Currently I have the Note 2 with AT&T. I will be upgrading to the Note 3 when it comes out. However, I am not sure which version of the Note 3 to get. Should I get the International version or the AT&T version. I think the international version has the Samsung CPU and the AT&T version has the Snapdragon 800. Would the international version work with AT&T LTE cellular? Would the international version work with T-Mobile LTE cellular (just in case I want to switch)?
Which one would give better battery and faster speed/graphics?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the international version will only run on AT&T 3G. I am in the camp that prefers the Snapdragon 800 to the revised Exynos 5, too. I'd opt for the AT&T version (Although personally I'm giving T-Mobile a shot this time around)
The N3 will be my first "carrier" phone on AT&T in two years. I'm not thrilled and depending on what it's like using it I may sell it on eBay and get a HSPA Octa. Here's my thinking:
Pros
I've been fine with HSPA+ on my previous phones and use to pay $10 a month for unlimited data through the "non-smartphone" loophole that applied to phone's AT&T didn't recognize. That party's over. So now I'm paying for LTE and not able to use it. So with AT&T's N3 I'll finally get what I'm paying for and even get LTE-A when they start to roll it out; supposedly this year.
The international N3's are insanely expensive. Negri and NewEgg have the Octa's at $779 and up. On Next it's $35 a month, I have no contract commitment beyond the phone's payoff, and I can sell it on eBay if I want something new.
Service and repair. Whether through Asurion or SquareTrade getting a carrier phone repaired/replaced is easy compared to jumping through hoops to get an international version (non-warranted and non-supported by Samsung in the U.S.) repaired.
Cons
God knows what AT&T's done with the s/w. We know there will be tons of their specific bloatware. That doesn't concern me because it can be disabled and with 32GB of NAND the space it takes up isn't a big deal. My big concern is their modifying, neutering, or completely removing some of Samsung's stock apps and features. I can't root my phones because I connect to secure networks so I'm pretty much stuck with what comes out of the box. I'm scared at what's coming out of AT&T's box.
I loved being able to use any multi-CSC ROM on Samfirmware or Samsung-Updates to keep my unrooted phone always current. I've probably had a dozen updates on my N7100. Now I'll be dependent on AT&T. That alone could end up pushing me to an international Octa N3. Also, to support the new features of Knox, Samsung's seriously altered and locked down the bootloader. So who knows what impact that'll have even on international N3's when it comes to updates via Odin. I used to root my phone when I wanted to do someting to it (EG: Google Wallet) and then unroot afterward and run Triangle Away. That ship sailed mid-year and with the Knox enhancements isn't coming back.
AT&T's modified radio may be crappy and I travel a lot internationally. Also I'm guessing on Next the device can't be unlocked until it's paid off. The only reason this is acceptable in my case is I'm getting a 3G (Octa) Note 10.1 2014 which has a dialer and I can use it in situations I need to pop in another carrier's SIM and/or the AT&T radio isn't working well.
Dev support is going to be limited on the AT&T N3's compared to the international versions. It'll probably still be strong but not as simple, timely, and robust. It doesn't apply to my un-rooted situation but something for people to consider.
The moment I find a S-800 international device that's quad-band GSM/UMTS and supports AT&T's LTE bands I'll buy it and sell my AT&T version. So far the EU and Latin American versions of the N3 don't support AT&T's LTE bands. The UK N3's LTE bands haven't been announced yet but I don't have high hopes. There's a chance a Canadian carrier will leave their version of the N3 unmolested and with the same model number as the international version and that it would support AT&T's LTE bands. That would allow it to be flashed like a non-carrier Samsung phone via Odin (with the possible exception mentioned above) and still get LTE on AT&T. Same thing for Claro in Puerto Rico. I'm not sure about the flash part but even an unmolested Canadian or Pueto Rican N3 with AT&T's LTE bands might end up being better than whatever AT&T does to their version.
All just my opinion of course.
I'm leaning towards either international or T.mobile or Canadian version. The att s4 can't be bootloader unlocked and new update patched the root. I'd hate to not have options on such a power device that I could potentially last for a couple years.
I had the note 1,note2,and now using the galaxy mega until the note 3 hits the shelf.I'm up in the air as well in deciding whether to keep my at&t note 3 or sell it and go international.I'd rather keep the at&t note 3,but who knows if were going to be up ****s creek with no root,are how long or ever going to get root method.I guess I can deal with no roms,but no root forget it
I thought that the international N3 (9005) with the SnapDragon 800 would be compatible with AT&T's LTE bands, no? Wasn't this mentioned during the presentation last week about the N3 supporting global LTE bands? Couldn't one just buy/import an international 9005 which was released in a country whose LTE bands match that of AT&T? Would this work?
I guess we'll know soon, but my own need would be for a variant which supports my home UK 4G network (EE most likely) plus USA AT&T LTE for when I'm in the states. Preferably bought in the UK for my UK carrier because of the discounts.
I thought the release event said they were going to support all bands in one device, but I've no idea if that's actually going to be true of the version you get at your local phone shop.
Andre
hockeyfan said:
I thought that the international N3 (9005) with the SnapDragon 800 would be compatible with AT&T's LTE bands, no? Wasn't this mentioned during the presentation last week about the N3 supporting global LTE bands? Couldn't one just buy/import an international 9005 which was released in a country whose LTE bands match that of AT&T? Would this work?
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I heard the same thing too.
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I've beeing researching for hours, and accordung to multiple sites, like this one the international N9005 version will support LTE 2100/1800/850/1600/800MHz (Bands 1,3,5,7,20). This does not include AT&T, whose LTE network operates on bands 4 (1700Mhz) and 17 (700Mhz). I hope these frequencies vary by region, like many sites mention, but I have my doubts we'll get lucky to see international N9005 with LTE bands 4 or 17.
Here is a list of countries, which has partial LTE band overlapping with AT&T. None of these support both, bands 4 and 17, which is what AT&T uses:
Argentina - 4
Colombia - 4
Ecuador - 4
Paraguay - 4
Peru - 4
Uruguay - 4
Canada - 4
Puerto Rico - 17
Since Note 3 has LTE radio, capable of supporting up to 6 bands, the only hope is that one of these carriers will pick up a version, where the other missing band is tossed in without any real purpose behind it, just to keep things interesting. For example, AT&T branded GN3 needs only these 2 LTE bands, and yet the device is LTE penta band.
Also, keep in mind we dont even know what band will AT&T use next year, when LTE-A goes live. I believe AT&T owns spectrum in 1900Mhz and 2100Mhz areas, and in the process of acquiring more.
EDIT: I'd like to clarify my statement about GN3 radio supporting 6 LTE bands. What I meant is some carriers will offer a version, which has up to 6 LTE bands enabled simultaneously. The actual hardware capability of Qualcomm's RF360 Front End solution is universal 2G/3G/4G support - the radio is capable of operating on *all* LTE frequencies.
I have a Note 2 that I bought from AT&T. I want to upgrade to the note 3 but I want the N9005 version because I believe that it will be able to use G4 LTE signal from AT&T. The only place that I can buy the unlocked N9005 version is at Negri Electronics. However it only sell the 16 gb version and I want the 32 gb version. Is there any other place in the U.S.A that sells the N9005 unlocked version?
Earthbrain said:
I have a Note 2 that I bought from AT&T. I want to upgrade to the note 3 but I want the N9005 version because I believe that it will be able to use G4 LTE signal from AT&T. The only place that I can buy the unlocked N9005 version is at Negri Electronics. However it only sell the 16 gb version and I want the 32 gb version. Is there any other place in the U.S.A that sells the N9005 unlocked version?
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I don't think there is such a thing like a 16gb note 3. At least not yet.
xclub_101 said:
I don't think there is such a thing like a 16gb note 3. At least not yet.
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http://negrielectronics.com/phones/android-mobile-c-67.html
According to the above link...the 16 gb version does exist.
Does the n9005 model have AT&T LTE for sure?
Sent from my LG-D800 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Earthbrain said:
I have a Note 2 that I bought from AT&T. I want to upgrade to the note 3 but I want the N9005 version because I believe that it will be able to use G4 LTE signal from AT&T. The only place that I can buy the unlocked N9005 version is at Negri Electronics. However it only sell the 16 gb version and I want the 32 gb version. Is there any other place in the U.S.A that sells the N9005 unlocked version?
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Before committed to pay big $ for the phone ... check out this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2457964
I'd buy what you're looking for in a heartbeat - if it existed. So far it doesn't. At least not ln any of the N3's for the UK, EU, or Latin America that have been announced. The Korean S-800 SGS4 supports AT&T's bands so their N3 probably will also. But the Korean phones have funky TV h/w and a funky MMS system that's different than Western versions. Rogers' (Canada) version will be compatible with AT&T LTE and may be closer to "virgin" than AT&T's version. The challenge is warranty service both because you'd have to send it to Canada for repair (assuming Rogers' services a phone for a non-subscriber) and because Knox prevents resetting the warranty status if a non-standard ROM's been flashed. Speaking of which, you'd probably only be able to flash Rogers' ROMs via Odin unless their N3 was a "pure" i9505 capable of using international ROMs.
And as someone above mentioned there's some question as to what "unlocked" means with the N3 as there are now regional limitations on top of carrier's locking phones to their networks.
If I find a true international N3 that works on AT&T's LTE that's not regionally SIM locked I'll let you know. Until then I'm sticking with AT&T's version and hoping they haven't molested it too badly.
Thread cleaned.
Lets knock off the keyboard hero stuff and get back on topic.
The N9005 doesn't work on AT&T LTE, it is missing bands 700/1700
designgears said:
The N9005 doesn't work on AT&T LTE, it is missing bands 700/1700
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Will the N9005 work on the Rogers network in Canada? I have no idea what these bands and frequencies mean, I just know that I need LTE to work.
choch69 said:
Will the N9005 work on the Rogers network in Canada? I have no idea what these bands and frequencies mean, I just know that I need LTE to work.
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You can't just say "N9005" and expect to get an answer. "N9005" refers to generic Snapdragon 800 LTE capable version of GN3, but each country and carrier in the world has different LTE bands enabled in that Snapdragon's SoC radio. Find your Rogers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks
It operates on bands 4 and 7 - none of the Euro countries' carriers work on band 4, as you can see from the list. AT&T USA, T-Mobile USA and Rogers CA should be LTE cross compatible in most coverage areas, but not all.
If you buy N9005 version with unlocked bootloader - later, when someone makes Odin compatible with GN3 you will be able to flash Roger's LTE modem firmware to your N9005, no matter which country it is from and what LTE bands it currently has enabled
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Okay well I was looking to buy an unlocked N9005 from the UK. Since none of the euro countries work on band 4, what about band 7? Do both bands need to be working in order to get LTE? The problem with buying this in my country is that there wont be a 64gb option available.
choch69 said:
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Okay well I was looking to buy an unlocked N9005 from the UK. Since none of the euro countries work on band 4, what about band 7? Do both bands need to be working in order to get LTE? The problem with buying this in my country is that there wont be a 64gb option available.
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Some carriers, which operate on dual band LTE use one band for upstream, and the other for downstream. If that is the case with Rogers you will have to have a phone with both bands enabled, to get LTE service from Rogers. However, even if that is not the case and both bands 4 and 7 are independent - Rogers has towers all over Canada, and in some regions those towers will operate on band 4, in other regions it will be band 7 and in some places towers will support both. By getting a phone that supports only band 7 you will greatly reduce your LTE coverage area. What percentage of Rogers' network uses what band - those details are publicly available, so you can either Google it or just call Rogers and ask. I would recommend against getting a phone, that supports only band 7, unless you plan on flashing Roger's modem to it later.
This not quite correct. A band, by definition includes both the up and downstream frequencies. Only one band is used at a time. Rogers happens to use band 4 and band 7. One is not reliant on the other. If you are in an area with band 7 coverage (most of Rogers LTE coverage has both) you will be able to use a N9005.
Apo11on said:
Some carriers, which operate on dual band LTE use one band for upstream, and the other for downstream. If that is the case with Rogers you will have to have a phone with both bands enabled, to get LTE service from Rogers. However, even if that is not the case and both bands 4 and 7 are independent - Rogers has towers all over Canada, and in some regions those towers will operate on band 4, in other regions it will be band 7 and in some places towers will support both. By getting a phone that supports only band 7 you will greatly reduce your LTE coverage area. What percentage of Rogers' network uses what band - those details are publicly available, so you can either Google it or just call Rogers and ask. I would recommend against getting a phone, that supports only band 7, unless you plan on flashing Roger's modem to it later.
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omegacell said:
This not quite correct. A band, by definition includes both the up and downstream frequencies. Only one band is used at a time. Rogers happens to use band 4 and band 7. One is not reliant on the other. If you are in an area with band 7 coverage (most of Rogers LTE coverage has both) you will be able to use a N9005.
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you're correct by claiming each band is self contained and and can carry both, upstream and downstream. However, each carrier owns only a small portion of the spectrum in the bands they operate on, and some carriers do practice using a single band for one way traffic only, in an effort to ease the network congestion and load balancing. I'm not saying it's Rogers - I have no information on that particular carrier, but some carriers do do that. I'm just saying for carriers, who use such practice, in order to get LTE service your phone's modem must have both bands enabled, otherwise it won't register with the network and you won't get LTE service at all.
Apo11on said:
you're correct by claiming each band is self contained and and can carry both, upstream and downstream. However, each carrier owns only a small portion of the spectrum in the bands they operate on, and some carriers do practice using a single band for one way traffic only, in an effort to ease the network congestion and load balancing. I'm not saying it's Rogers - I have no information on that particular carrier, but some carriers do do that. I'm just saying for carriers, who use such practice, in order to get LTE service your phone's modem must have both bands enabled, otherwise it won't register with the network and you won't get LTE service at all.
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The OP needs to take into consideration that If he buys from an online retailer an international unit, this unit will need to be activated in its intended region before he can use it in the states.
Apo11on said:
you're correct by claiming each band is self contained and and can carry both, upstream and downstream. However, each carrier owns only a small portion of the spectrum in the bands they operate on, and some carriers do practice using a single band for one way traffic only, in an effort to ease the network congestion and load balancing. I'm not saying it's Rogers - I have no information on that particular carrier, but some carriers do do that. I'm just saying for carriers, who use such practice, in order to get LTE service your phone's modem must have both bands enabled, otherwise it won't register with the network and you won't get LTE service at all.
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I've never heard of that. Seems like a problematic setup since the RF properties of bands can vary so much. Seems like you would get in a situation where you have up but not downstream or vice versa.
Yes, you would need a N9005 from Asia, not Europe as those are region locked.
omegacell said:
Yes, you would need a N9005 from Asia, not Europe as those are region locked.
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Do you have a link for a source, where you got that information from? Or better yet - list of countries/markets, where GN3 will not be region locked?
Apo11on said:
Do you have a link for a source, where you got that information from? Or better yet - list of countries/markets, where GN3 will not be region locked?
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Email me or hit me me up through my site. We're a retailer/wholesaler, not sure if I'm allowed to post about that since it would be "advertising".
omegacell said:
Email me or hit me me up through my site. We're a retailer/wholesaler, not sure if I'm allowed to post about that since it would be "advertising".
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that is a valuable information, which a lot of people, watching this thread could use, not just me. I don't think it will be considered as advertising. People in this thread are looking to buy international GN3, which will work on AT&T in US. If the phone is region locked then it won't work. Therefore, listing the countries, where there is no region lock would be very much relevant to this topic.
Apo11on said:
that is a valuable information, which a lot of people, watching this thread could use, not just me. I don't think it will be considered as advertising. People in this thread are looking to buy international GN3, which will work on AT&T in US. If the phone is region locked then it won't work. Therefore, listing the countries, where there is no region lock would be very much relevant to this topic.[/QUOTEN
N9005 from HK or Singapore (perhaps others too) will work.
The South American N9000 are region locked to South American, North American, carribean etc. SIM cards (western hemisphere).
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It was briefly discussed before just want to clarify, there are plenty of GSM versions of Note 4, I have T-Mobile so would like to know which ones aside of SM-910T would work. I can verify that AT&T SM-N910A works fine, what else is good?
SM-N910R4 US Cellular not sure whether they are GSM
SM-N910P Sprint has a SIM card slot not sure what they are...
SM-N910V Verizon has a SIM card slot not sure what they are...
There is also SM-N910W8 (other Canada and PR GSM operators)?
toshik1 said:
It was briefly discussed before just want to clarify, there are plenty of GSM versions of Note 4, I have T-Mobile so would like to know which ones aside of SM-910T would work. I can verify that AT&T SM-N910A works fine, what else is good?
SM-N910R4 US Cellular not sure whether they are GSM
SM-N910P Sprint has a SIM card slot not sure what they are...
SM-N910V Verizon has a SIM card slot not sure what they are...
There is also SM-N910W8 (other Canada and PR GSM operators)?
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As far as the Verizon and Sprint versions go, I am not sure if they support falling back to GSM/UMTS when no LTE coverage is available. These providers never used GSM/UMTS for their 2G/3G networks instead they used CDMA so that is probably what these phones support. Most likely the N910T or the AT&T version of the Note4 will be your best bet for on the T-Mobile network. A quick google search for US Celluar says that they also used CDMA, so their variant is probably in the same boat as the Sprint/Verizon phones. If you are really looking for something different look up the Note 4 Duos, was a dual sim phone released in Hong Kong and possibly other variants in Asia. My understanding is it only supports LTE/3G/2G on one SIM and 2G only on the 2nd SIM however.
d0ug said:
as far as the verizon and sprint versions go, i am not sure if they support falling back to gsm/umts when no lte coverage is available. These providers never used gsm/umts for their 2g/3g networks instead they used cdma so that is probably what these phones support. Most likely the n910t or the at&t version of the note4 will be your best bet for on the t-mobile network. A quick google search for us celluar says that they also used cdma, so their variant is probably in the same boat as the sprint/verizon phones. If you are really looking for something different look up the note 4 duos, was a dual sim phone released in hong kong and possibly other variants in asia. My understanding is it only supports lte/3g/2g on one sim and 2g only on the 2nd sim however.
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att note 4 can't be rooted
I am interested in buying US version (Snapdragon) of factory unlocked Note 8. However, it's full specs on network/radio bands are not listed yet even on Samsung official site.
I looked in full specs for Galaxy S8 unlocked (SM-G950UZKAXAA) vs carrier version such as Galaxy S8 for T-mobile (SM-G950UZKATMB), and noticed that carrier versions all listed support for 4G TDD LTE: B38(2600),B39(1900),B40(2300),B41(2500), while unlocked version does not. As the screenshots show.
So will Note 8 unlocked (Snapdradon) also be missing the 4G TDD LTE bands (B38, B39, B40, B41)?
Or maybe the specs listed on Samsung official site are not accurate and unlocked also supports those bands? Wishful thinking.
4G TDD LTE is used in some countries like China. So anyone with unlocked S8 on tmobile traveled to China can confirm if 4G data worked in China with t-mobile SIM?
If the unlocked phone only has the benefit to switch carriers in US but has limited band support internationally, then I will have to think twice.
Yeah I was trying to figure this out as well. So far, from other sites, I have seen mix messages. One site FrequencyCheck.com states that it does have those bands and other show them is missing...not sure which one is correct. Also, for other sites I have seen that the T-Mobile version also has 3G TD-SCDMA: B34(2010), B39(1880) and the unlocked version has 3G CDMA: 800/1900. I really can not make heads or tails of this information....is it correct, who is wrong??? I called Samsung that they don't have the information yet, so I don't know either way. I'm leaning to go with the Unlocked by Samsung version, but I am in the same boat with regards to this matter.
Looks like it, i have a Unlocked verdion of the phone.
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