Early tests of Verizon’s 5G technology show that it can achieve connection speeds 30-50 times faster than 4G/LTE – above the speeds offered by Google Fiber’s gigabit wired broadband. Even better, the company expects to have “some level of commercial deployment” by 2017, some three years earlier than expected, reports CNET.
To put that speed difference into perspective, the movie Guardians of the Galaxy would take around six minutes to download over a good LTE connection – while 5G would have it downloaded to your device in just 15 seconds … Expand Expanding Close
Looking rather like a smaller version of a TV from the 1980s, the latest LG Vu phablet – the Vu 3 – retains the 4:3 aspect ratio that characterises the line, aimed at competing with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3.
The 1280×960 screen is a strange choice for what is otherwise a modern-spec handset: Quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 13MP camera, 1080p video, IPS display and LTE-A support for the higher-speed 4G service already launched in its native Korea and coming soon to the U.S.
The 5.2-inch device is available in Korea from Friday in a choice of black, white or mint (above) colors, with no word yet on when it might make it to the USA or Europe.
Any early adopter has experienced the pain of buying the latest & greatest tech only to have it superseded within weeks. You could soon be experiencing just that if you recently bought the Samsung S4 as the company launches an LTE-Advanced version of the phone later this month offering more than twice the data speeds of standard 4G LTE – albeit initially only in South Korea (Reutersvia Techmeme).
Samsung Electronics Co plans to sell a variation of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone that will transmit data at nearly twice the normal speed, the head of its mobile business said on Monday.
J.K. Shin, also co-chief executive of the world’s biggest technology firm by revenue, said the phone would be sold in South Korea as early as this month …
Following the launch of its new Alter Ego ad campaign yesterday, T-Mobile just made its new “Test Drive” tool available for comparing the speed of “American’s Largest 4G Network” to other guys— Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. Unfortunately, as pointed out by TMONews, the carrier is comparing 4G LTE Android handsets, such as the Galaxy S II, to the 3G speeds of the iPhone 4S. This is obviously not a fair comparison of LTE network speeds…
T-Mobile’s TestDrive website is now live and I will say at first glance, I’m disappointed. I’ll just get right to it — T-Mobile, I’m really puzzled by this. The idea that you claim “America’s largest 4G network” and design a new commercial campaign around speed and then compare your “4G” network against “3G” smartphones is a questionable act. Speed should no longer be the focus of T-Mobile’s marketing campaign, Value and Technology should. Speed should be a secondary thought. If you can’t win on speed, highlight where you can, Value, Value, Value.
If you really liked the Droid Charge’s look and feel, with its fast LTE speeds and physical buttons, but did not want to jump on Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular has a phone with a similar experience. The Samsung Galaxy S Aviator sticks out with the following features:
· Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread)
· 4.3-inch Super AMOLED™ Plus touchscreen
· 8 megapixel rear-facing camera
· Front facing webcam
· HDMI port
I am surprisingly a big fan of real buttons, because you can feel them for navigation, and sometimes capacitance gets all out of whack.
Otherwise, the Charge is a solid phone on Verizon, and now U.S. Cellular owners will have a nice option too.
Chip maker Qualcomm today introduced three new Gobi modem chipsets at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain and an improved version of the Snapdragon S4 chip for high-end smartphones. The 28-nanometer third-generation MDM8225, MDM9225 and MDM9625 support both LTE-Advanced and dual-carrier 84Mbps HSPA+ Release 10 cellular networks (perhaps fitting in T-Mobile USA’s 2012 plan). If that’s not speedy enough: The MDM9225 and MDM9625 can go all the way up to 150Mbps, because they support LTE Category 4 with carrier aggregation technology.
All three pieces of silicon are backwards compatible with today’s popular standards, including EV-DO Advanced, GSM, TD-SCDMA, FDD and TDD. The MDM8225 chipset supports UMTS-only devices, the MDM9225 chipset supports LTE and UMTS devices, and the MDM9625 chipset supports LTE, UMTS and CDMA2000 devices. All three chipsets will begin sampling in Q4 2012. Compared to Qualcomm’s previous MDM9x15 series (see below the fold), the new chips offer a reduction in power consumption and overall board area that allow for smaller devices with longer battery life.
Qualcomm also launched today an improved version of the Snapdragon S4 system-on-a-chip that powers about 340 mobile devices. It has notably faster graphics, supports Windows 8, includes dedicated hardware to accelerate Windows and fully supports the top game engines in the industry from Unity, Epic and others.
More on the new Snapdragon S4 “Pro” chip and full press releases are after the break.
