Not gonna happen, though the Verizon and Sprint versions are very likely to have GSM radios built in that can be used with HSPA+ on AT&T and even T-Mobile in areas where they will deploy 1900Mhz 3G later this year.
The FCC docs are already live for the AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint versions, and sadly no there's no interoperability.
What is interesting however is that the AT&T version has 15 and 20 MHz FDD support on AWS (in addition to 5 and 10 MHz like every other USA LTE device thus far)
Presumably, the decision for 15/20MHz FDD in the AWS band was made when AT&T was still working through the T-Mobile merger. Now its a moot point since AT&T doesn't have 20MHz contiguous anywhere in AWS (though after looking at my spectrum maps, I don't see AT&T having 20MHz contiguous even with T-Mo's spectrum).
As a Galaxy Nexus owner (and guy who doesn't particularly enjoy changing phones), I was a little worried that something might emerge in the Android universe only a few months later that would be better in every regard, causing me to regret my purchase.
Thankfully, Samsung has allayed my fears by making the GSIII so dog ugly that I don't even care about the fancy stuff going on under the hood.
On the other hand, HTC, you can kiss my ass, with your fancy One-X or whatever being all good and pretty and shit.
I'm sure this question will permeate the phone forums soon enough, but I'd like to hear the observations of others:
I currently own a Samsung Epic 4g (original) and am ready to upgrade. Lets assume these two phones are identical in all respects other than RAM
HTC = 1GB Samsung S3 = 2GB
and for comparison . . . Samsung Epic 4g = 512MB
Are there tangible benefits from 2GB for ICS and future iterations (2yr horizon)? Is there any evidence that we are nearing 1GB active usage (as apposed to caching recent apps.)
My observations re. Samsung's update and community support vs HTC's have brought me to this quandary, but I'm not looking to cut of my nose to spite my face. I'll stick with Samsung if 2GB of RAM will result in a meaningful difference in terms of experience.
I'd love to hear thoughts about this, bias against certain manufacturers and platforms aside. And I'm not completely sold on the more is better argument . . . Imagining Win95 w/ 3GB of ram . . . :)
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15 Comments
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warisz00r - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Are you guys hard at work on one?Brian Klug - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
International - we're getting ours next weekUSA variants - we'll know more very soon :P
-Brian
warisz00r - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Cheers!DigitalFreak - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I'm guessing LTE compatibility between the AT&T, Verizon and Sprint versions is too much to hope for?dagamer34 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Not gonna happen, though the Verizon and Sprint versions are very likely to have GSM radios built in that can be used with HSPA+ on AT&T and even T-Mobile in areas where they will deploy 1900Mhz 3G later this year.Brian Klug - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
The FCC docs are already live for the AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint versions, and sadly no there's no interoperability.What is interesting however is that the AT&T version has 15 and 20 MHz FDD support on AWS (in addition to 5 and 10 MHz like every other USA LTE device thus far)
-Brian
Doormat - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Presumably, the decision for 15/20MHz FDD in the AWS band was made when AT&T was still working through the T-Mobile merger. Now its a moot point since AT&T doesn't have 20MHz contiguous anywhere in AWS (though after looking at my spectrum maps, I don't see AT&T having 20MHz contiguous even with T-Mo's spectrum).zorxd - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I guess the AT&T version is the SGH-i747 that was announced in Canada?npaladin2000 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
In other news, AT&T, in an effort to not anger Apple, is now pretending they have never heard of a device called the Samsung Galaxy S III. :)GrizzledYoungMan - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
As a Galaxy Nexus owner (and guy who doesn't particularly enjoy changing phones), I was a little worried that something might emerge in the Android universe only a few months later that would be better in every regard, causing me to regret my purchase.Thankfully, Samsung has allayed my fears by making the GSIII so dog ugly that I don't even care about the fancy stuff going on under the hood.
On the other hand, HTC, you can kiss my ass, with your fancy One-X or whatever being all good and pretty and shit.
sprockkets - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
One XL kicks the crap out of everything LTE.You got a reason for it being "sht"?
GrizzledYoungMan - Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - link
Buddy, I was being sarcastic, I meant quite the opposite, it's a fine lookin' phone!snoozemode - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Isn't it quite nice to see Samsung forcing the carriers to use the same design? Their logo isn't even printed on the front. Go Sammy!1ceTr0n - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Are already starting. It will massacre the iphone5 and SGIII by farhttp://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-Galaxy-Note...
JFish222 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I'm sure this question will permeate the phone forums soon enough, but I'd like to hear the observations of others:I currently own a Samsung Epic 4g (original) and am ready to upgrade.
Lets assume these two phones are identical in all respects other than RAM
HTC = 1GB
Samsung S3 = 2GB
and for comparison . . .
Samsung Epic 4g = 512MB
Are there tangible benefits from 2GB for ICS and future iterations (2yr horizon)?
Is there any evidence that we are nearing 1GB active usage (as apposed to caching recent apps.)
My observations re. Samsung's update and community support vs HTC's have brought me to this quandary, but I'm not looking to cut of my nose to spite my face.
I'll stick with Samsung if 2GB of RAM will result in a meaningful difference in terms of experience.
I'd love to hear thoughts about this, bias against certain manufacturers and platforms aside.
And I'm not completely sold on the more is better argument . . .
Imagining Win95 w/ 3GB of ram . . . :)
Thanks!