CAT1 VS CAT4: Whats the Difference in Smart Watch?

◆LTE and LTE UE Category

CAT1 and CAT4 are the abbreviations of LTE user equipment category 1 and LTE user equipment category 4. Before introducing CAT1 and CAT4 to you, let's find out what are the LTE and LTE UE Category.

LTE, an abbreviation of Long Term Evolution, is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals. Although LTE is sometimes known as 3.9G and has been marketed both as "4G LTE" and "Advanced 4G", it does not meet the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standard that is the technical criteria of a 4G wireless service issued by ITU-R(International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector). It is the telecommunication transitory technology between 3G and 4G. With 20 MHz of channel bandwidth, it supports uplink data rates up to 50Mbps and downlink data rates up to 100Mbps theoretically according to standards from 3GPP(3rd Generation Partnership Project).

As for the LTE UE Category, it stands for LTE user equipment category, used to define the performance specifications of LTE devices and enables LTE base stations to be able to communicate effectively with them knowing their performance levels.
3GPP release 8, the first release to truly define the LTE standard, defines five LTE user equipment categories depending on maximum peak data rate and MIMO capabilities support. CAT1 and CAT4 are included in this release.

◆CAT1 VS CAT4

After understanding the definition of LTE and LTE UE Category, let's see the differences between CAT1 and CA4.

◑ Power consumption

Mode of Operation	LTE CAT1	LTE CAT4
Registered on the network idle state	1.2 mA	12.4 mA
Registered on the network with socket connected	1.3 mA	12.7 mA
Registered IP address in idle mode	11.3 mA	13.1 mA
IP socket connected and transmitted data.	86.1 mA	85.1 mA
Active data call in progress.	130.4 mA	133.2 mA

As we can observe in the picture, both the two devices' power consumption is similar under the data transmitting or calling progress. However, in an idle state, the power consumption of the CAT4 device is 10 times the power consumption of the CAT1 device. The difference in power consumption between CAT1 and CAT4 determines that the CAT1 device can support ultra-long standby time function while the CAT4 device does not.

◑ Data rate
The data rate is the second but most severe difference between CAT1 and CAT4. CAT1 supports uplink data rates up to 5.2Mbps and downlink data rates up to 10.3Mbps, while CAT4 supports uplink data rates up to 51Mbps and downlink data rates up to 150.8Mbps.

◑ Conclusion
CAT1 is widely used in loT for its low cost and stable data transmitting, which can satisfy the requirements of most low and medium data rate loT devices. The main differences between CAT1 and CAT4 are power consumption and data transmitting rate. CAT1 is ideal for low power and low data rate requirements, while CAT4 is used primarily for high data rates. As for CAT4, its high data rate can support the device to download and run diversiform applications, but this leap in data rate also comes with the defects of higher power consumption and greater cost in hardware and network.

◆CAT1 and CAT4 in smartwatch

As per the aforementioned description, the differences between CAT1 and CAT4 are the data rate and power consumption, which determine the main features the two watches hold. Taking our WONLEX smartwatch as an example, the selling points of the CAT1 watch are supporting ultra-long standby time, GPS location, and 4G video call. And the selling points of the CAT4 watch are supporting app downloading, WIFI data transmitting, GPS location, and monitoring. CAT4 watches need to run on higher-performance hardware resulting from different functions and operating systems to support a higher data rate. The two kinds of watches come with different processors. The CAT4 watch runs on a dual-core ARM processor, while the CAT1 watch runs on a one-core ARM processor. Not only that, the CAT1 watch's operating system is RTOS, while the CAT4 watch supports the Android 4.4 operating system. And CAT4 watch supports 3G data transmitting, but the CAT1 watch does not. But the CAT1 watch still has its own merits. Its cost is lower than CAT4, and because of the low power consumption, it can run with a low-capacity battery to further reduce costs.