Showing posts with label lte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lte. Show all posts
Friday, May 10, 2013
With the Arrival of LTE on the iPhone 5 the LTE Era Has Began
LTE arrives on the iPhone. With Apple making LTE available for iPhone 5s in the Philippines, I think it is safe to say that the LTE age has arrived. Getting LTE on your postpaid smart iPhone is as easy as applying the latest iOS 6.1 update. Your unlimited data plan, become a unlimited LTE data plan. No word from Globe, but I was told during Globe iPhone launch that Globe iPhone data plans would also automatically become LTE data plans. With the Apple iPhone now having LTE, this now gives you a wider choice on LTE handsets since you now have both iOS and Android options. The Apple iPhone 5 joins the Huawei Ascent P1, Sony Ericsson Xperia V and ZTE T82 as the Philippines first LTE capable phones.
Why place so much emphasize on LTE support for the iPhone 5? When it comes down to the mobile handsets that have the consumers mind share, it really comes down to three models: the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II. For so long as all three handsets in the Philippines did not have LTE, phones with LTE were largely ignored.
Now that the Apple iPhone 5 has LTE active, it truly becomes a cutting edge handset, which will have an incremental upgrade later this year. No matter how much you like the large beautiful Super AMOLED displays and quad core processors on the Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II, they feel like last years handsets soon to be replaced by a LTE capable model, or by a whole new model all-together.
0.4-inches from greatness. The other beneficiary of LTE arriving on the is the Sony Xperia V, which is an excellent smartphone. The problem with the Xperia V is that it came with a 4.3-inch display when the Android standard for a flagship phone was a 4.7-inch or larger screen. With the Apple iPhone 5 toting LTE, the Sony Xperia V becomes its only equivalent competitor. LTE will allow the Sony Xperia V to arise from the large shadow cast by Samsungs Galaxys.
Carrier wars. The Apple iPhone 5 will bring greater public awareness of what LTE is, than all of the marketing that Smart and Globe have poured in for the past one and a half years. With greater public awareness, the fight for which is the best network will focus on which network has the wider LTE coverage.
Rappler has a updated list of Globe Telecom LTE locations and has confirmed download speeds as fast as 35 Mbps:
- Manila Golf and Country Club, Forbes Park
- The Residences, Greenbelt 1
- Rockwell Nestle; Palanan Avenue; Rockwell Condominiums
- Along Ayala Ave. Ext. going to Kamagong St., Along Ayala Ave. Ext. going to Gil Puyat Ave.
- Towards Ayala Ave. going to Buendia; towards Ayala Avenue going to Edsa; towards Dela Rosa
- EDSA; South Luzon Expressway (SLEx); A. Arnaiz Ave.; Bangkal
- Jupiter St.; Kalayaan; Bel-Air 1 Village; Bel-Air 2 Village
- Gil Puyat Ave.; Bel-Air 2 Village; Salcedo Village
- Pasong Tamo Extension; Dasmarinas Village
- H.V. dela Costa St.; Valero St.; Salcedo Village
- Indoor coverage - Manila Peninsula Hotel, Makati
- McKinley Road; Forbes Park; Dasmarinas Village
- Indoor coverage - Makati Medical Center
Smart LTE is now available in eleven cities. Displaying a list would be too long, and it would be easier to simply display them on maps.
For more details on Smart LTE, click this link (Smart Communications).
With the LTE era having began, it looks like Globe and Samsung are caught playing catchup.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
HTC DROID Incredible 4G LTE
In a market where big smartphones control supreme though, Verizon and HTC seem to think that a smaller device can still fascinate some jaded consumers. As a result they’ve put together the Droid Incredible 4G LTE, a poorly named device that manages to squeeze a surprising amount of control into a relatively small frame.
Features:
-4.0-inch qHD Super LCD display
-Runs Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4.0
-1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor
-1GB of RAM
-8GB of onboard storage, accepts microSD cards as large as 32GB
-NFC
-8-megapixel rear camera, VGA front-facing camera
-MSRP: $149 with a two-year contract, available as of July 5, 2012
Pros:
-Great Super LCD display
-Plenty of horsepower for daily tasks
-Solid build quality
Cons:
-Screen may seem too small for some
-Verizon loaded it up with quite a bit of bloatware
-It’s not terribly handsome
The first item I noticed about about the Droid Incredible 4G LTE is just how small it felt in my hands. After months of toting around a Galaxy Nexus, it was actually kind of shocking. The Incredible 4G is just a hair wider than the iPhone 4S, but its taller build and slightly narrower screen make it seem leaner than it actually is. Even so, the device has a well-constructed feel to it — it has a soothing heft to it and a quick bit of bending yielded none of the tell-tale creaking sounds that epidemic lower-end handsets.
Camera:
Here’s the thing concerning the Incredible 4G’s camera — it sports an 8-megapixel rear sensor and the ImageSense camera UI like its cousins in the One series, but it doesn’t seem to have the distinct ImageChip that HTC is so proud of. That said, though, images were sharp and colors were bright there’s some distinct graininess when light levels dip.
HTC’s ImageSense UI makes up for things a bit by putting plenty of controls at the user’s fingertips without becoming overwhelming. Settings and scene modes are associated vertically along the left side of the screen, while the shutter button, video toggle, and a full array of artsy filters can be accessed with one touch.
The Incredible 4G also shoots some impressive video, though there’s plenty of room for perfection There’s plenty of wiggle to be seen even with the video stabilization option turned on, so users will have to be extra careful so their recordings don’t turn into wobbling messes. On top of that, auto focus is awfully slow when recording video, so be prepared to tap-to-focus more often than not.
Display:
Let’s be real here: the screen is not going to work for everyone. It wasn’t that long ago that a 4-inch display would’ve gotten us handset geeks all hot and bothered, but those days have passed and the Incredible’s screen is left looking a little weak compared the flashy big guys on the market.
Say what you will about its size, but the Incredible 4G’s 4-inch Super LCD display is a very pleasing addition to the package. Colors were bright and well-reproduced, viewing angles were brilliant and visibility in sunlight was solid (though you’ll have to be mindful about cranking up the brightness).
Performance:
The Incredible 4G may be small, but it packs some considerable power under the hood thanks to its 1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 chipset (the Adreno 220 GPU doesn’t hurt either). From a purely anecdotal standpoint, I didn’t see a single hiccup as I swiped though the Incredible 4G’s menus and scrolled through long lists of links on a handful of websites. Similarly, the Incredible handled my usual test suite of HD videos and games with aplomb — this little guy has plenty of oomph.
The Incredible 4G’s average Quadrant score was 4098 — understandably not quite as high as the HTC One S (4371) since it sports a more robust spec sheet, but it’s awfully close. Meanwhile, it put the Galaxy Nexus (2730) to shame, though that seems to be a recurring trend with the devices I’ve played with recently. In short, the new Incredible should have no trouble keeping up with your daily grind.
Battery:
I wasn’t expect much out of the Incredible 4G when it came to its removable 1700 mAh battery. My iffy past experience with the original Incredible subconsciously soured me for the Incredible 4G’s potential, but it ended up performing better than I hoped. as using the Incredible 4G as my daily driver, I was easily able to get through an entire day of taking calls, firing off emails/texts, and sneaking in the occasional YouTube video before my battery went critical.
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