tmobile got the Note 2 this morning

[Infrnl]

Northern Virginia suburbs.
The "4g" is about 15-16 mbit.

Oh, the device itself is capable of much higher speeds. Supposedly it will work on Tmobiles future 4g which will be closer to 40 or 50.

Thanks. I'm going to try the t mobile $30 plan for a month to see how service works for me here. I want to compare to my current att. The bad thing is I'm stuck with my iphone4 which is not capable of full speeds anyway. If I do not go Verizon, I will do t mobile or straight talk for a while.
Att is supposed to start lte here in Colorado by the end of the yr. I need speed and coverage but Colorado has a lot of shady areas, especially on att from my experience

 

[Fire&Blood]

Played with it in the store. Dwarfs my Gnex. I have huge hands, so size wasn't an issue for me, the salesman had trouble using it without both hands.
The phone is very fast and it's got some tricks up it's sleeves. For the price though, I have to nitpick. I would buy it with Exynos 5 and a software mix of google stock and Note essential stuff.

 

[shortylickens]

OK, so far I like. Cant stick in shirt pocket but thats a minor gripe.

Even with wifi I get two full days of battery. Actually, I think the wifi auto-disables but EITHER WAY, I am happy.

Also liking the improvements to google maps. True offline navigation, downloaded all of northern virginia and it was only about 20 megs. Accurate up to date road info. Fast traffic updates. Games look good, even when not optimized for HD. Only thing I dont like is some nitpicks with the app drawer organization and the loudspeaker. Its fine for ring tones and such, but lousy for music.
I intend to use headphones for music anyway, but still.
Oh, and the only thing I miss from WP7 is games are automatically in the Xbox app, not scattered all over my main app list.
And I guess the TmobileWare and SamsungWare is annoying but with all the space I got, it doesnt really matter.

 

[WelshBloke]

Play Music's utter crap, I bought an album and a few songs off it when I had my Note 1. I didn't know at the time the songs only show up and play in Googles crappy Play app. I don't like their music player at all. Took a ton of hacking for me to get the songs to work where I could listen to them in my music player of choice. I don't know why Google has an option in their player to save the media from the cloud directly to your phone. Only to have such stupid restrictions on actually playing it.

Or you could just download them onto your PC then sync them using whatever you wanted.

 

[dougp]

OK, so far I like. Cant stick in shirt pocket but thats a minor gripe.

Even with wifi I get two full days of battery. Actually, I think the wifi auto-disables but EITHER WAY, I am happy.

Also liking the improvements to google maps. True offline navigation, downloaded all of northern virginia and it was only about 20 megs. Accurate up to date road info. Fast traffic updates. Games look good, even when not optimized for HD. Only thing I dont like is some nitpicks with the app drawer organization and the loudspeaker. Its fine for ring tones and such, but lousy for music.
I intend to use headphones for music anyway, but still.
Oh, and the only thing I miss from WP7 is games are automatically in the Xbox app, not scattered all over my main app list.
And I guess the TmobileWare and SamsungWare is annoying but with all the space I got, it doesnt really matter.

Have you rooted, or do you plan on rooting?

 

[Robert Munch]

I'm on the fence if I should get the Note 2 or the new Nexus 4. I'm without an Android at the moment. I got two days left on my TMo pre-paid plan.

 

[Raduque]

I hate you. So jealous.

 

[shortylickens]

Have you rooted, or do you plan on rooting?

Nope. 4.1 has pretty much made that a non-issue for me. I havent even thought about rooting until you guys brought it up.
I get excellent performance, great battery life, and it does more than I could ever want.
Why root?

 

[WelshBloke]

Nope. 4.1 has pretty much made that a non-issue for me. I havent even thought about rooting until you guys brought it up.
I get excellent performance, great battery life, and it does more than I could ever want.
Why root?

Rooting is ok if you need a decent backup system but, yeah, it's nowhere near as necessary as it used to be.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

if the nexus 4 is only $299 unlocked from googla dats a no braina if you on tmoba

 

[WelshBloke]

if the nexus 4 is only $299 unlocked from googla dats a no braina if you on tmoba

What's the battery life like on the nexus4?
I can probably live with a sealed battery if the trade off is increased battery life, I'm not giving up the expandable storage unless they cram a crap ton of built in storage though.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

What's the battery life like on the nexus4?
I can probably live with a sealed battery if the trade off is increased battery life, I'm not giving up the expandable storage unless they cram a crap ton of built in storage though.

i heard its pretty good, iss not lte so couldnt be bad

 

[SilthDraeth]

What's the battery life like on the nexus4?
I can probably live with a sealed battery if the trade off is increased battery life, I'm not giving up the expandable storage unless they cram a crap ton of built in storage though.

8gb for $299 and 16gb for $349

 

[Zaap]

Man, I can't wait to get a note 2.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

8gb for $299 and 16gb for $349

this just shows how much carriers screw up prices. a spanking new phone with the best cpu can be sold for this price and a nexus 7 can be sold for 199, and yet a new phone through verizon is 600-700

 

[SandEagle]

here's a mod to set up note 2 for wireless charging. takes about 10 minutes, but i dont think i could do it

http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/10/31/samsung-galaxy-note-2-wireless-charging-is-possible/

 

[Dari]

this just shows how much carriers screw up prices. a spanking new phone with the best cpu can be sold for this price and a nexus 7 can be sold for 199, and yet a new phone through verizon is 600-700

I agree. But maybe it's subsidized by Google?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The T-Mobile Note 2 is a pentaband phone, right? Just like the Nexus.

http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=3853&c=t-mobile_samsung_sgh-t889_galaxy_note_2

People have been able to get the T-Mobile and put in their Straight Talk SIM and get 3G.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1956264

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=33377772

 

[golem]

The T-Mobile Note 2 is a pentaband phone, right? Just like the Nexus.

http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=3853&c=t-mobile_samsung_sgh-t889_galaxy_note_2

People have been able to get the T-Mobile and put in their Straight Talk SIM and get 3G.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1956264

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=33377772

A cut and paste from a posting on XDA. Not sure how accurate it is.

According to Samsung's website, for HSPA+, the T-Mobile Galaxy Note II supports Band I (2100 MHz), II (1900 MHz), IV (1700 Mhz) & V (850 Mhz). This is sufficient to run on all North American GSM carriers. Its missing 900MHz HSPA+, which is useful when travelling overseas.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

A cut and paste from a posting on XDA. Not sure how accurate it is.

According to Samsung's website, for HSPA+, the T-Mobile Galaxy Note II supports Band I (2100 MHz), II (1900 MHz), IV (1700 Mhz) & V (850 Mhz). This is sufficient to run on all North American GSM carriers. Its missing 900MHz HSPA+, which is useful when travelling overseas.

http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SGH-T889TSATMB-specs

GSM Quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz UMTS: Band I ,band II, Band IV (Dual-band1700/2100 MHz), Band V

It looks like 900MHz is on there...

 

[golem]

http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SGH-T889TSATMB-specs

GSM Quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz UMTS: Band I ,band II, Band IV (Dual-band1700/2100 MHz), Band V

It looks like 900MHz is on there...

I think your listing is for GSM? The phone part, which seems to say that at least for calls, the Note 2 will have you covered.

My quote was for the HSPA+, the 3.5 g data part.

I"m not positive either way though.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I'm on the fence if I should get the Note 2 or the new Nexus 4. I'm without an Android at the moment. I got two days left on my TMo pre-paid plan.

I'm trying to decide between those two as well although I am currently on a Galaxy S2 running 4.1.2.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I think your listing is for GSM? The phone part, which seems to say that at least for calls, the Note 2 will have you covered.

My quote was for the HSPA+, the 3.5 g data part.

I"m not positive either way though.

Yeah, you're right. All the nomenclature gets me confused. It's all over the place the terms that people use colloquially do NOT match the technical meaning.

Basically, from what I gather, when a spec sheet says:

GMS: refers to ONLY 2G voice, so the note can get voice service on carriers that use 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies.

UMTS: the same thing as WCDMA <- this had me confused as hell before, thought it was CDMA ie. what Sprint and Verizon use. WCDMA/UMTS are the 3G data frequencies that people are referring to. In the Note's case,

Band I: 2100
Band II: 1900
Band III: 1800 - Europe, Asia, Oceania
Band IV: 1700
Band V: 850
Band VIII: 900 - Europe,[10] Asia(Hong Kong CSL Limited[11]), Oceania (2degrees, Optus, Vodafone AU, Vodafone NZ), Dominican Republic (Orange), Venezuela (Digitel GSM), Thailand (AIS[12]), Cell C South Africa Cell C, Japan (SoftBank Mobile)

The Note, for 3G UMTS/WCDMA data service, only has Band I, II, IV, and V. No Band III (1800) or Band VIII (900).

So it has limited use in Europe, Asia, and all those other countries listed.

Basically, the T-Mobile Note 2 has:

2G Edge/Voice Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Data Network HSDPA 850 / xxx / 1700 / 1900 / 2100

The Galaxy Nexus has:

2G Edge/Voice Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Data Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100

AT&T uses 3G 1900 for their 3G service, and T-Mobile is slowly moving towards using 3G 1900 as well, so the Note 2 will work equally well on both AT&T and T-Mobile.

But it's missing 3G 900 and I'm not sure if this means GAME OVER for international travel.

Anyone know?

 

[Malfeas]

I'm also very interested in the Note 2 and the Nexus 4. I would rather have the Note 2, but the price difference between no contract phones is substantial, 700$ or 350$, which makes the Nexus 4 much more attractive.

 

[Infrnl]

I got my gn2 last wk! The size is not bad at all and you get used to it quickly.

@Shorty, I tried the double tap feature but it only seems to work on certain things. I was hoping it would work on forum threads but it doesn't seem to.

I ended up buying outright. They will sell outright I thought contract now. I told the guy I wanted to buy outright and try the $30 plan. He said ok. However I decided to sign up for a contract. I get truly unlimited data, roaming and I do not need to figure out how to use VoIP without using minutes. Right now I pay $60/mo but am getting ready to add my wife on the plan. This will drop me to $50/ mo and illut her on the $40/mo plan.
In the end, there will be less hassle for a minimal premium. I will still be saving $100/ mo over att, so I'm still winning.