Anyone using this on T-Mobile? - Xiaomi Mi 9 Questions & Answers

I'm looking to replace an Honor 8 with a Mi 9. The phone looks great, but I was wondering if anyone was using it on T-Mobile in the US? It has most of the LTE bands, but doesn't have 66/71, so I was wondering how well I could expect it to work?
And how is Xiaomi about rolling out updates? Huawei released monthly updates for six months, then would slowly release last month's security update every 3-6 months before stopping at the 2 year mark. If I buy the Global version will OTAs become available based on IMEI? Or is there something region specific?

My Mi 9 just came in yesterday, and I'm on T-Mobile in the USA. I can confirm that volte and wifi calling works if you follow https://forum.xda-developers.com/Mi-9/how-to/wifi-calling-volte-mi-9-t3917887
Band 66 and 71 are both a big deal. Where I currently live there will be no band 66 or 71 anytime soon, so I didn't mind buying a phone without these bands. The phone before my Mi 9 didn't have band 66 or 71 either. That said, there are some parts of the country where band 71 deployment is happening rapidly. I don't travel often so it's not a big deal. If I did travel often I would definitely want band 71.
Now If I paid $600 or more for the phone I would expect the phone to have band 66 or 71...

I'm on Mint Mobile which uses the T-Mobile network. Reception is great where I live (Chicago) but if you need bands 66 and 71 I think you would need to look for a phone that is specifically made for use in North America. Most global unlocked phones don't support those bands.

I am with MetroPCS, live in Indianapolis and my speed and reception is all over the place. I have the unlimited data plan but I am not sure if I am being throttled or not. I've literally run a speed test back to back in the same location and I will get two very different download speeds. I am not sure if it is the phone or network.
For instance, I have 3/5 bars but my most recent download speed is 4.83 mbps. Unfortunately, I have no way of comparing this with another phone bc my previous phone was a s6+ and I think the radio was going out. However, I can confirm that VOLTE and wifi calling work.
I really wish this phone had band 66 and 71, but I knew it didn't have them when I bought this phone.

Related

LTE Band confusion.

So I just got this phone this week, and I knew it wouldn't have band 20 support from every single info page there is on the web basically, including official Motorola pages.
I was even considering switching operators when buying this phone..
My old HTC One M7 had Band 8, 800mhz, but not 900Mhz, so I never had coverage outside any city or at home.
Band 20 is 900mhz, and is the only band Tele2 Sweden has long range LTE on, which is nonstandard, everyone else is using band 8 for this.
But imagine my surprise when I DO get maximum LTE coverage, literally everywhere I've been.
So I'm properly confused, what does this thing support? Or did I get ridiculously lucky and got an completely unlocked device or what?
The about page says I have the XT1092.
There is already a thread for that, no need to open a new one : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2884337

Oneplus 3T A3000 - US model in Europe

Hello,
I am an American going to study abroad in Prague over the next year. I currently have the North American model and was wondering if I needed to buy a new phone for the correct LTE bands, since I plan on traveling around Europe. I have used the site WillMyPhoneWork and found that 2 of the major 3 telecom providers, T-Mobile and Vodafone, support bands 1 (2100MHz) and 7 (2600MHz). However, I am missing band 20.
If anyone could help with the 2 questions I have, it would greatly help.
1) Should I expect reliable coverage, in the Czech Republic and other EU countries?
2) Am I able to lock my phone to a specific LTE/4G band, and would this solve my problem (or have downsides)?
Thanks for any responses.
As you have said, it depends on the country.
As long as other LTE bands are available you should be fine and also you can always use 3G.
As far as I know, you can't lock to a.specific band, but you can select to lock only on 3G bands, if that will be convenient for you.
Unleashed by ONEPLUS 3T rooted
You can also enable band 3 on the US model, I get 80% LTE with it here in EU.

Verizon S10 5G LTE bands missing exist

Wanted to post that on Verizon and Samsung website the LTE bands supported on the device doesn't not include bands 12 and 71 that T mobile uses. Well i have used it on T-Mobile and it connected to band 12 which leaves me to believe the Verizon edition supports all bands like a unlock model would. Single and bands 2 4 and 66 worked great and are the main ones used in my part but 12 is around also and connects. Don't have any area where there is band 71 so cannot test that but like i said probably does just wanted to pass the info.
cheapshot789 said:
Wanted to post that on Verizon and Samsung website the LTE bands supported on the device doesn't not include bands 12 and 71 that T mobile uses. Well i have used it on T-Mobile and it connected to band 12 which leaves me to believe the Verizon edition supports all bands like a unlock model would. Single and bands 2 4 and 66 worked great and are the main ones used in my part but 12 is around also and connects. Don't have any area where there is band 71 so cannot test that but like i said probably does just wanted to pass the info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey bud
I just started using the Samsung galaxy s10 5g verizon variant with tmobile and had band 71 in the band selection app but today I checked and the highest band it has now is 66. Why did band 71 disappear from the lte band list?
Would you know about that?
Thanks
Nevermind, figured it out.

Will K20 Pro work in NZ?

I'm a bit confused, they are going on about the 9t Pro coming out for Global market, but on Aliexpress there is a K20 Pro with 'Global Rom'.
If i was to buy one of these would it not work in New Zealand? I'm really keen on getting this phone but not sure what to buy.
According to this, it works perfectly with my provider 2Degrees
https://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-redmi-855
Thanks
NZ Razer said:
I'm a bit confused, they are going on about the 9t Pro coming out for Global market, but on Aliexpress there is a K20 Pro with 'Global Rom'.
If i was to buy one of these would it not work in New Zealand? I'm really keen on getting this phone but not sure what to buy.
According to this, it works perfectly with my provider 2Degrees
https://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-redmi-855
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The K20 Pro does not have global network bands. Where it's sold with a global ROM, these are unofficial global ROMs, they do not and cannot add extra lte bands.
The Mi 9T, as well as coming with an official global ROM also had a few extra lte bands unlocked. The Mi 9T Pro will do the same, when it eventually arrives.
Looking at your carrier, it uses bands 3, 7 and 28 (maybe 40 too, but could have been a different NZ carrier). The K20 Pro is missing band 28.
Band 28 is a relatively low frequency band, these can travel further and penetrate obstacles better, before losing significant signal strength and quality. Quite often the low frequency bands are used in rural areas, where masts are spread widely, or major city centres that are very heavily built up.
NZ is a very sparsely populated country, so it's possible band 28 is heavily relied on outside of the town's and cities. But this is only my slightly educated guess. I would suggest doing some more homework on how much of the 2Degree network relies on band 28.
I imagine in and around towns and cities you'll have very little issues, but that's a small percent of the country.
Assuming the Mi 9T Pro will have the same bands as the Mi 9T, then it will come with band 28
Robbo.5000 said:
The K20 Pro does not have global network bands. Where it's sold with a global ROM, these are unofficial global ROMs, they do not and cannot add extra lte bands.
The Mi 9T, as well as coming with an official global ROM also had a few extra lte bands unlocked. The Mi 9T Pro will do the same, when it eventually arrives.
Looking at your carrier, it uses bands 3, 7 and 28 (maybe 40 too, but could have been a different NZ carrier). The K20 Pro is missing band 28.
Band 28 is a relatively low frequency band, these can travel further and penetrate obstacles better, before losing significant signal strength and quality. Quite often the low frequency bands are used in rural areas, where masts are spread widely, or major city centres that are very heavily built up.
NZ is a very sparsely populated country, so it's possible band 28 is heavily relied on outside of the town's and cities. But this is only my slightly educated guess. I would suggest doing some more homework on how much of the 2Degree network relies on band 28.
I imagine in and around towns and cities you'll have very little issues, but that's a small percent of the country.
Assuming the Mi 9T Pro will have the same bands as the Mi 9T, then it will come with band 28
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It says that 2degrees doesn't use B28, only other carriers in NZ. So that would mean its safe to assume it would work?
Thanks
NZ Razer said:
It says that 2degrees doesn't use B28, only other carriers in NZ. So that would mean its safe to assume it would work?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I checked on Wikipedia, however I was looking at the bands for Spark by mistake. 2Degrees uses 3, 8 and 28.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks?wprov=sfla1
Band 8 is on the K20 Pro and is also a low frequency band. So it could well be that it will work OK. However it is showing that band 8 was added to the 2Degrees network only last year, so might still be wise to see if you can find out how widespread band 8 is used on their network.
Edit:
A bit more reading. The 2Degree website FAQs confirms it uses the above 3 bands. Band 8 was previously used for their 2G network, but was freed up when they turned off 2G, which allowed them to use it for LTE. Maybe that will mean it's use is widespread.
I'm not sure about nz but it works perfectly fine here in Australia. The only band we use in Aus that it's missing is B20 which is very common. But fortunately if you're with Telstra in Aus they don't have any areas that only run on B20 so there's always something for me to connect to. I also live in a rural area.
So my advice is to check different areas all over nz to see what they support. I used a site called cellmapper to do this https://www.cellmapper.net
NZ Razer said:
I'm a bit confused, they are going on about the 9t Pro coming out for Global market, but on Aliexpress there is a K20 Pro with 'Global Rom'.
If i was to buy one of these would it not work in New Zealand? I'm really keen on getting this phone but not sure what to buy.
According to this, it works perfectly with my provider 2Degrees
https://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-redmi-855
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about NZ, but in Australia it works. I'm with ALDI mobile which I guess is Telstra.
billybrownbear said:
I'm not sure about nz but it works perfectly fine here in Australia. The only band we use in Aus that it's missing is B20 which is very common. But fortunately if you're with Telstra in Aus they don't have any areas that only run on B20 so there's always something for me to connect to. I also live in a rural area.
So my advice is to check different areas all over nz to see what they support. I used a site called cellmapper to do this https://www.cellmapper.net
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vladimir Lenin said:
Not sure about NZ, but in Australia it works. I'm with ALDI mobile which I guess is Telstra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've gone ahead and purchased it as of an hour ago excited to get my hands on it, this makes me even more confident as your bands are the same pretty much. Can't wait!
billybrownbear said:
I'm not sure about nz but it works perfectly fine here in Australia. The only band we use in Aus that it's missing is B20 which is very common. But fortunately if you're with Telstra in Aus they don't have any areas that only run on B20 so there's always something for me to connect to. I also live in a rural area.
So my advice is to check different areas all over nz to see what they support. I used a site called cellmapper to do this https://www.cellmapper.net
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Australia use band 28, not 20.
Global version and chinese version are using same 4G bands so there won't be any problems.
Sent from my Redmi K20 Pro using Tapatalk

Does band 66 is really supported on P30 Pro VOG-L04?

Need help figuring this one out. I just got last week while visiting Illinois a P30 Pro L04 that is from Telcel Mexico. Got it from a coworker that lives in Mexico. It is unlocked and I am using in T-mobile ever since. I live in Puerto Rico where Tmobile has Band 4-66-71 for LTE. My previous phone is an Note 9 that I love and still think is better in some ways that the P30 specially in the software side. The cameras in the P30 are spectacular and step way above the Note 9. Long story short my P30 won't connect to band 66, only band 4. It is supposedly supported but it doesn't connect to it. I put my sim card back in the Note 9 and it does connect to band 66 as it used to. So it is definitively the P30 Pro problem. Does anyone know a way to verify what Bands are supported on the phone and see if it Telcel that blocked the band 66. Or maybe the P30 does NOT support band 66 as claimed? Does anyone has a L04 and can connect to band 66? I am new to Huawei phones and don't know what tool are available to verify this things.
I think you might be seeing 66 on your note, but it still really 4. (4 is a sub frequency of 66)
The 66 you're referring to will specify AWS-3. An app like network cell info on the play store should specify - though will likely only work on the Note assuming it's the snapdragon variant.
Goronok said:
I think you might be seeing 66 on your note, but it still really 4. (4 is a sub frequency of 66)
The 66 you're referring to will specify AWS-3. An app like network cell info on the play store should specify - though will likely only work on the Note assuming it's the snapdragon variant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you care to elaborate a little more so I can fully understand. Yes my note 9 is the snapdragon variant from Tmobile. I am using the Network Cell Info Lite App and it does show connections to LTE bands 2, 4, 66 and 71 on the note. depending on the place I am around my apt or outside. The P30 Pro only show connections to LTE bands 2 and 4 connections. I understand that bands 66 and 4 are related as they are the same frequencies , but still band 66 should give me better speeds and better connection as shall be not as congested., more blocks, etc. The Network Cell Info (at least the lite version) does not give me anything about the AWS of the band.
So my questions for you or anyone else are:
Are you saying that band 66 won't show on the P30 Pro even if it is connected to it?
Do you know of an engineering menu to really verify that the phone support band 66?
One of my main interest and one that may help a lot of people is to establish if the phone really support band 66 as claimed for this variant?
and if it does, does Telcel disable that support?
if they did, maybe with a generic firmware modem we can get it back?
Thanks in advance
ellopr said:
Do you care to elaborate a little more so I can fully understand. Yes my note 9 is the snapdragon variant from Tmobile. I am using the Network Cell Info Lite App and it does show connections to LTE bands 2, 4, 66 and 71 on the note. depending on the place I am around my apt or outside. The P30 Pro only show connections to LTE bands 2 and 4 connections. I understand that bands 66 and 4 are related as they are the same frequencies , but still band 66 should give me better speeds and better connection as shall be not as congested., more blocks, etc. The Network Cell Info (at least the lite version) does not give me anything about the AWS of the band.
So my questions for you or anyone else are:
Are you saying that band 66 won't show on the P30 Pro even if it is connected to it?
Do you know of an engineering menu to really verify that the phone support band 66?
One of my main interest and one that may help a lot of people is to establish if the phone really support band 66 as claimed for this variant?
and if it does, does Telcel disable that support?
if they did, maybe with a generic firmware modem we can get it back?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not currently have a P30 Pro, so can't speak definitively. (Sold my L29 and have an L04 on the way) I asked about the snapdragon variant because these devices are generally the only that will properly break out band information for you to look at.
The answer to your question is a bit convoluted due to the fact that band 66 includes band 4. These are the AWS bands - band 2 is PCS, 3 DCS, etc. Some devices may tell you that you're connected to 66, but you are in fact connected to 4. (see here for a better definition: https://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=570 ) If you look closely here, you will see that band 4 and 66 include the same frequencies, but 4 is specific to blocks A-F and 66 includes blocks A-J. Say, you're connected to block C, your phone could be telling you that you're connected to 4 or 66 - both would be correct, its just how the manufacturer has told the software to relay this information.
What you're wanting to validate is that you're connected to the "new/faster" part of band 66, which will be displayed as AWS3 for AT&T. On the RAW tab within network cell information (on your note) it should have the band info and then corresponding block information. If your Note is reading 66 (AWS13) this will probably show as band 4 on your P30 Pro, as it is technically .. band 4. If you are seeing 66 (AWS3) this means you are genuinely connected to the part of 66 you're after. If you see this on your Note and your P30 Pro is still showing band 4, I would suspect that your theory regarding P30 Pro band 66 support is correct. (aka.. not functioning)
Hope this helps.
Goronok said:
I do not currently have a P30 Pro, so can't speak definitively. (Sold my L29 and have an L04 on the way) I asked about the snapdragon variant because these devices are generally the only that will properly break out band information for you to look at.
The answer to your question is a bit convoluted due to the fact that band 66 includes band 4. These are the AWS bands - band 2 is PCS, 3 DCS, etc. Some devices may tell you that you're connected to 66, but you are in fact connected to 4. (see here for a better definition: https://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=570 ) If you look closely here, you will see that band 4 and 66 include the same frequencies, but 4 is specific to blocks A-F and 66 includes blocks A-J. Say, you're connected to block C, your phone could be telling you that you're connected to 4 or 66 - both would be correct, its just how the manufacturer has told the software to relay this information.
What you're wanting to validate is that you're connected to the "new/faster" part of band 66, which will be displayed as AWS3 for AT&T. On the RAW tab within network cell information (on your note) it should have the band info and then corresponding block information. If your Note is reading 66 (AWS13) this will probably show as band 4 on your P30 Pro, as it is technically .. band 4. If you are seeing 66 (AWS3) this means you are genuinely connected to the part of 66 you're after. If you see this on your Note and your P30 Pro is still showing band 4, I would suspect that your theory regarding P30 Pro band 66 support is correct. (aka.. not functioning)
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it helps a ton. I had to buy the full version of the Network Cell info to get the AWS information, not showing the Lite version.
The note 9 is reading band 66 (AWS13) in Tmobile. With the same simcard and location the P30 reads Band 4(AWS1). So I can't really say if the P30 Pro it is not connecting to band 66. I guess will be good if you give me a follow up once you get your P30 Pro L04 and you happen to be in an area with "real" band 66 support.
Thanks because I am sure this info is good for those that has this variant, or those that want to get one especially if its going to factor into their decision.
ellopr said:
Yes it helps a ton. I had to buy the full version of the Network Cell info to get the AWS information, not showing the Lite version.
The note 9 is reading band 66 (AWS13) in Tmobile. With the same simcard and location the P30 reads Band 4(AWS1). So I can't really say if the P30 Pro it is not connecting to band 66. I guess will be good if you give me a follow up once you get your P30 Pro L04 and you happen to be in an area with "real" band 66 support.
Thanks because I am sure this info is good for those that has this variant, or those that want to get one especially if its going to factor into their decision.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For sure. I also bought the L04 variant for B66, so I'm hopeful that this band is indeed active. I will let you know what I find out.
Let me know if you run across AWS3 to validate too.
I've had my L04 P30 pro all over Chicago and St Louis the past few days (in areas I know have b66 coverage) and have yet to see the device pickup it up once.
My only thoughts are that the device only activates b66 once properly provisioned by Telus on their networks, or that AT&T will only tell certain devices to grab the band that they know have proper hardware for. (Internal database of devices, etc) I'm genuinely curious if any Tmobile people are able to pickup the band; generally Tmobile is more lax about these requirements.
Either way, b66 isn't supported on AT&T on my particular L04.
Goronok said:
I've had my L04 P30 pro all over Chicago and St Louis the past few days (in areas I know have b66 coverage) and have yet to see the device pickup it up once.
My only thoughts are that the device only activates b66 once properly provisioned by Telus on their networks, or that AT&T will only tell certain devices to grab the band that they know have proper hardware for. (Internal database of devices, etc) I'm genuinely curious if any Tmobile people are able to pickup the band; generally Tmobile is more lax about these requirements.
Either way, b66 isn't supported on AT&T on my particular L04.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least in different place in Puerto Rico it is the same, only band 4. I shall be in Chicago area also probably in like a month and in Mexico. Will take my note 9 with me to make sure I am in AWS 3 to see if I get band 66. if not then something is right with the phones having band 66 blocked.
Thanks for the update

Categories

Resources