4G support in Asia on USA (Verizon) S8?

[msp1518]

Gents (and ladies), I am in love with the S8 and have been playing with it at every store I pass by here in China (I work here part of the year). I am willing to sell my too damn wide iPhone 6S+ and finally say bye-bye to Apple IF I can be assured that a Verizon S8 will give me 4G coverage in China (I use China Telecom while I am here).

So far I cannot find out any information on this and when I try to get technical and look up all the bands my eyes just go cross-eyed.

Any experts out there willing to chime in? Here is all the information I can provide to make the situation clear.

I must have a Verizon compatible S8 since the area of NC that I reside simply has no reliable AT&T coverage. Believe me, this is no BS. It's Verizon and only Verizon.

Let me point out that the Verizon Samsung S7 and S7 Edge had no 3G coverage and very limited 4G coverage in China (a friend of mine who had one here was constantly without data in parts of this city). Meanwhile the AT&T S7 had the needed 4G LTE bands.

This can all be checked on willmyphonework.net but they have zip on the S8 so far.

In checking that website the Verizon NOTE 7 it had 3G and 4G coverage on all three Chinese carriers (China Mobile, Unicom and Telecom) so that makes me think the S8 likely has similar coverage.

Thanks much. While the all glass phone and how fragile it seems worries me (I have dropped my iPhones, in their cases, countless times with zero cracks) I am willing to risk the S8 purchase and stick it in a good bumper case and pray.

 

[mikedt]

This can all be checked on willmyphonework.net but they have zip on the S8 so far.

In checking that website the Verizon NOTE 7 it had 3G and 4G coverage on all three Chinese carriers (China Mobile, Unicom and Telecom) so that makes me think the S8 likely has similar coverage.

I'd suggest that information is actually wrong, given that the Note7 was only available for a short time before it was recalled(twice), and so nobody may have actually checked for Verizon version N7 compatibility with the Chinese carriers. And the Verizon version S7 information is correct, and will very likely apply to the Verizon S8 as well. It's only partially 4G compatible with China Telecom, no 2G or 3G. China Mobile operates TD-SCDMA, which US version phones just don't have. So coverage and network availability is definitely an issue. China Unicom should be fine though for 2G and 3G, but again only partial 4G LTE compatibility with Verizon version Samsungs.

 

[msp1518]

Thanks for the reply. That is certainly disheartening. I was figuring we would see more coverage since Apple certainly added a ton of extra LTE bands. The iPhone 6 was only doable with China Mobile, but the two 6S's get 4G LTE with China Mobile, Unicom and Telecom. I know because I have used sims from all three over here. My coverage with China Telecom has been perfection.

For me the 6S is too small and the 6S+ is just too big (too wide in the hand). The S8 is perfection as far as screen proportions and comfort in the hand. And of course it has a headphone jack, which I do not want to give up just yet.

That upcoming ESSENTIAL phone looks sensational (and far more durable being ceramic) but no headphone jack is a minus and it does look big. If I remember correctly it's less wide than the 6S+ (tried to look it up but the net here sux hard at the moment). Of course, the question is will it have 4G LTE for both Verizon and one of the Chinese carriers? I did contact them and ask, but the reply I received was noncommittal.

 

[mikedt]

Thanks for the reply. That is certainly disheartening. I was figuring we would see more coverage since Apple certainly added a ton of extra LTE bands. The iPhone 6 was only doable with China Mobile, but the two 6S's get 4G LTE with China Mobile, Unicom and Telecom. I know because I have used sims from all three over here. My coverage with China Telecom has been perfection.

There's only relatively few versions of iPhone around, and nothing carrier specific AFAIK, so things probably easy here. There's 42 variants of Samsung Galaxy S5 alone, https://androidforums.com/threads/42-galaxy-s5-models-dummies-guide.892162/ many of those S5s are carrier specific customized versions, such as Verizon. And I should imagine there's even more variants of later Samsungs, like S7 and S8.

The upcoming Essential I should imagine is very much Google dependant for services, and so will very likely need to use a VPN while using it in China. .