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is this the 3g issue people complain about?

In the doctors office I have no data and two bars for voice/text. My wife's g1 has perfect 3g. I restarted my nexus but no change, 0 data. This is the first data issue I've had other than the standard loss or lowering of data connection when entering a building. So is this the 3g issue Google's trying to resolve or is the g1 just a superior device? Thanks

DMaverick50 said:
In the doctors office I have no data and two bars for voice/text. My wife's g1 has perfect 3g. I restarted my nexus but no change, 0 data. This is the first data issue I've had other than the standard loss or lowering of data connection when entering a building. So is this the 3g issue Google's trying to resolve or is the g1 just a superior device? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try moving your hand
Video:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5622550#post5622550

Paul22000 said:
Try moving your hand
Video:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5622550#post5622550
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Click to collapse
Good call, I did try that though

Also, if you tell the phone to switch to 2G only in the settings - if it then gets perfect Edge, but the 3G was non-existant - that would be another symptom of the classic 3G problem...

It is my experience that the G1 gets better reception in general. Outside of fluctuating 3G I do not consider the N1's reception bad, just not as good as the G1. The antenna at the bottom thing was a poor decision though that I do not see being correctable. Not a deal breaker but I think it would have been far better if they found a way so that the hand did not interfere with reception. If you are in a strong reception area like me it will rarely make a difference. On the edges of coverage and where there is significant interference from buildings it makes for more of a problem though.

JanetPanic said:
It is my experience that the G1 gets better reception in general. Outside of fluctuating 3G I do not consider the N1's reception bad, just not as good as the G1. The antenna at the bottom thing was a poor decision though that I do not see being correctable. Not a deal breaker but I think it would have been far better if they found a way so that the hand did not interfere with reception. If you are in a strong reception area like me it will rarely make a difference. On the edges of coverage and where there is significant interference from buildings it makes for more of a problem though.
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People say that they did this so as to limit the amount of radiation when holding the phone to your head.
The wifi is at the top, and when covered (with both hands though) the signal drops just the same.

Anyone Have Better Reception

Than you did with your last phone?
For Me, Yes I get some signal loss covering the back, but only in a really poor signal area. If Im in a strong 3g area I cant make a bar drop if I cover the whole phone, and even when signal drops its still fast as can be and no call drops.
Now, compared to my Nexus one, I say its better, If I set my old n1 next to the vibrant, the Vibrant will more than likely be on 3g and the n1 not. The Vibrant has picked up 3g in places my n1 never would, unless of course I switched it to 3g only in settings using the *#*#4636#*#* Trick.
This also goes for my wifes TP2, it also will not pick up 3g as fast as my Vibrant or hold it as well...
SO, For Me, I think the Vibrants reception is better than my old N1 and TP2...... I just wish Tmobile would up their service to more areas. Then I bet we wouldnt see this issue as much.....
SO. Whos happy with their reception? I am....

I cannot attest for the data connection, but my overall phone reception has improved since I got the Vibrant. My previous phone was Nokia N95 - home I would have a choppy phone conversations, in the office I would get no service.
With Vibrant, my calls are crystal clear at home, and I occasionally drop to 2 bars on EDGE in the office from full bar 3G signal, but I never saw the phone loose the signal completely.

Definite better reception. However I'm coming from a Sidekick '08, which wasn't even 3G. Not sure how much difference that makes.

lqaddict said:
I cannot attest for the data connection, but my overall phone reception has improved since I got the Vibrant. My previous phone was Nokia N95 - home I would have a choppy phone conversations, in the office I would get no service.
With Vibrant, my calls are crystal clear at home, and I occasionally drop to 2 bars on EDGE in the office from full bar 3G signal, but I never saw the phone loose the signal completely.
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thats another thing. Holding my n1 in my home over the antenna would totally lose signal. Not this, itll hold it alot longer...
Hell even edge is faster than my other phones...

temperbad said:
thats another thing. Holding my n1 in my home over the antenna would totally lose signal. Not this, itll hold it alot longer...
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I tried the "death grip" but I thought I would physically break my phone before I loose signal all together.

Antenna issue

Ive had spotty 3g at my house since i got my phone. Most ive seen is 2 bars. Noticed tonight i left my phone on table and came back and i had full bars with 3g.
Picked up phone like i always and hold with left hand it drops to 1 to no bars. So i hold the phone with right hand i get stronger signal, left hand weak...
Im guessing the antenna is on the left bottom side of the phone apparently covering it up drops my 3g signal significantly, going from full to no bars just by covering left corner ...anyone else?
Not really complaining because i still connect 3g fine but i do drop to edge allot if im in certain rooms and phone calls never drop just curious of maybe a solution or whatnot
I looked on youtube and found this but you dont have to hold phone like this. just palm it with left hand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vefQ4I2wOXs
And sorry if posted already i could find anything on this here

Happens here too. Funny thing is that I have case on it. One thing those in the youtube comments are mixing up and not understanding is the signal strength. I wish they were more smart people in the world lol..
Anyway what I am getting at is that this happens with all Vibrants, it just depends on your current signal strength in dBm. For example, if I'm inside with around 4-5 bars, around -81dBm. Then when I grip it, the signal will go down by -20dBm or more resulting in two to three bar lost. Where as if I'm outside with around -51dBm and do the same thing. It will result in the same -20dBm but you won't notice it enough because the bars don't start to go down until around -89dBm or more.
* The lower the dBm, the better your signal.
* It was the same issue with Nexus One.
* The design of the phone is causing your hand to have more of an effect on it.
If anyone want to proove this case. Just get two Vibrants next to each other in the same area and do the hand thing.

Yea see i never noticed this with my N1 But yea what your saying makes scene.
Its not a big deal i still connect avr 1mbps with weak signal but found it odd

Yea same here. I do admit the signal is even more sensitive than my n1 was though. Oh well I guess this is just one thing we have live it until a better phone comes again.

Shouldn't 2.2 come with an updated radio and if so maybe it will help

It might make the radio use more power from my experience but this isn't a software issue. Though speaking of software, right now the dBm read out and bars are off by 5 or so dBm. So when we get the 2.2 update we should see the proper signal read out which will appear stronger and it should be more stable as well. Either way, our hands will still be able to affect the phone. Just like any other phone but more drastic with the Vibrant, N1 and iPhone 4.

The bars are generally useless and I don't think it's really an issue unless it's actually dropping the signal. I have zero bars of 3G all the time, and I still get full speed. The difference between zero bars and zero signal is rather large, IMO.
If the signal attenuation from holding it causes you to drop 3G altogether, well, I feel for you. It's never happened to me, and I've done all kinds of grip experiments to see if I could make the signal attenuate.
To go on, the Vibrant has the best radio of any phone I've ever used. The test for me is whether I can hold signal in my building's elevator. Virtually every phone I've owned (and most all my friends' phones) dropped signal as soon as the doors closed or shortly after. Prior to my Vibrant, the champ was my Blackberry 8820, which could hold signal for about two floors before cutting out. The Vibrant? It may drop to EDGE, but I still hold some kind of signal all the way down, which is amazing.

That something I notice the first day I got the Vibrant , did not have that issue with other previous phone in the same spot... if I put the phone in a table it gets full bars.. once I pick up the phone it goes back to 2 bars... the only way I get full bars is if a hold the phone just from the bottom.

I'm going to have a seizure if I see another one of these threads.
-81dBm is an obvious flaw and should be completely disregarded UNLESS you're off of JFD or anything based on JFD. This phones reported signal strength refreshes FAR more often than nearly all other Android phones on the market. Motorola on T-Mobile being the slowest to refresh any signal changes.
The bars are wrong and very inaccurate. Do a search. Update to JI2 or JI4.

heygrl said:
I'm going to have a seizure if I see another one of these threads.
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Another one of what threads?
Cut me some slack i rarely ask questions here and no one force you to click on this thread... but i do appreciate the info you gave.
Only thing i noticed when I went threw your post history is you replying to this question with threads with topic names not related to this problem.
And if you read my first post you would have seen
demo23019 said:
And sorry if posted already i could find anything on this here
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and
demo23019 said:
Not really complaining because i still connect 3g fine but i do drop to edge allot if im in certain rooms and phone calls never drop just curious of maybe a solution or whatnot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... thanks for the info guys

3G signal strength on MT4G

Hi all,
I'm going to try bidding on a MT4G on ebay within 3 hrs, so I hope I can get a few replies before that!
Could anybody tell me how the 3G signal strength is on this phone? When I had an HTC HD2, when holding it normally from the bottom I would lose a massive ~20dB in signal. This was often enough to knock the phone from having a couple of bars down to no signal.
3G signal is very important to me, since my provider does not have a GSM/EDGE network. So, if I lose 3G reception I'm totally disconnected.
If anybody could post some numbers here on their signal strength in dBm while resting on a table and while held in the hand naturally from the bottom, I'd appreciate it! Does the phone lose more than about ~10dB when held?
Thanks,
Faruk

Faruk88 said:
Hi all,
I'm going to try bidding on a MT4G on ebay within 3 hrs, so I hope I can get a few replies before that!
Could anybody tell me how the 3G signal strength is on this phone? When I had an HTC HD2, when holding it normally from the bottom I would lose a massive ~20dB in signal. This was often enough to knock the phone from having a couple of bars down to no signal.
3G signal is very important to me, since my provider does not have a GSM/EDGE network. So, if I lose 3G reception I'm totally disconnected.
If anybody could post some numbers here on their signal strength in dBm while resting on a table and while held in the hand naturally from the bottom, I'd appreciate it! Does the phone lose more than about ~10dB when held?
Thanks,
Faruk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4G+3G strength are based on the coverage for your area, if 3G is bad in you area then chances are 4G will be bad too. Check the coverage map for where you live, for me I always get 3G/4G/2G anywhere.

don't know if this helps but i get jumps from -75 to -85 when laying device on couch than holding in hand or just touching while on couch, but i don't have the stock radio either.

tjlawson09 said:
don't know if this helps but i get jumps from -75 to -85 when laying device on couch than holding in hand or just touching while on couch, but i don't have the stock radio either.
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Thanks for taking the time to test it out for me, I appreciate it
Ace42: Yeah of course, signal strength will depend on coverage. But with my HD2 I had a major "death grip" issue where at home I have great signal strength (about -80dBm) but when I held the phone it would drop below -100 dBm. You'll notice if you search google and youtube that a lot of people have the same issue with the HD7 and Desire HD since they share the same design. In comparison, I don't have any such problem with my Blackberry 9700... It basically sucks in most respects except for signal strength

Well my current reading is -75, it seems to stay in this range when held.

Thanks man!
Well, I lost the auction... Dunno if I should spend more effort and find another one with the good screen, or if I should just tolerate my Bold 9700 for now and wait for the new wave of handsets coming out within the next few weeks...

Faruk88 said:
Thanks man!
Well, I lost the auction... Dunno if I should spend more effort and find another one with the good screen, or if I should just tolerate my Bold 9700 for now and wait for the new wave of handsets coming out within the next few weeks...
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Wait for Sensation next month, thing has "2X" 1.2Giga dragons under the hood and qHD res and other goodies(Maybe Adreno 220?).

Disappointing cell signal reception

Have been using my N6P (on Verizon) for a few days now, and compared with my Moto X Pure, the signal on the N6P is really, really bad.... To the point that I might have to return the N6P and stick with the Moto.
Seeing there are many out there praising the N6P's cell reception, it's also possible there might be quality issues with my particular unit.
For those who like the cell reception on their N6P, could you try this simple experiment? Check if covering the visor area with your hand affects cell signal and data transfer speed? (You will inevitably cover part of it when holding the phone horizontally with both hands or just the left hand) On my phone, just loosely covering the visor area with my hand lowers signal by two(!!) bars, and lowers LTE data transfer rate from averaging ~16MBps to less than 10MBps.. In comparison, the Moto X Pure and even the iPhone 6s+ would give much more consistent reception regardless of the way you're holding the phone.

Moto X pureeee is the shizzle

I've been using my 6p for almost twelve hours straight since I received it on Verizon and it gets noticeably better reception than my moto x 2014 ever did. Lte in places the moto would lose signal in and streaming music at insane quality at the same time with no issues. (Yes, I have unlimited) maybe you do have an issue with your 6p!

Bestreception compared to previous devices
Sent from my Nexus 6P

I had to return a GS6 for this reason. Whatever phone I bought next had to be as good as or better than my M8. I was happy to see after comparing with a Signal Reception app that the 6P performs better than the M8. If you are having trouble I'd RMA it now. Poor signal is not an issue for the 6P.
Download "Network Signal Info" and compare the reading. Remember a lower figure is better. -70dBm is better than - 75dBM . Check both phones are on the same cell for a correct comparison.

I'm on Verizon and just came from a moto x pure to nexus 6p and mine has better signal strength and download speeds than the pure.

I also get better signal strength, and it holds onto LTE much longer than my Verizon G4 or Note5 did.

I'm on Tmobile. I get better reception everywhere compared to my Moto X 2014 Pure.

tacosrdelicioso said:
I've been using my 6p for almost twelve hours straight since I received it on Verizon and it gets noticeably better reception than my moto x 2014 ever did. Lte in places the moto would lose signal in and streaming music at insane quality at the same time with no issues. (Yes, I have unlimited) maybe you do have an issue with your 6p!
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That's good to know, thanks!
Could you try the little experiment with the covering the visor? Just hold the phone horizontally with both hands loosely covering the visor and the little plastic area at the bottom, and see if that has an impact on your LTE signal and data transfer speeds? (Since you're also on UDP I won't feel bad wasting your data

I have very good reception on my 6p, on Verizon. Try setting it to lte +cdma only

I'm on Verizon, coming from an HTC One M7, and the reception is exponentially better. Our house has been a signal dead zone for most phones on CDMA, with GSM carriers doing better. With the 6P my reception is clearer than the landline (VOIP) most of the time, and where before calls would deteriorate on the driveway I can now make pretty clear calls from the basement.
I tried your experiment and covered up the vizor - cell reception actually improved briefly the first time! I assume that was a coincidence because I've tried it a few more times, and tried both cell data and wifi and not seen that again.
Covering the vizor does appear to have an effect on the wifi signal, it deteriorates slightly, but (having turned of wifi to test) not on the cell signal/LTE enough to change the display.
So - my conclusion would be there's the possibility of covering the vizor causing interference, but it's not significant in this little test. (Phone has a Verus Case on it, for completeness of data )

sadboyzz said:
That's good to know, thanks!
Could you try the little experiment with the covering the visor? Just hold the phone horizontally with both hands loosely covering the visor and the little plastic area at the bottom, and see if that has an impact on your LTE signal and data transfer speeds? (Since you're also on UDP I won't feel bad wasting your data
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Click to collapse
I got my signal to change from -90 to -93 cupping my hands around the visor. Data did slow down a little on the back go back tests. 55mbps down to 47mbps. Not really anything significant
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

tacosrdelicioso said:
I got my signal to change from -90 to -93 cupping my hands around the visor. Data did slow down a little on the back go back tests. 55mbps down to 47mbps. Not really anything significant
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
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Thanks for doing the test!
So from what I can tell, at least this does seem like a general issue and not a quality issue with my unit, but the weaker the signal in the area, the more noticeable the "horizontal grip" problem becomes. For me, gripping the visor area and the bottom plastic area lowers signal strength from ~-110dbM to ~-116dbM, and LTE speed from ~16Mbps to ~10Mbps, and it's consistently reproduceable every time.

Rainstalk said:
I have very good reception on my 6p, on Verizon. Try setting it to lte +cdma only
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Yeah, tried that and "Global", doesn't seem to make any difference.

sadboyzz said:
Thanks for doing the test!
So from what I can tell, at least this does seem like a general issue and not a quality issue with my unit, but the weaker the signal in the area, the more noticeable the "horizontal grip" problem becomes..
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I actually noticed this the very first day when I got the phone. I was at work where signal was either very weak or non existent, and I noticed anytime I was trying to surf the Web with my palm covering the bottom plastic area, the Web page wouldn't load until I moved my hand away and uncovered it. My first thought was "ruh roh, antenna gate".. But it only acted this way with very poor signal. When I'm anywhere with decent signal, this phone gets better reception than any other phone I've had.

I have to day I've had phenomenal reception with this phone. My Samsung phones sucked... And my G3 was much better... But this blows the G3 out of the water. My work is a cinder block fortress where cell signal goes to die.... But this phone gets 4g signal where no other phone of mine did.

Just a followup, turned out to be defective unit. The symptoms were subtle, I'd get wild signal fluctuations, from 3 bars to no bars for no reason. But what pushed me over the edge was that I was also getting random wifi disconnects. So I talked to customer support and Google sent a replacement with zero hassles, which has been working flawlessly so far.
Overall, I'd say signal wise it's on par with the Moto X Pure, which is also the best of all the phones I've used.

sadboyzz said:
Just a followup, turned out to be defective unit. The symptoms were subtle, I'd get wild signal fluctuations, from 3 bars to no bars for no reason. But what pushed me over the edge was that I was also getting random wifi disconnects. So I talked to customer support and Google sent a replacement with zero hassles, which has been working flawlessly so far.
Overall, I'd say signal wise it's on par with the Moto X Pure, which is also the best of all the phones I've used.
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Glad you got it worked out. My daughter takes soccer lessons at a place that is a steel building. It's a low signal area anyway outside the building but inside nobody gets service.... Att, sprint, Verizon... Nothing. Other parents with iphones, galaxies... My old G3. Nothing. Non of them really get a usable signal inside. Last night I was able to surf/Facebook/twitter... You name it. Everything worked. I've never had a usable signal like this on any phone I've ever used. For that alone this phone rules.

On T-Mobile here, signal has been good for me. At my work building it does seem to hold onto the LTE band a bit better than my M9 that keeps switching between LTE and HSPA+ so frequently that I have to set it to HSPA+ only. So I have seen a moderate increase in cell reception in the phone versus my M9. But I also have a GS6 and I'd say the cell reception is pretty close to that.
One thing I noticed kind of weird is that it goes to showing all bars when just at -97 dbm. That's probably a stock 6.0 thing that's with all phones on 6.0 version. But weird considering on the scale of dbm, that's on kind of the low end. That should really be like 2 out of 4 bars, or 3 out of 5 bars.

I can render Bluetooth completely useless gripping the visor area. But all phones do this if you can find the correct area to block. Usually things like cell signal and WiFi just degrade unless it's already borderline. All phones do this.
Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P