International or T-Mobile

[rmp5s]

I was eyeballing the new T-Mobile SGSII hard when I caught wind of TMo's new $30/mo unlimited data plan with no contract. This is PERFECT for me. Obviously I'd have to buy an unsubsidized phone by going with this plan (I think...) and this opened up options for me. These options led to questions...

Who would take the TMo SGSII over the international one?

Would TMo's 42Meg 4G work with the international phone?

 

[LunchBB]

You can still buy the phone at tmo at full price. Then one month later, contact Tmobile to request an unlock code so you can use other brand SIM card.

I use Tmo Sensation 4G in Hong Kong last month. I walked in to a convenient store to buy a prepaid sim card with voice and unlimited 3G data for $10 a week. That's a great deal. The phone shows the 4G icon but it was actually 3G data.

 

[rmp5s]

That's what I'm looking at doing now. Apparently the international phone won't work on TMo's 42Meg 4G. That's a HUGE selling point to me. Looking like the TMo SGSII it is!

 

[MisterEd]

That's what I'm looking at doing now. Apparently the international phone won't work on TMo's 42Meg 4G. That's a HUGE selling point to me. Looking like the TMo SGSII it is!

I don't believe the int version will even work on T-Mobile 3G, only EDGE (2G).

 

[Jimbo droid]

Tmobile version has a bigger screen which I like and a gpu that's more game campatable than the euro version . Otherwise you won't see the difference in speed even though the CPU is supposed to be a bit better on the euro version.

 

[rmp5s]

The screen on the TMo version is bigger, yes, but has the same resolution as the smaller screens. I've read in multiple reviews that the colors look amazing like on all of the Super AMOLED screens (I LOVE mine in my SGS) and this is a huge selling point to me...but I've also heard that the resolution being so low for the size of screen makes it look bad...even saw one review use the word "cartoonish" when referring to the low resolution on the large screen.

As for the processor, yes, it has a higher clock speed but the 1.2GHz procs have better GPUs. They're both pretty even. This is rather a moot point for me.

Things I do care about is being able to access the 42Meg TMo network. The clock speed, the bloatware...things like that I can change and I'm sure I will very soon after getting it. Things like the screen resolution and the network support I can't.

Anyone have the TMo SGSII? Does the resolution really look that bad? It is getting pretty close to the PPI of the G1!! 206 PPI on a brand new mega-phone like the SGSII is rough. I don't care about "retina display" hyped bs or anything...I usually don't even look at the resolution on phones because I usually can't tell much of a difference. The contrast and screen technology is more important in my eyes. **BUT** When the resolution is so low...like...almost 2008 tech in nearly 2012, low...that's rough.

For reference:

The iPhone 4 series has 326 PPI...overkill in my eyes.
Original SGS has 233...I LOVE my phone's screen. (I have the Vibrant.)
Moto Droid X has 228...totally sufficient.
HTC Evo has 217...this phone's a year and a half old!
TMo SGSII has 206...ugh...
HTC Dream (G1) has 181...unsatisfactory by today's standards.

 

[LunchBB]

Coming from HTC Sensation a 4.3" screen with higher resolution (540x960) , it makes graphics and text smaller to read. Many times I have to pinch zoom or look closer in order to read text clearly. Oh well, that's aging factor in between too. =)

Now with SGII, a larger screen with a little lower resolution (800x480), it makes dots less dense. Fonts are a lot easier to read.

So it doesn't really means higher resolution is always better. High resolution on big screen is great. But 800x480 on 4.5" screen makes everything nice to look at.

 

[rmp5s]

I know what you mean. Thanks for the feedback.

I just remember this from back in the day with windows 98 and ME: My computer was running those at...like...800x600 or whatever and I remember going to my buddy's house and seeing his "awesome new XP machine" that was running at 1024x768 or whatever and going "whooooooooooooooooa!!" EVERYTHING looked better. Instead of having to scroll around all the time to see things because it was like my face was ON the desktop, it's like I was pulled back and I could see everything.

I don't want this to happen with the phone. Know what I mean? I know it makes things bigger and easier to read but, at the same time, I don't want everything to be huge and "cartoonish" as one review said and I DON'T want to have to scroll around all the time. It's one of those things that the user has to find a happy median on. I guess I'll know when I see the phone how it looks.

 

[LunchBB]

Just go to a tmo store to play with it.. and you will be wowed.