Does the 800 work on Tmobile?

[drewsuruncle]

I am looking at buying the Lumia 800, since I have tmobile and cant get the 900. But, I read a review on Amazon that said it is only compatible with 2g on Tmobile. Does anyone know if that is true, or does anyone use this on tmobile that can tell me how it works? Thanks.

 

[theefman]

What you read is true, you will only get EDGE (2G) with an 800 on Tmo. Everything data related will work, just not as fast when you are not using Wifi. Calls and SMS wont be affected though.

And someone will undoubtedly post that Tmo is refarming their network to provide 3G on the 1900 band which the 800 supports, but right now there is no published time frame for the rollout or list of cities where this will be enabled, so its not really a solution for anyone buying right now.

 

[bush715]

I am looking at buying the Lumia 800, since I have tmobile and cant get the 900. But, I read a review on Amazon that said it is only compatible with 2g on Tmobile. Does anyone know if that is true, or does anyone use this on tmobile that can tell me how it works? Thanks.

I would just pick up the 710 for now it is a good starter

 

[Welve]

What you read is true, you will only get EDGE (2G) with an 800 on Tmo. Everything data related will work, just not as fast when you are not using Wifi. Calls and SMS wont be affected though.

And someone will undoubtedly post that Tmo is refarming their network to provide 3G on the 1900 band which the 800 supports, but right now there is no published time frame for the rollout or list of cities where this will be enabled, so its not really a solution for anyone buying right now.

you can check if you have a 4G phone to see what bands it is using

for samsung galaxy s 4g you hit *#0011# and it will show you, if it says "Edge 1900" then it hasnt been refarmed!

 

[speedtouch]

I would just pick up the 710 for now it is a good starter

Good choice. The Lumia 710 is an excellent phone and just as fast as the 800.

 

[stevenmcbeaven]

I am looking at buying the Lumia 800, since I have tmobile and cant get the 900. But, I read a review on Amazon that said it is only compatible with 2g on Tmobile. Does anyone know if that is true, or does anyone use this on tmobile that can tell me how it works? Thanks.

I have been using mine on edge for about a month now, and I am so used to super slow 3g speeds with my other carrier, edge data seems fast. Don't be fooled though edge is not fast, BUT at least where I am at, it really is not that bad. I watched Office Space on netflix over edge, the quality was not great, BUT i was able to watch it. And it streams music through last.fm and spotify very fast. I have not had any issues with edge data from t-mo.

 

[drewsuruncle]

Thanks for all the comments. So I assume it would be the same for an unlocked Lumia 900?
BTW I did the smoked by windows phone challenge and I am getting the Luma 710, but I am going to give it to my wife who is using my old android phone since phone broke.

 

[brmiller1976]

I had a Lumia 710 with "4G" but have upgraded to a Lumia 800 (international edition) which only works on T-Mo EDGE (for the moment).

T-Mobile is refarming 1900 to 3G for all cities with LTE. Since I live in San Francisco, I expect we'll be one of the first to have 3G on 1900 MHz later this year.

But even on EDGE, the experience of the 800 is worth it, even compared to the 710 (which simply lacks the great design, crisp screen, and overall hardware experience).

I'm a heavy user, and since most T-Mo people aren't on EDGE anymore, I get the EDGE data stream to myself. I'm averaging about 250 to 300 Kbps, which won't set any new records (but is plenty fast for browsing, streaming YouTube, listening to Spotify/Zune, etc.) And the speeds will get faster, soon.

(For comparison's sake, my "3G" HTC Arrive on Sprint averaged about 130 Kbps on Sprint's overloaded EVDO network, and at a 100% higher cost than T-Mo's $49.99 all-you-can-eat Value plan.)

I've also heard good things about using the Lumia 800 with StraightTalk's "bring your own device" AT&T SIM program, but tales of people losing their numbers and being immediately shut off for passing a secret arbitrary data usage pattern scare me.