Hey Everyone,
Currently have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 on AT&T, but recently got the notification that AT&T is shutting down their 3G network and my phone will not be usable. Looking at switching to another carrier/MVNO and was considering between the POCO F3 and RealMe GT 5G.
Can anyone recommend carriers/MVNOs where these phones would possibly work on. I know frequency checker/Kimovil provide the compatible bands. But considering both phones don't have Band 71, I just wanted to check if anyone has been able to use these phones on US carriers and if so how did you go about getting the phones activated with the carriers.
Thanks
Rankone21 said:
Hey Everyone,
Currently have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 on AT&T, but recently got the notification that AT&T is shutting down their 3G network and my phone will not be usable. Looking at switching to another carrier/MVNO and was considering between the POCO F3 and RealMe GT 5G.
Can anyone recommend carriers/MVNOs where these phones would possibly work on. I know frequency checker/Kimovil provide the compatible bands. But considering both phones don't have Band 71, I just wanted to check if anyone has been able to use these phones on US carriers and if so how did you go about getting the phones activated with the carriers.
Thanks
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Well I'm Att and I just ordered the Poco f3 a couple of hours ago. So by next week I'll be able to tell you. I was going to go with the real me gt but didn't because the global model can't be bootloader unlocked and that to me means a no go. If I can't root it I don't want it. It's only a little bit better with specs it has the 888 and 65 watt charging which makes me a little jealous but I have to have viper4 android on my phone so I went Poco f3.
What band do you use for 4g lte? I use band 4 and it's never been a issue. I don't plan on 5g because I barely get 4g where I live
Techguy777 said:
Well I'm Att and I just ordered the Poco f3 a couple of hours ago. So by next week I'll be able to tell you. I was going to go with the real me gt but didn't because the global model can't be bootloader unlocked and that to me means a no go. If I can't root it I don't want it. It's only a little bit better with specs it has the 888 and 65 watt charging which makes me a little jealous but I have to have viper4 android on my phone so I went Poco f3.
What band do you use for 4g lte? I use band 4 and it's never been a issue. I don't plan on 5g because I barely get 4g where I live
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Thanks for the response Techguy, I would be interested in knowing how it works out for you.
Considering that the Redmi Note 5 Global version only has Bands 4 & 5 for 4G, and Bands 2 & 5 for 3G, I believe it is running on HSPA+ on AT&T Prepaid mostly, as I only get the 4G symbol, not 4G LTE.
I did see for the RealMe and Poco F3, most of the 4G bands are supported on GoogleFI, just no 5G.
Rankone21 said:
Thanks for the response Techguy, I would be interested in knowing how it works out for you.
Considering that the Redmi Note 5 Global version only has Bands 4 & 5 for 4G, and Bands 2 & 5 for 3G, I believe it is running on HSPA+ on AT&T Prepaid mostly, as I only get the 4G symbol, not 4G LTE.
I did see for the RealMe and Poco F3, most of the 4G bands are supported on GoogleFI, just no 5G.
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What 5g band do you need? It has n1,n3, n5, n8, n20 and n28, n41, n77, n78
Techguy777 said:
What 5g band do you need? It has n1,n3, n5, n8, n20 and n28, n41, n77, n78
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Oh I just meant for GoogleFI, I don't think they have 5G currently not sure, as kimovil says Not Available. For AT&T and T-Mobile, it was 1 of the 3(AT&T) and 1 of the 4(T-Mobile) in terms of 5G bands.
However I'd be interested in knowing how you go about getting this activated on AT&T since it isn't on their Whitelist of phones that they are trying to limit users to.
Rankone21 said:
Oh I just meant for GoogleFI, I don't think they have 5G currently not sure, as kimovil says Not Available. For AT&T and T-Mobile, it was 1 of the 3(AT&T) and 1 of the 4(T-Mobile) in terms of 5G bands.
However I'd be interested in knowing how you go about getting this activated on AT&T since it isn't on their Whitelist of phones that they are trying to limit users to.
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Im actually getting a free sim card from the government phone through SafeLink but SafeLink is a smaller part of ATT as that's what my sim reads as 4g band Att and I always buy unlocked phones with band 4 and put it in and it works. Nexus 6, S10lite international, moto G4, S7 and S7 edge both all of them same card just insert.
You don't understand they don't whitelist phones they are just saying these ones they know will work with volte and others will to they won't look at every phone. They won't say Poco f3 or realme because they want to sell Samsung and apple not Poco f3. It's money but if it has the band it'll work
Techguy777 said:
You don't understand they don't whitelist phones they are just saying these ones they know will work with volte and others will to they won't look at every phone. They won't say Poco f3 or realme because they want to sell Samsung and apple not Poco f3. It's money but if it has the band it'll work
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I understand that part, but the above is not entirely true, hence the post. AT&T for example are activating devices based on the IMEI, even if it has the necessary bands they are saying it is not compatible. Some folks have been able to get around this and get them to activate the phone, but some haven't been able to
I don't know how true, but they told me if I were to take the SIM out of my Redmi Note 5, they will not be able to re-activate my phone. I haven't tried this so I can't say if this is actually the case.
It sounds like SafeLink may technically be a MVNO to Tracfone/AT&T, I do know outside of Cricket Wireless, a lot of the MVNOs aren't enforcing what AT&T is doing with their direct account holders. But technically since they are under AT&T's network, this will eventually trickle down, but it is yet to be seen how this will be handled by MVNO operators.
Rankone21 said:
I understand that part, but the above is not entirely true, hence the post. AT&T for example are activating devices based on the IMEI, even if it has the necessary bands they are saying it is not compatible. Some folks have been able to get around this and get them to activate the phone, but some haven't been able to
I don't know how true, but they told me if I were to take the SIM out of my Redmi Note 5, they will not be able to re-activate my phone. I haven't tried this so I can't say if this is actually the case.
It sounds like SafeLink may technically be a MVNO to Tracfone/AT&T, I do know outside of Cricket Wireless, a lot of the MVNOs aren't enforcing what AT&T is doing with their direct account holders. But technically since they are under AT&T's network, this will eventually trickle down, but it is yet to be seen how this will be handled by MVNO operators.
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Yes I am under SafeLink/TracFone which is subsidies of AT&T. But if AT&T shuts off their 3g network I don't think they will leave it on for the SafeLink people. AT&T doesn't have to activate your phone in America their GSM you might have them tell you that like my brother brought the nexus 6 to Walmart for a straight talk card and the lady said it's Verizon we can't activate it. Well they should have stuck a sim card inside because it works on all 4 carries except sprint and Verizon are CDMA which means your phone does have to be put into their system to work but not with GSM networks like AT&T. Just try it once you have a sim card in the us I don't know if your in the US. They will tell you anything to sell you another phone from them.
Rankone21 said:
I understand that part, but the above is not entirely true, hence the post. AT&T for example are activating devices based on the IMEI, even if it has the necessary bands they are saying it is not compatible. Some folks have been able to get around this and get them to activate the phone, but some haven't been able to
I don't know how true, but they told me if I were to take the SIM out of my Redmi Note 5, they will not be able to re-activate my phone. I haven't tried this so I can't say if this is actually the case.
It sounds like SafeLink may technically be a MVNO to Tracfone/AT&T, I do know outside of Cricket Wireless, a lot of the MVNOs aren't enforcing what AT&T is doing with their direct account holders. But technically since they are under AT&T's network, this will eventually trickle down, but it is yet to be seen how this will be handled by MVNO operators.
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I just got my Poco f3 and it works fine on ATT/SafeLink band 4. I don't have 5G so I don't know but it did show the 5g in the upper right hand on display but I checked the speed and it was the same as before so I didn't notice anything 30 to 50 mbps is usual. It's a great phone for the money bench of almost 700k on AnTuTu
Techguy777 said:
I just got my Poco f3 and it works fine on ATT/SafeLink band 4. I don't have 5G so I don't know but it did show the 5g in the upper right hand on display but I checked the speed and it was the same as before so I didn't notice anything 30 to 50 mbps is usual. It's a great phone for the money bench of almost 700k on AnTuTu
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Thanks for confirming. How are you liking the phone so far?
I had an interesting conversation with AT&T yesterday on the whole topic. Their device compatibility system is really cracking on International Phones although as mentioned earlier, this isn't the case with a lot of MVNOs. The Global version of POCO F3 I think supports 6 of the 9 AT&T 4G Bands. But it's good that it's working for you nevertheless.
I think the POCO F3 is fully compatible with T-Mobile's network as well at least it is as per their online device compatibility tool, so that's another good option depending on the area.
Got some time to decide what I'm going to do, but it's good to know that the phone does work on US carriers.
Rankone21 said:
Thanks for confirming. How are you liking the phone so far?
I had an interesting conversation with AT&T yesterday on the whole topic. Their device compatibility system is really cracking on International Phones although as mentioned earlier, this isn't the case with a lot of MVNOs. The Global version of POCO F3 I think supports 6 of the 9 AT&T 4G Bands. But it's good that it's working for you nevertheless.
I think the POCO F3 is fully compatible with T-Mobile's network as well at least it is as per their online device compatibility tool, so that's another good option depending on the area.
Got some time to decide what I'm going to do, but it's good to know that the phone does work on US carriers.
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Well so far so good, I didn't get it til 3pm today and I think I have Covid or the flu so I have been under the weather. But I ran bench scores and it's flagship level power. It charges faster than I was expecting, 5400mA on ampere when my S10 lite is 4500mA on a 45 watt charger so they make more use of less watts. I love it so far I doubt you'll notice a major difference between the Poco f3 and realme gt 5g. I love flashing custom roms and rooting my devices so if realme won't unlock the bootloader and release source codes to build on that makes the Poco f3 more for me.
I think if you buy a snapdragon 870 device if has the same bands as all snapdragon 870 devices and 888 has the same bands as all 888 because the modem is inside the CPU. I could be wrong I'm going to look into it but I think so.
It's a sweet phone the only difference from a flag ship is it's 1080p screen instead of 1440p and it doesn't have a mega good camera.
Techguy777 said:
Well so far so good, I didn't get it til 3pm today and I think I have Covid or the flu so I have been under the weather. But I ran bench scores and it's flagship level power. It charges faster than I was expecting, 5400mA on ampere when my S10 lite is 4500mA on a 45 watt charger so they make more use of less watts. I love it so far I doubt you'll notice a major difference between the Poco f3 and realme gt 5g. I love flashing custom roms and rooting my devices so if realme won't unlock the bootloader and release source codes to build on that makes the Poco f3 more for me.
I think if you buy a snapdragon 870 device if has the same bands as all snapdragon 870 devices and 888 has the same bands as all 888 because the modem is inside the CPU. I could be wrong I'm going to look into it but I think so.
It's a sweet phone the only difference from a flag ship is it's 1080p screen instead of 1440p and it doesn't have a mega good camera.
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That's some good info. Yeah can't be too picky with a budget phone, for a budget phone outside of the camera it has a lot of close to flagship features.
How are you finding call quality so far? That's one thing that wasn't that great with the xiaomi redmi note 5, but attaching a headset resolves the issue.
Hope you start feeling better while enjoying your new phone. Feel better.
Rankone21 said:
That's some good info. Yeah can't be too picky with a budget phone, for a budget phone outside of the camera it has a lot of close to flagship features.
How are you finding call quality so far? That's one thing that wasn't that great with the xiaomi redmi note 5, but attaching a headset resolves the issue.
Hope you start feeling better while enjoying your new phone. Feel better.
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I will have to get back with you on call quality because I do use headphones now. I have the master and dynamics MW08 and there awesome for calls. It's to late tonight to call anyone I'll let you know tomorrow. I can't stand the wait to unlock the bootloader. It takes 168 hours after you start the unlock process so 7 days than I can root and install viper4android
anyone who bought Pixel 6P unlocked from Google store and using with at&t, are you getting 5G?
my wife's iPhone 12 gets 5G but Pixel is only showing 5GE which is just LTE. there is no network selection options too.
[email protected] said:
anyone who bought Pixel 6P unlocked from Google store and using with at&t, are you getting 5G?
my wife's iPhone 12 gets 5G but Pixel is only showing 5GE which is just LTE. there is no network selection options too.
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I have the 6 pro unlocked on AT&T and I have actual 5g
[email protected] said:
anyone who bought Pixel 6P unlocked from Google store and using with at&t, are you getting 5G?
my wife's iPhone 12 gets 5G but Pixel is only showing 5GE which is just LTE. there is no network selection options too.
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I have att and bought from Google, but don't have an actual 5G plan, but shows 5Ge. I need to contact them about upgrading plans to see what they could possibly offer me, if anything good at all.
So I modified the carrier policy and LTE features restrictions on my T-Mobile oneplus 9 pro LE2127 in order to be able to 5G signal access for my carrier.
My carrier Rogers has probably the best 5G coverage and speed in Canada, and certainly in my hometown.
I have a plan with 5G capability, and when using my Motorola Razr 5G I have tremendous 5G download speeds, and even the Oneplus 8T 5G I had pretty good speed. My son's iPhone 13 Pro Max also has tremendous 5G download speed (but inferior 5G upload speed compared to my Oneplus 9 pro.
But my Oneplus 9 pro on 5G download speed is significantly slower than any other 5G capable handset (I do random speedtest.net downloads at the same time with both handsets side by side). 50% slower than my Razr 5G or my son's iPhone 13 pro max, and 30% slower than my previous oneplus 8T 5G.
For the record, the Oneplus 8T 5G from T-Mobile worked in 5G mode without any carrier policy, nor lte feature restrictions mods. Anybody have similar slower 5G, or is there something else that needs to be done.
Cheers,
I got my hands on a One+ 8T 5G and loved it. It was fast (on 5G in Canada) right out of the bat, smooth, snappy and bug free. I did root it, and debloated some T-Mobile stuff and had an opportunity to move on to One+ 9 Pro 5G LE2127 T-Mobile.
As a stock out of the box smartphone, the LE2127 is hit and miss. Most of what I didn't like I could fix and improve, some, I couldn't. I unlocked the bootloader, rooted the device, modified the policy restrictions and debloated. All of this improved the smartphone, but as an out of the box smartphone there is not a lot to improve upon if your NOT in Canada.
I was disappointed with the performance of the device on the 5G network. Yes, the handset would say that it connected to a 5G network, but many times it was a 4G LTE tower despite the handset showing the 5G icon. The truth was in the pudding, the connection speedtest on the 5G Network were on average 50% less than the comparable out of the box working One+ 8T 5G. And for what it's worth, I could not get the device to convert to the global LE2125 image (I tried a half dozen times, not wholeheartedly because I failed). What really irked me was the subpar service red tape mumbo jumbo that this device has if you are not in the USA. In Canada, it's a caveat buyer beware hate hate relationship.
I am now running a true global One+ 9 Pro LE2125 handset that you CAN unlock the bootloader without the 7 day wait period that you must endure with the LE2127. From there I refused to take the upgrade to Android 12, and I only modded the policy restrictions so as to access the 5G Network in Canada (therefore, not rooted, not bootloader unlocked). Once again, I was disappointed with the results and performance.
So I stumbled upon this... I decided that if I was going to unlock the bootloader, I would need to format and start all over again. So that is what I did, I decided to unlock the bootloader and set up my device and take all the updates. I can't say on the surface Android 12 is better than Android 11, but then I can't say I am experiencing any issues or bugs. From there, I then followed the guide and decided to root my device and install one of my favorite apps, Adaway.
To my dismay, I found out that I could not mod the policy restrictions because I could no longer access engineering mode. The following also did not work *#*#4636#*#*. And worse, the handset no longer showed 5G as an available option in the "Preferred network type" Aw [email protected]!
But, to my surprise, I did try 5G switch from the playstore and it worked (allowed me to choose NR and therefore my device accesses the 5G network type). But better than that, the actual performance on the 5G Network running Android 12 w/ 5G Switch is a lot faster than using the SAME handset on Android 11 w/ the Policy restriction mod on the 5G network. You might want to consider this route if 5G is important to you.
So far, I have not had the time to investigate whether or not you can access the engineering mode on Android 12 (so as to permanently mod the policy restriction file in order to access the 5G network), nor whether or not you can debloat some of the LE2125 global bloatware.
All this to say that I am more satisfied running this configuration (Android 12, bootloader unlocked, rooted, 5G Switch) on my device.
Cheers