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SG Note II - Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile

I'd go with AT&T. Not only is it the only carrier that provides good service where I live, but it also has something less dramatic to fall back on if you don't have LTE. When I say "dramatic," I mean the switch from LTE to 3G. On AT&T, if you don't have LTE service, you can still get HSPA+.
 
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Although AT7T isn't that bad, I'm a Sprint guy and will go back to them once the Note 2 goes on sale there.

I do find it odd that Verizon went for the Vu instead of with the Note 2.

TS

Sprint's 3G was a bit rough speed wise for me, though I had wimax at a lot of places I went/lived at the time. We don't know for sure that Verizon isn't getting the Note 2 though, just because they got the Vu. Hopefully they get both.
 
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Although AT7T isn't that bad, I'm a Sprint guy and will go back to them once the Note 2 goes on sale there.

I do find it odd that Verizon went for the Vu instead of with the Note 2.

TS

I really don't think the Note 2 will be sold on Sprint or Verizon. If you take a look at the original Note, it was only sold on AT&T for a time, and it was only recently that T-Mobile started selling it - and then ditching it.

Sprint's 3G was a bit rough speed wise for me, though I had wimax at a lot of places I went/lived at the time. We don't know for sure that Verizon isn't getting the Note 2 though, just because they got the Vu. Hopefully they get both.

It is said that AT&T technically has the faster data speeds than Verizon. I have seen Sprint speeds and they are very slow. AT&T might be slower at deploying LTE than Verizon is, but do keep in mind that if you don't have LTE on AT&T, chances are you might get HSPA+. Whereas if you don't get LTE on Verizon, you'll fall back to 3G.

Also, I could be wrong about this, but I don't think that Sprint's LTE and WiMax are compatible with each other, so I think if you lose/don't have LTE coverage, you will fall back to 3G instead of Wi-Max.
 
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It is said that AT&T technically has the faster data speeds than Verizon. I have seen Sprint speeds and they are very slow. AT&T might be slower at deploying LTE than Verizon is, but do keep in mind that if you don't have LTE on AT&T, chances are you might get HSPA+. Whereas if you don't get LTE on Verizon, you'll fall back to 3G.

Also, I could be wrong about this, but I don't think that Sprint's LTE and WiMax are compatible with each other, so I think if you lose/don't have LTE coverage, you will fall back to 3G instead of Wi-Max.

Yeah I've heard that AT&T is faster, but Verizon has more coverage. It is nice to be able to fall back on hspa+ when LTE isn't rolled out. You're right about Sprint's 4G. I was hoping they'd put wimax radios in their first gen LTE devices so that you could use what's there, but they didn't. Ah well.
 
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I really don't think the Note 2 will be sold on Sprint or Verizon. If you take a look at the original Note, it was only sold on AT&T for a time, and it was only recently that T-Mobile started selling it - and then ditching it.
I present to you Exhibit A.

Sprint2013Roadmap.jpg

This roadmap was taken by phonescoop when they did their artivce on How a Sprint phone is born. Once clearly sees a 5.5" phablet in the roadmap. The Note is the only 5.5" that i know of so BAM, Sprint is getting it no matter how many times they try to deny it.
Then again, they could decide to scrap the idea and not get it, but if they do, I think it would one big blunder on their part.

It is said that AT&T technically has the faster data speeds than Verizon. I have seen Sprint speeds and they are very slow. AT&T might be slower at deploying LTE than Verizon is, but do keep in mind that if you don't have LTE on AT&T, chances are you might get HSPA+. Whereas if you don't get LTE on Verizon, you'll fall back to 3G.
Well here in NYC, I never had an issue with Wimax, fast speeds (at least fast enough for me not to notice a slowdown), 3G, well it depends on what part of town I'm in and seeing the LTE results form folks across the areas that have LTE, the results are in line or better than AT&T and Verizon. So I know, (at least in my part of town and those areas that I travel to) that Sprint is getting better.

Also, I could be wrong about this, but I don't think that Sprint's LTE and WiMax are compatible with each other, so I think if you lose/don't have LTE coverage, you will fall back to 3G instead of Wi-Max.
This is true on phones liek the Nexus, S3 etc that are only LTE and 3G, and those phones that are only Wimax and 3G like the EVO, but I have the TriFi hotspot which has all three, so i can easily connect any of my devices to it and be covered anywhere i go. Until I get LTE in my town which then I'll give up the TriFi or put it on the suspension plan.

But in keeping with the thread topic, if i didn't have or couldn't get the Note 2 on Sprint , then I would probably go to AT&T since I have the 1st Note with them.

TS
 
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for those folks who don't/won't have an upgrade are you thinking about importing one instead of buying an American version?

Singing...... I have an upgrade....I have an upgrade.....

Circa Note 1, I seriously considered going to AT&T. The only thing that stopped me was not wanting ANOTHER bill. I also considered buying it and going prepaid but ditched that idea too.
 
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If Sprint gets Note 2, I think chances are Verizon will too as they are CDMA/LTE carriers.

Then I wonder what processor/radio chipset it will have, Exynos/Samsung LTE or qualcomm S4 Pro/LTE. My bet is it will be Qualcomm S4 Pro chipset for Sprint, Verizon.

Regardless it better have Qualcomm CDMA 3g or it could have trouble. Even if getting qualcomm 3g means going to the standard MSM8960 dualcore S4 on CDMA networks I think it would be worth it. S4 Pro would be killer though as that would give VZW people the best one. Not happy none the less with this latest news all might get Exynos, mostly due to possible crap cheap basebands that aren't qualcom. Would rather have Krait dual core than quad exynos in the end also anyhow.
 
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Regardless it better have Qualcomm CDMA 3g or it could have trouble. Even if getting qualcomm 3g means going to the standard MSM8960 dualcore S4 on CDMA networks I think it would be worth it. S4 Pro would be killer though as that would give VZW people the best one. Not happy none the less with this latest news all might get Exynos, mostly due to possible crap cheap basebands that aren't qualcom. Would rather have Krait dual core than quad exynos in the end also anyhow.

A lot of folks wanted to see Exynos/LTE chipset in Sammy flagship device ever since SGS2 came last year. They finally did that in the Korean version of SGS3 LTE this year, but all North American versions are made with S4 chip to support all LTE bands in US. Now it seems they added all those bands to their radio modem chip in Note 2. But like you said, if it's Exynos/LTE I would be a bit wary of it for a while. Hopefully they did some homework to their radio after the CDMA Gnex reception fiasco. S4 Pro/Qualcomm LTE chipset would be safer bet until their chipset is proven.
 
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A lot of folks wanted to see Exynos/LTE chipset in Sammy flagship device ever since SGS2 came last year. They finally did that in the Korean version of SGS3 LTE this year, but all North American versions are made with S4 chip to support all LTE bands in US. Now it seems they added all those bands to their radio modem chip in Note 2. But like you said, if it's Exynos/LTE I would be a bit wary of it for a while. Hopefully they did some homework to their radio after the CDMA Gnex reception fiasco. S4 Pro/Qualcomm LTE chipset would be safer bet until their chipset is proven.

And it's not just the Samsung LTE. That was actually not nearly as bad as the VIA Telecom CDMA 3G in the end. We know though that Qualcomm CDMA/LTE stuff is getting good reception and running at blazing speeds(even with less than optimal signals) based on stuff I have seen tested with those.

The Qualcomm MDM9615 probably wouldn't take much more effort to get working with the Exynos than it would to pair it with S4 Pro, but really I would just prefer S4 Pro Quad Krait over any quadcore A9 anything.

EDIT:
Interesting claim backing up the last aspect of this reply. Second post from top claims Exynos + MDM9615. That would be good enough I guess. I technically would prefer anything Krait though, even if dualcore. There are to many things we use our phones for that are better served by faster and more efficient per watt cores than more cores.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=31387736
 
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That's great if it's Qualcomm MDM9615 radio chip inside Note 2. Then it wouldn't matter if AP in Note 2 is quad Exynos or S4 pro. Still a single modem chip is handling everything on cell voice/data signals though it's sitting outside the AP.

Considering this is launching in every major US carrier, this seems to make sense as MDM9615 should have all LTE bands for US. Interestingly iPhone 5 is believed to be housing this radio chip as well.

AnandTech - Preparing for the iPhone Next: Rumors Analyzed
 
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Yeah. I suspect it would have the S4 Pro also, but that trying to keep up supply for MSM8960 and now this MDM9615 Apple is demanding means S4 Pro will have enough supply issues that some stuff like this Note II will have to use other processors, even here in the USA.

Still would have preferred MSM8960 really if that's what's going on, but the "quadcore" might help it sell better I suppose??
 
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