AT&T Comparison: Nexus 4 w/ HSPA+ vs. Phone w/ LTE?

[Andrew Martonik]

it seems to me that download speeds on hspa+ (especially with decent tmo coverage) are perfectly acceptable for every day day use. LTE's big difference maker is upload speed and pings. My question is what does this mean in practical terms? If this equates to nothing more than a few extra seconds to upload pictures to Facebook then I could care less. Am I missing anything?

It'll only matter if you're uploading large files. When uploading a < 5MB picture, it just won't matter.

Pings are noticeable when you're loading webpages and things, but HSPA+ pings aren't exactly high... 100-200ms range.

 

[natehoy]

Does your Pantech Flex have a way to turn off LTE? Most phones do. Turn it off for a week and you have your absolute worst case scenario. If you can live with that for a few weeks, you'll probably love the Nexus.

Speeds are so location dependent it's hard to say. My wife's HSPA phone can sometimes outrun my Verizon LTE one when I do get LTE, and I can rarely sustain LTE anyway.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[cnguyen0320]

Does your Pantech Flex have a way to turn off LTE? Most phones do. Turn it off for a week and you have your absolute worst case scenario. If you can live with that for a few weeks, you'll probably love the Nexus.

Speeds are so location dependent it's hard to say. My wife's HSPA phone can sometimes outrun my Verizon LTE one when I do get LTE, and I can rarely sustain LTE anyway.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

This

 

[anon(580888)]

Re: AT&amp;T Comparison: Nexus 4 w/ HSPA+ vs. Phone w/ LTE?

Does your Pantech Flex have a way to turn off LTE? Most phones do. Turn it off for a week and you have your absolute worst case scenario. If you can live with that for a few weeks, you'll probably love the Nexus.

Speeds are so location dependent it's hard to say. My wife's HSPA phone can sometimes outrun my Verizon LTE one when I do get LTE, and I can rarely sustain LTE anyway.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

I completely understand, I just get worried when I see quotes like the one below and would feel more comfortable seeing hard numbers confirming/denying as opposed to subjective opinions. Yes, even despite the fact that location is still a big factor.

(from Samsung Galaxy S3 vs LG Nexus 4: Can?t Pick? This?ll Help | Autoomobile):
"First up. Does the lack of LTE make a difference? If you are currently on AT&T and using a LTE device then going back from 4G to 3G for the LG Nexus 4 would be like going back from using a broadband connection to dial up. With LTE web pages load up so much faster and many people wouldn?t consider going back."​

Another interesting question -- does AT&T have any plans to upgrade to HSPA+ 42, or is it potentially possible for them to do so sometime in the future? Is it a difficult/costly upgrade? That would be a pretty big selling point for the Nexus 4 on AT&T, as it appears to be widely agreed upon that HSPA+ 42 is pretty close to LTE in terms of speed standards.

 

[Woosh]

Re: AT&amp;T Comparison: Nexus 4 w/ HSPA+ vs. Phone w/ LTE?

I completely understand, I just get worried when I see quotes like the one below and would feel more comfortable seeing hard numbers confirming/denying as opposed to subjective opinions. Yes, even despite the fact that location is still a big factor.

(from Samsung Galaxy S3 vs LG Nexus 4: Can?t Pick? This?ll Help | Autoomobile):
"First up. Does the lack of LTE make a difference? If you are currently on AT&T and using a LTE device then going back from 4G to 3G for the LG Nexus 4 would be like going back from using a broadband connection to dial up. With LTE web pages load up so much faster and many people wouldn?t consider going back."​

Another interesting question -- does AT&T have any plans to upgrade to HSPA+ 42, or is it potentially possible for them to do so sometime in the future? Is it a difficult/costly upgrade? That would be a pretty big selling point for the Nexus 4 on AT&T, as it appears to be widely agreed upon that HSPA+ 42 is pretty close to LTE in terms of speed standards.

No, they are in process of phasing out HSPA totally.

Of coarse that's another 10+ years away.

 

[DC Wuff]

Re: AT&amp;T Comparison: Nexus 4 w/ HSPA+ vs. Phone w/ LTE?

The few times I've hit Sprint LTE, the blazing speed certainly brought a "wow factor". But honestly, the biggest thing it brought was elation that I actually had a serviceable data connection. If I can average in excess of 1MB down wherever I go, I will be thrilled with the Nexus 4 on AT&T's HSPA+.

 

[IceCode979]

Dolfan085 ~ I admire your patience in trying to get your point across, but it seems you are not going to get your answers
I have been reading so many reviews daily for the N4 and I always wondered how come we don't see speedtests side by side on at&t and T-mobile. Especially from those who currently have the device, they bother by telling us how this is the best processor in market, but no actual data...

Good luck and please if you find an answer, come back and post it here

 

[Andrew Martonik]

Dolfan085 ~ I admire your patience in trying to get your point across, but it seems you are not going to get your answers
I have been reading so many reviews daily for the N4 and I always wondered how come we don't see speedtests side by side on at&t and T-mobile. Especially from those who currently have the device, they bother by telling us how this is the best processor in market, but no actual data...

Its because it doesn't matter what the data speed is in someone else's city. It matters how the speeds are in your city.

 

[natehoy]

Re: AT&amp;T Comparison: Nexus 4 w/ HSPA+ vs. Phone w/ LTE?

I completely understand, I just get worried when I see quotes like the one below and would feel more comfortable seeing hard numbers confirming/denying as opposed to subjective opinions. Yes, even despite the fact that location is still a big factor.

(from Samsung Galaxy S3 vs LG Nexus 4: Can?t Pick? This?ll Help | Autoomobile):
"First up. Does the lack of LTE make a difference? If you are currently on AT&T and using a LTE device then going back from 4G to 3G for the LG Nexus 4 would be like going back from using a broadband connection to dial up. With LTE web pages load up so much faster and many people wouldn?t consider going back."​

You are getting a much faster phone on a slower network ("much" slower versus just "slower" is a matter of perception - using my HTC Thunderbolt I really can't perceive all that much of a difference in daily use between LTE and Verizon's 3G, which is horribad slow compared to HSPA+.

My wife's Galaxy S2 on AT&T HSPA+ Faux-G "feels" faster than my Thunderbolt on full-on LTE, because her phone has more memory and a faster processor and can render what it gets a lot faster, and because HSPA+ isn't orders of magnitude slower than LTE. HSPA+ is, around here, approximately half the speed of LTE around here on average. And both are pretty damned fast when it comes to things like rendering web pages. The rendering engine in the phone just as much of a factor, honestly, my wife's phone has Ice Cream Sammy while I'm still Gingerbreading.

About the only time LTE comes in handy is for things like streaming video or not waiting as long to autoupload pictures to Google+ when I'm out and about, and it's such a battery drain that I really have little practical value for it. I have actually turned off LTE even though I spend about half my time in LTE coverage, and forced my LTE phone to Verizon 3G only. And honestly I don't see much difference for my daily uses. Sure, a few things are slower sometimes. But not by much.

As to the HSPA+42, I sincerely doubt it. I'm sure AT&T is focused on LTE. They aren't going to drop big dough on anything but the new sexy, and that's LTE. Nationwide adoption of LTE on anything currently GSM/HSPA-based is more than a year out, and the only carrier using LTE right now requires a proprietary CDMA fallback and doesn't allow outsiders on their network anyway.

The Nexus will have an LTE radio once there is an adopted US standard for LTE that doesn't require a fallback to CDMA as part of the package to make it useful. Until then, HSPA+21 is half as fast as HSPA+42 which is close to real-world LTE speeds, and you'll have a phone capable of taking full advantage of that speed.

 

[natehoy]

Dolfan085 ~ I admire your patience in trying to get your point across, but it seems you are not going to get your answers
I have been reading so many reviews daily for the N4 and I always wondered how come we don't see speedtests side by side on at&t and T-mobile. Especially from those who currently have the device, they bother by telling us how this is the best processor in market, but no actual data...

Good luck and please if you find an answer, come back and post it here

Speed tests are dependent on four factors:

1. What technology is being used? - this determines the theoretical maximum possible speed.
2. How big is the backbone network (the network behind the wireless network that actually gets you to the Internet)? - this determines the real-world maximum possible speed.
3. How many other people are on the same tower at the same time, and how saturated are both the wireless and backbone of that tower? - this determines your current available maximum speed.
4. How strong is your signal to the tower? Weaker signal and a lower signal-to-noise ratio decreases the size of the pipe you are pulling data through and can cause a need for packet resends.

The only meaningful nationwide test is #1, and we can already determine that from simple specifications on the network protocol being used. #2 depends on the carrier's effort into building good backbone, which will vary from location to location and sometimes even tower to tower. #3 will vary constantly. #4 may differ from place to place because if Carrier A's tower is 1/4 mile away and Carrier B's tower is 10 miles away, it'll skew the test.

The only way to compare is to send out hordes of people with different phones on different networks all reporting speed tests frequently, and the data will only be useful somewhere that a dozen people with a dozen different models of phone have all taken samples of all possible carriers over a length of time so temporary network congestion has a chance to show up.

Taking the same phone and testing two carriers on it side-by-side is only meaningful in that spot, and only if you know the signal strengths are pretty even and the tower congestion is typical for that carrier at that tower. Move 5 miles in one direction, and the test you just did is probably meaningless.

Only Sensorly, OpenSignalMaps, and similar projects are attempting to collect data at the type of scale necessary to vet out real-world network performance metrics, and not enough people care enough to gather data for them, despite the really cool collection tools each group provides. Most of the data for Verizon in my area was collected by me, and data for most other carriers simply does not exist where I live. Everyone wants the data, but so few people actually contribute the minimal effort necessary to help collect it (install an app and let it run while you drive around).

 

[erwaso]

I agree that would be interesting to see. I have the Gnex on At&t and had the Iphone 5. LTE is much faster, about five times faster in my area. On average I get 2-5 Mbps on HSPDA and 20-29 Mbps on LTE.

That's what I get on my AT&T one x in Denver.

 

[SeanNYC76]

I'm in NYC and get roughly 25-30 Kbps on both my LTE devices . I'm really interested in seeing how the N4 would perform, I'm guessing with at&t it would be comparable to data speeds that the iPhone 4S was getting out here, which was about 2-5 Kbps on the average. Which isn't terrible but is a huge step back.

What I want to see is how the N4 speeds are on at&t's HSPA+ vs Tmobile's. If TMO is that much faster I'll switch one of my lines over and go that route.

 

[jimmiekain]

AC Team,

Any chance you could do a side by side comparison of the Nexus 4 on AT&T HSPA+ vs. a phone with comparable specs on AT&T's LTE network? Specifically, test out going to web pages, stream from Google Music, etc.

Reasoning ---
I have a Pantech Flex (which I had to get when I lost my GNex, sad story), and it has LTE (I live in an AT&T LTE-enabled city). I absolutely love the Nexus line, and am 90% sold on buying it, but I want to see a side-by-side comparison of how much my connection will suffer downgrading back to AT&T HSPA+, which is most definitely not that fast.

Also, this is a great test to (hopefully) soothe the worries of those of us on AT&T who don't have the luxury of T-Mobile's much faster HSPA+ network and are thus more concerned about the lack of LTE.

Thank you!

There are a few videos on you tube of people doing speed tests. I think you would get the most accurate results if you went to the nearest at&t store and did a few speed test on the iphone 4s (because its HSPA+) and the iphone 5 (because its LTE if LTE is available in your area)

Good luck!

 

[Saiga]

The speed tests people do on their own are so one sided. It only shows the speed they have, Don't mean squat about the speeds or coverage you will see in your area. But it is kind of interesting to see. I just seen this speed test come out across twitter, and T-Mobile gave Verizon and AT&T a serious beat-down. Like it wasn't even close. T-Mobile's slowest time was nearly twice as fast as Verizon's fastest time. Lol kinda shocking.

But that just goes to show that speed tests don't really mean anything. Where I live Verizon is the fastest by far, T-Mobile is a close second, and At&t doesn't even have LTE. The only way to know for sure is test the devices and networks yourself and in your area. And that isn't very easy to do.

 

[theguildedcunt]

ATT LTE in my apt is 2343 kbps down and 4818 up, for what it's worth. I was thinking about doing the same thing as the OP. I had a phone break and got a subsidized HTC One X+ from ATT. I really want to get the Nexus 4 for the stock android, but the 16GB internal storage and no-LTE really has me torn. What the hell were they thinking with that internal storage capacity and lack of LTE?

 

[planoman]

I think it depends on how much you use the mobile data. There is a noticeable difference in accessing many web pages from my Nexus 4 versus my Note 2 both on ATT. I live in a very strong LTE area (average 30-50 down) and throughout Texas for that matter. I had a SGSIII which I sold a while back because it was not getting much up time against my Note 2. I then bought a Nexus 4 to use primarily on the weekends because my Note 2 does not go well with athletic shorts & sweat pants because of size and weight.

I really liked the Nexus experience with my Nexus 7 and wanted the Nexus 4. A few things concerned me. HSPA+, Battery life and storage.

1. HSPA+ is simply no match for LTE. It is bearable but only because I know on Monday I am going back to my Note 2 and much of my weekend is spent on wifi or I am using my laptop or Nexus 7. I did a speed test 2 days ago on my Nexus 4 and got almost 8 down and 1 up. Again bearable but I do not know if I could do that full time. I am able to stream Pandora and my music from Google Music. I have also watched netflix and can check my security cameras from my phone so HSPA+ is still functional but still not a long term option for me since so much of where I live and work are LTE areas.

2. Battery life is certainly less than the Note 2 but seems comparable with my SGSIII. As a road warrior (sales manager) I travel a bit and already have the portable battery packs to plug into if needed and every charging cord I need for the road. Overall I think this was better than I was expecting. For a full day you may need to top off for 30 minutes to keep it going but not bad.

3. Storage is a concern but I have come to grips with the fact that it is just not as big a deal as I thought. After loading every app I wanted, 65 apps (No Games) I still had no pictures, videos, or music and still had 12.1 GB of storage left. I have a 64GB Micro SD card in my Note 2 and like 58 or 59 GB free. I guess I just always wanted it in case I need it but am just not a 10,000 song person. Enter the cloud! I signed up and transferred all my songs from itunes to Google Play Music. I signed up for Google Drive which gives you 5 GB of cloud storage and 25GB for 30 a year if you need it. Of course these are highly integrated apps you can use on your Andriod phone. Google Drive even has an app for the ipad.

So overall I really like my Nexus 4 and will like it more when the next OS hits and everyone is complaining about updating etc...worse case senario you can buy one and if you do not like it there is a thriving market for resell. Not to mention when I rooted my Note 2 I deleted 12-14 apps of bloatware. I getting to the point where I hate it!

 

[jweimn]

I'm in NYC and get roughly 25-30 Kbps on both my LTE devices . I'm really interested in seeing how the N4 would perform, I'm guessing with at&t it would be comparable to data speeds that the iPhone 4S was getting out here, which was about 2-5 Kbps on the average. Which isn't terrible but is a huge step back.

What I want to see is how the N4 speeds are on at&t's HSPA+ vs Tmobile's. If TMO is that much faster I'll switch one of my lines over and go that route.

Are you sure you dont mean mb? And not kbs?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[greydarrah]

Having tried ATT H+, I thought it was pretty lousy. I'm sure LTE will smoke it. I would like to see Tmo H+ compared to ATT LTE. My ATT H+ speeds were usually around 6mb down at best, where my Tmo H+ speeds range from 12 to 20mb down.

 

[planoman]

Having tried ATT H+, I thought it was pretty lousy. I'm sure LTE will smoke it. I would like to see Tmo H+ compared to ATT LTE. My ATT H+ speeds were usually around 6mb down at best, where my Tmo H+ speeds range from 12 to 20mb down.

My wife has T mobile in a 42 mbps market and when she is in a good zone it is quite impressive, but still no match for ATT LTE. Most places in the DFW area, T mobile is no match for ATT LTE in our experience.

 

[donm527#IM]

yep. doesnt really matter if someone was able to provide results on this thread or even if they had video to prove all is well or worse unless he lives in your backyard and roams the same area..

i live in north laud and it differs from when i'm home, 1 miles away, or in west palm or miami or tampa. and probably the same for lte. but the range for me is between 3-6-10 (10+ in tampa). and for lte i've seen the variance between 10-20. so there is your measured difference.

i dont know if i'm just imagining... but i find my HSPA performance in general has improved over time.. maybe as more people go on lte phones... less traffic on HSPA+. i kinda felt that when i had my 1st gen iphone and people were jumping to 3G.

imo, performance diff would be the same as the difference between a iphone 4S (HSPA+) and iphone 5 (LTE). both fast machines but a tick faster on the 5 and I account that for LTE more than processor from by obervations. you're gonna see the load.download difference against a buddy with a lte in a good area... but the main issue is that most of the time i dont find myself hurtin waiting for pages to load or downloading stuff. i find it faster than my iphone 4s actually.

Its because it doesn't matter what the data speed is in someone else's city. It matters how the speeds are in your city.