LTE watches

[Powerhouse696]

Funny how the new watch ultra only in LTE version and none of the data program can support LTE 🤨🤔

[SammyNerd83]

Are you talking about the unreleased, unannounced, Galaxy watch ultra? Because if that's what you're talking about, don't believe anything until the actual announcements. They're probably will be an LTE version available, but there could not be. Nobody knows anything for absolute certain until the announcements are made.

[Powerhouse696]

Oh, okay. I guess I'm frustrated because I have the LTE 5 Pro and can't join the Beta program.

[SammyNerd83]

Yeah only certain models were allowed for the beta program, probably the LTE ones were not included because they have carrier specific software on them. In fact if I remember correctly, they usually don't do carrier specific watches on the beta programs. And when they do the beta programs for the phones, it's either one carrier specifically including unlocked or just the unlocked phones.

[userpMgFwKaOxb]

How can they carry carrier specific software when they have to be able to work with a variety of eSIMM providers/carriers? When we did the WearOS4 beta last summer, my GW4 LTE Classic got a "surprise" update to the release software at 5:30 AM in very early September. I don't have a carrier even though I have an LTE model. No eSIMM, never had one, and proud of it!

I think this notion is the high-tech equivalent of the proverbial "old wife's tale" - no offense intended.

[userpMgFwKaOxb]

We were both part of the WearOS4 beta last year, and your GW5 Pro LTE and my GW4 LTE Classic qualified for that beta, so I'm asking the same question. WearOS5 is supposed to work on both of our LTE watches, and you'd think that they would like some real-world performance data on both of them.

[N0Y0U2114]

Why would they beta test on devices that have even more that can go wrong that might not be caused by the beta update?

Betas are unstable often, LTE can make that even worse if the foundation isn't right. Test on the standard, expand to LTE

[userpMgFwKaOxb]

All software is "beta" to a certain extent. Release software is just a little less "beta", that's why we get periodic updates to fix problems, etc.

[SammyNerd83]

🤔

[userpMgFwKaOxb]

Believe me, the stuff that gets released in a Galaxy Watch Beta test of GW software is fairly well-behaved beta software. General public beta tests, whether they be Windows or Samsung Galaxy Watch software, are only done when companies are confident that their software will not crater in a major way. Their stock holders would likely be less than enthused, and it would generally be bad for business. I found each of the 5 releases of beta software of WearOS4 last year to be about as stable as any release version. The difference was that we saw minor changes and performance improvements in each of the 5 beta releases in quick succession to one another. So it was easy to evaluate the process, and the company responded in very short order to correct problems. Compare that to release software. Problems, unless they are egregious, take much longer to correct than beta release corrections, but problems in release software are usually minor and somewhat tolerable. The LTE modules in GW models are quite stable at this point and stable enough to use in a contemporary beta release. The LTE software that was released in beta last year was quite stable. I suspect the WearOS5 LTE beta software would likely be just as stable.