There are different versions of the Droid 3: XT862 (USA), XT860 (Canada), XT860 (Brazil), XT883 (China).
I'm wondering whether there are any differences in the hardware between these version, especially now that the Droid 3 has been rooted.
When looking the official Motorola specs, I find:
1) XT862 has HSDPA 10.2 Mbps in the consumer specs, but HSDPA 14.4 Mbps in the developer specs. Both are HSDPA category 9/10. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Downlink_Packet_Access, category 9 has a approximated max rate of 10.1 Mbps and category 10 has 14.0. So maybe Motorola took the value of category 9 instead of 10 when typing the consumer specs, while they should have listed the higher rate of category 10?
2) The Brazilian XT860 has HSUPA 7.6Mbps, while the Canadian XT860 and the XT862 have HSUPA 5.76 Mbps. But because the Brazilian and Canadian are both are XT860, I would expect this rate to be the same, instead of being different.
3) The XT860 doesn't have CDMA 800/1900 and CDMA EV-DO Release A, while the XT862 and XT883 do.
4) The XT862 and XT883 appear to be the same, although I haven't looked in the consumer specs of the XT883 (because it's in Chinese).
Rationaly, when a characteristic of device isn't listed in a specification, you cannot conclude that the device doesn't have that characteristic. The specification might simply be incomplete, but still be correct. But when a characteristic isn't listed for which you would expect it to be listed when would have that characteristic, then the specification suggest (but not conclude) that the device doesn't have that characteristic.
So rationaly, the XT860 might (or might not) have CDMA support, and the Canadian XT860 and the US XT862 might have the same higher HSUPA speed as the Brazilian XT860. And, according to the specs, the XT862 does support 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, although with doubt because the consumer specs list a lower value.
So based on the official specs it is difficult to derive the real maximum speed specs and all features
The best thing would be if someone physically opened all Droid 3 versions, and list the hardware chips. Like this:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Droid-3-Teardown/6108/1
Which says the XT862 has the following hardware chips:
I expect that the XT883 has the same hardware. But the more interesting question is whether the XT860 also has this hardware.
From this list, when it comes to mobile networks, the most important part is probably the Qualcomm MDM6600 and maybe also the Qualcomm PM8028.
The specs of the MDM6600 can be found in http://www.docin.com/p-162606115.html . If I understand it correctly, it supports both CDMA and GSM networks.
But even if a mobile device has a MDM6600 in it, which by itself supports CDMA, it doesn't mean that the mobile device supports CDMA. This is the case for the IPhone 4, which comes in a GSM/AT&T version and a CDMA/Verizon version:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Verizon-Teardown/4693/1
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1
Interesting is the following quote for the CDMA/Verizon IPhone 4:
But why would Motorola first release XT862 that supports both GSM and CDMA, and later release the XT860 with CDMA stripped off? I would expect that they would do this only if stripping CDMA from the XT860 would benefit some other feature. Any ideas?
Some info as reference for the different Droid 3 versions:
I'm wondering whether there are any differences in the hardware between these version, especially now that the Droid 3 has been rooted.
When looking the official Motorola specs, I find:
1) XT862 has HSDPA 10.2 Mbps in the consumer specs, but HSDPA 14.4 Mbps in the developer specs. Both are HSDPA category 9/10. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Downlink_Packet_Access, category 9 has a approximated max rate of 10.1 Mbps and category 10 has 14.0. So maybe Motorola took the value of category 9 instead of 10 when typing the consumer specs, while they should have listed the higher rate of category 10?
2) The Brazilian XT860 has HSUPA 7.6Mbps, while the Canadian XT860 and the XT862 have HSUPA 5.76 Mbps. But because the Brazilian and Canadian are both are XT860, I would expect this rate to be the same, instead of being different.
3) The XT860 doesn't have CDMA 800/1900 and CDMA EV-DO Release A, while the XT862 and XT883 do.
4) The XT862 and XT883 appear to be the same, although I haven't looked in the consumer specs of the XT883 (because it's in Chinese).
Rationaly, when a characteristic of device isn't listed in a specification, you cannot conclude that the device doesn't have that characteristic. The specification might simply be incomplete, but still be correct. But when a characteristic isn't listed for which you would expect it to be listed when would have that characteristic, then the specification suggest (but not conclude) that the device doesn't have that characteristic.
So rationaly, the XT860 might (or might not) have CDMA support, and the Canadian XT860 and the US XT862 might have the same higher HSUPA speed as the Brazilian XT860. And, according to the specs, the XT862 does support 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, although with doubt because the consumer specs list a lower value.
So based on the official specs it is difficult to derive the real maximum speed specs and all features
The best thing would be if someone physically opened all Droid 3 versions, and list the hardware chips. Like this:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Droid-3-Teardown/6108/1
Which says the XT862 has the following hardware chips:
I expect that the XT883 has the same hardware. But the more interesting question is whether the XT860 also has this hardware.
From this list, when it comes to mobile networks, the most important part is probably the Qualcomm MDM6600 and maybe also the Qualcomm PM8028.
The specs of the MDM6600 can be found in http://www.docin.com/p-162606115.html . If I understand it correctly, it supports both CDMA and GSM networks.
But even if a mobile device has a MDM6600 in it, which by itself supports CDMA, it doesn't mean that the mobile device supports CDMA. This is the case for the IPhone 4, which comes in a GSM/AT&T version and a CDMA/Verizon version:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Verizon-Teardown/4693/1
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1
Interesting is the following quote for the CDMA/Verizon IPhone 4:
So even when a phone has a chip that support CDMA, other parts of the phone might not (because of design reasons), causing the phone not to support CDMA.
But why would Motorola first release XT862 that supports both GSM and CDMA, and later release the XT860 with CDMA stripped off? I would expect that they would do this only if stripping CDMA from the XT860 would benefit some other feature. Any ideas?
Some info as reference for the different Droid 3 versions:
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