Any phones that are actually world phones?

[fuzzybabybunny]

There have been quite a few times when I've travelled with my USA Samsung S4 and S5 and encountered moments where I don't get service.

For example, in Australia and New Zealand I won't get 4G/3G/2G/Voice while the person sitting next to me using his Australia phone on the same plan won't have any issues whatsoever.

I thought that the S4 and S5 were world phones? They're most *definitely* not, as I've confirmed.

The Nexus phones are supposed to be world phones... but are they really? Do they literally support every band out there?

Moved to Mobile Devices as requested -- Programming Moderator Ken g6

 

[Crono]

The Nexus phones and iPhones generally support the most bands. That doesn't equate to supporting every single band (just try searching on GSMArena, toggling on every band will give you zero resuits), but enough to give you signal in most places around the world. The Nexus 6, 5X and 6P in particular were also designed to work with both GSM and CDMA bands in the U.S. as they use T-Mobile and Sprint, respectively, for Google's Project Fi, so they work well in the U.S. and not just internationally in terms of band support.

A few international flagships (LG's G series, Xperia Z/X) have/had close to the same band support, but the Nexus line and iPhones don't have as many localized variants of them, they tend to have radios with as many bands as possible.

 

[Yayo3p]

They probably have different Access Point settings that their phone is pointing to in order to get a connection.

 

[Midwayman]

Well the iphone 6 and later work on all US carriers. The 6s is practically the same band support for all of them.

Samsung is probably a bad place to start as I know for sure they have a US market phone and an international model phone.

 

[stlc8tr]

Well the iphone 6 and later work on all US carriers. The 6s is practically the same band support for all of them.

Samsung is probably a bad place to start as I know for sure they have a US market phone and an international model phone.

The SIM-free version of the iPhone will work on all US carriers but carrier versions can be locked. This is especially true for Sprint.

Apple has a listing of all supported carrier networks on their site.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

 

[paperwastage]

2G - need quadband for worldwide support

3G - need pentaband (band 1/2/4/5/8) for worldwide support other than japan

(a lot of phones have the above support)

LTE - good luck finding a phone - spectrum is very fragmented with like >30 LTE bands
stuff like VoLTE isn't totally cross-carrier compatible either (I can't take a Verizon VoLTE S6 and use VoLTE on T-mobile)

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

You need an Iridium satellite phone.

 

[Midwayman]

The SIM-free version of the iPhone will work on all US carriers but carrier versions can be locked. This is especially true for Sprint.

Apple has a listing of all supported carrier networks on their site.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

The ATT version has band 30. The VZW and (iirc) Tmobile versions are unlocked. Though if you buy any outright that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The US 6P doesn't have great international support at all. The key bands to look for in LTE are Bands 3, 7, and 20. The 6P lacks 20. There are other region specific bands too like 28 which is growing in popularity and 1 for Japan. The 6P lacks both once again.

If you want a phone that goes almost everywhere, the iPhone's 23 LTE Bands is going to be hard to beat. You can even get LTE coverage in China. That's almost unheard of with most phones.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The US 6P doesn't have great international support at all. The key bands to look for in LTE are Bands 3, 7, and 20. The 6P lacks 20. There are other region specific bands too like 28 which is growing in popularity and 1 for Japan. The 6P lacks both once again.

If you want a phone that goes almost everywhere, the iPhone's 23 LTE Bands is going to be hard to beat. You can even get LTE coverage in China. That's almost unheard of with most phones.

The "US 6P"? Crap, now Nexus even has different versions of its phones?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The "US 6P"? Crap, now Nexus even has different versions of its phones?

Had this since the Nexus 5.

https://www.google.com/nexus/6p/

Scroll to specs:

Network

North America:
GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8
CDMA: BC0/1/10
LTE (FDD): B2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/29/30
LTE (TDD): B41
CA DL: B2-B2, B2-B4, B2-B5, B2-B12, B2-B13, B2-B17, B2-B29, B4-B4, B4-B5, B4-B13, B4-B17, B4-B29, B41-B41

Rest of world:
GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/6/8/9/19
TDSCDMA: 34/39
CDMA: BC0/1
LTE (FDD): B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/9/17/19/20/28
LTE (TDD): B38/B39/40/41
CA DL: B1-B5, B1-B8, B1-B19, B3-B3, B3-B5, B3-B7, B3-B8, B3-B19, B3-B20, B3-B28, B5-B7, B7-B7, B7-B20, B7-B28, B39-B39, B40-B40, B41-B41


The US 5x has better connectivity, but with limited storage and all the speed issues, I wouldn't recommend it. To be fair I don't think the connectivity on the Nexus was ever "amazing." It's always been a step behind the iPhone in terms of # of LTE bands, and not only that most manufacturers have fallen behind whereas Apple's been very keen on global connectivity. I find this funny especially for the US audience because while the US phones can go practically anywhere in the world AND get LTE coverage, I'm willing to bet less than 0.1% of iPhone users even know or care about global LTE connectivity including purchasing SIM cards abroad.

Finally, I'd like to add that most if not all phones have had quad band 3G for some time. Your devices should get 3G no problem. The issue is that most carriers are refarming spectrum to be used for LTE.

Edit: Not sure about the last sentence actually. I know in the US PCS (1900) overlaps with LTE Band 2, so AT&T is refarming, but per a quick look at LTE frequencies, none seem to overlap with the 2100 used for UMTS 3G globally, so I'm going to guess 3G coverage shouldn't be seeing massive downgrades?

 

[stlc8tr]

The ATT version has band 30. The VZW and (iirc) Tmobile versions are unlocked. Though if you buy any outright that shouldn't be a problem.

The SIM-free version of the 6S/6S+ is the fully unlocked AT&T version so it has all of the bands, including 30.

That's the best version to buy if you're paying up front since it is fully unlocked and whitelisted so even carriers like Sprint and Verizon will activate.

If you have a carrier version, you may have difficulty using on Sprint and other CDMA providers.

 

[Midwayman]

If you have a carrier version, you may have difficulty using on Sprint and other CDMA providers.

What I've read online is that all it takes is a sim swap for vzw on the 6s. Supposedly the 6 has been added to their whitelist database as well. Don't really know sprint. VZW though is legally obligated to activate it.

 

[Crono]

The "US 6P"? Crap, now Nexus even has different versions of its phones?

You can get the international version of the 6P on Amazon.
It has a premium on it, though, and if you don't have a preference for Android then you are probably better off going with an iPhone 6s/6s Plus.

 

[stlc8tr]

What I've read online is that all it takes is a sim swap for vzw on the 6s. Supposedly the 6 has been added to their whitelist database as well. Don't really know sprint. VZW though is legally obligated to activate it.

Yes, from what I've read, you can use an already activated SIM and use it in an unlocked carrier 6S/6S+ but Verizon had been very strict in the past about not activating an unactivated SIM in a non Verizon branded phone. Only recently have they loosen up by whitelisting the SIM-free iPhone, Google Nexus, and some Motorola devices.

 

[Batmeat]

You need an Iridium satellite phone.

This is the only way where you can make a phone call from anywhere in the world. Top of Everest? No problem. Deep jungle? Climb a tree and no problem.