Is 3g speed enough?

[AMDisTheBEST]

I have cricket as my carrier. I have heard that their 3g speed is capped at 4mbs by AT&T. I plan to import a smartphone from china which does not support American LTE. It will work on 3g tho. This is the phone i wish to purchase http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_note_3-7769.php
And I live in New York City and I stream 720p videos a lot on my phone. Is the cricket wireless in NYC fast enough for my needs?

 

[Brainonska511]

What's the point of importing a phone that doesn't support US LTE, especially with the plethora of phones available on the US market that do support LTE? I wouldn't want to live on 3G in NYC now that I have access to LTE.

 

[JeffMD]

3g is fine for web pages, audio, and low bitrate video.

The biggest "problem" with 3g in the US is it is an overloaded network. Major cities, like NY, have abysmal speeds. And while you can argue as more people get 4g phones, the 3g network becomes more uncrowded, but for years now the 3g infrastructure has gotten no new hardware and no infrastructure upgrades. Failing 3g towers will be phased into 4g.

Id like to know as well, what 3g phone is worth importing when you can find 4g phones dirt cheap here on prepaid.

 

[shabby]

I have cricket as my carrier.... Is the cricket wireless in NYC fast enough for my needs?

You tell us.

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

You tell us.

I don't know because my previous phone runs on cricket LTE. Cricket LTE is only 2x faster than cricket max 3g. It is capped by AT&T at 8mbs max and on average, i receive 5mbs indoors and 5-8 outdoors. My home wifi runs at similar speed. 5mbs which streams HD video just fine. The reason I asked is that I don't know the actual 3g speed cricket runs at.

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

3g is fine for web pages, audio, and low bitrate video.

The biggest "problem" with 3g in the US is it is an overloaded network. Major cities, like NY, have abysmal speeds. And while you can argue as more people get 4g phones, the 3g network becomes more uncrowded, but for years now the 3g infrastructure has gotten no new hardware and no infrastructure upgrades. Failing 3g towers will be phased into 4g.

Id like to know as well, what 3g phone is worth importing when you can find 4g phones dirt cheap here on prepaid.

I know that. My first phone is a LTE htc desire 510 which I've gotten for free from cricket on a contract. I am not happy with that phone thus why I wish to purchase a new one. Digging through all the reviews, Chinese phones, especially the redmi note 3 seem to be the best for the money. Redmi note 3 is a flagship killer which outright destroys the previous year's 600 dollars+ flagships in performance at a mere 200 USD. It does support LTE but only... pretty much everywhere in the world EXCEPT USA. Phone's LTE works in Europe, India, Asia, Africa ,Latin America, just not the America

 

[paperwastage]

it's not just about speed

LTE offers lower latency

though cricket funnels everything through a proxy on their server-end, not sure if 3G latency is that much slower than LTE latency

 

[s44]

Chinese phones, especially the redmi note 3 seem to be the best for the money

Not having LTE makes it nowhere near the best for the money. Get a G3, G4, or Note 4 off Swappa...

 

[KeithP]

it's not just about speed

LTE offers lower latency

though cricket funnels everything through a proxy on their server-end, not sure if 3G latency is that much slower than LTE latency

Don't some LTE frequencies perform better inside structures as well?

-KeithP

 

[paperwastage]

Don't some LTE frequencies perform better inside structures as well?

-KeithP

that's more of a function of frequency

any 700mhz signal would penetrate better than 1900mhz signal, doesn't matter which technology.

but LTE is more fragile than 3G, you'll maintain the 3G signal for longer than LTE (on the same frequency)

 

[shabby]

I don't know because my previous phone runs on cricket LTE. Cricket LTE is only 2x faster than cricket max 3g. It is capped by AT&T at 8mbs max and on average, i receive 5mbs indoors and 5-8 outdoors. My home wifi runs at similar speed. 5mbs which streams HD video just fine. The reason I asked is that I don't know the actual 3g speed cricket runs at.

You can set the phone to run at 3g in the settings.

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

You can set the phone to run at 3g in the settings.

How do I do that? I don't see any options for that on my phone.

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

Not having LTE makes it nowhere near the best for the money. Get a G3, G4, or Note 4 off Swappa...

I can live without LTE as long as 3g is fast enough to let me stream HD videos

 

[paperwastage]

How do I do that? I don't see any options for that on my phone.

http://www.droidiser.com/2014/05/force-enable-3g-android-phone.html

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The problem is that while 3G gave me 7-10mbps easily on my Nexus 4, AT&T has done a lot of refarming. There's defintiely 1900 MHz LTE in my area now and that means 3G capacity is being cut down. Who knows if you can still get great speeds, but personally I'm ok with 3G as long as the speeds are acceptable.

 

[ChronoReverse]

it's not just about speed

LTE offers lower latency

This. Latency makes a huge difference in the web browsing experience. I don't really need the throughput but HSPA can have over a second of delay before even beginning to transfer data whereas LTE is practically instant.

 

[shabby]

How do I do that? I don't see any options for that on my phone.

Settings>more>cellular networks>preferred network type>3g

 

[Midwayman]

I'd be concerned about battery life as well. 3g means the radio spends far more time on. These days its all about the race to idle.

 

[openwheel]

of course NOT!

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

of course NOT!

Well, i got the blu life one x which does support cricket LTE. It is no where near as good as the redmi note 3 however. :/