How Important is LTE? Looking for a Dual Sim Phone

[Neil4Speed]

Hey Guys,

I'm hunting out for a new phone in the next few months. I currently have a work phone (Iphone 5s) and a personal phone (Xperia T LT30a), and would like to consolidate down to something which can accept dual sim so I can have a single device for work and personal.

I'm looking at the different devices that are out there, and the Moto G2/Samsung Galaxy Grand II seemed quite appealing, good price point and supposedly a very good device - There are others as well. The only problem is that it doesn't have LTE, just HSPA+. The only dual sim phones in my price range that have LTE are the Zenphone 5 and ZTE Nubia Z7 mini... which have pretty underwhelming specs tied to them.

Just wondering, in Calgary, on Fido, is there a significant speed difference between LTE and HSPA?

[Mibz]

I -just- got an LTE phone a couple weeks ago and haven't really noticed a difference, but I don't do large downloads, I don't regularly watch movies, etc. For daily texting, emailing and web browsing it's been pretty much the same. Having a faster phone itself has done way more for me than having a faster network.

[thetransporter]

unless you need 30 megabits a second/faster than many peoples home internet action after passing it off over wifi- you are fine with less than LTE.

[quick_scar]

I actually turned LTE off on my nexus 5. I find the coverage is better on 3G and I actually get better speed when the phone is not trying to hunt for that one bar of LTE vs 3 bars of 3G. I find it mostly helps when in my office building downtown. Coverage is crap in some of these buildings.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I'm on FIDO LTE, and with my Nexus 5, have service everywhere I go, and I notice it to be definitely faster than the 3G/HSPA+ which switches on and off all the time. I don't stream video, but I do a lot of web browsing, email attachments, etc. over LTE and I love the near instant response times.

My iPhone is only on 3G and it's the slowest thing I have ever used, but I suspect many more factors are at play haha. The download speed I get from that thing at 5 bars on 3G is hilariously bad. I can't comment on the 3G/HSPA-only newer phones though.

[revelations]

But with LTE, youtube worked faster for me while I was standing in line !!!!


ie, LTE is useless unless you like to stream live TV to your phone and love to pay the rape data fees associated with it. The faster you stream, the quicker the telcos run up your bill.

For me to get an email msg 1 second faster isnt worth it.

[gpomp]

LTE is usually faster than my wifi at home....

[eiysa101]

It helps when your trying to watch xvideos in the washroom and you don't wanna wait for buffering

[Mitsu3000gt]

Unless you're streaming HD video or internet radio all day every day, LTE isn't going to make you use more data. I have 2GB, do literally whatever I want on my phone without a second thought, tons of downloads, emails, attachments, etc. and I barely even hit 1 GB/mo.

[16hypen3sp]

So does anyone find LTE coverage very spotty? I have a 5s with Rogers and the most bars I can get with LTE is 3... and getting LTE coverage is rare at best on my phone. Even in Red Deer/Edmonton/Calgary, I rarely get an LTE signal and when I do its usually a single bar... I guess I can chalk that up to Rogers.

Not that it totally matters right now anyways. LTE is certainly faster but not really needed for the stuff I do on my phone.

[googe]

4G is fine, definitely don't need LTE. I doubt anyone would even notice. If you did notice, you can't take advantage of it anyway because data caps are ridiculously low and lagging behind the technology by about 10 years. So you'll be 3 phones away from it mattering at all.

[r3ccOs]

i thought I wouldn't need LTE, but I much prefer it.

[BigMass]

you need it so you can stream 1080p videos and blow through your data cap in 5 minutes. It's rather pointless. If I'm doing any heavy usage like torrenting or watching youtube and such it's always over wifi anyway. Might be useful when they implement unlimited data and never throttle your speeds.

[Neil4Speed]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I think I'll go without instead of getting some random phone brand from Asia.