Tag: T-Mobile

T-Mobile continues to be a growing force to reckon with here in the United States.  The carrier reported their last quarter financials yesterday and in it, pointed to so heady numbers both financially and with their customer base.  In the last quarter, the “uncarrier” added 1.1 million total new customers, 914,000 of which were postpay while an additional 386,000 were pre-pay thanks to the MetroPCS division.  That marks four years straight in which the carrier has added over 1 million new customers per quarter.  Perhaps even more impressive, the company only had a 1.18% churn rate (the rate of customers leaving) which is shockingly good for any service provider, let alone a mobile carrier.

Financially, the carrier is on solid footing.  T-Mobile reported $9.6 billion in total revenue with $698 million in net income.  That revenue number is an increase of 11% while the income was up 46%.  The company also has $1.7 billion in net cash available with $185 million in free cash flow.

T-Mobile has joined the list of carriers that have officially released the Android Nougat 7.0 update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.  The update was announced last week but will start rolling out to the two year old phablet starting today.  The update will bring the Nougat update and all the greatness it includes to the device as well as the March 2017 Android Security update.  For those who need a reminder, Nougat includes things like multi-window viewing of apps, improved Doze and lots of other features.  Here is a summary of the highlights.

This update will take about 15-20 min to download and install.  It is best to download the update via Wi-Fi as it is over a 1GB download.  Once it is downloaded, you will need to reboot your device after the install.

You read the headline right.  T-Mobile has released the Android Nougat update for the now three year old HTC One M8.  The update has passed final Q&A within the carrier and is now starting to hit customer phones.  The news is a little bit of a surprise for a couple of different reasons.  First, did I mention that the One M8 is three years old?  It was released in March 2014 and as a general rule, anything over two years doesn’t see a major update.

Second, the One M8 runs on the Snapdragon 801 processor.  While it was a solid processor at the time, Qualcomm has since stopped supporting it.  Further, because of the lack of support, many manufactures did not update devices running the 801.  Sony would be probably the most notable of those who decided not to update their older devices.

T-Mobile continues to be one of the best carriers in the US when it comes to device updates.  The latest proof point is the 2015 HTC One M9.  The carrier has released the Android Nougat update for customers who have the phone on their network.  The update is based on Nougat 7.0 and has the January Android Security Update.  It comes some two months after the unlocked One M9 received the Nougat treatment.

The update is just over 1GB in size so those of you with the One M9 will want to download it via Wi-Fi and you can expect the total download and upgrade time to take about 30 minutes.  Once you get it installed, you’ll have all the Nougat niceties along with some improvements to HTC’s Sense UI.

The new LG G6 is coming to T-Mobile on April 7th.  The carrier announced that the latest LG flagship would be coming to them at a price of $26 per month for 24 months & a $26 down payment.  That roughly works out to $650 for the phone which is about what expected to the street price.  The G6 has already caught a lot of people’s attention with its 5.7″ display that has an 18:9 aspect ratio. Having held a near-final version of the phone, it feels long in your hand but is comfortable.

The specs of the LG G6 are solid.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 821 processor and is coupled with 4GB of RAM.  Storage wise, it has 32GB onboard which can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It is powered by a 33oomAh battery and supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology for rapid charging.  The G6 has a fingerprint scanner in the back which is also the

LG G6

physical power button for the device.   Finally, do remember that the G6 is the first phone to ship with Google Assistant out-of-the-box and runs Android Nougat 7.0.

For those of you who are wanting to pick up the G6, if you place your order at T-Mobile before April 30th, you will also get a Google Home at no additional cost.  That’s a $129 value so not a bad deal at all.  Head over to T-Mobile to get all the details.

Chinese manufacture ZTE has started rolling out the Android Nougat 7.1.1 update to the Axon 7.  This is a big deal as it makes the Axon 7 one of the first non-Google devices to get the 7.1.1 update.  That, of course means that things like App Shortcuts along with overall improved stability is coming to the phone.  ZTE rolled out the Nougat 7.0 update earlier this year so having the 7.1.1 update follow up right behind it is a bit of a surprise.

The update comes with the February Android Security Update which brings pretty close to where Google phones are with the March update.  It also brings the new emoji that come in 7.1.1 and optimizations throughout the device.  The Axon 7 is also one of the few non-Google phones optimized with Daydream for VR and this update brings further optimizations to that element of the

ZTE Axon 7

phone.

If you have a ZTE Axon 7, the upgrade to this build is pretty small at under 200MB.  Once you have it downloaded, the update will take about 20 minutes to install and will require a reboot of your phone.