In Europe, Want To Buy A Phone

M

Miss Mikki

New member
So I'm currently in Europe and I would like to buy a phone, but I'm stuck as to which one to buy.

A little background... I'm currently on T-Mobile in Las Vegas which I believe uses the 1900 MHz frequency. I have been considering switching to AT&T because I frequently use the data plan and 3G would be much nicer than EDGE. I believe AT&T uses the 850 MHz frequency for their voice network. This leads me to a few questions... can somebody confirm the frequencies used for both voice and data on both T-Mobile and AT&T?

Ideally I would buy a quad-band 3G phone, and those are certainly available here. The problem is, I also want a specific style and this really starts to limit my options. I currently have the Samsung T509 candbar style. I love Samsung and I love candybar style phones... after looking around, I found that AT&T recently released the A727 which supports 3G (similar to the T-Mobile Trace or the X820). This would be a great phone, but it isn't unlocked, so I can't use it on T-Mobile. So, my search in Europe begins...

The first phone I found was the Samsung U100. I fell in LOVE with this phone. For me, the thinner the better... I believe 5.9mm is as thin as it gets right now. The problem... no 3G and no 850MHz. Depending on the answers above, I might not need 850MHz if I stick with T-Mobile. On the other hand, data is a big priority and 3G is a must, so the U100 is out.

My big question to everyone, then, is which phone should I get? Here is a summary of my requirements:

Must be THIN
Must be 3G

Should be candybar, but slider might be okay
Would prefer quad-band but tri-band might be okay (without 850)

What do you guys think?

-Scott
 
One thing to think about: If you have a non US phone, and one not offered by a US carrier, don't expect any technical support from the carrier if it doesn't work or you have issues getting it on the network.

Also, I would always go with a quad band phone.
 
Most international phones if not all DO NOT support AT&T 3G band (850/1900) but some have quad-band GSM + EDGE so you will not have any problem with voice and 2G/2.5G data.

If you are going to switch to AT&T and want to use its 3G, I think you should stay with AT&T 3G (HSDPA) phones.
 
On the 3G requirement:

Obviously you won't get a 3G handset in Europe (or anywhere else) that will work with T-Mobile USA's 3G network.

You could get a 3G handset that worked on AT&T's 3G network, but such handsets tend to be smartphones and not ultra thin fashion phones.

The other point you might want to bear in mind is that if you purchase a 3G handset in Europe you may not be able to use all the 3G features back in America even if the handset supports the American frequencies. For example, video calling isn't supported by any of the American networks as far as I am aware.

The W880i is a 3G handset and thin, but it doesn't have 850 MHz support. The upcoming K850 has 3G and supports 850 MHz for both EDGE and UMTS (presumably HSDPA as well since it features that too). The problem is that the K850 probably isn't as thin as you would like (and isn't released yet).

You could try taking a look at this website; the handsets shown should be available across Europe.
 
Thanks for the replies... I'm not too on top of the current data standards. I have heard of HSDPA, UMTS, and EDGE, but I don't know the technical details behind them. I'm guessing that HSDPA is the fastest "3G" technology? Is this the one that is 3.x Mb/s? Maybe somebody could explain the difference between HSDPA and UMTS (briefly) and which carriers use which technology? Thanks.
 
Think of it as an evolutionary scale:

GPRS -> EDGE -> UMTS -> HSDPA -> HSUPA

GPRS is a 2G technology. It is the equivalent of a 56 kbps modem. EDGE is 2.75G, it's a step between GPRS and UMTS. UMTS is a 3G technology and in it's basic form has a download speed of 384 kbps. UMTS allows video calling where supported. HSDPA is 3.5G and has a maximum download rate of 14.4 Mbps although current deployments in many places only support 3.2 Mbps. 7.2 Mbps HSDPA should become more widespread in the near future. HSUPA is 3.75G and is the upload equivalent of HSDPA. HSUPA improves the upload speeds of handsets rather than the download speed as HSDPA does.
 
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