Samsung Galaxy S8 for £574

boatman

I don't think I'll lose sleep over it:
"It's not particularly good, it goes down quite a lot, the call quality and call drop rate is far worse than 3G calling ever was.
EE (and all the other networks) still have a lot of work to do to improve VoLTE.
Also remember that VoLTE is of no real benefit to the end customer anyway,
it's only the network that gains as VoLTE is cheaper and easier to run."
ee forum post.

d123

boatman wrote: »

I don't think I'll lose sleep over it:
"It's not particularly good, it goes down quite a lot, the call quality and call drop rate is far worse than 3G calling ever was.
EE (and all the other networks) still have a lot of work to do to improve VoLTE.
Also remember that VoLTE is of no real benefit to the end customer anyway,
it's only the network that gains as VoLTE is cheaper and easier to run."
ee forum post.

It went down a few times in the first few months of roll out (understandable as it was a brand new technology), from memory I think there were 3 major outages since launch. It's been rock solid since then, and as already explained, the rest of the post is just general ignorance on the part of the poster. The technical knowledge of the average user on the EE community forum is probably quite similar to the average user here.

The end user benefits go far beyond quicker set up and higher quality voice calls, you're going to be getting an inferior service if your phone can't take advantage of it.

boatman

Sounds like you are keen to have VoLTE, but I can't see people paying much extra for just that. Yes you get a better phone, there is no doubt, but I don't think it gives good value, clearly people think otherwise because they buy it, but I would question the motive. Not so long ago top end phones were a bit more, that's no longer the case. The marketing men are doing a good job..

d123

boatman wrote: »

Sounds like you are keen to have VoLTE, but I can't see people paying much extra for just that. Yes you get a better phone, there is no doubt, but I don't think it gives good value, clearly people think otherwise because they buy it, but I would question the motive. Not so long ago top end phones were a bit more, that's no longer the case. The marketing men are doing a good job..

It's not a matter of "keen to have VoLTE", its the fact that without VoLTE you are going to have a degraded inferior service, now and in the future. VoLTE is simply a passport to being able to get to the additional service offered on other frequencies like 800MHz.

It's already apparent on Three and EE, with a VoLTE phone your coverage is significantly better than without. To the degree of good signal versus no signal and as 800MHz extends (EE especially are pushing 800MHz onto 3800 cell sites) and as 3G shrinks (all the networks are either already refarming 2100MHz to 4G or planning it) so your non-VoLTE network will also shrink to stay in that footprint.

As I said, at it's simplest, it's going to see 2 subscribers of a network standing next to each other, one with 3-5 bars and the other with no service at all.

If you have a non-VoLTE capable phone now, it's not a tragedy as you'll get the network you're used to today (minus the current upgrading that has been made), but to buy a new non-VoLTE phone now is short sighted as it's going to be detrimental in the near future.

boatman

But surely you can't believe having to buy a £600+ phone(plus the odd few 2nd hand iphones) to use VoLTE on 3 or EE represents good value? When they open it up to any VoLTE capable phone, great(rather than a few network locked purchased from them, plus a couple of others), I'll be happy to use it.

d123

boatman wrote: »

But surely you can't believe having to buy a £600+ phone(plus the odd few 2nd hand iphones) to use VoLTE on 3 or EE represents good value? When they open it up to any VoLTE capable phone, great(rather than a few network locked purchased from them, plus a couple of others), I'll be happy to use it.

It isn't only £600 phones, I've already made that point.

The problem is the fact that the standards for VoLTE on Android haven't been standardised sufficiently and many makers aren't using the same protocols as the networks (hence why a phone might work on EE but not Three or Vodafone and vice versa). This is escpecially true of the cheaper Chinese makes who tend to use old or cheaper (more obscure) parts which mean they'll never be compatible.

If you look at the EE list (who seem to be the only network to give a list, even though it is missing a few phones like the Nokia 6, which does work) you'll see there are midrange handsets listed:

you purchased one of the below phone models:
Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7 or 7 Plus
Google Pixel, Pixel XL
Huawei P10, P10 Lite, P10 Plus
HTC U11
BlackBerry Priv, Dtek 50
you purchased one of the below phone models directly from EE (in one of our EE stores, online at ee.co.uk, or through our business sales or telesales teams), and not through another operator or retailer:
Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, S7, S7 Edge, Xcover 4, A3 (2017), A5 (2017)
Sony Xperia L1, XA1, XZ, XZ Premium, X, XA, X Compact, Z5, Z5 Premium and Z5 Compact
Microsoft Lumia 550, 650, 950, 950XL
Huawei P8 lite (2017)
HTC 10
LG G6, G5, G5 SE, X Cam, K8 (2016), K8 (2017), K10 (2017)

A Samsung A5 or Lumia 550 don't cost £600...

boatman

But it comes back to the original comment with regard to paying so much for a phone. You suggested VoLTE as a benefit, but if its available on a few cheaper handsets, why pay £600? As I said, there is no doubt that they offer a better cameras, the screen is a bit better, but the software is the same(give or take a tweak on Android) as is the battery, to me that doesn't justify paying £600 instead of £150-200. It seems very marginal gains for a lot more money.

d123

boatman wrote: »

But it comes back to the original comment with regard to paying so much for a phone. You suggested VoLTE as a benefit, but if its available on a few cheaper handsets, why pay £600? As I said, there is no doubt that they offer a better cameras, the screen is a bit better, but the software is the same(give or take a tweak on Android) as is the battery, to me that doesn't justify paying £600 instead of £150-200. It seems very marginal gains for a lot more money.

You don't seem to remember how the conversation started, post #12

boatman wrote: »

Anything more than £100 - £150 is too much in my book..

you were advocating £100 phones as more than £150 was "too much in your book", you won't get a compatible phone at that, I never mentioned £600 phones, you did in a later post.

boatman

d123 wrote: »

I never mentioned £600 phones, you did in a later post.

The op was the one who mentioned the expensive phone, I just rounded it up.

Are there any other reasons to spend £600 apart from VoLTE, a better camera and a marginally better screen?

d123

boatman wrote: »

The op was the one who mentioned the expensive phone, I just rounded it up.

Are there any other reasons to spend £600 apart from VoLTE, a better camera and a marginally better screen?

I suppose that would depend on the buyer. Don't forget it's not just volte. It's the fact that volte is also a passport to things like additional coverage (signifanct additional coverage, at that).