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avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,956
3,877
Now I can't make up my mind what to do -- still owe over $600 for this 7+ to T-mobile:
- just settle for this crappy performance,
- buy the Qualcomm outright/full price to see if it does better, pay off this 7+, and then sell it somewhere
- or pay off this phone, switch to AT&T, keep this phone, and see if it performs better

Advice appreciated!

I don't think anyone here can tell you what to do. It sounds like you're fully aware of your options and need to make the choice that makes the most sense for you. As others have recommended, you also have the option of taking the phone to Apple for testing to rule out a hardware problem with the device before you make any other decisions.
 
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Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
So, some more comparisons between my wife's 6+ and my 7+ on T-mobile after my clean 10.3.1 install:
1) at home, LTE voice calls seemed to do better (other person said I wasn't cutting in and out like previously)
2) calling while at Target with my 7+ the other person said I was still cutting in and out a lot
3) while at Target my 7+ really struggled loading a web page...wouldn't open anything with LTE on..turned LTE off, and 4g also struggled but did better
4) with my 7+ it took 4-5 minutes to send a picture in a text...receiving a picture gave me the "downloading icon," and that took about 3-4 minutes also
5) sending regular texts struggled also (taking 1-2 minutes)
6) as soon as I stepped out of Target my 7+ did well

7) with my wife's 6+ browsing was much better with LTE even on..took about 3-4 seconds for pages to load
8) texts seem to send pretty quickly on her 6+
9) the person on other send said I sounded better/clear/no cutting in and out

I'm no cell phone techie, but my little takeaway is that the 6+ performs better than my 7+ with Intel. I believe T-mobile struggles inside buildings anyways, but the 6+ is able to perform better with bad reception.
It's unfortunate that my brand new 7+ performs like this. I came from AT&T & was using the 6 with no issues.

Now I can't make up my mind what to do -- still owe over $600 for this 7+ to T-mobile:
- just settle for this crappy performance,
- buy the Qualcomm outright/full price to see if it does better, pay off this 7+, and then sell it somewhere
- or pay off this phone, switch to AT&T, keep this phone, and see if it performs better

Advice appreciated!

You tried at Target, now give it a shot at Walmart too.
How many seconds it took to send a picture text?
Was the prices better at Target or Walmart?
When you stepped out of Walmart did your 7+ feel better? Did you donate to the cub scouts outside the store? :D
 
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maverick22

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
685
107
You tried at Target, now give it a shot at Walmart too.
How many seconds it took to send a picture text?
Was the prices better at Target or Walmart?
When you stepped out of Walmart did your 7+ feel better? Did you donate to the cub scouts outside the store? :D

Hahaha -- just trying to see if these are normal or unusual speeds for T-mobile inside buildings. No, but I did donate to a basketball team trying to make it to a national tournament ;)
 
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Arad147

macrumors member
May 29, 2015
62
25
I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile and brought my iPhone 7 Plus with me. I also just picked up a Samsung S8 yesterday. I did a speed test with both the phones at the exact same location three times and on each occasion, the iPhone was giving me download speeds of 15MBPS and upload speeds of 4MBPS while the Samsung was giving me download speeds of 60MBPS and upload speeds of 45MBPS.

So not sure what is the problem either. :(.
 
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maverick22

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
685
107
I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile and brought my iPhone 7 Plus with me. I also just picked up a Samsung S8 yesterday. I did a speed test with both the phones at the exact same location three times and on each occasion, the iPhone was giving me download speeds of 15MBPS and upload speeds of 4MBPS while the Samsung was giving me download speeds of 60MBPS and upload speeds of 45MBPS.

So not sure what is the problem either. :(.

Wow, that's an incredible difference! How did your 7+ do on AT&T compared to what you're seeing on Tmobile now? Do you regret the switch to TMo?
 

Arad147

macrumors member
May 29, 2015
62
25
Wow, that's an incredible difference! How did your 7+ do on AT&T compared to what you're seeing on Tmobile now? Do you regret the switch to TMo?
It was consistent on AT&T. I'm finding that if I go to Airplane mode and on again, the speed improves. But that's really inconvenient. It's definitely not the network as the S8 is working just fine.

I absolutely love the service. Great customer service and coverage here in NYC, and we pay $80 combined for three lines all with Unlimited data. Plus all the other benefits (one hour free data in flight, data and text Internationally).
 
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maverick22

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
685
107
It was consistent on AT&T. I'm finding that if I go to Airplane mode and on again, the speed improves. But that's really inconvenient. It's definitely not the network as the S8 is working just fine.

I absolutely love the service. Great customer service and coverage here in NYC, and we pay $80 combined for three lines all with Unlimited data. Plus all the other benefits (one hour free data in flight, data and text Internationally).

Do you have trouble with Tmobile inside buildings w/ the 7+? Did AT&T perform better with the 7+?

You must have gotten the "hookup" for that $80 price! Lucky--can't believe I didn't see that. No employee offered it to me though either.
 

meerkat1990

macrumors member
Dec 14, 2016
63
24
Romulus
I have T-Mobile and while it's service is weaker in rural areas and interstate highways between cities, I haven't had major issues inside my home. Stores are a problem sometimes but I also I have Verizon phone and one of them usually works most everywhere.

Also, Verizon isn't perfect. There are times I get no signal indoors with them too (fewer than T-Mobile) and neither phone works well in whole sections of WV but at least the T-Mobile phone roams onto AT&T's network. Just no data (because I won't pay for data roaming) but I can at least make a call.
 
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maverick22

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
685
107
I have T-Mobile and while it's service is weaker in rural areas and interstate highways between cities, I haven't had major issues inside my home. Stores are a problem sometimes but I also I have Verizon phone and one of them usually works most everywhere.

Also, Verizon isn't perfect. There are times I get no signal indoors with them too (fewer than T-Mobile) and neither phone works well in whole sections of WV but at least the T-Mobile phone roams onto AT&T's network. Just no data (because I won't pay for data roaming) but I can at least make a call.

Thanks for the input. I have never had VZ, but from all the #1 carrier ads, I just picture it as this perfect network.
 

TouchedByAl

macrumors regular
Sep 12, 2007
153
173
Salt Lake City
As someone who's had Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile I definitely understand the weak building penetration issues. Where I live I can say that Verizon is the best followed by AT&T and T-Mobile and I've heard mostly bad things about Sprint to even consider them. I refuse to support Verizon for a variety of reasons and I was paying AT&T too much for too little but for the most part I had fantastic service. Everything just seemed to work and I had coverage almost everywhere but I switched back to T-Mobile and am now paying a flat $56 for unlimited everything. While I have noticed improvements in call quality and overall reception I do notice at my work and almost any store my reception will fluctuate wildly and generally not be as good as AT&T. Thankfully my cubicle is by a window and I seem to get pretty decent reception there so I can't really complain. I have the iPhone SE and I knew going into it that I probably wasn't going to be getting as good of a signal as some of the newer phones but I don't think that necessarily going to make a difference when it comes to overcoming weak building penetration. I want T-Mobile to do well and for everything else even with slower data speeds I'm still able to do everything else I want on a phone.
 
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maverick22

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
685
107
As someone who's had Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile I definitely understand the weak building penetration issues. Where I live I can say that Verizon is the best followed by AT&T and T-Mobile and I've heard mostly bad things about Sprint to even consider them. I refuse to support Verizon for a variety of reasons and I was paying AT&T too much for too little but for the most part I had fantastic service. Everything just seemed to work and I had coverage almost everywhere but I switched back to T-Mobile and am now paying a flat $56 for unlimited everything. While I have noticed improvements in call quality and overall reception I do notice at my work and almost any store my reception will fluctuate wildly and generally not be as good as AT&T. Thankfully my cubicle is by a window and I seem to get pretty decent reception there so I can't really complain. I have the iPhone SE and I knew going into it that I probably wasn't going to be getting as good of a signal as some of the newer phones but I don't think that necessarily going to make a difference when it comes to overcoming weak building penetration. I want T-Mobile to do well and for everything else even with slower data speeds I'm still able to do everything else I want on a phone.

Thanks for sharing...good information
 
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Arad147

macrumors member
May 29, 2015
62
25
Do you have trouble with Tmobile inside buildings w/ the 7+? Did AT&T perform better with the 7+?

You must have gotten the "hookup" for that $80 price! Lucky--can't believe I didn't see that. No employee offered it to me though either.

It's been a little inconsistent for sure. Going to test it out with the S8 and see if it's a phone thing. Just had it for two days so far. I should note that I did end up getting a signal booster for my apartment to help. You can call them and try your luck.

Yes! The hookup was sweet!
 
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meerkat1990

macrumors member
Dec 14, 2016
63
24
Romulus
Thanks for the input. I have never had VZ, but from all the #1 carrier ads, I just picture it as this perfect network.

Verizon is very good, especially when I am traveling. Other than WV, I've been able to make calls from almost anywhere and I don't get as many dropped calls. I just refuse to ever pay their fees. If this VZ line wasn't provided to me I'd only have T-Mobile and live with the limitations
 
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BeSweeet

macrumors 68000
Apr 2, 2009
1,566
1,269
San Antonio, TX
- buy the Qualcomm outright/full price to see if it does better, pay off this 7+, and then sell it somewhere

This is what I would do. See if the Qualcomm 7+ does better within its return period. If not, you can either live with it or change carriers. Or, try the dark side and get an S8 or even an S7.

I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile and brought my iPhone 7 Plus with me. I also just picked up a Samsung S8 yesterday. I did a speed test with both the phones at the exact same location three times and on each occasion, the iPhone was giving me download speeds of 15MBPS and upload speeds of 4MBPS while the Samsung was giving me download speeds of 60MBPS and upload speeds of 45MBPS.

So not sure what is the problem either. :(.

Even the latest iPhone doesn't support the latest network tricks like 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM / 64QAM, which can greatly increase speeds. The S8 is the only phone that can combine all of those, which could be the reason why your speeds are varying so much.
 

kwandrews

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2012
317
108
Colorado, USA
I have a 6 plus and wife a 6. Switched from AT&T to T-mobile, got a discounted $100 all-in plan for 2 lines (yes, discounted down, so paying less than $100) and saving about $50/mo vs. what I had with AT&T. With that, I'm thrilled.

Service, in general, has been good. In areas where I had nagging dead spots with AT&T while driving, T Mobile is great. in some buildings where I had AT&T LTE, now's worse with TM. It's a give and take. I would say, overall, for coverage of calls it's better with TM for me. LTE is better outside with TM and better inside (except in my house, where TM is better!) with ATT. Call it even for me. Price is the tie breaker and that means TM wins big time for me!
 

BeSweeet

macrumors 68000
Apr 2, 2009
1,566
1,269
San Antonio, TX
I have a 6 plus and wife a 6. Switched from AT&T to T-mobile, got a discounted $100 all-in plan for 2 lines (yes, discounted down, so paying less than $100) and saving about $50/mo vs. what I had with AT&T. With that, I'm thrilled.

Service, in general, has been good. In areas where I had nagging dead spots with AT&T while driving, T Mobile is great. in some buildings where I had AT&T LTE, now's worse with TM. It's a give and take. I would say, overall, for coverage of calls it's better with TM for me. LTE is better outside with TM and better inside (except in my house, where TM is better!) with ATT. Call it even for me. Price is the tie breaker and that means TM wins big time for me!

And if you are in areas with band 12 LTE on T-Mobile, it could be even better with supported devices.
 

janeauburn

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2015
1,296
2,204
Agree. Everyone else in my office gets 3 bars with other carriers. I get none with t-mobile.
[doublepost=1494157151][/doublepost]
So, some more comparisons between my wife's 6+ and my 7+ on T-mobile after my clean 10.3.1 install:
1) at home, LTE voice calls seemed to do better (other person said I wasn't cutting in and out like previously)
2) calling while at Target with my 7+ the other person said I was still cutting in and out a lot
3) while at Target my 7+ really struggled loading a web page...wouldn't open anything with LTE on..turned LTE off, and 4g also struggled but did better
4) with my 7+ it took 4-5 minutes to send a picture in a text...receiving a picture gave me the "downloading icon," and that took about 3-4 minutes also
5) sending regular texts struggled also (taking 1-2 minutes)
6) as soon as I stepped out of Target my 7+ did well

7) with my wife's 6+ browsing was much better with LTE even on..took about 3-4 seconds for pages to load
8) texts seem to send pretty quickly on her 6+
9) the person on other send said I sounded better/clear/no cutting in and out

I'm no cell phone techie, but my little takeaway is that the 6+ performs better than my 7+ with Intel. I believe T-mobile struggles inside buildings anyways, but the 6+ is able to perform better with bad reception.
It's unfortunate that my brand new 7+ performs like this. I came from AT&T & was using the 6 with no issues.

Now I can't make up my mind what to do -- still owe over $600 for this 7+ to T-mobile:
- just settle for this crappy performance,
- buy the Qualcomm outright/full price to see if it does better, pay off this 7+, and then sell it somewhere
- or pay off this phone, switch to AT&T, keep this phone, and see if it performs better

Advice appreciated!

My advice: You're spending too much time on this phone. Get rid of it. Life is not meant to be wasted on this stuff.
 

regkilla

macrumors 6502
Mar 19, 2013
297
49
California
I get one bar to no signal at all in my apartment. I have T-Mobile and use an iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus from T-Mobile.
 

applelover4u

macrumors 6502
Nov 6, 2012
336
179
I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile and brought my iPhone 7 Plus with me. I also just picked up a Samsung S8 yesterday. I did a speed test with both the phones at the exact same location three times and on each occasion, the iPhone was giving me download speeds of 15MBPS and upload speeds of 4MBPS while the Samsung was giving me download speeds of 60MBPS and upload speeds of 45MBPS.

So not sure what is the problem either. :(.

To be honest the s8 is newer and will work with T-Mobile new technology
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,794
26,885
Is that new band supposed to be used for their next 5G tech or something like that?
Yes…but only part of it. The immediate use (as immediate as this industry can make it, which is to say six months or so) is for lower band LTE. There are some newer model phones releasing later this year that can take advantage of 600mhz.

600mhz will also be the answer T-Mobile can give to rural areas with no connectivity.
 
Last edited:

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Yes…but only part of it. The immediate use (as immediate as this industry can make it, which is to say six months or so) is for lower band LTE. There are some newer models phones releasing later this year that can take advantage of 600mhz.

600mhz will also be the answer T-Mobile can give to rural areas with no connectivity.

Interesting.
You think they'll add that band on the next iphone?
 
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eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,794
26,885
Interesting.
You think they'll add that band on the next iphone?
I doubt the one that releases this year, but certainly next year I'd think. Unless, T-Mob was so sure they'd win something in the auction that they asked Apple to build it in.
 
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