I haven't seen this mentioned before but has anyone noticed LG devices are severely lacking bands compared to other manufactures? LG seems to tailor the bands based on the carrier and country. This seems fine if you don't leave your home country much. However, if looking for a device that works equally well in multiple countries, LG should be avoided. At least that's the conclusion I came to based on specs and my international needs.
For example:
T-Mobile LG V30 (14 LTE Bands)
LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 12(700), 20(800), 28(700), 29(700), 40(2300), 41(2500), 66(1700/2100), 71
T-Mobile S8+ (19 LTE Bands)
LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 13(700), 18(800), 19(800), 20(800), 25(1900), 26(850), 66(1700/2100), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)
Sony Xperia XZ Premium (20 LTE Bands)
LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 13(700), 17(700), 19(800), 20(800), 26(850), 28(700), 29(700), 32(1500), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)
Currently the V30 would be the best option for T-Mobile only because it has band 71 but if traveling somewhere outside of USA, it seems like it would be the worst option. I'm probably going to pick up the Sony for this reason. and later on upgrade to something else with band 71 when T-Mobile has deployed it in more areas.
What do you think about the limited bands available on LG Devices? Do you think this will limit coverage or only LTE coverage? Why would LG do this, do they save money by not needing to do additional FCC tests?
T-Mobile has free text and data in over 140 countries. I would assume that any phone they release, especially flagships, will work in ALL these countries. Now, if you wanted an unlocked version to use with another carrier sim, then I could see why you might have an issue.
Based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks it looks like the T-Mobile LG bands will cover just about every country. I only checked until Puerto Rico, but only 1 country before that didn't support any LG bands and that was Anguilla, a country I have never even heard of. Other than that, every other country had at least one carrier which supported the LG bands.
Japultra said:
T-Mobile has free text and data in over 140 countries. I would assume that any phone they release, especially flagships, will work in ALL these countries. Now, if you wanted an unlocked version to use with another carrier sim, then I could see why you might have an issue.
Based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks it looks like the T-Mobile LG bands will cover just about every country. I only checked until Puerto Rico, but only 1 country before that didn't support any LG bands and that was Anguilla, a country I have never even heard of. Other than that, every other country had at least one carrier which supported the LG bands.
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Yes, they work around the world but they don't have as many bands as other manufactuer's and they don't have all the bands available in other countries so it seems like coverage would be less. This isn't a T-Mobile issue, it's an LG issue. Take a look at any LG phone compared to any other phone on the same carrier and the LG model is always lacking bands. Sony seems to be quite the opposite where they have fewer versions of the phones with almost all bands.
I would definitely be putting in a local sim card in the destination country so this would be an issue, even if I wasn't, roaming coverage on your home carrier seems like it won't be as good as if you had a different manufacture's phone with more bands in the area your visiting.
kurtbird said:
Yes, they work around the world but they don't have as many bands as other manufactuer's and they don't have all the bands available in other countries so it seems like coverage would be less. This isn't a T-Mobile issue, it's an LG issue. Take a look at any LG phone compared to any other phone on the same carrier and the LG model is always lacking bands. Sony seems to be quite the opposite where they have fewer versions of the phones with almost all bands.
I would definitely be putting in a local sim card in the destination country so this would be an issue, even if I wasn't, roaming coverage on your home carrier seems like it won't be as good as if you had a different manufacture's phone with more bands in the area your visiting.
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Your best bet might be to wait until your next device to get a band 71 compatible device. Depending on where you live, you might not even see any band 71 coverage until your next phone anyway.
A good concern to bring up for those of us that travel and rely on T-Mobile's great international coverage. I'm looking to get the unlocked V30 myself and it seems to have an even lower number of bands compared to the T-Mobile version, at least from what I can see on B&H's pre-order site. My main overseas travel is to Pakistan and England and looking at the bands used in both countries, the LG V30 covers them. That being said, when I have traveled with my current Nexus 5 that has less bands, I haven't had too many issues. I expect overseas data to be slow unless I get a local SIM but I agree it would be nice to have more options.
From B&H:
LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 20, 25, 66
kurtbird said:
Yes, they work around the world but they don't have as many bands as other manufactuer's and they don't have all the bands available in other countries so it seems like coverage would be less. This isn't a T-Mobile issue, it's an LG issue. Take a look at any LG phone compared to any other phone on the same carrier and the LG model is always lacking bands. Sony seems to be quite the opposite where they have fewer versions of the phones with almost all bands.
I would definitely be putting in a local sim card in the destination country so this would be an issue, even if I wasn't, roaming coverage on your home carrier seems like it won't be as good as if you had a different manufacture's phone with more bands in the area your visiting.
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This isn't just an LG issue. I've had the same issue with phones from any other provider. It's all part of traveling. I've always had to look at what bands are available where I'm going from which carriers and which bands my phone covered and then choose a local carrier accordingly. If you're lucky, you might even get a choice of two carriers that post coverage maps so you get to make a completely informed decision. So not really an LG thing.
In the band selection menu on the T-mobile version and on the box it shows 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,17,20,25,28,29,30,38,39,40,41,46,66,71
CHH2 said:
This isn't just an LG issue. I've had the same issue with phones from any other provider. It's all part of traveling. I've always had to look at what bands are available where I'm going from which carriers and which bands my phone covered and then choose a local carrier accordingly. If you're lucky, you might even get a choice of two carriers that post coverage maps so you get to make a completely informed decision. So not really an LG thing.
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Correct but if LG phones do in fact have 5 or so less bands, you're going to have more issues than if you had a different manufacturer with more bands. Depends on where you go and what those carriers support of course.
portcqb said:
In the band selection menu on the T-mobile version and on the box it shows 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,17,20,25,28,29,30,38,39,40,41,46,66,71
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Strange. If accurate then every site online listing the specs is wrong.
portcqb said:
In the band selection menu on the T-mobile version and on the box it shows 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,17,20,25,28,29,30,38,39,40,41,46,66,71
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Looks like nobody knows what bands the phone has.
LG website says:
B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7, B12, B20, B38, B39, B40, B41, B46, B66, B71 (Some are listed as roaming bands. Not sure if they would work with a local sim or not or what that means)
GSM Arena says:
B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7, B12, B20, B28, B29, B40, B41, B66, B71
T-Mobile website says:
LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 20, 28, 29, 40, 41, 66, 71 (Same as GSM Arena)
Box and phone says:
1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,17,20,25,28,29,30,38,39,40,41,46,66,71
kurtbird said:
Correct but if LG phones do in fact have 5 or so less bands, you're going to have more issues than if you had a different manufacturer with more bands. Depends on where you go and what those carriers support of course.
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Have you even looked to see if the bands missing from the version you want are even used where you would want to go? Have you looked to see what those bands are even used for/who they are used by? They may not even be relevant bands.
CHH2 said:
Have you even looked to see if the bands missing from the version you want are even used where you would want to go? Have you looked to see what those bands are even used for/who they are used by? They may not even be relevant bands.
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Yes I did. For example according tmobile, lg, and gsm arena, it's missing LTE Band 8 which is needed for Truemove H in Thailand I believe so without it, the phone will still work but I probably won't have as good coverage. Other devices have that band listed.
kurtbird said:
Yes I did. For example according tmobile, lg, and gsm arena, it's missing LTE Band 8 which is needed for Truemove H in Thailand I believe so without it, the phone will still work but I probably won't have as good coverage. Other devices have that band listed.
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And do you use that carrier when you go to Thailand?
CHH2 said:
And do you use that carrier when you go to Thailand?
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Yes, otherwise I wouldn't of mentioned. This is a general observation that would affect many other people going to many other places as well assuming the band info online is correct. It's not a necessity to have all the bands to use your phone on other carriers but the service won't be as good.
feelfreetoblameme said:
A good concern to bring up for those of us that travel and rely on T-Mobile's great international coverage. I'm looking to get the unlocked V30 myself and it seems to have an even lower number of bands compared to the T-Mobile version, at least from what I can see on B&H's pre-order site. My main overseas travel is to Pakistan and England and looking at the bands used in both countries, the LG V30 covers them. That being said, when I have traveled with my current Nexus 5 that has less bands, I haven't had too many issues. I expect overseas data to be slow unless I get a local SIM but I agree it would be nice to have more options.
From B&H:
LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 20, 25, 66
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Can you check what bands the unlocked LG V30 shows supported by entering 5457#*300# in the dialer? I'm starting to think the specs online are all useless.
kurtbird said:
Can you check what bands the unlocked LG V30 shows supported by entering 5457#*300# in the dialer? I'm starting to think the specs online are all useless.
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I wish I had one to check! Only available to preorder on B&H at the moment, with an expected delivery of December 5th. Sigh.
portcqb said:
In the band selection menu on the T-mobile version and on the box it shows 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,17,20,25,28,29,30,38,39,40,41,46,66,71
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Right, but all those extra bands are enabled through the "hidden menu" options. Don't you think the "open market" US998 will also let you add more LTE bands?
the box is usually correct, its all the companies developers that disables the bands not needed for their networks. Which makes it difficult to get the specs right for all the different variants. Thats why they should just list all the bands off the box, then say in bold your carrier may be blocking some bands.
DaMagicTicket said:
the box is usually correct, its all the companies developers that disables the bands not needed for their networks. Which makes it difficult to get the specs right for all the different variants. Thats why they should just list all the bands off the box, then say in bold your carrier may be blocking some bands.
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So in this case it's possible that T-Mobile \ LG are only listing some of the bands on their websites since the box and phone show otherwise? It's pretty sad when LG's and T-Mobile's sites don't even match. On LG's site they list some of the bands as "Roaming Bands" which could mean those bands only work in roaming mode? It's too bad they can't put out accurate complete information.
DaMagicTicket said:
the box is usually correct, its all the companies developers that disables the bands not needed for their networks. Which makes it difficult to get the specs right for all the different variants. Thats why they should just list all the bands off the box, then say in bold your carrier may be blocking some bands.
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kurtbird said:
So in this case it's possible that T-Mobile \ LG are only listing some of the bands on their websites since the box and phone show otherwise? It's pretty sad when LG's and T-Mobile's sites don't even match. On LG's site they list some of the bands as "Roaming Bands" which could mean those bands only work in roaming mode? It's too bad they can't put out accurate complete information.
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For instance, it's well known the South Korean carriers' LG phones REALLY support most of the U.S. carrier LTE bands, even though the specs websites and South Korean carrier websites say differently. Many people from U.S. order LG phones off eBay from South Korea because those models often have better specs (like the LG G6 had quad DAC and more internal storage than U.S. LG G6) or receive OS updates first.
But it's hard finding specific information about exactly which bands. I just know from word of mouth. Someone yesterday asked me exactly which U.S. LTE bands were supported on the South Korean LG G6 PLus (the LG G6 on steroids released MONTHS later in mid-2017, and which FINALLY had all the specs in one phone), and I can't find an definitive source to answer that question. (There's three carriers and some may have more bands than the others.) I'm giving them the answer from an XDA user for regular G6.