Galaxy Note7 can connect to 4 simultaneous LTE bands with 4×4 MIMO

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is the first commercially [almost] available smartphone to support 4×4 MIMO. The feature is supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 but only if the handset is equipped with four network antennas for simultaneous connections.





Well, the Galaxy Note7’s hardware does support this in conjunction with Qualcomm’s X12 LTE model. And although there are no US carrier that supports 4×4 MIMO right now, at least we know that the Snapdragon variant of the Note7 does. This feature is not supported on the Exynos variant of the Galaxy Note7 since it does not have the same X12 modem.

In order for 4×4 MIMO to fully work, a subscriber’s network towers would also need to support 4 simultaneous network channels. T-Mobile in the US doesn’t have these 4×4 towers everywhere, but there are some in NYC.





The benefit of having these extra channels would vastly improve network reliability and speeds. When one channel has a weak or no signal, the handset has other channels to fall back on. This feature can also help to greatly reduce the number of dropped VoLTE calls.