recommended phones with 1700/2100mhz mode?

[yosecretsquirre]

I live in North America and am looking for a new phone beyond the selection my carrier provides. The most important feature the phone must have is using the 1700/2100mhz spectrum, everything else is secondary.
Suggestions?

[drewski]

When you say 1700/2100 I presume you are referring to LTE bands? or are you considering the 3G bands as well? Also, which carrier were you thinking of (possibly) using the phone with? That would help to narrow down your choices.

[edcoolio]

When you say 1700/2100 I presume you are referring to LTE bands? or are you considering the 3G bands as well? Also, which carrier were you thinking of (possibly) using the phone with? That would help to narrow down your choices.

1700/2100 3G (if they are in North America) is likely T-Mobile.

[los33]

When you say 1700/2100 I presume you are referring to LTE bands? or are you considering the 3G bands as well? Also, which carrier were you thinking of (possibly) using the phone with? That would help to narrow down your choices.

1700/2100 3G (if they are in North America) is likely T-Mobile.

i will only reccomend posh titan hd e500 only because this is the first chinese phone i have used, but i own nexus 5, SG4/5, Note 2/3/4 and develop for those phones.

I really like this phone as it keeps up with my nexus 5 and it is a budget phone.

[WuddaWaste]

Wow. Thanks for the heads-up, @los33 . I had no idea about this phone.

Edit: After taking a peek, it looks like the phone runs 3G on WCDMA 850/1700/1900 MHz. I believe it's the 1900 MHz that's allowing for HSPA+ on T-Mobile USA.

I have yet to find a Chinese phone that runs 3G on 1700/2100 MHz. The recent addition to carry 1900 MHz has been great since T-Mobile has been reframing a lot of their 2G to run HSPA+ (ambiguously 3G-4G depending on how you look at it) for the past few years. My 1900MHz phones have worked to get reasonable 3G most places I go.

[drewski]

Oh usually when I see 1700/2100, I think of Band 4 LTE used by AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers, Bell but you're right, if it's 1700/2100 3G (AWS), it'd be T-Mobile in the US, and Wind Mobile and Mobilicity in Canada.

At any rate, there's not too many phones I know of that supports 1700/2100 3G since it's not that common outside of North America, and the models that are already offered by the carriers are variants that have been made specifically for those carriers, like these ones from Samsung from the past 3 years for example:
SGH-T889 Samsung Galaxy Note 2
SM-N900T Samsung Galaxy Note 3
SM-N910T Samsung Galaxy Note 4
SGH-T999 Samsung Galaxy S3
SGH-M919 Samsung Galaxy S4
SM-G900T Samsung Galaxy S5

There's a not-so-new list of AWS phones here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AWS_devices) but I've found that only a handful of the larger manufacturers have models that support AWS. As for phones that run on that spectrum beyond what the carrier already has, the only recent one that comes to mind is the Huawei Ascend Mate 2. Of course, there's also all the Nexus phones.

The other reason I asked which carrier OP was thinking of using is due to the fact TMobile itself is refarming a lot of their urban areas to 1900, so 1700/2100 might be a non-issue there, and having 1900 on a phone is a lot more common than 1700 (for 3G).

Edit: haha, I see all these new comments only after I pressed Reply. Great suggestion there los33.

[los33]

850 = 3G (Non T-Mobile/ATT)
1700 = 3G/4G+ (hspda+) (T-mobile 3G/4G HSPDA+)
1900 = 3G/4G+ (hspda+) (Most Providers)
2100 = LTE Band (T-mobile/ATT/Verizon)

I have used the posh phone one T-Mobile/ATT/Cricket(ATT)/Simple mobile/MetroPCS(current Provider)/Sprint/US Cellular/Verizon

[yosecretsquirre]

850 = 3G (Non T-Mobile/ATT)
1700 = 3G/4G+ (hspda+) (T-mobile 3G/4G HSPDA+)
1900 = 3G/4G+ (hspda+) (Most Providers)
2100 = LTE Band (T-mobile/ATT/Verizon)

I have used the posh phone one T-Mobile/ATT/Cricket(ATT)/Simple mobile/MetroPCS(current Provider)/Sprint/US Cellular/Verizon

I'm referring to the T-Mobile type, but for Wind or Mobilicity. They require both 1700 and 2100.

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Of course I'm referring to ASW, just couldn't remember the term for it.

[Sniper47]

T-Mobile 3G is on 1900 or 1700/2100. It will depend on your area. At the moment, they are farming all 3G to 1900 to make way for LTE on 1700. The re-farming has been going on for a long time and most areas are currently 1900.

Any MVNO (Wind etc...) will operate on whatever frequency T-Mobile is operating on in that area. My point, you will likely be fine with 1900.

[edcoolio]

850 = 3G (Non T-Mobile/ATT)
1700 = 3G/4G+ (hspda+) (T-mobile 3G/4G HSPDA+)
1900 = 3G/4G+ (hspda+) (Most Providers)
2100 = LTE Band (T-mobile/ATT/Verizon)

I have used the posh phone one T-Mobile/ATT/Cricket(ATT)/Simple mobile/MetroPCS(current Provider)/Sprint/US Cellular/Verizon

I'm referring to the T-Mobile type, but for Wind or Mobilicity. They require both 1700 and 2100.

---

Of course I'm referring to ASW, just couldn't remember the term for it.

If you require 1700/2100 where you live - or if you travel a lot - then the Huawei Ascend P6S or P6S might be options. I do not know what your budget is, but these run about $300. They look rather cool at around 6.2mm for a 4.7" screen with a 2000 mAh battery.

As to the 1900 frequency, all I can say is that "eventually" it will be everywhere for T-Mobile towers (and may already be available where you live), but be 100% positive before you pull the trigger. There is a reason why they want you with 1700/2100 and returning used phones, even if bought locally, always seems to be a major hassle in general.