Should I buy this phone or wait for LTE?

[mgoblueno1]

Cant decide what to do. I would just go with the gs2, but I am going to be using this phone for the next two years and I dont want to be left behind without lte in a year.
Thanks!

 

[Puddin422]

Do you live in/near a major city?

Are you 100% certain you will keep the phone for two full years?

 

[sigmamason]

Personally, I would wait one or two product life cycles on LTE phones as they have yet to get decent battery life out of any device. Have fun with the current tech as it can only get better...

 

[HeroNtheShadow]

I live in Kansas City, MO and I'm not really sure when LTE will be coming to my area. I have used the phones at my AT&T shop on the HSPA+ network and they seem plenty fast enough for me..... for now. I'm not doing anything crazy with my phone, just texting, phone calls, surfing the web, and streaming Netflix... So at this point I don't really need LTE I suppose. So, I'd say unless you really NEED that speed.... just go for the SGS2 that's coming out next week.

 

[Puddin422]

Be happy you can stream...lol...Sprint sucks!

 

[HeroNtheShadow]

Be happy you can stream...lol...Sprint sucks!

It's funny you say that Puddin'. I can stream in HD on Netflix or YouTube as long as i have 4 or 5 out of 5 bars on my Iphone 3G.... and that's just AT&T 3G, not HSPA+. But like i said, it's funny you say Sprint sux, because on Friday I walked into my local Sprint store, even though I've been with AT&T for 4 or 5 years, to look at the Epic 4G Touch. I wanted to check the phone out to make sure I still wanted the AT&T version.... well.... I was having a problem streaming YouTube videos on the thing.... and it was running with full 4G bars or 2/3 bars of 4G!!! It wasn't on WiFi or anything, which is good cuz i wanted to test out Sprints 4G network data experience. The phone wouldn't smoothly stream it in "HD" on YouTube but it would do it at a regular quality, which was pretty grainy. I had NO problem streaming YouTube on the Infuse on the HSPA+ "4G" that AT&T has when I checked the Infuse out last month. Also, the really worrying thing was that when i took video on the Epic 4G Touch and tried to view it.. the screen was just pitch black but i could hear the audio... it just wouldn't play back the video that I JUST TOOK! It was crazy. I talked to a store rep about it and he said that they haven't had any complaints about that or returns of that phone... and he said that it could just be because it's a demo model and it's been running 24/7. Heck i have no idea. But i'm still convinced that HSPA+ will be more reliable than WiMax 4G. I still think I'll buy on release day next week.

 

[Puddin422]

Exactly!! And I have been with Sprint for many years, so I know these things. And the way their 4G works, you better be in the middle of the city. Outskirts won't pick it up. I don't mean suburbs. I mean the outer perimeter of the actual city!

 

[Puddin422]

I've only used 4G 2-3 times in the last year. That's how rare it is to get signal. 1-2 times in Tampa and once in Atlanta. I live approx 30-35 miles from the center of Tampa, too.

 

[HeroNtheShadow]

Exactly!! And I have been with Sprint for many years, so I know these things. And the way their 4G works, you better be in the middle of the city. Outskirts won't pick it up. I don't mean suburbs. I mean the outer perimeter of the actual city!

Yeah I can attest to that. I'm a cop here in KCMO and my partner has an Evo 4G... he gets full bars of 4G in the middle of the ghetto where we work... but he barely gets 3G service in his living room... he still has a Kansas City address since we technically have to live in the city... but he lives way north of downtown... I'd say 20 miles... It's really diappointing to him.

 

[chicknlil]

Sprint, as I recall, beyond having a big corporate presence in the KCMO area, also has sponsorship deals in place with either the Chiefs or the Royals. I do know that last summer, while visiting family in the area, we took in a baseball game at Kaufmann and I couldn't get a lick of AT&T signal sitting in our "open to the sky" seats. It wasn't until we were several city blocks away from the sports complex that my signal returned.

But yeah, I would think (perhaps incorrectly), that would be one of the best areas to live in for strong Sprint service.

 

[HeroNtheShadow]

Sprint, as I recall, beyond having a big corporate presence in the KCMO area, also has sponsorship deals in place with either the Chiefs or the Royals. I do know that last summer, while visiting family in the area, we took in a baseball game at Kaufmann and I couldn't get a lick of AT&T signal sitting in our "open to the sky" seats. It wasn't until we were several city blocks away from the sports complex that my signal returned.

But yeah, I would think (perhaps incorrectly), that would be one of the best areas to live in for strong Sprint service.

Yeah, KC is the World Headquarters for Sprint, actually the Sprint Campus is in Overland Park, KS which is about 20 miles outside of downtown KCMO/KCKS. We have that and Sprint Center which was built downtown a couple years ago... it houses concerts, hockey games, basketball games (we had the Big 12 tourney there), and Sprint also has a deal with Kansas Speedway obviously which houses NASCAR and Indy races. I'm not sure about Kauffman or Arrowhead Stadiums. So yeah, one would expect good Sprint service in the city that houses that carriers World Headquarters... I guess I'd expect the same from whatever TX city has AT&T, someone remind me which one.....Houston? Dallas? I can't remember.

Our police department even uses Sprint for our MDC's (the laptops in our police cars) and we use Sprint for all our data transfers. We just switched from a system called ALERT to a system based in St. Louis called "Rejis"... both are criminal backround data servers. Well after we made the switch Sprint told our Chief and our command staff that they couldn't handle all the data and that's why we can only get info from a computer that's "hard wired" through ethernet and not on our laptops that use Sprint's mobile cards. It's utter BS. I'm not saying AT&T or Verizon would be a more viable choice... just that Sprint isn't cutting it. Professionally it's unsafe, I could have someone on scene that's a wanted felon and not know it for quite some time, and personally it's just an inconvienience... as my parter tells me weekly. He said the only reason he even switched to Sprint when he moved to KC was the low cost of the plan for him and his wife.

Don't take this as a slam session on Sprint there Puddin' or Chicknlil.... I'm sure Sprint has good points just like AT&T/Verizon/T-Moble have thier positive and negatives..... I'm just happy with my AT&T service and grandfathered unlimited data plan so far and don't see a reason to switch to any other carrier just yet...

 

[Puddin422]

The only good point Sprint has is cheaper plans. That's it.

 

[chicknlil]

Heh, feel free to bash away at Sprint to me. I'm a longtime AT&T customer.