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Lenovo has been an interesting player in the budget smartphone game. They’ve put out some good phones, but curiously many of them have had only 2-band GSM and single-band WCDMA. […]
I have generally ignored Lenovo due to (as pointed out in the excellent article) a lack of frequencies for the US market.
It would seem they have the important frequencies, but I see so much conflicting information from this company.
So, maybe I can get some info : Does this device, in fact, have the 850mhz GSM/2g? Or does it only have it for 3g ?
Thanks for the compliment Twotems...
According to engineering mode, there's no 850 GSM.
You can test if this will be a problem for your area by disabling 850 GSM in your current mobile: deselect in engineering mode, reboot, upon reboot confirm 850 GSM deselected, and go about using the phone. My guess is that it shouldn't be a problem, but good to check just in case.
(2015-08-14, 23:53)Gizbeat Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the compliment Twotems...
According to engineering mode, there's no 850 GSM.
You can test if this will be a problem for your area by disabling 850 GSM in your current mobile: deselect in engineering mode, reboot, upon reboot confirm 850 GSM deselected, and go about using the phone. My guess is that it shouldn't be a problem, but good to check just in case.
Unfortunately, as a rule when using a USA carrier (ATT), no 850 or 1900 for GSM is a no go... assuming one wants the maximum coverage available to talk.
Frankly, a quad band GSM radio is pretty much the baseline, even for China phones. I wonder what they were thinking when they put in the 3g frequencies of 850 and 1900 but omitted the base GSM 850?
Oh well. Yet another reason to completely ignore Lenovo as a consumer in the states.
(2015-08-16, 13:20)edcoolio Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-08-14, 23:53)Gizbeat Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the compliment Twotems...
According to engineering mode, there's no 850 GSM.
You can test if this will be a problem for your area by disabling 850 GSM in your current mobile: deselect in engineering mode, reboot, upon reboot confirm 850 GSM deselected, and go about using the phone. My guess is that it shouldn't be a problem, but good to check just in case.
Unfortunately, as a rule when using a USA carrier (ATT), no 850 or 1900 for GSM is a no go... assuming one wants the maximum coverage available to talk.
Frankly, a quad band GSM radio is pretty much the baseline, even for China phones. I wonder what they were thinking when they put in the 3g frequencies of 850 and 1900 but omitted the base GSM 850?
Oh well. Yet another reason to completely ignore Lenovo as a consumer in the states.
Straight talk is 1900 GSM, not having 850 shouldn't affect you if you're on a T-Mobile or T-Mobile MVNO.
For AT&T, nearly anywhere that has 850 will carry WCDMA/UMTS tech (as opposed to just GSM).
Give it a try (turning off 2G GSM on your current mobile).
Still, I do agree with you regarding it being bizarre. Additionally, a bunch of mobiles, especially the MT6735 phones are coming with 900/1900/2100 WCDMA. It's a strange configuration including 1900 but not 850, whether talking about GSM or WCDMA.
(2015-08-16, 14:37)Gizbeat Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-08-16, 13:20)edcoolio Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-08-14, 23:53)Gizbeat Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the compliment Twotems...
According to engineering mode, there's no 850 GSM.
You can test if this will be a problem for your area by disabling 850 GSM in your current mobile: deselect in engineering mode, reboot, upon reboot confirm 850 GSM deselected, and go about using the phone. My guess is that it shouldn't be a problem, but good to check just in case.
Unfortunately, as a rule when using a USA carrier (ATT), no 850 or 1900 for GSM is a no go... assuming one wants the maximum coverage available to talk.
Frankly, a quad band GSM radio is pretty much the baseline, even for China phones. I wonder what they were thinking when they put in the 3g frequencies of 850 and 1900 but omitted the base GSM 850?
Oh well. Yet another reason to completely ignore Lenovo as a consumer in the states.
Straight talk is 1900 GSM, not having 850 shouldn't affect you if you're on a T-Mobile or T-Mobile MVNO.
For AT&T, nearly anywhere that has 850 will carry WCDMA/UMTS tech (as opposed to just GSM).
Give it a try (turning off 2G GSM on your current mobile).
Still, I do agree with you regarding it being bizarre. Additionally, a bunch of mobiles, especially the MT6735 phones are coming with 900/1900/2100 WCDMA. It's a strange configuration including 1900 but not 850, whether talking about GSM or WCDMA.
I agree it is always wise for users to test first, but unfortunately, for my personal requirements (using ATT MVNO) it simply has to have it in the states.
I have a home that could be properly described as "the middle of nowhere", at least when it comes to cell phone towers. I've found that 850 is used for voice still in many rural areas and also as an EDGE fallback. Hell, much of the trip just to get there dumps me in and out of pure GSM/EDGE. I just need e-mail, talk, and text when relaxing, so the slow boat is better than drowning I suppose.
That being said, I'm with you that for many (most) areas it should not be an issue and this is an excellent device.
It's just frustrating for me personally regarding Lenovo. I cannot count the times I noticed a wonderful device at a great price, only to be turned away when checking frequencies.
It IS bizarre and I simply do not understand it.
Again and as always, a great review as always and much appreciated!
(2015-08-17, 14:33)edcoolio Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-08-16, 14:37)Gizbeat Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-08-16, 13:20)edcoolio Wrote: [ -> ]Unfortunately, as a rule when using a USA carrier (ATT), no 850 or 1900 for GSM is a no go... assuming one wants the maximum coverage available to talk.
Frankly, a quad band GSM radio is pretty much the baseline, even for China phones. I wonder what they were thinking when they put in the 3g frequencies of 850 and 1900 but omitted the base GSM 850?
Oh well. Yet another reason to completely ignore Lenovo as a consumer in the states.
Straight talk is 1900 GSM, not having 850 shouldn't affect you if you're on a T-Mobile or T-Mobile MVNO.
For AT&T, nearly anywhere that has 850 will carry WCDMA/UMTS tech (as opposed to just GSM).
Give it a try (turning off 2G GSM on your current mobile).
Still, I do agree with you regarding it being bizarre. Additionally, a bunch of mobiles, especially the MT6735 phones are coming with 900/1900/2100 WCDMA. It's a strange configuration including 1900 but not 850, whether talking about GSM or WCDMA.
I agree it is always wise for users to test first, but unfortunately, for my personal requirements (using ATT MVNO) it simply has to have it in the states.
I have a home that could be properly described as "the middle of nowhere", at least when it comes to cell phone towers. I've found that 850 is used for voice still in many rural areas and also as an EDGE fallback. Hell, much of the trip just to get there dumps me in and out of pure GSM/EDGE. I just need e-mail, talk, and text when relaxing, so the slow boat is better than drowning I suppose.
That being said, I'm with you that for many (most) areas it should not be an issue and this is an excellent device.
It's just frustrating for me personally regarding Lenovo. I cannot count the times I noticed a wonderful device at a great price, only to be turned away when checking frequencies.
It IS bizarre and I simply do not understand it.
Again and as always, a great review as always and much appreciated!
Depending on how the phone is setup, it will dump us to 2G sometimes long before the 3G signal is too weak to be useful. If you don't want to go through the hassle of disabling bands, there's this app which allows you to set WCDMA only (sometimes available in network settings, sometimes not, thus the app). I've found it to often be quite handy when a phone is too sensitive to switching. Beyond this conversation, might turn out useful
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...ioswitcher
Also, I'm not sure where I got the idea you were on straight talk, so, apologize for the inference.
This thing with leaving out 850 in some cases is really unexplainable. I'm reviewing the Xiaomi Redmi 2, which is 900/1800/1900 GSM and 850/1900/2100 3G. Both lenovo and Xiaomi leaving 850 2G out. For the lesser China brands, I'm thinking they're just being silly, but when Xiaomi and Lenovo do it, I'm wondering what I'm missing. Hence my further pressure to just give it a go with 2G turned off and see what happens. According to a seemingly old article (saying AT&T would be starting with LTE in 2011), AT&T says they have 80% of the population covered by UMTS.. So I'm thinking 4 years later must be even a wider net... Well as I said, just curious.
And really thanks for the compliment regarding the review. Sometimes 10-15 hours on a single review, great to know they're appreciated.