Hello,
I have both phones, and I find it very hard to choose one. If I pick the i9100, I'll be forced to switch to AT&T and pay more per month. However, the international version feels way smoother. I guess the Exynos really does make a difference.
Here is a comparison between the two phones, based on what I have experienced so far:
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Pros: T-Mobile version:
* NFC
* 3.5G data on T-Mobile's network
Cons: T-Mobile version:
* heavier, thicker
* Snapdragon SoC
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Debatable issues:
* Screen size - Personally, I think the resolution looks better on the 4.3" screen, but some would prefer a larger screen regardless of resolution.
* Design - The square edges and central button look better than any of the U.S. variants (in my opinion). Also, that big ass T-Mobile stamp on the phone's face is kind of annoying.
* Build quality - To me, the i9100 feels more "premium" when you hold it in your hand.
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Pros: i9100 international version:
* Exynos SoC - definitely feels faster
* thinner, lighter
Cons: i9100 international version:
* will either have to switch to AT&T or stay on 2G
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The one thing that most people dislike about the T989 is the lack of development. However, I don't think this is a valid complaint and have excluded it from my comparison. Honestly, "official" ICS from Samsung is a buggy piece of ****. MIUI v4 is based on this horrible build from Samsung as well (instead of . CM9 is the only real advantage that the i9100 has in terms of development. Yet even that has many problems. Overall, they don't have it that much better than us if you are only talking about software. But really, I think that anyone who has purchased a carrier branded device should have understood the implications. To me, the real comparison is with hardware/design.
Also, if anyone wants me to run any certain tests to compare the devices, I could do it since I currently have both.
I really like the i9100, but I'm worried about switching to AT&T. I wonder if I would be able to have a T-Mobile talk/text plan and an AT&T data plan on the same phone? Does anyone know the details of T-Mobile's future plans for the 1900 band? From what I have read, it still seems that it is unconfirmed whether non-AWS phones will work on T-Mobile data in the future.
Anyone have some advice for this scenario? Also feel free to discuss any of the issues in my comparison.
Why not wait for the sgs3?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda premium
cashyftw said:
Why not wait for the sgs3?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda premium
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Well, it's not that I'm choosing which phone to buy; I have both already. The issue still applies if the SGS3 was to come out, though. If T-Mobile doesn't support non-AWS data by the time the GS3 was released; I'd still be in the same situation. It's really unlikely that the phone will support the 1700MHz band.
I've heard rumours about 1900MHz being enabled for HSPA on T-Mobile, but I haven't seen any proof about this yet.
No you caint have data with one carrier and voice on another. The only way this could even be a possibility is with a dual sim phone and even then dont know if you could as I have no experience with a phone like that. Suppose you could use two different sims that you swapped in and out with a shutdown and flash your radio depending on what sim you had in? Dont think that is what you had in mind though.
I really love my T989, Its fast looks great and I get great data speeds when I am in town (7-16 megs down 1.5 up) all for a lot less each month than at&t. I do wish there was more AOSP for my phone but the roms that are available are really nice and it seems a bit refined at this point.
Yet to see any practical use of NFC for me.
I simply don't find 2g speeds tolerable in any sense of the word.
Why not use the $45 unlimited ST plan using AT&T towers? 3g speeds, no contract, etc.. i9100 FTW!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA
We had this thread before what people don't understand the original galaxy S2 has had software improvements over the year since it's been released to icecream sandwich. Samsung has been exclusively working on improving the device since release. They just recently got started with Qualcomm processor.
I did this experiment with with a friend that had the sprint galaxy S2. Both were rooted with custom roms. Both had custom kernels.
We switch phones for a week. There both good phones. Playing games got the sprint version extremely hot. No idea why. Battery Life was better on the tmobile device. Probably susceptible to networks.. Both had stock browser checker boarding.
Exynos gave better benchmarks. Apps started slightly faster? It was really negligible though. Sometimes The Qualcomm processor will start up faster than Exynos. Most of the time Exynos would win. But it was to a point by milliseconds.
I wouldn't be disappointed what ever device you bought. According to reddit r/android the original Samsung galaxy S2 removed a lot of gingerbread enhancements for ics. So I expect to not see a difference in devices when running ics. So honestly don't worry be happy about what device you got. Next month new devices are launching so you can always sell this phone for it.
what is the maximum speed you can get with the i9100 on tmobils network?
5-6mpbs?
Sent from my SGH-T989
Killbynature said:
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I wouldn't be disappointed what ever device you bought. According to reddit r/android the original Samsung galaxy S2 removed a lot of gingerbread enhancements for ics. So I expect to not see a difference in devices when running ics. So honestly don't worry be happy about what device you got. Next month new devices are launching so you can always sell this phone for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that I'm considering which device to buy.. I have both already.
jordanishere said:
what is the maximum speed you can get with the i9100 on tmobils network?
5-6mpbs?
Sent from my SGH-T989
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More like 0.01mbps. But I am on wifi 80% of time.
jordanishere said:
what is the maximum speed you can get with the i9100 on tmobils network?
5-6mpbs?
Sent from my SGH-T989
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Edge since it doesn't support the bands.
Yeah but the edge speed is not even the decent edge speed you get on other phones like the iphone.. It is horrible slow edge speed
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
I had the international version, and I sold it for this one just because of the data speeds. Att was horrible for me at work where I play the most on it. But on the international version I think there were around 20 roms that I could get my crack head flash fix with. I miss having all the options to play with. Like a day after I bought this the sky rocket came out and Kansas city is a test market for there lte so I could have had it. But all in all the data was more important so I am happy with this.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
yeah hopefully the sgs3 will support multiple bands and work on basically every carrier. i9100s speeds are too low on tmobil.
if you usw tmobil, our phone is your best option
Sent from my SGH-T989
jordanishere said:
yeah hopefully the sgs3 will support multiple bands and work on basically every carrier. i9100s speeds are too low on tmobil.
if you usw tmobil, our phone is your best option
Sent from my SGH-T989
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That's the problem. The AWS (1700MHz) band used by T-Mobile is only shared by a few small Canadian carriers. There is no reason that an international phone would enable this band. Maybe if we get really lucky, they will enable it. But the chances are slim.
saltmine said:
That's the problem. The AWS (1700MHz) band used by T-Mobile is only shared by a few small Canadian carriers. There is no reason that an international phone would enable this band. Maybe if we get really lucky, they will enable it. But the chances are slim.
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Click to collapse
Galaxy Nexus enables it. So Samsung already has the tech there to do it. I, too, hope that all their future phones will be pentaband UMTS.
As the other guy said, why not go to ST $45 unlimited plan leave the int version?
manekineko said:
Galaxy Nexus enables it. So Samsung already has the tech there to do it. I, too, hope that all their future phones will be pentaband UMTS.
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it depends on the chip. the reason we have an s3 is because exynos wont do our hspa+ bands
Sent from my SGH-T989
I prefer the look of the T989 over the international variants, as well as the bigger screen. I use my phone all day long.
BUT...it's the damn carrier branding that I hate.
I would love to find a Telus T989D with no carrier branding
I pretty much spam this everywhere but with the darkside 2.5.1 ROM and kernel, 989 is perfect to me and almost the same as 9100.
In my area tm is the only 4g, no lte so I get 16mb where att 3g is only 2.
Att sucks.
Sent from the Darkside
Diekrupt said:
I pretty much spam this everywhere but with the darkside 2.5.1 ROM and kernel, 989 is perfect to me and almost the same as 9100.
In my area tm is the only 4g, no lte so I get 16mb where att 3g is only 2.
Att sucks.
Sent from the Darkside
Click to expand...
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see thats the thing. if ur on tmobil... and ur going to drop $500 on a phone, ours is the best pick. obviously if ur on verison or att there are better choices for those networksm
Sent from my Galaxy S II
I'm thinking seriously of getting a refurb'd LTE FIre HD with one big reason in mind: it's a cheap-per-month, contract-free, LTE-enabled AT&T hotspot with a very decent Android tablet built in.
Reverse logic? Yep. But that's why I have a VZW iPad instead of a Transformer Prime.
Anyway...
Has anyone successfully tethered the Fire, while using AT&T LTE, to another device, whether via WiFi or wired? I assume that WiFi would require rooting the device, and wired might as well (don't know if something like PdaNet/FoxFi would work out of the box).
I don't mind rooting/custom ROMs/etc. in order to get LTE tethering working (I have a custom ROM on my original Fire and odwngraded the baseband on my Nexus 4, to give you an idea). But I don't want to be the first one to test this out, only to find out that it's impossible.
So, can anyone clue me in on this?
i unlocked a sgh-i747 sgs3 for use on tmobile. when i was stock, i could get 4G and Edge only. After a suggestion, i updated my phone and it connected to all manner of 4G and HSPA networks.
i decided that i wasnt happy with the ROM and upgraded to CM 10.1.2-d2att by means of CWM v6.0.3.1.
after getting this happily flashed, i loaded CM and am now stuck in 3g.
any ideas???
I may be wrong, so don't try it without confirmation, but if you don't touch the radios, don't you need the t-mobile roms rather than the at&t ones? I suspect the problem using an at&t Rom is your apn's are messed up. Also check the order your networks try.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4
rdoac said:
but if you don't touch the radios
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can you elaborate on this? i know what a radio is, but i don't know if i follow you. as someone pretty new to all this, i feel that i did mess with the radio in order to get the AT&T phone, before i installed CM, to connect properly to the 3G signals.
In recovery you can flash modems and baseband. These are specific to the hardware in your phone. You should only flash ones specific to your model number. However the Roms are basically the same between different versions of the phone but with minor changes (at least between t mobile and at&t). There was a thread around explaining how to use a t mobile Rom on an at&t phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4
i tried to straight flash the tmobile rom and the little android guy died
rofl
meh... im in a bad place. i can't flash the CM i want because apparently the bootloader that fixes the 3G issue for me is based on ICS. if i update the bootloader so i can get the good CM, i guess i lose the fix... right now, i've reverted to the touchwiz that comes with the fix i talked about in my OP and 4G works properly again.
rock and a hard place.
Am glad you got something working. Can you sell that gs3 and get the T Mob version? If it were me, I'd probably stick with a touch wiz version for a while.
I'll try and read up some tomorrow.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
rdoac said:
Can you sell that gs3 and get the T Mob version?
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heh, i just bought it. got it this morning from the post office! it was the cheapest one i could get given certain circumstances. you're right, it would be so much easier to just have the official tmobile version.
i have it back in CM now, but it's CM10.0.*. android 4.1 i think. and i'm getting HSPA+ with it. my biggest issue is that 3G fix... it sticks me on a ICS bootloader and that holds back the CM version from being anything 10.1.*. but at least i'm running CM now, even if it's not 4.2.
Bought myself a Nexus 7 with LTE today, and after looking through the dev section i could only see ROMs made for the Wifi version. Has anyone found any that work on the LTE Nexus 7 too?
EDIT
I have since found out that it was only just released in the US, so that's probably why i can't find any ROMs.
sromer said:
Bought myself a Nexus 7 with LTE today, and after looking through the dev section i could only see ROMs made for the Wifi version. Has anyone found any that work on the LTE Nexus 7 too?
EDIT
I have since found out that it was only just released in the US, so that's probably why i can't find any ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Carbon got a LTE version, didn't try it yet as I only try stuff when Factory images are available.
Try carbon - Tablet did not boot up, return to stock. Seems to be no good lte custom until Google not publish factory image for lte
Hi im about to sell my nexus 5 because i want the G3 (b/c bigger screen better camera better battery) i am on ATT network and i want to make sure i can root and install custom ROMs on my G3. i had an ATT Galaxy S4 last year and was never able to root it because the bootloader was locked, thats why i went to the N5. i dont want this to happen again so heres what i want to know. which G3 variant should i buy? The D850, D855, F400k/s ? I need the phone to work on ATT's LTE network and i want to be able to root it and install custom ROM's hopefully cm11 when its available. i love my stock android on my nexus but i want the G3. was looking at the Find 7 and One plus one but their impossible to find. i have been searching the forums for a definitive answer and i am tired of looking. hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. Thank you for any help its much appreciated!
D851 the tmobile varient. Comes with an unlocked bootloader and can be rooted
Sent from my LG-D850 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I'd say T-Mobile for the reasons stated above.
T-Mobile as long as you understand a couple the main issues: You lose the 850mhz band and will have to enter your APN anytime you flash an update or anything. You will also have to unlock which can be had for $10-$30 depending on the source. I had a T-Mobile GS5 and it works fine overall but there are other things I found out as well. The T-Mobile version did not support AT&T Carrier aggregation which helps give you beeter speeds and bandwidth on their network. I am not sure the G3 will miss this feature though.
I would tell you this, if you can wait a few more days/weeks, then do. I think we have some very good devs trying to unlock the bootloader. The G2 is not much different from the G3 and it was cracked. If it looks promising then definitely get the AT&T version. If its not going to happen after a few weeks of them working, go with T-Mobile and live with the few compromises.
awtryau89 said:
T-Mobile as long as you understand a couple the main issues: You lose the 850mhz band and will have to enter your APN anytime you flash an update or anything. You will also have to unlock which can be had for $10-$30 depending on the source. I had a T-Mobile GS5 and it works fine overall but there are other things I found out as well. The T-Mobile version did not support AT&T Carrier aggregation which helps give you beeter speeds and bandwidth on their network. I am not sure the G3 will miss this feature though.
I would tell you this, if you can wait a few more days/weeks, then do. I think we have some very good devs trying to unlock the bootloader. The G2 is not much different from the G3 and it was cracked. If it looks promising then definitely get the AT&T version. If its not going to happen after a few weeks of them working, go with T-Mobile and live with the few compromises.
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i will be selling some devices to cover the cost of the G3 so ill probably wait until i recieve the money from pay pal which is usually a week or so and if it looks promising ill get the ATT version otherwise ill get the tmobile. inputting the apn isnt that much of a hassle and unlocking is do-able but like you said if i can avoid those issues i will. Thanks for the advice everyone!
I too need to know the very same with a slight tweek. I already posted in the forum yesterday with not much difference in the answers.
Which varient is the most flexable if I can get it unlocked
I want to switch between cricket gsm and sprint.
I have a deal on a sprint g3 for 400 if the owner hasn't sold ot yet I would not like to jump through hoops and can believe each varient will be cracked in no time so band wise rootwise recoverywise, gsm unlockedwise, unlocked bootloaderwise and qi enabled wise which varient is the one to buy ?
Thanks
-3nJo1