The meaning of connectivity symbols on smartphones. A guide on what the symbols on the status bar of mobile devices running Android represent.
First of all, if an Android mobile (for example Samsung Galaxy) has the data connection active and correctly configured, the symbol indicating the type of connectivity present. In particular, that symbol represents the type of speed with which you are connected (HDSPA, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS, HSPA+, LTE, LTE+) through a letter / number.
To date, the 4G uses these protocols for the data connection: LTE e LTE+, while the 3G: UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+ and finally the 2G: GSM, GPRS, EDGE.
The meaning of connectivity symbols on smartphones
The symbols present, in order of connection speed, I'm:
- G: (GPRS) you are in UMTS coverage but you have no data coverage.
- E: Edge, is the best GSM line speed and allows for data usage. It is at low speed; usually the smartphone connects in E in areas where there is little coverage.
- 3G: the 3G standard, is the same as "G" but allows the exchange of data;
- H: HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), is an evolution of 3G and allows data exchange (sometimes you can find the 3.5G symbol in its place);
- H+: HSPA +, is an evolution of HSPA, and it is also possible to see it with the writing 3.9G;
- During the data exchange, the smartphone switches to a faster network, therefore H o H+ and remains there until the data exchange ends. Specifically, it passes from the idle mode, “Rest”, to the active mode. At the end it returns to idle mode, then to 3G, in order to save battery consumption.
- 4G / LTE: these symbols indicate an LTE connection, therefore a 4G protocol.
- LTE+: specifies the LTE Advanced connection, also in this case it speaks of the 4G protocol.
What is the meaning of the arrows next to the letters
I guess you have wondered many times what the vertical arrows next to the connection symbols mean. Well, you must know that the down arrow indicates the download for free data from the Internet, the upward one, theupload, then uploading data from your smartphone to the Internet.
When the arrows are they are extinguished, it means that there is no data exchange, while when they are colored, indicate that the device is performing a data exchange.
Also in the upper right part we have other icons that you will certainly know, and which are: the half pyramid half pyramid - to indicate if there is a signal - the icon that indicates the remaining percentage of battery life, and much more.
Today we are still waiting for the fifth generation (5G) which should promise incredible speeds. For the moment we find 4G in the mobile phone status bar, indicating that the most performing standard is still LTE.
