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AT&T misleads customers by updating phones with fake 5G icon
AT&T has updated three smartphones from Samsung and LG to make them show 5G connectivity logos, even though none of them are capable of connecting to 5G networks.
Now, when the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, LG V30, or LG V40 are connected to portions of AT&T's LTE network that have received some speed-boosting updates, they'll show an icon that says "5G E" instead of "LTE."
That "E" in the "5G" logo is supposed to tip you off that this isn't real 5G — just some marketing nonsense. But there's no way of knowing that just from looking at the logo. The "E" is smaller than the rest of the icon. And even if you do learn that "5G E" stands for "5G Evolution," it isn't immediately clear what that means.
(Score: 1, Funny) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:10AM (4 children)
Which is perfectly fine. In fact, it is the carrier that tells the phone bought from that carrier what icon to put there, and how many bars to show. For example, you could be on 1-bar LTE, and your phone shows full bars LTE - because the 2G connection has good reception.
This is made for consumers who buy their phones from the carrier. 5GE is faster than when that ATT phone said 4G or LTE. It's not a 5G spec connection, but it is faster than what ATT's other LTE connections. It's not meant to reflect the spec. TMobile did that by displaying a 4G icon when you had parallel 3G connections upping the speed.
Now if you're a person who is interested in the actual 5G spec, you don't buy your phone from the carrier, and you don't have this issue. Heck, I have carrier services and carrier config disabled, so the tower can't set the signal bars - my phone does.
5G Evolution is very clear in what it means. It's faster than when the phone says 4G, and if you think you'll find someone who got their phone at the ATT store who knows the 5G protocol specs, please spend your time looking for that person instead of writing retarded crap online.
Question - Does your Smackers maple syrup have any maple syrup? How about I Can't Believe It's Not Butter? Does that name tell you what it is, or do you have to look it up, just like you'd have to google what 5G Evolution means? Is your Iphone running a Cisco operating system? Is twitter full of twits? Starship is a well defined term - how far does Elon's shiny cone plan on flying?
"5G" is just as unclear to a guy with an ATT phone as "5GE" as far as specs go. What is clear, and the purpose of this, is it's faster than 4G. Now let's all be purposefully dense so we can bitch about this on the internet.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MostCynical on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:45AM (1 child)
So, your petrol can be sold as 100, when it is only 95RON, don't mind if your medicine is only 50% strength, but labeled "strong"..
All the phone carriers had to do was make the icon show "4G+", and no one would have raised an eyebrow.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0, Funny) by fakefuck39 on Monday January 14 2019, @09:48PM
nice strawman. no, "petrol" can't be sold as 100, and this isn't labeled "5G" on your phone. forget the article, is the summary too long to read also? I'd get some pills for your ADD. Yes, 50% strength can be labeled as "strong", if 25% strength is labeled as "regular" from the same brand. retard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:48PM (1 child)
It's "breakfast syrup" and "not butter," which no reasonable person could confuse for the real thing.
(Score: -1) by fakefuck39 on Monday January 14 2019, @09:46PM
and this isn't labeled "5G" either. a reasonable person can at least read the summary. try it sometimes.