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So I have seen countless complaints on battery and reception regarding the new radio. I personally haven't upgraded it, but seeing as I have seen so many complaints, I'd like to hear if anyone liked the new radio.
I'm not sure if it's the ROM, peoples' location, or what is causing the issues for some people, but so far I am getting an all-negative reaction which makes me not want to update it at all...
Any thoughts specifically regarding the new radio??
i live in ohio and the radio update has improved my signal...at work i would never get an 3g signal and after 8 hours would basically need to throw my phone on the charger...after the update i feeel like i got an extended batter i never leave 3g coverage while at my desk its great i think the main thing it does is attain the 3g better thus improving battery through a quality signal...i am interested to see if it does have someting to do with location as ive seen the mass negativity about this radio update...my opinion people get cold feet about the radio and subconciously start hating it
i flashed the .03 radio. everything seems the same same same
The new radio has GREATLY improved my battery life, but I really cant tell any difference in reception.
troyboytn said:
The new radio has GREATLY improved my battery life, but I really cant tell any difference in reception.
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Kind of agree. I can't tell a difference in reception but I believe it has improved my battery.
My battery keeps a charge a lot longer. Also since I've been getting better reception
Im running thr new radio with damage's rom, battery seems wayyy better and signal as well..internet browsings faster too.not sure if thats cause of the new radio or rom.goood stufffff
I haven't really noticed any difference in battery life or signal, not better but not worse either.
Don't really notice any difference after flashing the new one.
+1 better reception and battery here...
phx, az
Didnt seem to kill the battery any faster, I dont think.
It didnt seem to improve my reception
it actually seemed to make my data slower. im still testing this.
I have nothing against it, but Ive had sprint for 10years in my area and after a few months I knew how many bars I had at certain locations.
well after the upgrade I seem to get LESS reception (bars) then before. I dont experience dropped calls or missed txts, etc. so I see no point to go back to the old one. doesnt bother me
as far as battery life I have a 1800mAh battery they still hasnt had but maybe half a dozen charges so i cant really give you any better of an idea.
My battery life is a little better. My reception is not any worse or better really. I see less "bars" but bars don't mean much. My db reading is -75 in my office, which is the same as with the old radio. I do notice my data rates went from about 1100-1200 down to about 600-800 down at best. Upload rates went from 700-800 to 500-600. So I notice slower data which is a bummer.
my battery life drastically improved. i haven't noticed data difference.
I upgraded the radio at the same time I upgraded to the newest Fresh Rom. Shortly after I loaded damage control.
At first I thought my reception was worse but then noticed the signal strength bars only had 4 instead of 6, which makes it look like less signal. But my internet seems noticably faster (could be the 2.1 Rom) and I'm not dropping calls and reception is clear on phone calls.
As to battery life; again hard to say with the new OS, bit its not any worse than before. Still have to charge every night under normal use and sooner with some extra Pandora action tossed in.
I'm averaging 2.5 - 3% battery per hour with the new radio, but I also upgraded to a 2.1 ROM at the same time.
With the 1.5 ROM I was running and the old radio I was averaging 4 - 4.5% per hour.
I can't definitively say if it was the ROM or the radio that made the difference though.
I'm running an Andida 2000mah battery too.
-Daryel
I haven't noticed a difference either way...I went back to stock for the heck of it and everything seems the same...
Meh, its good. I feel like I am getting better battery life. Not sure though. Give or take.
I live in an area that no carrier has great reception, so yeah.
hey guys thanks for all the feedback. i was wondering about this too and since im on this thread i guess i can ask about what .zip file i should use for my rom? or is it the same? im running damageless. thanks!
I say there needs to be an experiment... would the same "differences" come up if a "radio update" came out that only changed the #'s of the baseband version, but said it was better?
just a thought.
I believe there is a bug in the signal strength indication on the Fascinate, the one that shows the signal strength in -dBm.
You can see the signal strength of the cell signal on the Menu, Settings, About, Status screen. Or you can place a widget on your Home screen. There are several widgets available, I'm using Mobile Signal Widget.
I have a network extender, which basically creates a cell tower right in your home. With my Motorola Droid, I used to get signal strengths down to about -50 something and 60's in indicated signal strength. I can hold both of our Fascinates right next to the network extender's antenna and they will read no better than -86 dBm. So far I've seen signal strengths from -86 dBm to -106 dBm (terrible).
I believe there is a bug in the software (Baseband) on the Fascinate. Previously, I thought the hardware (antenna/radio) wasn't very good, but now it may be software related.
Has anyone seen a signal strength stronger than -86 dBm on the Fascinate?
That's a good point. Mine has never gone below -86dbm either. It fluctuates between -86 at it's best and -106 at it's worst.
Ill keep an eye on this with my phone
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
I have no experience with cell phone radios so take this with the appropriate helping of salt.
Most radios have input protection that attenuates any signals greater than a set maximum level to prevent damage to the radio. I'm guessing the Fascinate reports it's receive signal level post input protection. It appears you just discovered this threshold for the Fascinate. Honestly, -86 dBm is plenty of signal, anything more is just for show
Again, I'm only speculating here.
Martian21
Interesting theory. I have emailed Verizon support as well. Hopefully, I will get a technical response and not a canned response from them.
With mine, it only fluctuates in -5dBm increments lol. I thought it was a litle wierd. I've seen -86, -91, -96, -101, and -106 lol.
As far as what the OP is talking about, my BB Tour (alltel) is the same way. It won't ever display anything lower than a -80.
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
shazbonk said:
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
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I was thinking about this the other day. Is it possible "time without signal" is simply a poor translation? The reason I ask this is when taking my phone off the charger overnight, I went directly to this setting to see what it reported. The phone reported having been unplugged for 2 minutes and already showed 5% TWS. I had been looking at the phone the whole time and didn't see it drop at all. What I did see is it going from 3G w/ arrows to 3Gd. So maybe this percentage isn't time without signal but rather time not active (i.e. 3G d).
I agree w/ the 3g d, I did not update to DI01 yet and it said I have 20% TWS throughout the day, but the phone didnt make a no service sound.
On my drive home everday I pass a Verizon owned tower.
I've stopped at a liquor store about 200 yards away from it and they maximum signal my Fascinate would pull down was -86dBm (4 bars as well).
My Cell Standby is usually around 11%.
Battery life of my Fascinate is very good.
xliderider: Any news/word from Verizon on this? What kind of Network Extender do you have? Got a brand/model #? Been thinking of picking something up like this.
So it isn't just my phone. My Fascinate goes from -86 to -106 as well. I had my Droid and Fascinate sitting next to each other, both reporting 4 bars. I went into status, and my Droid's signal strength was -77. The Fascinate was at -86. It's gotta be capped.
You're holding it wrong.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
You are probably right. With 4 full bars I can't get better than -86
I've been having the same problem...I was told by Verizon that it just has a "weaker" antenna. I go throughout the day with about 20% TWS. Never had that with my other Verizon phones.
do you get dropped calls or otherwise poor service?
I am returning my incredible due to dropped calls (while at home) using Verizons network Extender. I have had the incredible since April 29th (I believe that was the first day it was released). I have had the signal boosted twice by Verizon but still can't get close to 40' without dropping. One thing I noticed on the incredible while in the same room with the Extender is it would read let's say a -86dbm before placing a call then when placed and on the Extender network the signal would automatically go to -56dbm (stronger signal than -86dbm) and then back up after my call. What I saw was the Extender wasn't active until you make a call... Having said that, I am hoping the Fascinate will be better than the inc was... I will let you know when the Fascinate gets to me Wed or Thursday.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Got the Facinate a day early : )
So far it is defiantly working better than my Incredible on my verizon network extender!
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Mines 0%
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Sounds like it could have the same problem that affected the Vibrant. It NEVER showed higher than -81dBm, and would often reflect no signal (-0dBm is spectacular but it really means no signal within the Android system). Now with the update it reflects up to -51dBm like it should for GSM/WCDMA with Android and doesn't drop to -0dBm anymore. This of course effected the bars, often dropping to no bars or 1. Now after it's been fixed, plenty of bars and proper -dBm readings.
Hows your phone doing now guys? I was having alot of restarts before the update, atleast 1-2 day and my phone hasnt restarted since the update. Signal strength seems stronger....
Never got any reboot even before OTA
battery life seemed fine, can 't really notice signal improvement
got a useless wifi calling (I am not Tmo user)
and damn it storage is still 1.15GB!
Never had a problem before.
After, I seem to be getting better signal but battery life has gone to the sewer... And I'll never use tether or wifi calling....
Why won't you be using wi fi calling?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Bcs no everybody needs wifi calling . I'm using tmo and I probably won't be using wifi either not bcs its pointless but bcs I personally don't need it. Even tho I haven't received the update
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
i've used the wifi calling, I don't consider it useless. i have a low sig strength in my house ( 1 bar if im lucky). Its great now i get great coverage plus being able to use it internationally is a plus
TheManCityLife said:
Why won't you be using wi fi calling?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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Because I get 4 bars of coverage in my house and my office which happens to be in the middle of a middle floor of the building (ie, I get great coverage).
For some reason, the battery does seem to be doing much better so far today, I'll give it a couple more days before I decide to un-do the OTA
from what i have read about the wifi calling is if you use wifi calling internationally, you will be charged roaming. you cant turn the radio off and use just the wifi app when you call, phone has to register on the towers wherever u are
I haven't gotten any improvements. Battery life is the same, reception is the same, I never had random reboots before, I'm still getting FC's about 10 times a day, and I'm still at about 1.1GB for internal phone storage.
I don't have wifi in my house so wifi calling is moot, and I have no need for tethering... hopefully the next update will actually get me something useful.
my G2 seems to last even longer than I did before when I use it on EDGE. And I have a better signal. at my job I get one bar usually and wifi calling is a great plus for me at work.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
o>c said:
Never got any reboot even before OTA
battery life seemed fine, can 't really notice signal improvement
got a useless wifi calling (I am not Tmo user)
and damn it storage is still 1.15GB!
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Do you use simple mobile?
cbmm said:
Hows your phone doing now guys? I was having alot of restarts before the update, atleast 1-2 day and my phone hasnt restarted since the update. Signal strength seems stronger....
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i never had a prob with my g2 before update, but now wifi is broken no matter where i am i cannot connect to wifi, is anyone else having this issue?
I seem to have much less drops after ota, and faster data latency
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Same issue before and after.. dropped calls, maybe a slight improvement.. maybe.
Waited for the OTA update.. since I get the same issue I asked for a replacement and they're sending one. Love this phone when it works well.
Well I had a ton of random reboots before the update. I had to pull the battery at least twice a day. After the ota I havnt had one reboot so far. I updated yesterday. Will update if problems come back
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
i never had any problems, but the ota seemed to give me H in more areas. Mainly my house, where there is no damn reception at all it would jump from 2 bars edge to 1 bar H. the wifi calling was a blessing for me. i finally know wut its like to have full reception at my home
Before update, I never had random reboots, bad reception, wifi issues, etc.
After update, haven't noticed any improvements. I'm using a different battery so can't say about stock battery
Sent From My G6
Well, got my first power off on Saturday since the OTA, had to pull the battery. And a few hours after while browsing Facebook got the good 'ol reboot to HTC screen. Sigh.
Also, the signal seemed to be better right after the OTA, but over the weekend was having lots of hopping from UMTS/HSDPA to No Service>GPRS>EDGE where it would hang for about 5-10 minutes then go back to UMTS/HSDPA. All while sitting still on a table in my living room, where my myTouch3G 1.2 would stay 3G the whole time.
Because of that I used a lot of WiFi over the weekend. Is it normal for the G2 disconnect from cell service when enabling WiFi and then to not connect back to cell service after disconnecting from WiFi for a good 3-5 minutes? Again, the lame myTouch3G never did that. Either way, time to call T-Mobile and report issues again so I can justify what is likely another return.
So far the battery life improved by at least 3 fold for me with WiFi Calling on preferred. While at work and at home, the signal defaults to WiFi and shuts off the regular cell radio and it is nice.
That said a new development has arisen for the last day or so and I get a connection error to T-Mobile's network. It says that I am currently registered with the T-Mobile Network. Would You like to register to enable WiFi Calling? I hit register and nothing happens. Anybody else encounter this yet?
Before OTA, some random reboots (about 3 times in 2 weeks), pretty week signals at work, in bedroom and part of the way to work. After OTA, no random reboots yet, better signals everywhere I've noticed bad signals before....and, I no longer get that random signals switching from H->E->G->NS... Liking the G2 much more now after the OTA. I personally have not used the WiFi calling or the Tethering, so, no comments there.
I just picked my new Fascinate yesterday and have been noticing something strange. I routinely have a very low signal with 3G and WiFi in places I've always had a great signal (or so I thought). Just to get it out of the way, I am not using any kind of case and I have already done a *228 update.
For example, tonight I put my Fascinate, a friend's Continuum, and a friend's original Droid in front of me on a table to compare their 3G signals. The Droid reported 4 bars, the Continuum 2 bars, and my flickered between 0 and 1.
At home, my "old" Omnia 2 routinely got 3-4 bars (still does even though it's deactivated) and my gf's LG Ally gets the same. However my Fascinate gets 1-2, sometimes dipping to 0.
Oddly, I have the same issue with my WiFi signal. At home my PC and laptop have a full strength signal while the phone is lucky to have a that first dot and maybe a bar. At work, I can walk within 4 feet of my Wireless-N router and still not have a full signal
Now everything *seems* to work so I'm hoping it's just an algorithmic display issue, but I have gotten a "Network Error" message a few times. For good measure, I'll probably pop into Verizon to compare my signal to the various displays there.
My question is: Is this a general Fascinate issue? Do I have a lemon? Should I just hope 2.2 is magic?
Thanks
same problem here.
I'm really hoping this gets fixed with 2.2.
I've had two fascinates now, and they've both had really poor signal strength compared to any other phone I've used or seen. Was at lunch the other day with a friend with a Droid 1, and I was getting 1 bar, he was getting 4. At home, it's consistently 1 to 2 bars at best, and I live less than a mile and a half from the nearest tower.
While I don't drop calls, I think it's pretty clear that the phone has a particularly week antennae design.
Since you say you just got the phone, I assume you haven't rooted and played with other roms yet. But in case you have, I noticed a significant drop in signal strength, both cellular and wifi, using JT's DJ05 rom. And it was more than just a display issue, since the wifi connection would repeatedly drop - even in the same room as my router. Switched to the stock DJ05 and I was back to normal (if you consider 1 to 2 bars normal).
Just wanted to follow-up on this. After a week of comparing signals to every smartphone I ran into, I came to the conclusion I either had a lemon or the Fascinate had serious engineering issues.
I went back to my local Verizon store and compared my phone's signal strength to all the Android phones in there, including the other Fascinates. Every phone was between -73 and -86. My phone never got any better than -101. So they swapped phones for me (new one out of the box) and this one performed like all their other phones in the store. I am now enjoying my old, normal, strong signal strength and my battery is still at healthy 80% after several hours of use, even a little wifi usage.
Moral of the Story: Check your signal strength (on any phone) against the phones in the store before you leave and don't be afraid to demand a new phone if you have that sort of concrete data to back it up!
Sent from my SCH-i500 Fascinated using the XDA App
DI01 has a signal reporting bug that is fixed in DJ05/DL09. With DI01, the best I got was -86dBm, and the jumps did not really seem to make sense. After going to DJ05, the reported signal goes up to -50dBm or so and moves in a logical direction (go inside, signal goes down) where before it would just move randomly. It is possible that there was also bad hardware, but I'd guess that it had more to do with the crappy software Samsung provided.
Interesting. I've not had any ambition to root/flash my Fascinate (I swear I did it weekly with my old Omnia 2) so for whatever it's worth, my experience was always with the stock DI01.
Hopefully you won't have similar problems after we get the maintenance update, whenever that may be.
Hi guys!
I have this annoying problem.
I have mi S5 since February. I love it. Great battery and everything. My problem is that where I work I have a awful signal strength. 3G works when it wants and 4G, I measure 3 or 4 Mb/s, so you can see, it's pretty awful too, just a bar or even no bars of signal. I sometimes use my work's wifi, but we are so many people using it that it's the same, sometimes it doesn't even work.
Well, the problem is that this signal problem drains my battery terribly faster . Today it went from something like 65% at 10AM to 7% in 4 hours using a bit of FB.
When I get home, whereI have good signal strength, I can go to like a day and a half, 2 days on a single charge.
Is there anything I can do to solve this problem? It's really annoying because I know that the battery is good and it should last way longer....
Thanks in advance!
SuperBet_ARG said:
Hi guys!
I have this annoying problem.
I have mi S5 since February. I love it. Great battery and everything. My problem is that where I work I have a awful signal strength. 3G works when it wants and 4G, I measure 3 or 4 Mb/s, so you can see, it's pretty awful too, just a bar or even no bars of signal. I sometimes use my work's wifi, but we are so many people using it that it's the same, sometimes it doesn't even work.
Well, the problem is that this signal problem drains my battery terribly faster . Today it went from something like 65% at 10AM to 7% in 4 hours using a bit of FB.
When I get home, whereI have good signal strength, I can go to like a day and a half, 2 days on a single charge.
Is there anything I can do to solve this problem? It's really annoying because I know that the battery is good and it should last way longer....
Thanks in advance!
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Hello,
You can obviously stop the data at work. It is a bit extreme but will for sure save your battery
You can also choose to restrict data to 3G it might help.
jm_38 said:
Hello,
You can obviously stop the data at work. It is a bit extreme but will for sure save your battery
You can also choose to restrict data to 3G it might help.
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To be happy I should stop data and wifi, but I need it because of Whatsapp.
In fact, the problem is 3G AND 4G, both of them
Well, there's no magic solution....
Thanks!