Sprint phones

[midwestfisherman]

Any new Sprint phone coming out? I'm really tired of my Balckberry!

 

[dguy6789]

The Evo 4G LTE is coming out soon. It's worth waiting for.

 

[Dulanic]

The Evo 4G LTE is coming out soon. It's worth waiting for.

^ and possibly SGSIII, which we should find out more info on tomorrow.

 

[dagamer34]

Current options are the LG Viper and Galaxy Nexus.
Upcoming is the EVO 4G LTE (this month).
Near future is the Galaxy S III (highly likely) and Motorola Photon II.

 

[AstroManLuca]

EVO 4G LTE. Only one worth getting.

The LG Viper isn't a bad phone but it's not worth a contract extension either. Galaxy Nexus is good but it's better if you get it contract-free from Google and activate it on a T-Mobile Value plan for those super cheap monthly rates.

Keep in mind that you won't actually get LTE access for a long time unless you are in Atlanta, San Antonio, Houston, Baltimore, or Kansas City. You'll have to use Sprint's extremely slow 3G. But if you can live with that, the EVO 4G LTE is a very good phone.

 

[bearxor]

Yeah, definitely hold off on Sprint upgrades until the LTE devices start hitting full stride.

 

[Oyeve]

LTE is all hype and BS.

 

[AstroManLuca]

LTE is all hype and BS.

Agreed. I don't see how it's actually any better than Wimax, other than it being the accepted industry standard moving forward. I have a Wimax phone and I do get coverage in my city. It's fast, almost always above 5 Mbps. But turning it on takes several seconds and it drains the battery quickly. LTE is essentially the same thing. So I'm a bit confused as to why Sprint getting LTE is such a big deal, especially since their LTE coverage will be a lot worse than their Wimax coverage for the foreseeable future.

Decent 3G speeds are 1000% more important since that's what you're using almost all of the time, or all of the time if you're not in one of the select Wimax or LTE cities. And Sprint doesn't have that.

 

[Knavish]

The LTE network might be hype, but the EVO LTE phone should be a good phone. I believe it is Sprint's version of the HTC One X that was just reviewed on Anandtech (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5779/htc-one-x-for-att-review). One big addition for the EVO is an SD card slot.

Even if the Galaxy S3 is announced tomorrow, what are the chances that Sprint gets it within a couple months?

 

[zerocool84]

LTE is all hype and BS.

Have you seen the speeds of LTE? Infinitely better than WiMax speeds.

 

[dguy6789]

Have you seen the speeds of LTE? Infinitely better than WiMax speeds.

This. Not to mention better building penetration and even the most power hungry first gen LTE radios connect faster and are easier on the battery than the latest wimax ones. I seriously can't believe there are wimax fanboys

 

[AstroManLuca]

This. Not to mention better building penetration and even the most power hungry first gen LTE radios connect faster and are easier on the battery than the latest wimax ones. I seriously can't believe there are wimax fanboys

I'm not a Wimax fanboy. All I'm saying is in practical use, LTE isn't really much different. Sure LTE is probably better in a lot of ways; it didn't become the next standard for nothing. Speed wise, I pull 7 Mbps on Wimax, which admittedly is well above average. I don't know how fast LTE is but how much faster do you need on a mobile phone? Is getting 15 Mbps instead of 7 really that much better?

The building penetration and battery advantages are bigger deals, though, and I didn't know about them. Clearly LTE is better, but as a Sprint customer in a Wimax service area (that won't be getting LTE for a while), I'm not going to stake my hopes on an LTE phone that will in practice be limited to 300 kbps for the next however many years.

 

[finbarqs]

15-20 when running mobile hotspot is a big deal.

 

[dagamer34]

I'm not a Wimax fanboy. All I'm saying is in practical use, LTE isn't really much different. Sure LTE is probably better in a lot of ways; it didn't become the next standard for nothing. Speed wise, I pull 7 Mbps on Wimax, which admittedly is well above average. I don't know how fast LTE is but how much faster do you need on a mobile phone? Is getting 15 Mbps instead of 7 really that much better?

The building penetration and battery advantages are bigger deals, though, and I didn't know about them. Clearly LTE is better, but as a Sprint customer in a Wimax service area (that won't be getting LTE for a while), I'm not going to stake my hopes on an LTE phone that will in practice be limited to 300 kbps for the next however many years.

People have pulled 50-60Mbps with LTE. That's never happened with WiMax. Just take a look at the HTC One X review for AT&T: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5779/htc-one-x-for-att-review/7 And LTE-Advanced with spectrum aggregation will double the peak output of those speeds.

And there is an actual benefit to such high speeds, even on a phone. If less people are communicating with a tower at once because their download transfer for a webpage or video is over, it's less likely to be overloaded. Unless you are web browsing on a computer, you can only do one task at a time, allowing for the network to rest in between webpage or video loads.

 

[kaerflog]

I'm not a Wimax fanboy. All I'm saying is in practical use, LTE isn't really much different. Sure LTE is probably better in a lot of ways; it didn't become the next standard for nothing. Speed wise, I pull 7 Mbps on Wimax, which admittedly is well above average. I don't know how fast LTE is but how much faster do you need on a mobile phone? Is getting 15 Mbps instead of 7 really that much better?

The building penetration and battery advantages are bigger deals, though, and I didn't know about them. Clearly LTE is better, but as a Sprint customer in a Wimax service area (that won't be getting LTE for a while), I'm not going to stake my hopes on an LTE phone that will in practice be limited to 300 kbps for the next however many years.

I'm not doubting what you're getting with Wimax but you're more of a exception than the norm.
I have about 7 people at my work with Sprint and they all want to strangle Wimax.(big city Orlando).
All I hear from them on a daily basis is how they can't get online or its slow as molasses.
Wimax is a dead technology.
LTE is not hype. It is really THAT fast.

 

[kaerflog]

Oh and if I was a Sprint customer, its easily the EVO LTE 4G.
Its the same phone as the ATT One X but better looking and micro SD slot.

 

[CupCak3]

I currently have an EVO and was really looking forward for the LTE 4G until I started reading about how the phone is not fully unlocked to allow for full root capabilities. Unless this changes or some work arounds come out, I'll likely get whatever Samsung is announcing today or waiting for the next flagship phone.

http://rootzwiki.com/news/_/articles/dear-htc-can-we-have-our-phones-back-r709

 

[bearxor]

I'm switching back to Sprint this year because of LTE. I wouldn't give up HSPA for EVDO, but I'll definitely take LTE. According to Sprint, I should be getting LTE by the end of the summer.

Just waiting for that LTE iphone

 

[midwestfisherman]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I think I'll take a serious look at the EVO 4G.

 

[ultraspec]

I had the same issue but tired of my EVO 4G so I got on craigslist and bought a used Galaxy S2 touch. I love it, night and day difference between this and my evo 4G and no contract to boot. Its pretty much brand new and at the contract price lol

Just a suggestion.

 

[foghorn67]

Agreed. I don't see how it's actually any better than Wimax, other than it being the accepted industry standard moving forward. I have a Wimax phone and I do get coverage in my city. It's fast, almost always above 5 Mbps. But turning it on takes several seconds and it drains the battery quickly. LTE is essentially the same thing. So I'm a bit confused as to why Sprint getting LTE is such a big deal, especially since their LTE coverage will be a lot worse than their Wimax coverage for the foreseeable future.

Decent 3G speeds are 1000% more important since that's what you're using almost all of the time, or all of the time if you're not in one of the select Wimax or LTE cities. And Sprint doesn't have that.

Because WiMax sucks. When I was with Sprint, I got 8Mbps down. Not bad, I was happy about that.
But building penetration sucked. ANYTIME walking indoors, bye-bye WiMax.
It also dropped, ALOT.
LTE is a legitimate technology and a standard.