Will 4G make much of a difference?

griffdaddy

I've been thinking about this lately, purely with regards to mobile phones. (Obviously mobile broadband is a different issue.) I can already do everything at pretty much top internet speed on my phone. When I'm on H+ pages load instantly and Youtube videos play with no buffering at all. Apps, skype etc. all work perfectly. Is 4G really going to make that much of a difference? Unless your downloading torrents or something on your phone i don't really see the point. Even if you're tethering to your computer while you're on the move you're probably not going to need 4G speeds. Is it really only going to have major implications for people who rely on mobile broadband as their main internet connection at home?

_Kaiser_

griffdaddy wrote: »

I've been thinking about this lately, purely with regards to mobile phones. (Obviously mobile broadband is a different issue.) I can already do everything at pretty much top internet speed on my phone. When I'm on H+ pages load instantly and Youtube videos play with no buffering at all. Apps, skype etc. all work perfectly. Is 4G really going to make that much of a difference? Unless your downloading torrents or something on your phone i don't really see the point. Even if you're tethering to your computer while you're on the move you're probably not going to need 4G speeds. Is it really only going to have major implications for people who rely on mobile broadband as their main internet connection at home?

Think you may have a point alright. Regardless of how much spec they cram in there, ultimately it's still a phone, designed to be portable and thus limited to probably not much more than the Galaxy S3/Note 2 at this point in terms of physical dimensions, screen size etc which in turn puts a limit on the use for the phone... I doubt anyone will be replacing their laptop with a Galaxy Note 2 any time soon for example (great phone that it is - I have one )

I think mobiles are getting to the point that PC's reached about 7/8 years ago, where the hardware has advanced to such a point that there's no need to keep upgrading anymore. I mean, the Galaxy S2 or even the S1 are still perfectly good phones for what probably 90% of people want/use them for.

To make the leap to the next level, they need a new killer app/use for the device - not just another incremental hardware update (in this case connection speed, which if it's anything like 3G will be ropey most of the time anyway)

batistuta9

will it make any difference to the reliability/coverage problems of networks?