caution buying smart phone in Thailand

[cwdavi1]

4 or 5 months ago I lost my phone and bought a new Samsung Galaxy S4 from AIS. Imagine my surprise when I went to the US and discovered that the phone is only 3G capable, not 4G. Plus it cannot be modified for 4G even at my expense. I paid a lot of money for what I thought was a 4G phone and now I'm stuck. Be careful when you buy electronics in Thailand.

[Honkie]

DID they actually told you its 4G or you presume it was ??

[Gulfsailor]

Not Thailand specific. You purchased the GT-I9500 model, which does not support 4G. It is the standard S4 sold in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. The alternative S4 is the GT-I9505 which was the standard sold in Western Europe and America. Blame Samsung for this.

Anyway your model has an 8 core CPU opposed to 4, and a better GPU.

[Soutpeel]

cant see how you can blame Thailand for this, there are two versions of the S4 as far as I am aware, the i9500 which is 3G only, and the i9505 which is 4G, so which one did you buy ?

[ravip]

Before buying an electronic item please spend some time doing some research about it. If you dont understand the specifics, please ask someone else to do it for you. Have a look here and you will realize who is to blame.

Thank you in advance not to throw wild accusations in your moments of self inflicted frustrations.

[glomp]

So you didn't even bother to check what you paid for and now you cry about it after the fact?

[h90]

Not Thailand specific. You purchased the GT-I9500 model, which does not support 4G. It is the standard S4 sold in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. The alternative S4 is the GT-I9505 which was the standard sold in Western Europe and America. Blame Samsung for this.

Anyway your model has an 8 core CPU opposed to 4, and a better GPU.

Well that is very bad from Samsung...two different phones with the same name....

[tw25rw]

Why is everyone jumping on him. He's giving you good info..

[lomatopo]

I doubt that AIS was hawking a LTE/4G-capable SGS4; maybe the OP thought that the "4" in the model number meant that it supported 4G? AFAIK, AIS continues to sell the i9500 variant which supports 3G, and does not support 4G.

There are several SGS4 variants which support various LTE bands (i9505, i9505G, SGH-i337, etc.); for the U.S. the best option might the i9505G from the Google Play Store?

That said, the OP could use AT&T/MVNO on 3G/850 MHz or T-Mobile which has a lot of re-farmed 3G on 1900 MHz.

Most pre-paid or no-contract mobile data in the U.S. is 3G, but Simple does MVNO T-Mo 4G (but on AWS, so 1700x2100)

StraightTalk and Simple are two of the larger MVNOs.

i9505G specs:

Network

Unlocked GSM/UMTS/HSPA+/LTE

GSM/EDGE/GPRS (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

3G (850, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz)

4G LTE (700, 850, AWS, 1900 MHz)

Edited May 23, 2014 by lomatopo

[CryWolf]

In Norway both I9500 and I9505 supports 4g. This is market dependent.

Sent from my HTC One using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[guzzi850m2]

Well I never go "home" anyway.

Last time was in 2004 or thereabouts, haven't had the urge since.

[puuchaibaa]

Anyway your model has an 8 core CPU opposed to 4, and a better GPU.

The 1st gen Exynos 8 core in the S4 has a flaw which Samsung remains quiet about -- it lags a lot when switching between the low and high speed cores. This is because it has to flush it's cache memory every time it switches. It's a hardware bug that cannot not be fixed by software. Benchmark tests typically do not detect this since only the high speed cores remain active during stress tests so no switching is involved. Google 'exynos cci bug'.

I'm not saying this to make anyone feel bad about their device, only to make prospective purchasers aware to see if it is acceptable. Maybe it's not that noticeable after all.

[somchaismith]

Lol, when Thailand didn't have 4G, at the time when you purchased the phone, why would you expect them to sell 4G capable phones? LMAO!

Edited May 23, 2014 by somchaismith

[Asia2000]

Why is everyone jumping on him. He's giving you good info..

No, I think OP wasn't careful enough, before parting with 700$.

Samsung are famous for making many versions, of the same phone.

Samsung Galaxy S4 also come in a 3rd version - Dual sim I9502

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_duos__official_in_china_exynos_5_octa_in_tow-news-5927.php

Before buying a expensive phone, search the internet for product specifications, then this problem would be avoided.

Shops in Tukcom might give wrong information, but I doubt staff at AIS would do it. Found them helpful and they have knowledge about the phones they sell. When in doubt, they actually search for product information from the manufacturer, while the customer wait.

When I made a search now, the first result was this:

http://www.galaxyinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-2-different-versions

would have told OP what model number to buy, for use in US.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_i9500_vs_i9505-review-930p6.php

Edit: added another link

Edited May 23, 2014 by Asia2000

[manarak]

Why is everyone jumping on him. He's giving you good info..

No, I think OP wasn't careful enough, before parting with 700$.

Samsung are famous for making many versions, of the same phone.

Samsung Galaxy S4 also come in a 3rd version - Dual sim I9502

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_duos__official_in_china_exynos_5_octa_in_tow-news-5927.php

Before buying a expensive phone, search the internet for product specifications, then this problem would be avoided.

Shops in Tukcom might give wrong information, but I doubt staff at AIS would do it. Found them helpful and they have knowledge about the phones they sell. When in doubt, they actually search for product information from the manufacturer, while the customer wait.

When I made a search now, the first result was this:

http://www.galaxyinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-2-different-versions

would have told OP what model number to buy, for use in US.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_i9500_vs_i9505-review-930p6.php

Edit: added another link

correct - I had to order my dual sim s4 from china because somehow samsung decided to not sell it anywhere else.

I strongly resent such strange decisions that restrict some products to some countries.

Now if the s5 could be sold everywhere in dual-sim version...

[CryWolf]

Why is everyone jumping on him. He's giving you good info..

No, I think OP wasn't careful enough, before parting with 700$.

Samsung are famous for making many versions, of the same phone.

Samsung Galaxy S4 also come in a 3rd version - Dual sim I9502

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_duos__official_in_china_exynos_5_octa_in_tow-news-5927.php

Before buying a expensive phone, search the internet for product specifications, then this problem would be avoided.

Shops in Tukcom might give wrong information, but I doubt staff at AIS would do it. Found them helpful and they have knowledge about the phones they sell. When in doubt, they actually search for product information from the manufacturer, while the customer wait.

When I made a search now, the first result was this:

http://www.galaxyinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-2-different-versions

would have told OP what model number to buy, for use in US.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_i9500_vs_i9505-review-930p6.php

Edit: added another link

Actually there is one more version. I9506, or s4+ with upgraded cpu and chipset, and support for 150 Mbps DL

Sent from my HTC One using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Skint]

Why is everyone jumping on him. He's giving you good info..

No, I think OP wasn't careful enough, before parting with 700$.

Samsung are famous for making many versions, of the same phone.

Samsung Galaxy S4 also come in a 3rd version - Dual sim I9502

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_duos__official_in_china_exynos_5_octa_in_tow-news-5927.php

Before buying a expensive phone, search the internet for product specifications, then this problem would be avoided.

Shops in Tukcom might give wrong information, but I doubt staff at AIS would do it. Found them helpful and they have knowledge about the phones they sell. When in doubt, they actually search for product information from the manufacturer, while the customer wait.

When I made a search now, the first result was this:

http://www.galaxyinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-2-different-versions

would have told OP what model number to buy, for use in US.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_i9500_vs_i9505-review-930p6.php

Edit: added another link

Actually there is one more version. I9506, or s4+ with upgraded cpu and chipset, and support for 150 Mbps DL

Sent from my HTC One using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

There is indeed the 9506 but even still you have to beware as someone got their pants pulled down they ended up paying full price for second hand trash

[Pib]

OP needs to blame himself for not doing his research and understanding what to buy (or not to buy).

[Langsuan Man]

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance