Hspa+ vs lte

[pl4life52]

I am thinking about dropping my 55 plan and getting a different phone.

My question is ( i know it varies on location, coverage and all that good stuff) for people that had metro pcs LTE and now have Tmobiles HSPA+ only no 4g, what is the difference in speed that you are noticing?

I am currently getting 20+ DL speed on LTE on my motion

 

[Gman9831]

Similar thread http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=784501

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

I would advise you to try out a GSM phone as close to your house as possible.

Even after at least 2 tower tweaks nearby from me chatting backchannel on Faceplant with Metro my speeds are still not up to what I had on CDMA and it seems Much More traffic affected. The 0 dark thirty speeds are better than I had on CDMA, peak times not as good as CDMA. OTOH, just 3 miles from here it's blazing into the 20's on HSPA+

It's not bad enough to make me switch. I can still tether if need be and do anything else I need to. I did enough of a deal on my Spirit to basically cover the $5 difference @ month for about the next year and my N4 should be just fine for at least 2 more years as it is now.

But it ain't all rainbows and unicorns as it seems for most everyone else from CDMA to GSM.


Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[pl4life52]

That is true I should find someone and run a few tests on there phones to get an idea of what it can be.

I saw a lot of videos on the moto G and want to move forward with it but wanted to get a better understanding of the HSPA

Thank you

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

Even with 4 days to play with the Nexus 4 before shipping off my sold Spirit it wasn't an easy decision. I came VERY close to rescinding the sale, keeping the Spirit and having Metro reinstate my $55 plan. (With the Speedtests I was sending them, I think that could have happened if I had whined enough.)

I think a lot of the decision should be how happy you are with the phone you have now. Taking signal strength into account, I had a better user experience with the Spirit than I'm having with the N4. The Spirit has been the best phone I've owned so far, By Far. That may change when I get around to rooting and enabling Lte on the N4.

Probably the main point for me ended up being the $130 I got for my Spirit. Unfortunately, after shipping, Paypal and Fleabay fees, I only netted about $102 for it. IF I had to settle for netting less than $100 for the Spirit, I probably would have kept it, and stayed on CDMA until about the end of July '14. The warranty for my N4 is up in August and I'd have wanted to have it activated before that to be sure there was no warrantied issues while I still had one. Doing that would also have effectively dropped the price I paid for my N4 another $30 (6 months x $5)

I also think that I was, and you still are, in the "sweet spot" for getting used N4's. The longer you wait now, the more use the phone gets before you get it. Right now you can still get units that are like new and still under warranty. The longer you wait, the less of those there are and the more they may cost. I paid $220 for mine, it was just 3 months old when I got it and still had the factory screen protector on it. It even came with the best N4 case, the Ringke Fusion ($15) which I would have bought anyway had it not come with the phone. It was also like new which means I ended up paying about $205 for the N4 itself. I DO have to admit the N4's wireless charging is the kitties jammies.

It also wouldn't surprise me to see Metro get some other new Mid-range GSM phone in the next 6 months worthy of consideration. OTOH, if tethering is important to you it Seems these days the safest option there is to go with a non-carrier branded phone.

The gist here is, at least for me, there were several angles to switching over that I needed to noodle out before deciding.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[pl4life52]

Hmm, that makes me think if your not 100% sold on the N4 without LTE maybe thats how I would feel with the moto g or N4. I know the N4 does have LTE compatibility and im sure that would better the experience.

The reason I like the moto g is for the durability and water tests that I saw, an awesome perk for me. Two things that were stopping me were the storage not being expandable, but i think 16gb will be fine. Now the only thing is the HSPA vs LTE. I ran a few tests on my motion today driving around and i hit 35+ a few times and I would hate to see that go away.

I know many people said that 10-15 down would be fine for phone use. I guess just seeing what im running now and then upgrading the phone but downgrading on the speed doesnt seem beneficial for me.

I am satisfied with the motion, got it for like 60 bucks used a while ago. This thing went through war and screen is still fine. I am getting some dust behind the screen now. I dont have any negative comments about it except for the screen size but i have learned to accept it. But playing around with the S3 and S4 and screen sizes of 4.5+ is definitely nice and thats whats making me consider a new phone.

I want a new phone but dont need one. But also dont want something that has great performance but data speeds arent good. Plus $200 for a brand new phone is a steal.

 

[alfick3]

I think the best speed test I've gotten down here, in Dallas, is close to 20 meg and that's not consistent. My normal speeds are closer to 8 meg dl.

You're right that $200 is such a great deal.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

pl4life52 IMO with the speeds you are seeing on your Motion, the smartest move for you would be a really nice $100 Spirit on Fleabay.
It's a fine phone with an awesome 4.7" screen. IMO, the Perfect Size.

Keep that until CDMA ends and that Spirit ends up costing you about $30.

Unless you are tethering to a big monitor or maybe on-line gaming 3.5 Mps is sufficient. Anything more is just waving your big 'un around the room.


To answer your question, no, I am generally happy with my decision. I could be happier of course. I still think I did the smartest thing For Me at the smartest time. I can do what I need to with the speeds I'm getting now. There's always rooting and the easy peasy App for radio selection if I get antsy for more signal.


Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[pl4life52]

hmmm the spirit I will look into that, do you think they would let me keep my $55.00 plan if i try to transfer that phone?

 

[MyUsernameRox]

if I had known that LTE coverage was not that extensive in my area, I would have bought an L 9 as opposed to the f6 that I currently have. HSPA is perfectly fine for my needs, and the speeds on HSPA are about 6 times faster than what I was getting on my motion (2 mbps down on average).

when I had my motion. I used Sensorly to map not only all of the LTE coverage but the CDMA coverage as well in my county. When I got the f6 I did the same thing, but as LTE is not very extensive I didn't have much work. I'm currently working on mapping HSPA coverage for my county. The reason I do this is so that other people will have it easier, unlike me basically going in blind when I bought first my motion and now my F 6.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

hmmm the spirit I will look into that, do you think they would let me keep my $55.00 plan if i try to transfer that phone?

I can't imagine why not. I upgraded from the Motion to the Spirit while on the $55 plan.


I would think there Will come a time where they will not longer do CDMA activates but that isn't now as our local Auth Dealer's are still selling CDMA phones.


Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[pl4life52]

The only reason i asked that is because they tried giving me a hard time when i tried going back to my connect for a few days while i boot looped my motion. They said the only reason they allowed it is because i had that phone originally on the 55 plan. I then asked them if i buy a different phone and try to activate if i can use it on the 55 plan the representative said said no because it would be a new activation that would need a new plan since they dont offer the 55 anymore.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

Was that at an Authorized Dealer or Corporate store?

I would only believe that coming Straight from the Mothership. On-line chat, Faceplant, or 1-800-Metro or a Corporate store. I like Faceplant. That way you can use Snip and KEEP record of them saying it.


Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[Joshuah22a]

I average 20-30 on lte... and 5-10 on hspa..

 

[pl4life52]

I called the 1800 number so one of those guys told me that. Josh that's what I'm afraid of, when Web browsing and watching videos how does it hold up

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

hmmm the spirit I will look into that, do you think they would let me keep my $55.00 plan if i try to transfer that phone?

I can't imagine why not. I upgraded from the Motion to the Spirit while on the $55 plan.

I would think there Will come a time where they will not longer do CDMA activates but that isn't now as our local Auth Dealer's are still selling CDMA phones.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

The only reason i asked that is because they tried giving me a hard time when i tried going back to my connect for a few days while i boot looped my motion. They said the only reason they allowed it is because i had that phone originally on the 55 plan. I then asked them if i buy a different phone and try to activate if i can use it on the 55 plan the representative said said no because it would be a new activation that would need a new plan since they dont offer the 55 anymore.

pl4life52,

1) Go getcha that nice Spirit
2) Print this post out
3) If anyone tries to charge you $5 more a month, bitch slap them with this.

(I got their reply about 3:30 PM Eastern, today Thursday, 2/13/14.)


Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[timmyh318]

When i had my nexus 4 on tmobile on hspa+ i averaged around 18-22 down. The nexus is a hspa+ dual carrier meaning it will pull from 2 cell sites theoretically doubling your speed. Honestly with 5-10 down you wont notice that much difference in actual speed of loading pages videos ect ect as 2-3 mbps is plenty fast enough to do that. What you wanna keep an eye on is your ping times as hspa+ has a higher latency than lte. The higher the ping times the more likely you are to experience buffering a little stuttering ect ect. Hspa+ even the slower single carrier variant is plenty fast enough to handle what most people are gonna throw at it.

 

[pl4life52]

pl4life52,

1) Go getcha that nice Spirit
2) Print this post out
3) If anyone tries to charge you $5 more a month, bitch slap them with this.

(I got their reply about 3:30 PM Eastern, today Thursday, 2/13/14.)


Bruce in Ocala, Fl

You are the f***ing man i shall definitely slap a bitch with that lol. That was awesome info and glad to have pictures of it.

Timmy thank you for that info as well. I always thought the mb were a big deal never thought about the latency.

 

[timmyh318]

To many people get caught up in speed tests instead of actual performance. I carry a verizon prepaid moto g around just to toy with and it only picks up verizon 3g i think the highest i ever maxed at on a speed test was a lil over 2 down but real world performance its honestly quick enough. The only thing id say about sticking with cdma is if you travel at all or if you visit areas where t mobile/metro dont offer lte. If your happy with a cdma phone and dont really travel much by all means save that money and keep a cdma plan. The spirit is an ok phone. If you want something more modern runs a newer version of android and is more "future proof" then it is better to look to a gsm phone. Something like the n4 or moto g are good cheap phones right now. I wouldnt let a few mbps download speed be what makes the choice for you. Unless your constantly downloading torrents or full length movies and tethering your laptop all the time your not gonna really notice a difference between 20mbps down or 10 mbps down. But if the cdma side serves you well right now stick with it. It really comes down to what your really looking for and what really matters most to you.

 

[pl4life52]

To many people get caught up in speed tests instead of actual performance. I carry a verizon prepaid moto g around just to toy with and it only picks up verizon 3g i think the highest i ever maxed at on a speed test was a lil over 2 down but real world performance its honestly quick enough. The only thing id say about sticking with cdma is if you travel at all or if you visit areas where t mobile/metro dont offer lte. If your happy with a cdma phone and dont really travel much by all means save that money and keep a cdma plan. The spirit is an ok phone. If you want something more modern runs a newer version of android and is more "future proof" then it is better to look to a gsm phone. Something like the n4 or moto g are good cheap phones right now. I wouldnt let a few mbps download speed be what makes the choice for you. Unless your constantly downloading torrents or full length movies and tethering your laptop all the time your not gonna really notice a difference between 20mbps down or 10 mbps down. But if the cdma side serves you well right now stick with it. It really comes down to what your really looking for and what really matters most to you.

I sure am one of those people, I always thought it was a big deal. I guess seeing all those commercials about data speed got me fooled.

I think ill be grabbing the Spirit for now and holding out until the change.

thanks for all of the help guys i appreciate it.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

If it makes you feel any better, here is the feedback I got just yesterday from the new owners of My Spirit.

we love the phone !!!thank You Buyer:

conniemom3 (

123

)
Feb-12-14 21:59


Bruce in Ocala, Fl