Does the Atrix 4G support 4g LTE?

[JC531]

hey guys me again and btw let me note dont start flaming me ok. anyways what i wanted to say what that ive been reading on several sites and watching on youtube videos that the atrix does support 4g lte. some people say it does some say it doesnt and some say that it runs just on hsdpa? because att doesnt have it yet. im really confused right now so yea. currently im trying to find out where i first saw that it supported lte so i can post the link. if i had the money i'd test it out but i dont so i cant. so anyways i hope that many users look into this to see whats up just to help all the others who are confused about this too. and if this also becomes a big discussion which maybe it wont i hope that an admin or people who can make stickys can make a sticky about this. l8r guys and maybe will post again bye guys.




again dont flame me if im wrong...be mature

 

[Hawk375]

the atrix doesn't have the physical hardware to communicate via LTE, it only has hsdpa/hsupa, a qualcomm mdm6200 modem which supports speeds up to 14.4 Mbps via hsdpa

hsupa is currently not being used by the atrix or the inspire, so its upload speeds are maxing out around 300Kbps

The atrix communicates on the following frequencies: WCDMA 850/1900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Current LTE networks use primarily 700, and Metropcs is using 1700.

There are many, including AT&T reps who report the Atrix as supporting LTE, but it physically cannot because it doesn't have the hardware installed in it to communicate via LTE networks.

 

[JC531]

i wanna add something weird. last night when i was looking over the atrix on motorolas site it said it was capable of 4g hspa+lte.but today it sais it supports what you just said.i dont really remember what site exactly did i see the atrix support lte but yea. it said this...

i think it said supported speeds then it said 4g hspa+lte. again when it comes to phones im not the smartest in the bunch.

 

[JC531]

here are 2 links saying its lte http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TZeQAAnOSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpTuIIEdMSg

 

[Deleted User]

i wanna add something weird. last night when i was looking over the atrix on motorolas site it said it was capable of 4g hspa+lte.but today it sais it supports what you just said.i dont really remember what site exactly did i see the atrix support lte but yea. it said this...
i think it said supported speeds then it said 4g hspa+lte. again when it comes to phones im not the smartest in the bunch.

The chipset simply does not have LTE support, just HSPA up to 14.4mbps so any advertising you see for 4G is just marketing hype. Only a few phones have LTE hardware right now, and the Atrix is not one of them.

 

[JC531]

that sucks. i was hoping to get it on metropcs. i know the droid bionic supports lte but it has less of a ram than the atrix hopefully by the end of the year they will have something equal or better than the atrix supporting lte.

 

[JC531]

can i ask you. you know how the atrix has way more ram than the droid bionic. well what does the ram do for the phone and what effects the phone because the amount compared to the atrix. ok let me see if i can make this simpler cuz im confuzing myself too. is there a noticiable difference between the bionic and the atrix because the atrix has more ram?

 

[Hawk375]

Like I said earlier, the Atrix has a Qualcomm MDM6200 modem, which doesn't support LTE

+ MDM6200™: supports HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps
+ MDM6600™: supports HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps and CDMA2000

 

[Deleted User]

can i ask you. you know how the atrix has way more ram than the droid bionic. well what does the ram do for the phone and what effects the phone because the amount compared to the atrix. ok let me see if i can make this simpler cuz im confuzing myself too. is there a noticiable difference between the bionic and the atrix because the atrix has more ram?

For surfing the web, emailing, texting, playing typical games, etc., it makes little difference. The extra RAM in the Atrix is for running the WebTop virtual desktop application on the LapDock or on another monitor like an HDTV. If a phone has 512MB of RAM, then that's enough for most Android operations. The exception would be opening a lot of browser windows, and multitasking on the Atrix would be better with the added RAM and dual-core processor.

I have an HTC Desire and I'm happy with it except for one problem - the internal storage is minimal so there is not a lot of room for apps. There's more room now that Froyo can move some apps to the SD card, but that's only a partial fix. HTC is releasing an updated Desire "S" model that has 1gig of storage plus SD card, which will make it better for app storage, as well as 768MB of RAM for running apps, so it should multitask better and faster.

The newer Google Nexus S model from Samsung has 512MB of RAM for running apps and 16gigs of storage, (no SD card slot which really sucks), and it operates about as fast as the Atrix in real world use. The Atrix should really pick up speed with Gingerbread OS though as it has faster code and more/better support for the dual-core processor.

 

[JC531]

yea. even though i havent heard any news of it i wouldnt be suprised if they made a gingerbread update for it. btw how come very few phones are coming with gingerbread? now that 3.0 is out which seems optimized for tablets and 2.3 which gives fixes and features it seems that 2.2 is the main focus. is there something in the hardware that supports 2.3 better than other phones?

 

[JC531]

i forgot to ask. what carriers support the atrix 4g with 4g? and whats the cheapest? (something almost as cheap as metropcs?

 

[Deleted User]

yea. even though i havent heard any news of it i wouldnt be suprised if they made a gingerbread update for it.

If you mean a v2.3 update for the Atrix, that was confirmed a while ago as the Atrix really needs Gingerbread to work better.

btw how come very few phones are coming with gingerbread?

Android v2.3 is still relatively new and many companies like to customize their phones with unique firmware. As I understand it, Gingerbread is supposed to be untouched, except for carriers/manufacturers adding apps to the phone so that all Android phones look the same out of the box (which is a really good idea), but support other launchers, apps, and widgets so they can still be customized for the user rather than the vendor.

now that 3.0 is out which seems optimized for tablets and 2.3 which gives fixes and features it seems that 2.2 is the main focus.

Android v3.0 is specifically written for tablet devices so it's not really an option for phones. That's why we're seeing 2.2 even on new phones as it allows for customized UI.

is there something in the hardware that supports 2.3 better than other phones?

If you mean the Nexus S is special, then no, the hardware is not specifically designed for Gingerbread and the phone would work fine with any v2.x firmware that was compatible. V2.3 is faster, smoother, and more refined, with a better UI, which is why the Nexus S is about as fast as the Atrix in real world use. Once the Atrix gets updated to v2.3, it should be noticeably faster than the Nexus S as the hardware in the Atrix is more capable and faster.

 

[Deleted User]

i forgot to ask. what carriers support the atrix 4g with 4g? and whats the cheapest? (something almost as cheap as metropcs?

I'm in Canada, so I'm less knowledgeable about US carriers' plans. However, any carrier that supports 3G/4G on 850/1900/2100 MHz frequencies is fully compatible with the current model of the Atrix.

Note that HSPA+ is not really 4G, as 4g is LTE which is a completely different protocol. Any carrier that claims to have a 4G network (all or most of them now) is simply misleading as 4G and HSPA+ are not really the same thing. But since 3G is considered to be up to 7.2mbps, and 4G is considered to be 14.4mbps and above, I understand why they're doing it (yes there's a LOT more to it than that, but for the layman, it'll do). There is a lot of ambiguation with these formats and protocols, and the ITU is a bit vague about it all since it's advancing at such a frenzied pace.

So the net result of all this is simple...we don't have super fast networks here in North America, so unless you're up/down loading huge amounts of data, it doesn't really matter that much which network you're on. Just find out which carrier has the best speeds in YOUR area, and go with them.