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I've been gearing up to replace my old Samsung Galaxy S5. It's been a great phone, but it's time for an upgrade. So I go looking around and discover phones like the OnePlus 3 and the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe. Both of these phones have 6GB RAM. The Asus is the first phone ever to ship with a Snapdragon 821 processor and will now be the first cellphone to ship with 256GB UFS internal storage. You could easily make the case that these are the two best phones in the world today -- and both are incompatible with most US carriers.
The best phones available that are compatible with pretty much every US carrier are the flagships from Samsung and Apple. In both cases, those phones cost way way more and have inferior specs compared to the Asus and OnePlus. Seems to me that US carriers are locking us out of having the latest and greatest tech, which I find truly baffling. I've got Sprint at present and neither the Asus nor the OnePlus will work on their network. LTE incompatibilities, etc so no matter how you tweak it, they'll never work quite right on Sprint. Apparently it's the same for Verizon and AT&T, etc.
Am I the only one finding this incredibly annoying??
Different areas of the world use different frequencies for cell technology (North America in particular), so the manufactures have to build special models for us, and then have them FCC tested and released. So it's really up to the manufacturer to support everything needed to run on our networks.
It looks like the North American model of the OnePlus 3 is available on Amazon if you really want it (but it's missing band 13, Verizon's primary LTE band).
As for the Zenfone 3 Deluxe ... From what I'm reading it's supposed to release here in Q3.
Apparently it's the same for Verizon and AT&T, etc.
I use an Asus Zenfone 2 64gb dual sim phone on LTE on AT&T and with a Philippine Smart sim in the second slot because the wife and I live part of the year in the Philippines and it works fine on both but I do have to put the Philippine sim in slot one when we are there so I can use LTE in the Philippines too. AT&T is on GSM, Sprint the last time I looked was CDMA, thus not compatible.
It is important when buying a phone to make sure that it has the same LTE frequencies in the phone that the carrier you wish to use uses, I was on AT&T when in the US before I bought this phone while in the Philippines, thus why I picked this particular phone. Do a search for the brand, model and then the word specs before buying a phone to make sure it will be compatible with a carrier, although right now I cannot find all the LTE frequencies for the 3.
The one issue I do have when using my phone is that my Bluetooth in the Acura that I now drive does not load my phone book, whereas it worked fine in the BMW I was driving before this car, thus IMHO it is probably better for the average user who is not a world traveler, to buy a US phone for US use.
I wish all countries would use the same LTE frequencies worldwide and all would be on GSM but they do not and are not, thus why some phones will not work for all purposes in all countries but you already knew that.
Different areas of the world use different frequencies for cell technology (North America in particular), so the manufactures have to build special models for us, and then have them FCC tested and released. So it's really up to the manufacturer to support everything needed to run on our networks.
It looks like the North American model of the OnePlus 3 is available on Amazon if you really want it (but it's missing band 13, Verizon's primary LTE band).
As for the Zenfone 3 Deluxe ... From what I'm reading it's supposed to release here in Q3.
And if they'll please hurry up and release it already, it looks like it'll be (arguably) the best phone on the planet. Everything I've seen so far seems to indicate that it will not work on most of Sprint's LTE frequencies, wont work with CDMA and won't work on all of Verizon's network either. AT&T is a maybe considering that they don't use CDMA and the Zenfone 2 worked on their network. Trouble is, I live in an AT&T deadzone. Before we moved here, my wife and I had AT&T. We had no choice but to switch. The entire downtown area gets zero bars 100% of the time. At best you'll get one bar here or there and no 4G coverage at all.
It's already been thoroughly verified that the OnePlus 3 is incompatible with Sprint and Verizon's 4G/LTE network.
Don't forget the the cellular carriers cannot sell phones that do not receive FCC approval. Not all manufacturers are willing to go through the time and expense. The cellular carriers have some control of which phones they will allow on their network but they also have licensing agreements with certain cellular manufacturers. Just my $.02 worth......
And if they'll please hurry up and release it already, it looks like it'll be (arguably) the best phone on the planet. Everything I've seen so far seems to indicate that it will not work on most of Sprint's LTE frequencies, wont work with CDMA and won't work on all of Verizon's network either. AT&T is a maybe considering that they don't use CDMA and the Zenfone 2 worked on their network. Trouble is, I live in an AT&T deadzone. Before we moved here, my wife and I had AT&T. We had no choice but to switch. The entire downtown area gets zero bars 100% of the time. At best you'll get one bar here or there and no 4G coverage at all.
It's already been thoroughly verified that the OnePlus 3 is incompatible with Sprint and Verizon's 4G/LTE network.
If you live in an AT$T dead zone why do you want this phone? Are you going to use it on T-mobile? (T-mobile sucks in Chicago)
Most of these phones do, indeed, work here. As I just said in another thread, if you buy a One+3 made for the US market, ATT, Spring and T-Mobile will HAPPILY AND WITHOUT HESITATION activate it for you.
Just because you can't buy it at the T-Mobile store, doesn't mean it won't work. (And just because it has 6GB of RAM doesn't make it the best, either.....)
If you live in an AT$T dead zone why do you want this phone? Are you going to use it on T-mobile? (T-mobile sucks in Chicago)
T-Mobile is the great unknown quite frankly. According to OpenSignal Verizon is the best in my area. Sprint and T-Mobile are next best, but it's not entirely clear if that's 100% right -- and I'm leery of T-Mobile because I've heard they suck in towards Chicago like you said.
My complaint is that there is a rapidly growing list of premium phones that sell for pretty cheap that won't work on Sprint, Verizon or US Cellular. The Samsung Note 7 -- which is available to me -- has 4GB RAM, Snapdragon 820 processor, 64GB internal storage and it'd cost me a whopping $849.99. The OnePlus 3 has 6GB RAM, Snapdragon 820, 64GB internal storage and costs $399 -- less than half the price for about the same specs. It'd be nice if it were available to me. Whenever they get around to selling it, the ASUS Zenfone 3 Deluxe will have 6GB RAM, Snapdragon 821 processor, 256GB internal storage and will cost about $499. It'd be nice if Samsung wasn't making their version of the Note 7 with 6GB RAM and 128 internal storage completely exclusive to China. If I'm stuck paying more than double the price, it'd at least be nice to get the best version of the phone ...
Truth be told, as I shop around and figure out the best phone for my needs, the same thing always comes up: Not compatible with Sprint.
Kinda hard to get off of Sprint since we're still grandfathered in with an unlimited everything plan that no longer exists with any carrier. Gotta admit, it's a nice thing to have. Having a drastically reduced selection of phones is one of the big downsides that comes with it.
May I suggest looking into the ZTE Axon 7? Comparable specs, 2k screen, stereo speakers, 64 GB RAM, dual SIM capability, or you can use one slot for MicroSD, $400, and it works on AT&T and T-Mobile. It has the correct bands for Verizon and Sprint, but trying to use the device on them is hit-and-miss.
The main thing about Sprint, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular is that they are CDMA carriers primarily, though Verizon and US Cellular are converting to LTE carriers (Sprint isn't really doing so, their LTE is data only with voice on CDMA). CDMA has proven to be a relatively unpopular technology in the rest of the world, so fewer devices are made with compatibility for it. That's just economics.
Sprint is in a really bad spot: CDMA is an absolute 100% requirement for a Sprint phone, since they haven't deployed any VoLTE yet, and aren't planning on it until at least 2017. Frankly, it's the worst carrier for a bring-your-own-device model like you want. If you need to use Sprint as a carrier, you have to generally get your device from Sprint. Sprint is also the only ones in the US using their particular set of LTE bands anyway (25, 26, and 41). Most US carriers use 2, 4, and either 12 (AT&T, T-Mo, USC) or 13 (VZW).
Bottom line? Get off Sprint.
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