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nexus 5 us v uk

Yes, the North America and European models are different based on everything I had read. The only difference between them though seems to be frequency compatibility. The North American model doesn't seem to support and European LTE frequencies and vice versa. Not sure on the cross HSPA compatibility though.

Thanks, this helps. Based on your response, since most of my time is spent in the U.S., I would use the N5 for personal use and I have a company provided global phone seems a U.S. N5 would be the way to go.
 
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@eoin31: Based on that it looks like for a European the difference is LTE, which as jhawkkw says won't work with the North American model. If you've no plans to use that in the lifetime of the phone I reckon you'll be OK.

Bear in mind that US prices are quoted without sales taxes, European prices are quoted with, so that's about half of the price difference accounted for. Also a European model will have a 2 year warranty, while at best you'll get 1 year with the US one (and if the purchase was in your American friend's name and then shipped to you I'm not sure you'll have that). BTW if you have it shipped, rather than buying it yourself and carrying it back as a personal possession, there may be import charges - I'd check this before going ahead (Edit: ah, I see LuvMusic has already raised this).
 
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Thanks, this got me started. What was difficult was the article reported LTE in bands and all the other articles I found reported LTE in MHZ. Here is the table I found that made the translations easier:

List of LTE networks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And, my interpretation is, no LTE in Europe with a US N5 and no LTE in the U.S. with a European N5.

If I am interpreting the articles and table correctly, Europe uses primarily bands 3, 7 and 20. In the U.S., TMo uses band 4 (so do most of the other carriers with a few oddballs listed). None of these bands overlap between the two phones.

Can anyone confirm that my research and interpretation is correct?

Thanks for the help.

P.S. This is way more "geekier" than I thought I would have to get! :D
 
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Thats right, the Nexus 5 currently does not come in a model that has LTE bands for both US and EU. I don't travel much so this wont really concern me but will it affect your decision on buying the phone? How many people do you think will be disappointed when they find this out after the fact?

NEXUS 5 SUPPORTED NETWORKS
2G/3G/4G LTE

North America:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
CDMA: Band Class: 0/1/10
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
LTE: Bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41

Rest of World:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8
LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20
 
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It might effect my decision. I spend about 30% of my time in Europe so no LTE support in Europe with a U.S. N5 is a consideration.

On the other hand, it seems that most devices available in the U.S. don't support LTE in Europe. The only device I have found that MIGHT support LTE in Europe is the TMo Note 3, it lists on the TMo technical resource page that this device supports band 7 (2600mhz) which should work in the U.K. and Switzerland (which is where I spend most of my time while in Europe). Here is the link to the reference within TMo's website: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | T-Mobile Support

BUT, I prefer my pure android experience and timely OS updates from Google! May have to live with HSPA / HSPA+.

Decisions, decisions........:D
 
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I don't think any U.S. carriers have announced they will carry the Z Ultra? Just saw that it looks like TMo will carry the Z1...this might be an option. Though I'm skeptical it will cover LTE in the U.S. and Europe. Link: Xperia Z1 for T-Mobile USA outed by Bluetooth SIG | Xperia Blog

Also, the Z Ultra is another BIG phablet! ;)

I think you would have to import the Utra... but if you do then you're looking at slower OS updates I would think.
 
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