HK variant L1520 question

[beman39]

ok so I just received my international L1520 (HK variant) and I just noticed that it doesn't have LTE band (like my AT&T variant) only 3G-4G.. now I thought this was supposed to be the international version and is supposed to have/support ALL THE BANDS including LTE? also I'm a very disappointed that I can't D/L Denim on this phone! makes me wonder if I made a mistake on buying this device and am wondering if I should sell it now! is ther anything I can do to get the LTE bands like activate them like in another post which is entering field test mode and activating the LTE? when I enter the ##3282# it doesn't work...

 

[AndyCalling]

4G is LTE everywhere but in the US I believe. It certainly is in EU. In the US they call H+ 4G whereas everywhere else it is considered 3G. That's why in the US they mark things LTE and everywhere else they mark things 4G to show LTE support. My UK 930 only shows 3G/4G but I scored over 73meg on the MS network speed test app over 4G. You can be sure that's using LTE. International versions often don't support US LTE frequencies though, so you may well fail to get LTE in the US with it. That's true for the 930.

 

[zho40]

You got the wrong version if you want LTE in the US. If you wanted LTE in the US you should have bought RM-938 1520.3. You have the RM-937 which only has 2g/3g bands for the US.

 

[AndyCalling]

Since the US consider H+ as 4G, it does have 4G in the US. You only need to set it to 3G mode to get H+ 4G though which will save battery, as if you set it to 4G it'll be scanning the LTE bands for a signal it'll never find. You won't get LTE though.

 

[beman39]

well I did see the H+ (briefly) but then it drops down to 4G indoors, which my other L1520 would show LTE then drop down to 4G when indoors so maybe you guys are right...

 

[Ma Rio]

LTE is 4G in my country, IDK about US, they always make simple things confusing.
Anyways how important is that to you..not at all for me. And Denim is comming, just wait for it.
You can get it now from LSRT or wait for OTA.

 

[beman39]

it's very important because I want the highest speeds as I stream my music and stream movies off of Netflix and I tether my SP3 a lot to my phone! so I want good speeds for smooth playback and surfing

 

[Ma Rio]

Well, who am I to tell you what to do, but why don't you use your PC for that stuff?
Mobile data is usually metered (not unlimited) and if you stream a movie off your M. data you'll eat a lot of your monthly allowance.
Why not just use your PC and the ethernet connection? It's unlimited (unless you have some really bad ISP), pretty fast, and easy.
Not to mention, you're watching a movie on a PC with a bigger screen, and not on a 6'' mobile device.

 

[beman39]

of course I use my computer and wifi at HOME, but when I'm on the road I need to tether to my phone and I have 6GB of data which has been more than enough!

 

[beman39]

Does anyone know how I'm able to see how much ram I have on my phone since it isn't written in my extras + info?

 

[Ma Rio]

If you update it, it will be shown.
Also if you have a L1520, you have 2GBs.

 

[beman39]

but that's the thing, it IS the L1520 (which is why I posted here) and others have it shown on their phone, but on my phone it isn't shown and it USED to show on BOTH cyan AND Denim on my AT&T phone... like others have said it shows on their phone in cyan... so why am I not seeing it?

 

[sotoy_yuk]

You need to update the extra and info system app/program. Not the os or the firmware. I'm on cyan and it show up in ny extra and info. Or you can just donwnload hardware test app in the store

 

[beman39]

ok how do you update the extra + info app? first I have heard of this lol

 

[Ma Rio]

Go to the store, slide up the elipsis (the three dots that act like a menu), go to settings, then press 'Check for updates'.
Depending on your 'Update apps automaticly' setting, you will eather
get a notification in the Action Center saying that some apps need atention and ask you to update them manualy,
or your apps will be automatically updated.​

 

[beman39]

thx for the reply, but it's set to update automatically so I'm pretty sure it is updated to the latest version...

 

[pankaj981]

The extras+info system app has been temporarily disabled for some phones with the March update. I would say wait a few days till Microsoft enables it again

 

[beman39]

really?!! that's interesting...

 

[pankaj981]

You can see it your self, read the reviews.

extras+info | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

 

[AndyCalling]

Just in case I wasn't clear, this phone cannot 'drop' to 4G. This is a terminology issue only. It goes like this:

US: LTE->4G(H+)->3G(H)->2G(E or G).

EU: 4G(LTE)->3G(H+ or H)->2G(E or G).

I believe most, if not all of the rest of the world follows the EU model. This means on an 'international' version of a phone you set it to 3G to get 4G in the US. If you set it to 4G you'll switch to LTE which may well not work as non-US phones often don't support the idiosyncratic US LTE frequencies.

So, whereas a US phone may 'drop to 4G' when the signal gets low, a non-US phone (if it can connect to US LTE at all) will 'drop to 3G' which means exactly the same thing.

It also means that non-US phones will support US 4G but they will call it 3G. If a non-US phone is set to 3G mode it will try to connect at H+ where it can (US 4G) but will drop to H where it can't (US 3G) and if set to 4G it will probably try to connect at non-US 4G frequencies (LTE) and fail, dropping to 3G H+ (US 4G) or below if necessary.

So, in the US if you try 4G mode and it only ever shows H+ or H then force it to 3G mode to save battery (stops fruitless scanning for an LTE signal). Wherever you see H+ you are still getting US 4G level speeds.