Lumia 1520: where can i get it???

chris.as

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2013
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hey guys
from where can i get an unlocked lumia 1520 and ship it? i saw it on amazon priced at 640$
is there any place else or site that is offering it at a lower price?
thanks in advance
 

5150Joker

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Feb 6, 2002
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I've got the rm 937 variant with qi wireless charging and 32 GB internal memory. While it is not compatible with US LTE, I get hspa+speeds of 5-6mbps DL and upload of 3-5mbps which is plenty fast for HD video streaming. LTE with its anemic bandwidth caps won't really provide a better user experience.

b7gpPae.png


I got mine off eBay with square trade warranty and love it. The ATT version has too many compromises.
 
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webdave

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Jun 18, 2004
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I've got the rm 937 variant with qi wireless charging and 32 GB internal memory. While it is not compatible with US LTE, I get hspa+speeds of 5-6mbps DL and upload of 3-5mbps which is plenty fast for HD video streaming. LTE with its anemic bandwidth caps won't really provide a better user experience.

b7gpPae.png


I got mine off eBay with square trade warranty and love it. The ATT version has too many compromises.

One of the major benefits of LTE is the lower latency compared to HSPA.
 

5150Joker

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One of the major benefits of LTE is the lower latency compared to HSPA.

Unless you're using it as a tether for gaming and paying extra to do so, the lower latency doesn't do any good. And even in those cases, most would use WiFi rather than LTE. Until carriers give everyone truly unlimited LTE with wide coverage, it will barely be any better than HSPA+ for most people.
 
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Hail The Brain Slug

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2005
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I purchased mine from the Microsoft store and unlocked it on my AT&T account before switching to T-mobile. That doesn't really help you, but I have read that some people who are not AT&T customers have had success by being firm, polite, and sending copies of their receipts of purchase from the Microsoft store to prove they are the owners of the device and having AT&T unlock it.

IMO the lower price was worth it to me over the QI and increased internal storage (not to mention LTE coverage on T-Mo). I stuck in a Sandisk Extreme Plus 64gb microSD card and I'm sure I won't miss the storage.
 

5150Joker

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You'll miss the storage if you play games because you can't stick them on SD. I've used up over 18 GB of my internal storage already with just games and apps. That would pretty much go over what the AT&T version has available. And Qi Wireless is just awesome, no ugly PMA cases to worry about.
 

webdave

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Jun 18, 2004
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Unless you're using it as a tether for gaming and paying extra to do so, the lower latency doesn't do any good. And even in those cases, most would use WiFi rather than LTE. Until carriers give everyone truly unlimited LTE with wide coverage, it will barely be any better than HSPA+ for most people.

I disagree. The difference is noticeable for me when I switch from LTE to HSPA when browsing web sites. Maybe its just the AT&T coverage in my area but I can tell when I'm not on LTE.
 
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magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
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I've got the rm 937 variant with qi wireless charging and 32 GB internal memory. While it is not compatible with US LTE, I get hspa+speeds of 5-6mbps DL and upload of 3-5mbps which is plenty fast for HD video streaming. LTE with its anemic bandwidth caps won't really provide a better user experience.

b7gpPae.png


I got mine off eBay with square trade warranty and love it. The ATT version has too many compromises.

One of the major benefits of LTE is the lower latency compared to HSPA.

See I think it comes down to the actual location; where I am, my ping is generally 30-70ms with HSPA+. Plenty fine for playing DOTA :)
 

5150Joker

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2002
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I disagree. The difference is noticeable for me when I switch from LTE to HSPA when browsing web sites. Maybe its just the AT&T coverage in my area but I can tell when I'm not on LTE.

You can seriously discern latency in webpage load times? :hmm: Maybe in download speed but latency? Say with HSPA+ you got 5 mbps and LTE you get 25 mbps, of course pages will load slightly faster on LTE but not by much. Not enough to make a significant impact.
 

dagamer34

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2005
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You can seriously discern latency in webpage load times? :hmm: Maybe in download speed but latency? Say with HSPA+ you got 5 mbps and LTE you get 25 mbps, of course pages will load slightly faster on LTE but not by much. Not enough to make a significant impact.

At least on T-Mobile's network, Time-to-first-byte is *signficantly* better on LTE than HSPA+. Check out PCMag's Fastest Mobile Networks 2013 piece for more info.

It's a real shame that there isn't one single worldwide model of this phone. If it weren't for AT&T's shenanigans with wireless charging and ridiculously small 16GB storage size, I would have bought one already. Then again, I don't want the AT&T tramp stamp. I wish the international model had US LTE, they need to get that fixed.
 

5150Joker

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At least on T-Mobile's network, Time-to-first-byte is *signficantly* better on LTE than HSPA+. Check out PCMag's Fastest Mobile Networks 2013 piece for more info.

It's a real shame that there isn't one single worldwide model of this phone. If it weren't for AT&T's shenanigans with wireless charging and ridiculously small 16GB storage size, I would have bought one already. Then again, I don't want the AT&T tramp stamp. I wish the international model had US LTE, they need to get that fixed.

Supposedly the RM-938 is the one that has the US bands and Qi wireless built into it with the proper 32 GB storage. Haven't seen a release date for it yet but if it does make it to market, I will sell my RM 937 and grab it. Will check out that article later but will say on ST, I don't see much difference between my HSPA+ at 5-6 mbps vs WiFi.
 

5150Joker

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What you may not understand is that with a proper network, you'll see a difference because LTE is better than wifi.

I understand perfectly well and LTE won't be faster than my 60+ mbps WiFi connection. In that link above to the PC Magazine article, the difference between the slowest HSPA+ and fastest LTE in loading a webpage's first byte is under one second which is almost imperceptible.



This is my current hspa+ speed:
6415645.png




It loads HD video without buffering and websites very quickly, only slightly slower than WiFi. Is the difference there? Certainly, LTE is superior but if one has fast and reliable hspa then its not significant in day to day use, especially with LTE bandwidth caps and the prevalence of WiFi.
 
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Hail The Brain Slug

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2005
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Can you call through WiFi now on T-mobil?

I picked up one of these also last week from Microsoft - got it on the $100 off deal.

No, apparently in Windows Phone OS the wifi calling is handled through its own app, which is not installed on the phone out of the box and I cannot find it on the app store. I currently have not figured out a workaround yet.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
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I understand perfectly well and LTE won't be faster than my 60+ mbps WiFi connection. In that link above to the PC Magazine article, the difference between the slowest HSPA+ and fastest LTE in loading a webpage's first byte is under one second which is almost imperceptible.



This is my current hspa+ speed:
6415645.png




It loads HD video without buffering and websites very quickly, only slightly slower than WiFi. Is the difference there? Certainly, LTE is superior but if one has fast and reliable hspa then its not significant in day to day use, especially with LTE bandwidth caps and the prevalence of WiFi.

When I was using hspa+ that was around what I was getting, on LTE though it's much faster
0o9eHLu.jpg
 

dagamer34

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2005
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Supposedly the RM-938 is the one that has the US bands and Qi wireless built into it with the proper 32 GB storage. Haven't seen a release date for it yet but if it does make it to market, I will sell my RM 937 and grab it. Will check out that article later but will say on ST, I don't see much difference between my HSPA+ at 5-6 mbps vs WiFi.

Yeah, question is whether it will ever see the light of day. Obviously it was made and has already passed through the FCC, so one would guess T-Mobile would get it, but that depends on whether they actually want to offer the phone or not. I really don't want to have to wait 6 months to get it, that would be the end of May!
 

5150Joker

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2002
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Yeah, question is whether it will ever see the light of day. Obviously it was made and has already passed through the FCC, so one would guess T-Mobile would get it, but that depends on whether they actually want to offer the phone or not. I really don't want to have to wait 6 months to get it, that would be the end of May!






Yeah in six months something better will be on the horizon, especially after mwc and WP 8.1 being released.