both tmobile and sprint is offering the 4a 5g for $350. i have a sprint account, so popped for the upgrade at sprint. did the esim activation (no sim was provided).
so am assuming that i'm on the tmobile network since sprint 5g was inactivated last year? this is the network i would have gotten on my old phone had i swapped to a tmx sim?
Posted Mar 11, 2021, 11:40 PM UTC
The only difference with a TNX SIM versus TNA (that you now have) is 5G SA coverage in rural areas. This won't give you better reception but it might give faster speeds far away from the tower.
The "good" news is you can't TNX yet with that device. Stay tuned here to learn when you can.
thanks, but is the 5g sa coverage with tna or tnx (i'm in chicagoland, so definitely not rural). why is it "good" that i can't tnx yet?
fwiw, with lte on my 2xl i'd get around 20-25mbps down. with the 4a 5g, i'm getting around 90mbps down which is a very nice bump.
5G SA is only with TNX. There were some early plans to make it available to TNA, but they were scrapped.
I meant the good news was you have the best setup for that device today. You have TNA on eSIM with the physical slot free.
There are some perks to TNA. International roaming works, free LTE roaming in Japan. Eligible for Japan Plan. Even Static IP is available.
yah, i won't be able to take advantage of those perks, but thank you.
for laff's, i did compare the cost of an upgrade of my secondary account to a tmobile plan, and it was $10 more a month. i'll stay with the current sprint plan as long as i can.
You're not missing much by not having a tnx'd Tmobile SIM. I'm on Sprint with a 5G phone. I had a Sprint Sim for a while & now a Tmobile SIM. In some cases calls & data get worse on tnx but I was luckily & it all stayed about the same.
Eventually they'll allow your phone to accept the T-Mobile SIM. You'll get T-Mobile voicemail app and the spam call block app thing if you go tnx. If everything works fine I wouldn't risk changing until you had to. I imagine your area would be fine with either Network though.
I'm on a 2xl. I'm scared to give up my front facing speakers and notchless design. :(
yah, the 2xl has been a great phone for me as well, but i always start looking for new phones when they no longer get android updates (tho you can always go with a custom rom route).
while the 4a 5g is a bit smaller, and easier to grip (and lighter), it's still notchless (tho has an embedded selfie cam hole in the upper left of the screen). looks like the screen is larger due to the smaller 'forehead' versus the 2xl. the 4a has slower snapdragon processor, and lower dpi, and no IP rating, it does have 5g (big for me) and an 3.6mm headphone jack (also important for me). it does have dual speakers which are plenty loud, but sound quality isn't as good as the 2xl imho. am assuming it does have camera advancements over the 2xl, tho haven't done comparisons. tldr, the 2xl is a great phone, but time moves on.
Thanks for the review points. I might just stick it out for 1 more generation...
Yup your phone prefers connecting to the T-Mobile network since it is a 5G device.
When TNX is enabled for the 4a 5G you would be able to switch SIMs and have your phone directly activated on the T-Mobile network.
You’re on TNA (T-Mobile Network Access) that is applied upon device activation which just has you prefer the T-Mobile network by default but keeps you on Sprint’s apps.
got it...thank you.