T-Mobile LTE Network Performance

[TechBob]

Just got this phone. Don't know how I missed seeing it. Absolutely great. One question. On running some initial tests it seems that it is slower than my LG V20 with LTE speed even though they should have comparable capabilities. It may be just how T-MOBILE is working right now in my area. So, question, what kind of LTE performance are you seeing on T-MOBILE? In parts of my town I have seen 50-70 Mbps on my LG V20. As I have snail paced DSL in my home fast performance on my cellphone is very important to me. I have the MHA-L29 from Amazon.

Thanks.

 

[pkcable]

My T-Mobile LTE depends on where I am, it can be as slow as 5-12 M, or slower in center city Philadelphia which has BAD wireless saturation for ALL carriers (Verizon was just as bad for me at "work") BUT when I am at home or out and about in the neighborhoods of Philly I often see the 50-70 (or more) that you are talking about, and certainly at least 20-30.

I have an S8 and an Iphone 7 Plus.

 

[dpham00]

Are these on the same LTE band? That could make a big difference.

 

[pkcable]

Well the MHA-L29 does have all of T-Mobile's LTE bands. I had no issues with it when I had it. That's a Mate 9 for those not familiar with the item number name. lol It doesn't have the "new" 600mhz frequency though, which most of us don't have available to us either.

 

[dpham00]

Well the MHA-L29 does have all of T-Mobile's LTE bands. I had no issues with it when I had it. That's a Mate 9 for those not familiar with the item number name. lol It doesn't have the "new" 600mhz frequency though, which most of us don't have available to us either.

Sure but different phones can choose different bands, even if they all support the same bands. I have seen significant speed differences on the same carrier with phones capable of the same bands,which is why i asked.


Also Carrier aggregation can come into play.

 

[TechBob]

No silicon currently supports 600Mhz although it is rumored that the Qualcomm modem currently paired with the Snapdragon 835 is being tweaked as we speak and NEW 835 projects such as the Note 8 MAY support that. But I live in the Chicago suburbs and we won't see 600Mhz for years. Sadly.

 

[TechBob]

Sure but different phones can choose different bands, even if they all support the same bands. I have seen significant speed differences on the same carrier with phones capable of the same bands,which is why i asked.


Also Carrier aggregation can come into play.

Carrier aggregation is what I have been pondering and it is the one question I can't answer. The Mate 9 is supposed to support it in general but apps like LTE Discovery don't seem to work. Yes, they show an LTE connection but no band detail at all. Other apps act the same way. That is why I am asking for input as I can't tell by the normal means

 

[TechBob]

My T-Mobile LTE depends on where I am, it can be as slow as 5-12 M, or slower in center city Philadelphia which has BAD wireless saturation for ALL carriers (Verizon was just as bad for me at "work") BUT when I am at home or out and about in the neighborhoods of Philly I often see the 50-70 (or more) that you are talking about, and certainly at least 20-30.

I have an S8 and an iPhone 7 Plus.

So, you are the person that can answer my question. I have recently tested an iPhone 7 Plus and it does get comparable data throughput to my V20-. The S8 has the most advanced modem Qualcomm offers. How does your Mate 9 compare to those devices? The same, slower or possibly faster? Spec-wise the Mate 9 COULD be the fastest modem although detailed specs are hard to find. I am just trying to determine how comparable the performance is with other top end products. Thanks.

 

[dpham00]

Carrier aggregation is what I have been pondering and it is the one question I can't answer. The Mate 9 is supposed to support it in general but apps like LTE Discovery don't seem to work. Yes, they show an LTE connection but no band detail at all. Other apps act the same way. That is why I am asking for input as I can't tell by the normal means

Have you tried to contact the developer of the apps? They might be able to update the app to provide the data you need.

 

[pkcable]

So, you are the person that can answer my question. I have recently tested an iPhone 7 Plus and it does get comparable data throughput to my V20-. The S8 has the most advanced modem Qualcomm offers. How does your Mate 9 compare to those devices? The same, slower or possibly faster? Spec-wise the Mate 9 COULD be the fastest modem although detailed specs are hard to find. I am just trying to determine how comparable the performance is with other top end products. Thanks.

Well I don't have the Mate 9 anymore so I'm going on memory, BUT I do remember it keeping pace with the my iPhone 7 Plus, BUT I own an S8 now and THAT has been beating the iPhone in speed tests. Last night my brother and I both ran speed tests at my parents house. On my s8 I was getting over 100M (100-120) down (30 to 40M up) at the same time on my iPhone I was getting 70-80 down and 20-30 up. My bother got similar to the iPhone speeds on his LG V10.

So for sure the S8 is a notch above, but I'm going to say as I recall the Mate 9 was in the same class as the iPhone.

 

[dpham00]

Well I don't have the Mate 9 anymore so I'm going on memory, BUT I do remember it keeping pace with the my iPhone 7 Plus, BUT I own an S8 now and THAT has been beating the iPhone in speed tests. Last night my brother and I both ran speed tests at my parents house. On my s8 I was getting over 100M (100-120) down (30 to 40M up) at the same time on my iPhone I was getting 70-80 down and 20-30 up. My bother got similar to the iPhone speeds on his LG V10.

So for sure the S8 is a notch above, but I'm going to say as I recall the Mate 9 was in the same class as the iPhone.

Well the s8 supports more features like qam256 and 4x4 mimo. Depends on what the tower has too.

Peak speeds on my s8+ exceeded 200mbps. iPhone 7 plus was around 160ish. Apple intentionally dumbed down my iPhone 7 Plus with the Qualcomm baseband processor to match the inferior performance of the Intel baseband processor. So it doesn't surprise me that the mate 9 gets slower speeds than the s8+, because it isn't as feature rich, radio wise.

 

[pkcable]

Additionally the S8 and other forthcoming phones will support T-Mobiles just releasing LTE-U technology (or whatever it's called) that they are rolling out on their newly acquired 600mhrz spectrum. Not yet in Philly.

 

[dpham00]

Additionally the S8 and other forthcoming phones will support T-Mobiles just releasing LTE-U technology (or whatever it's called) that they are rolling out on their newly acquired 600mhrz spectrum. Not yet in Philly.

Lte-U refers to unlicensed spectrum (like Wi-Fi) , i believe in the 5ghz range, which only the s8 is capable of utilizing on T-Mobile but currently has bee deployed in 6 smaller cities. I am not sure if unlocked phones in the future like a future mate will support it anytime soon

600mhz is licensed spectrum that T-Mobile won at the FCC as auction. This hasn't been deployed for public use yet but is upcoming. Not sure if the s8 will be able to use this.