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how can the iPhone 4 improve? / iPhone on T-Mobile

L

ljova.com

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 1, 2002
68
1
here's a fun thread - how can the iPhone 4 improve?

I'm thinking of buying the iPhone 4 at full price, and using it on T-Mobile. I've been told this is definitely possible, and T-Mobile's prices are much lower than AT&T's - better yet, their month-to-month pricing is $20 cheaper than on-contract pricing, meaning that I'd save $500 in 2 years, almost justifying the $600 cost of the unsubsidized iPhone 4.

Question is - would I still like the iPhone 4 in 2 years?
how could you see it improving?
FaceTime is here, and the processor is pretty fast.
How can you see the phone progressing in 2-years' time?

Also - if you've had any luck using iPhone on T-Mobile, please share your experience.

Thanks!
 
Question is - would I still like the iPhone 4 in 2 years?
how could you see it improving?
FaceTime is here, and the processor is pretty fast.
How can you see the phone progressing in 2-years' time?
Click to expand...

1. Thats for you to decide
2. Every iPhone has progressed year after year (both software and hardware)
3. Point taken
4. isn't this the same as #2

With t-mobile, you won't be able to utilize 3G connectivity, only EDGE, making loading web pages, GPS slower to use and keep in mind that with EDGE, you can't talk and be on the internet at the same time (so if your surfing the web, calls won't go through).
 
saving107 said:
With t-mobile, you won't be able to utilize 3G connectivity, only EDGE, making loading web pages, GPS slower to use and keep in mind that with EDGE, you can't talk and be on the internet at the same time (so if your surfing the web, calls won't go through).
Click to expand...

are you quite sure re this? the T-Mobile rep I spoke with said that I could use 3G.

And she sure didn't mention that I would be missing calls while browsing the web.
usually it's the opposite - unable to browse the web while making calls.
 
T-mobile uses 3G freqs of 1700 & 2100(dif. 2100 than the one in europe) which would need a different 3G chip from the one used today on all iPhones. Making a chip to work w/ t-mobile would basically alienate the rest of the world frequencies and thus not cost-productive, this is one of the main reasons the iPhone is in AT&T and why the iPhone and iPad can only use EDGE if you use them w/ T-mobile... T-mobile 3G freq. is almost never used anywhere else in the world...

Also the t-mobile rep BS you... you can use the iPhone/iPad but only with EDGE on their carrier no 3G.
 
Carlanga said:
T-mobile uses 3G freqs of 1700 & 2100(dif. 2100 than the one in europe) which would need a different 3G chip from the one used today on all iPhones. Making a chip to work w/ t-mobile would basically alienate the rest of the world frequencies and thus not cost-productive, this is one of the main reasons the iPhone is in AT&T and why the iPhone and iPad can only use EDGE if you use them w/ T-mobile... T-mobile 3G freq. is almost never used anywhere else in the world...

Also the t-mobile rep BS you... you can use the iPhone/iPad but only with EDGE on their carrier no 3G.
Click to expand...

gotcha - interesting.. how slow is EDGE? and can you confirm that it's not possible to receive calls while browsing the web on EDGE? (This wasn't the case with my old TMobile Blackberry, back in the day..)
 
ljova.com said:
gotcha - interesting.. how slow is EDGE? and can you confirm that it's not possible to receive calls while browsing the web on EDGE? (This wasn't the case with my old TMobile Blackberry, back in the day..)
Click to expand...

enough to check your e-mail, surf and use Maps (but very slow: ex: 10sec page on 3g, 30secs on EDGE), VOIP or anything else like that would be basically crapola on quality/clarity...

I can't confirm 100% but pretty sure that if you received a call while browsing the web, it would stop for you to answer the call (only one thing at a time, no multitasking talk and web). Your old BB probably was using t-mobile 3G network which like I told you is different than the 3G (freqs.) on the iPhone... you would be running only their edge...
 
EDGE is PAINFUL if you've been on 3G. The contrast between our EDGE based original iPhones and the iPhone 4 was frankly astonishing.

Just switched my 4 over to EDGE for a test. A text only site took 8 seconds to load fully, versus 4 seconds on 3G. A mixed text/graphics mobile site took 18 seconds, versus 9 on 3G. Both sites are iPhone optimized, and I visit them pretty often. The mixed text/graphics one can really drag far worse than this test--I'd say it actually loaded a bit faster just now than it often does. So half the speed of 3G, over the course of a days use...yeah, that adds up. If you have wifi access most of the time though, perhaps it's not an issue.

T-Mobile would have to be giving me some REALLY sweet deal, like including unlimited data and texts for around $40 before I'd consider going back to EDGE. 3G has permanently spoiled me.
 
Yes, the next iPhone needs to support the AWS-1 band, which is the set of frequencies that T-Mobile USA uses, as well as a bunch of carriers in Canada. It's be nice if it had a programmable radio or something that could handle CDMA and its relatives as well as the GSM family.

I really don't want to see multiple incompatible versions. Just one phone. That works everywhere.
 
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