). HSPA in any enhanced flavor doesn't buy you the latter, but often you'll hear good things about it based on someone running a speed test while stationary. Even 1st gen WiMax and LTE isn't quite meeting the intended 4G definition, but it was fundementally developed around the basic principles of 4G so it will get there with future generations. HSPA was released as a 3G standard and always will be. Period.
Click to expand...


Technically your right but according to the powers that be hspa + is now officially a 4G technology
 
technically he's not right, he doesnt define what is or isnt 4g...

hspa can be like twenty times faster than current LTE at times. So I guess it's more like 10G compared to LTE=3.5G.
 
shark974 said:
technically he's not right, he doesnt define what is or isnt 4g...

hspa can be like twenty times faster than current LTE at times. So I guess it's more like 10G compared to LTE=3.5G.
Click to expand...

WHOA thats incorrect true LTE has theoretical speeds of 100 mbps HSPA+ can not reach those speeds! The only reason HSPA+ is being called 4G is because the ITU decided that it could be accepted as a fourth generation technology, even though its just upgraded 3G because the speeds can get up to a min of 4 times faster. True LTE when it gets here not phase one lte like verizon has will bring ridicules speeds. So technically until the ITU changed the designation HE was right and you were wrong
 
lol there's no right or wrong. Companies are calling their networks 4g, and that's out of our hands. I'll be happy with 2mbps, latency could be an issue for gameplay tho. Wifi's good for that. Lol :) since we can't hurry on real 4g, there's no real point arguin about it. Lol. Lol. Can i get this phone already? Lol.
 
shark974 said:
technically he's not right, he doesnt define what is or isnt 4g...

hspa can be like twenty times faster than current LTE at times. So I guess it's more like 10G compared to LTE=3.5G.
Click to expand...

I learned a long time ago that throughput is 33% of the equation for a good data connection. You seem to be in the same boat as the vast majority of consumers in thinking that it's all that matters. There's nothing wrong with HSPA, it's simply NOT the next generation.
 
KValor said:
So besides the S2 being an absolutely stunning phone, one of the main reasons I can justify spending $750+ dollars on it is that it should be "relatively" future proof. Obviously next year they will have a bigger and better phone that crushes this one but I think with the list of specs presently being offered it should be alright, HOWEVER.

One of my major concerns with this phone is whether or not it will be released with 4G capabilty or not. I'd be rather unimpressed if I spent a huge wad of cash on this phone only to find it that the 4G model was released 2 months later. With every wireless provider in the world forging ahead with 4G it seems a little silly for them NOT to release with 4G or at least 4G upgrade-ability. The Galaxy S was released in June of 2010 (?) and the Galaxy S 4G in Feb of 2011, 8 months wait. (Correct me if I am wrong) you'd think they would release with 4G and follow suit.

My other thoughts are on 4G itself, I haven't done a lot of research on this and I probably should. HSPA+ offers 21Mbps but does anyone realisticly EVER get that kind of speeds? Can you justify worrying about 4G when you are doubtful to even use the system that is presently in place to its full potential? Enlighten me ;(

I'll take a slightly thicker phone with 4G off the bat rather wanting to upgrade in 3 months.

The other worry is that if they release the S2 4G months later whether or not it will have a SUPER AMOLED+ Screen or not, with the demand being so high for them.

Thanks,

David (first post on Android forums)
Click to expand...

I think it's safe to assume they all will come 4G ready. It comes HSPA+ ready so that takes care of T-Mobile & AT&T. On the leaked Verizon Spring road map it said 4G by selected phones and the SGSII was one of them. Plus their LTE Stealth is coming 4G ready so Sammy and Verizon are already in that ball park. Sprints Epic 4G. I can't imagine them going backwards for the successor. I won't mind if they lostthe keyboard though.
 
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