S3 international vs US branded

[mikol]

First of all - hello to all.

I'm fairly new to androidcentral but have been a lurker in a partner site for a while now.

My dilemma stems from the fact that in the Dominican Republic we still don't have LTE - but they say its coming.

So - buy the international version from amazon today - or wait for a carrier to release it in the states? How are carrier updates vs international updates?

Tough decisions...

 

[RaiderWill]

First of all - hello to all.

I'm fairly new to androidcentral but have been a lurker in a partner site for a while now.

My dilemma stems from the fact that in the Dominican Republic we still don't have LTE - but they say its coming.

So - buy the international version from amazon today - or wait for a carrier to release it in the states? How are carrier updates vs international updates?

Tough decisions...

Hello mweinerth.. The International's updates will be faster.. The U.S. carrier's force any updates to pass their validation first.. and then they push the updates out at each carrier's discretion.. maybe since this will be the 1st " Universal " U.S. phone, they will change that and finally all carrriers will push any updates at once.

 

[20blks]

International updates always come first. Carriers have to brand them etc.

 

[Cruiserdude]

Well if you live in the Dominican Republic, I see no reason to get a US carrier version, unless that US carrier has a presence in your country. I don't see how you could get support, or any software updates, if you have a carrier version of a phone and are not in the same country as the carrier. If you expect your carrier will get LTE at some point soon, I'm sure they would offer an LTE version. Or, I would expect Samsung themselves will release an unbranded international LTE version, as they have done with previous phones. There's talk that there will be a Korea-only version that has the Exynos quad with LTE support in the near future.

Regardless, no reason to get a version of the phone that won't be supported officially in your area. I would expect the US versions to get better battery life than the international, especially if you aren't using it on an LTE network. But the international will likely have slightly better performance, and again is the supported version in your area. Get the international, and if your carrier rolls out LTE soon, sell your phone (it should hold its value for awhile) and get their LTE version.

 

[anon(522296)]

great advice I have the international on ATT, runs absolutely FLAWLESS!! When LTE comes to my area I'm thinking of getting the branded one...depends how the updates go but HSPA+ is more than fast enough, managing 8mb download speed, but LTE is twice that, then again I'm thinking can the device truly process more? I wonder what the limit is, for instance if a webpage loads at 7 sec on HSPA what would it be on LTE, can't be much more because of the limitations happening with device rendering etc. Right??

 

[Ry]

First of all - hello to all.

I'm fairly new to androidcentral but have been a lurker in a partner site for a while now.

My dilemma stems from the fact that in the Dominican Republic we still don't have LTE - but they say its coming.

So - buy the international version from amazon today - or wait for a carrier to release it in the states? How are carrier updates vs international updates?

Tough decisions...

What bands will the Dominican Republic carriers use for LTE?

 

[mikol]

What bands will the Dominican Republic carriers use for LTE?

excellent question. Nobody knows...

I suppose Orange will be bringing the phone - but they normally have a few months delay.

 

[mikol]

Anyone order from amazon? They have both colors without warranty...

Don't know if its a good idea.

 

[wilfreb]

Hi friend. I live in dominicana also and i own the GS3.

I got th global version since the USA version will only work with Claro band 850 and the US Galaxy phones are too slow for updating the OS.

If you get the global version it will work on 3G on Orange 900 band (dominicana best 3G network) and Claro 850 band.

If you need eny help just emailme at wilfreb@gmail.com

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Android Central Forums

 

[neoflasher]

Hi friend. I live in dominicana also and i own the GS3.

I got th global version since the USA version will only work with Claro band 850 and the US Galaxy phones are too slow for updating the OS.

If you get the global version it will work on 3G on Orange 900 band (dominicana best 3G network) and Claro 850 band.

If you need eny help just emailme at wilfreb@gmail.com

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Android Central Forums

AT&T version will also work 3G in DR and perfect with Claro or Orange.

 

[wilfreb]

AT&T version will also work 3G in DR and perfect with Claro or Orange.

it wont, it will work just on Claro's 850 3G band

Orange uses 3G+ only with the 900 band.

Samsung Galaxy S III I747 - Full phone specifications