* Posts by TrancerSte

4 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Nov 2012

Singapore to trial 10Gbps home broadband

TrancerSte

Agree this is a largely pointless pissing contest at the moment. I'm in Singapore and I have 1gbps, but even that is more than I can use. The only reason I have 1gbps is because my provider keeps upgrading everyone for free, so in the last 18 months 300mbps became 500mbps, became 1gbps...

Synthetic speed test aside, real world speed on a single client (fast desktop PC, direct 1GBE connection to router, 2x 50 connection Usenet servers, 1 US and one NL) maxes out around 50MB/s. It's nice to think I could do this while simultaneously streaming UHD Netflix to all my non-existent 4K devices, though...

The best smartphones for Christmas

TrancerSte
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One XL

Have to say that my HTC One XL [the Asian/Aus LTE variant of the One X, running on a far more phone-appropriate dual core Snapdragon S4 SOC] is such a massively underrated phone and I genuinely think still the all-round best Android handset on the market today.

Bollocks to sense and gimmicky Beats Audio nonsense; mine's rooted and running AOKP 4.1.2 with 4.2 GApps. It's rock solid, absolutely flies both in terms of interface and on Singapore's proper LTE network (actual 70mbps+) and the battery life is epic, which was the one major complaint about the Tegra 3 based One X.

It's available in the UK on EE's LTE network now too I think. Can't recommend it highly enough!

EE 4G LTE review

TrancerSte

UK: doing it wrong...

Wow, this UK LTE launch is looking more and more like a damp squib! I'm a Brit living in Singapore and I've been following the 4G spectrum auction / EE monopoly shambles back home with some interest.

Singtel launched their LTE service here in May. I swapped network and bought a new SIM free phone outright (HTC OneXL) pretty much on launch day, and I must say I think it's bloody awesome. However:

- 4G here is a free value-add

- The lowest package comes with 2GB data and over-usage is charged at SG $5/GB (£2.50)

- Coverage is about 80% (excluding underground lines) and increasing

- The 3G networks here are so congested that you often wait several minutes for any data to begin transferring

- Speeds are actually considerably faster than 3G and up there with theoretical maximums*

Even so, I've still come to treat LTE more like a boost of nitrous oxide to be used when required rather than an always-on, simply because the battery usage is mental.

Get an app that provides a quick shortcut to phone info (the same as dialling *#*#4636#*#*) and only switch on LTE when you need it. For example I'll switch it on at the start of my commute, refresh the BBC and Guardian apps, then switch back to WCDMA with plenty of news to read.

* http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4149/screenshot2012103123083.png - that's from inside my 8th floor apartment out in the suburbs, 6 months since the network launched -- that's what a 4G network should look like ;)