Question about HSDPA+/LTE (T-Mobile)

[Planterz]

Next month I hope/plan to switch from Verizon's expensive service to T-Mobile to save money. The idea is to get a cheap-ish phone and their unlimited service, then save up some cash, pay off some bills, and then eventually get a "flagship" phone.

The 3 phones I'm looking at are the Samsung Galaxy Nexus or Galaxy S2, or the Motorola Moto G (possibly the Google Play edition). I can get any of those for $200 brand new, or a used Samsung for $100-130. However, I'm concerned about data speeds (or lack thereof).

The Moto G and the Galaxy Nexus only support HSDPA+ at 21.1Mb/s, while the S2 supports HSDPA+ at 42.2Mb/s. T-Mobile does have LTE in Tucson now, but all the LTE phones are the "flagship" ones I can't afford right now. I would prefer to get the Moto G or Galaxy Nexus, since they'll be easier to root and tweak and they have much better screens, but they don't support HSDPA+ At 21.1Mb/s.

Of course, those speeds are "theoretical". Even on LTE, a T-Mobile customers will be lucky to see 20Mb/s or more. On Verizon, I typically don't see those speeds unless I'm right next to a tower. The one person I know with a T-Mobile LTE phone gets much better speeds than the ones I know with ones that support HSDPA+ at 42.2Mb/s.

My main question/concern is will I, given the same location, see 2X faster download speeds with the Galaxy S2 than the other 2 phones? I don't expect to get anywhere near the "theoretical" max speeds, but if speed is my priority, should I go with the S2? Ie: Will I get 10Mb/S instead of 5Mb/s, or 2Mb/s instead of 1Mb/s over the other two phones, or will they both top out at whatever speed the network provides?

I've searched around the internet, but can't find anything that says I'll get 2X faster actual speeds with the theoretically "faster" connection.

Thanks.

 

[gadgetgeek]

I would just go as cheap as you can. If its anything like where I am the LTE and 4G services are so saturated by new users that the speeds are actually slower than they are with standard 3G. I don't think you'll see 2x speed.

 

[bladefixation2]

I've had a quick look at the HSDPA specs on Wikipedia and it looks like the speeds above 21.1 Mbps use MiMo spatial division multiplexing to increase throughput. In simple terms this sends 2 signals instead of 1 to increase the throughput. MiMo devices will often provide better throughput than non MiMo devices in similar conditions so my guess would be that the higher spec device will perform better in some scenarios. I think it will depend on the specific circumstances though, if you are a long way from the cell and running at a very low data rate you might not see much improvement if any.

 

[sideways]

Perhaps the more important question is how fast does your internet need to be on a mobile phone? Unless you are tethering it is hard to use up that much bandwidth. Tethering has its own problems... Monthly data limits anyone?

The only time you will notice the difference between 42mb/s and 21mb/s is if you are downloading large files. If you are surfing it makes no difference. Those slightly slower large file downloads will only bother you some of the time. An underwhelming screen or device will bother you all the time you are interacting with it.

 

[bladefixation2]

^^ good call :thumbup:

 

[Planterz]

I've had a quick look at the HSDPA specs on Wikipedia and it looks like the speeds above 21.1 Mbps use MiMo spatial division multiplexing to increase throughput. In simple terms this sends 2 signals instead of 1 to increase the throughput. MiMo devices will often provide better throughput than non MiMo devices in similar conditions so my guess would be that the higher spec device will perform better in some scenarios. I think it will depend on the specific circumstances though, if you are a long way from the cell and running at a very low data rate you might not see much improvement if any.

That's kinda what I gathered. But I've been scouring the internet for any sort of anecdotal evidence that says one thing or another. But nobody I know locally has the phones to do a test myself.

Perhaps the more important question is how fast does your internet need to be on a mobile phone? Unless you are tethering it is hard to use up that much bandwidth. Tethering has its own problems... Monthly data limits anyone?

The only time you will notice the difference between 42mb/s and 21mb/s is if you are downloading large files. If you are surfing it makes no difference. Those slightly slower large file downloads will only bother you some of the time. An underwhelming screen or device will bother you all the time you are interacting with it.

Well, that's the thing; I will be tethering. I used to have cable at my apartment, but some stuff happened, and I couldn't keep up with payments, and now my bill is prohibitively high to pay off and get it reconnected - I simply don't have the cash on-hand to do it. So I've been using my Verizon phone as a mobile hotspot for my computer at home, which means my bills are still quite large after overages. Switching to T-Mobile will save me a considerable amount of money (I know there are restrictions, even with the "unlimited" plan, but there's ways around aspects of that).

I know there's no real difference between 42Mb/s and 21Mb/s, but remember those are theoretical maxes. With Verizon, there's some spots in town where I can get 20+, but at my apartment, it's usually 5-12, depending on time of day (and LTE can supposedly go up to 100Mb/s, and half the time it's running on 3G anyway). Luckily there's a T-Mobile very close to my apartment, so speeds should be OK. But even then T-Mobiles speeds aren't as good here in Tucson, and if using one phone over another doubles my speed, that could make a huge difference. For example, a .5Mb/s connection wouldn't be good enough to stream Netflix, but a 1Mb/sec would.

Obviously, I'd be happier with the better screens of the Moto G or the Galaxy Nexus, but since I'd be tethering to my computer (which is hooked up to a 42" HDTV), connection speed is a concern at home. This is all a temporary situation, since once I save up enough money I'll replace the phone with a flagship LTE phone (like the upcomming Samsung Galaxy S5, or the LG G Pro 2), and then pay off my cable bill so I can have proper internet at home. But in the next several months, I'll be happy with "fast enough", but I don't want to suffer with intolerably slow speeds if I don't have to. Plus, it'll be nice to be able to use Pandora (or similar) at work, or do the way-too-frequent updates Android apps always need without worrying about my data cap and overages.

 

[medusaoblongata]

I can't help you with data speeds at all, but my phone is the Galaxy Nexus (on Verizon) and it's a good phone, but the battery life sucks. 5 hours of browsing or 2.5 hours of GPS Navigating and the battery is dead. I had to buy a larger, aftermarket battery (5900 Mah by Zerolemon), and with that, it takes two days of heavy use to drain. Otherwise, though, I have no complaints about the phone at all.

 

[Planterz]

I think I've answered my question. I realized a guy at work had a 21.1 Mb/s phone with T-Mobile (Nokia Lumia 521), so I "raced" his phone against another co-worker's Nexus 4 (42.2Mb/s). While the Nexus 4 wasn't quite 2x as fast, it was close to 2x, and consistently so. Of course, a larger sample size would be better, but it certainly seems like getting the phone with the faster theoretical connection will result in faster actual speeds.

 

[mugwump867]

I use a Nexus 4 on T-Mobile but since I'm about 40 miles from city center (Chicago) my connections fluctuate a lot between HSPA+ and 3G. Also bear in mind that T-Mobile signals degrade very rapidly inside of buildings so if you're counting on it as your one and only internet connection you should see if you can borrow a co-worker's phone to see how it does at your place. I like the huge cost savings with T-Mobile but there are some trade-offs.

 

[Planterz]

I use a Nexus 4 on T-Mobile but since I'm about 40 miles from city center (Chicago) my connections fluctuate a lot between HSPA+ and 3G. Also bear in mind that T-Mobile signals degrade very rapidly inside of buildings so if you're counting on it as your one and only internet connection you should see if you can borrow a co-worker's phone to see how it does at your place. I like the huge cost savings with T-Mobile but there are some trade-offs.

Any cell signal is worse indoors, it's not just T-Mobile. I did my "test" indoors, because that's where I'll be using it a lot (streaming Pandora or whatever while working). Tucson is one of the few LTE markets for T-Mobile at the moment, which is weird considering how Tucson is usually one of the last places to get any new tech (regardless of the service, speeds are always slower than in other bigger cities).

Out of curiosity, where in the Chicago area are you? I grew up in Geneva, which is also about 40 miles from Chicago.

 

[mugwump867]

Out of curiosity, where in the Chicago area are you? I grew up in Geneva, which is also about 40 miles from Chicago.

I'm in the Lake Zurich area. As for the indoor stuff the type of signal T-Mobile uses doesn't penetrate buildings as well as the other major carriers. If I step into the grocery store I lose all voice and data while the people around me all have decent connections. I can live with it as I'm not wedded to my phone and I like the cheap rates and free international data when I'm overseas.