Hello World,
Though I was happy with my HD (which is about to be sold) I was waiting the TD2 for long. It's really a great device but seems still to have quite a lot of bugs. One of these is the radio
I know everybody will tell me to wait for a new radio version BUT for those who basically have not a good signal at home or work, I'm not recommending them to buy it untill updates are available..
I've 3 phones with me, one 5 yo Sony Ericsson phone, on Blackberry for work and my TD2 for private use. Where my old Sony Ericsson shows full signal, my Blackberry as well, the Touch Diamond 2 shows a poor 1 bar (!). Sometimes I even have no signal where the others are showing 4 bars.. Well, that's one (if not the) worse phone signal reception I've ever seen.
The same for WiFi... where my HD or my netbook showed full signal, the TD2 shows 1/2 bars, even if the settings are set on "better performance" instead of "better battery"
My ROM version is: 1.39.406.0 (47382) FRE (04/07/09)
My Radio version: 3.43.25.19
Sorry but I had to tell you this as I was expecting this phone since long and don't understand how HTC can ship a new phone with such a bad radio and other bugs... On other side, it's a 5 star device but still have these bugs which are making it a 2 stars..
Thank you for having read ;-)
Well, no software upgrade can give you better reception. But I think you should return your Diamond for check-up, as my experience is that the reception is appr the same as my previous Nokia phone, i.e. reasonably good.
But what I hope they will improve with a radio upgrade is the problems for data connections in 3G/HSDPA mode when the signal is low, in my case this results in a one minute "radio silence" before the phone finally switches to GSM/GPRS mode.
I agree it has very poor radio, similar to how the diamond started, they will improve it over time. Mine is dropping calls in a particular place, this didn't happen with the diamond.
The radio is really bad! I remember that my iPhone had a poor radio reception but after several updates it is much improved.
I hope they'll do the same for Topaz!
I have to agree my TD2 has terrible reception, my diamond wasnt brilliant but the TD2 is very poor. Hope they come out with an update soon.
Are manufacturers obliged to put the same amount of bars up for each signal strength? Can you really compare the number of bars between different manufacturers?
I bought my TD2 last month on a contract with T-mobile. As I have always been an Orange customer in the past I have spent the last four weeks blaming T-mobile for my lake of signal at my workplace, and poor 3g at home.....it never crossed my mind it may be the phone at fault. I love my TD2 but the poor radio performance may be a show stopper
This is very weird. The shop I work, My boss got a blackberry (Bold) AND a PRADA II (from LG), and I got better signal than him. i must tell you tho, it's quite far inside the building, the lowest I have is 2 bars, normally it stays at 4.
But then again, even at 1 bar, I never had problem with calls, lessay it's the same quality as a Triband phone.
The Diamond 2 has a HORRIBLE radio performance, especially 3G connections are very weak, absolutely unacceptable. I'd put the Diamond 2 at the same reception level with the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3G REALLY sucks when it comes to reception.
Yesterday, I took out my HTC Sedna (6500) out of my closet and tried it again, what a difference. I get a much better signal than with the Diamond 2 (same carrier, same position) and I won't even start comparing the Diamond 2 to the Nokia E90 or even the E75, both have excellent signal reception, especially the E90.
Regarding Blackberry: I use a 8900 Curve 2 for business, this thing really rocks regarding reception. I get a signal (of course no 3G, it has GPRS/EDGE only) almost everywhere, even when the Diamond 2 doesn't get ANY signal at all, it is really impressive.
There are however chances that the signal reception is going to improve with a FW update, it happened in the past with various HTC devices and even the Blackberry Storm I also own, has been improved substantially regarding signal reception quality with one of the latest official firmwares available.
So there is hope but of course it is a huge disappointment that HTC couldn't get it right from the start.
P996 said:
The Diamond 2 has a HORRIBLE radio performance, especially 3G connections are very weak, absolutely unacceptable. I'd put the Diamond 2 at the same reception level with the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3G REALLY sucks when it comes to reception. Yesterday, I took out my HTC Sedna (6500) out of my closet and tried it again, what a difference. I get a much better signal than with the Diamond 2 (same carrier, same position) and I won't even start comparing the Diamond 2 to the Nokia E90 or even the E75, both have excellent signal reception, especially the E90.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you measuring signals being "weak" and the "reception level" - by actual behaviour of the phones in use, or just comparing the bars in the UI?
Rohde & Schwarz CMS RSM. Of course also practical usage too.
temprory solution
the signal problem is very very frustrating, especially when it start to drop phone calls, it became unacceptable.
after few days playing with the TD2, I found that
1. the signal strength appears to be stronger when it stays in GPRS(G) rather then 3G (H),
2. some times when 3G signal is too weak, it will switch too GPRS, it takes about 3~5 seconds to switch, if any call comes in at that time, it will drop.
3. if TD stays in GPRS, the signal is good, even you only 1 bar sometimes, you can still may phone calls without any problem.
so I think it is a good idea to turn off the 3G unless you need to use it, so the phone stays in GPRS, by doing that, you get better signal, and longer bettery life.
to turn off 3G, go
Settings> personal>phone>Band>
select GSM for the network type.
then go ok.
by doing that you will not miss any calls, I think that's the most important thing.
meanwhile, let's wait for a radio upgrade to solve this problem once for all.
Just my 2c worth..
I dont think the radio is any worse, it does the job for me and I havent had any dropouts.
Its an improved phone/pda compared to the TD1 and very happy with it so far. Even without any custom roms, I think the TD2 is very good.
no more of that calibration when you do a hard reset!!!!
P996 said:
The Diamond 2 has a HORRIBLE radio performance, especially 3G connections are very weak, absolutely unacceptable. I'd put the Diamond 2 at the same reception level with the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3G REALLY sucks when it comes to reception.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the D2 radio really is pretty bad. I went down on the train to Birmingham yesterday and other people were chatting away quite happily on their phones but my reception was almost zero until I go off the train.
I configure our business phones at work - Nokia E71 is a typical device. They just seem to have better reception. Okay, so a different network but still should be better than it is.
On the subject of radio updates (the use of the name radio I find confusing as I assume it's nothing to do with the FM radio - or does it?), is there an official way of updating from T-Mobile or is it "roll your own" from HTC directly? Have HTC released an official radio update?
Also, do I infer that the radio software is separate to the WM6.1 ROM?
Cheers, Rob.
Hi
Just a few comments really regarding the radio, although I have no advice to magically improve it
First of all, the signal reception on the Topaz 2 is exactly the same as that on my Tytn II, so it performs the same as other HTC phones, now some may argue reception was bad on the Tytn II as well so that doesn't say a lot
When making comparisons with other phones a few things that can help your judgement.
1) Is another phone you are comparing reception with one that is 3G? 3G signals are more affected by walls etc and typically there are much fewer masts than with the 2G and it is quite normal that unless you can see the 3G mast you'll have less than full strength signal reported on 3G, and the 3G signal can drop very quickly even moving a smaller distance away from the mast. If you want to compare the signal with an older phone that is 2G, then on the Topaz you need to set the phone and band settings to make it connect to 2G, and when you do you'll see reception zip up.
2) The signal icons on phones can not be used to make a comparison. One dot of signal on the Topaz is equal to 46% signal strength, so while it looks like a bad signal, it is still almost half and so the scale isn't linear. The other phone you are comparing to may not be reporting signal strength at all, but an error rate or combination of signal strength and error rate. It is possible to get a very low signal but have 100% quality (i.e. no errors) which may be used to skew other indicators higher.
3) The test whether reception is good or bad can only be judged from using the phone and does it work or not, and even then dropped calls may not be due to signal strength but an incompatibility with your mobile operator. This relates to 3G and 2G hand-overs. The phone will try and maintain a 3G connection when transferring data, as this provides a faster speed and it doesn't matter if a low signal causes errors as the data can be requested again. When you make a phone call, the priority shifts to getting an error free connection to ensure the audio doesn't break up, so a low signal introducing errors on 3G will be rejected if there is a nice strong 2G mast to connect to. Your phone then has to negotiate a seamless handover from 3G to 2G while you are talking. In the UK I find this 100% reliable with Vodafone on the Topaz, but calls can drop on O2 when it attempts a switch from 3G to 2G. Newer firmware hopefully ends up fixing these issues in time.
As written by someone in this thread who was on a train when other people with phones remained talking while theirs dropped doesn't prove much, as were they on the same mobile network, and were their phones having to move between 3G and 2G or were they just 2G with much better coverage and no complications relating to switching between the two. Switching the Topaz to 2G only would result in a fairer comparison in that scenario.
Other points, the aerial is at the bottom of the phone not the top, so when you hold the phone you need to hold it higher up so as not to block the signal.
Regards
Phil
Crap Radio
In response to the previous post I can confirm that I have compared the XDA Orbit 2, Nokia 6230i and Touch Diamond 2 all with a Vodafone SIM. The XDA Orbit 2 is most similar to the TD2 yet the reception on the Orbit was considerably better than that of the TD2. Tests were all completed on the same journey home from work in the same place, at the same time of day with the same weather conditions.
My conclusion, the TD2 Radio is inferior compared to the Orbit 2 and Nokia, but you all knew that already, didn't you. (Appart from the person that posted the previous message!!)
Hi
Nokia 6230i
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Click to collapse
That is the point I was trying to make, the Nokia 6230i as far as I know is not 3G, so did you compare that with the Topaz switched to 2G to make a like for like comparison? The Nokia also doesn't have to try and accommodate antennas and radios for Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G bands, which can cause all sorts of compromises in small mobile phones.
What were you comparing, just watching the signal strength meter or actually using it for a phone call at the time? The other thing is comparing the phones on different journeys. 3G cells breath which means the coverage varies, it can shrink or increase depending on load.
My conclusion, the TD2 Radio is inferior compared to the Orbit 2 and Nokia, but you all knew that already, didn't you. (Appart from the person that posted the previous message!!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My post was trying to help people be objective rather than subjective and help make like for like comparisons, no need to be sarcastic.
Regards
Phil
ehh wtf are you guys moaning about?
like have been said, are you guys comparing with the bars shown in the UI, or with an actual tester?
If your judging just from the bars in the ui and comparing that to other phones.. please go drive a car and crash yourself in a tree
Anyways just FYI: with 1bar 3g im getting a stable (250ms constant ping) 120kb/s connection...
My point being that even tho it looks only to be 1 bar, it works flawlessly. So perhaps our htc phones show the *actuall* reception rather then ** normal reception + 2 bars ** like a lot of manufacturers (maybe secretly?) do.
But i guess htc is better off adjusting the UI bar meter so that it shows 5 bars when its actually 1-3, just to keep dumb people happy....
Hi
My point being that even tho it looks only to be 1 bar, it works flawlessly. So perhaps our htc phones show the *actuall* reception rather then ** normal reception + 2 bars ** like a lot of manufacturers (maybe secretly?) do.
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Click to collapse
Yes a very good point. There must be tendency for mobile phone makers to over report the signal to make their phone look better when being compared. My old Motorola phone does state in the manual you need 3 bars or more to make a reliable phone call In other words 2 bars or less are really no servicel at all, and from memory it would jump from 3 bars to no signal more often than not skipping 2 and 1 bar of signal strength.
Regards
Phil
Hi guys, I'm about to buy the TD2 and reading your post I got a little worried about the radio signal of this device!
I have a question for people that complained about it:
Did you complain for the quality of the calling connection?
I mean did you lose signal meanwhile you were talking or have you got bad conversation due to the low signal?
This is a question that I feel is most important regarding a mobile phone but is never mentioned in any reviews -
What is the reception like on this phone - as good as, worse or better than most other phones
I know it's not an easy question to answer but the reason I am so interested is because at the moment I have my Omnia i900 and my Nokia 6223 sat next to each other. My omnia is just showing a 'G' symbol while the 6223 is on 3 bars. I find that my Omnia drops a bar or 2 of signal everytime I pick it up, but I read that they put the antanee at the bottom of the phone for some reason. I also owned a Touch Diamond for a short while last year and I found the signal poor on that.
If anyone could do a side by side comparison with the Omnia that would be brilliant, otherwise if you could just comment on if your dropping signal where you usually have it, if you've had no problems or concerns about it or even if your gaining signal where there usually isn't any.
Thanks
Have only had the handset for a day, but in my office it performs almost exactly the same as my iPhone 3GS (on O2).
Compare.
Well i do not own an Omnia.
But I can get my hands on some others.
EU - NL - Tmobile - GSM - 3G - HSPDA
I live in a location where the reception of internet using 3d of hsdpa is slow.
(that was what i thought)
Ive tested the following phones.
1- LG shine
2- HTC tytn
3- HTC Touch Diamond
4- HTC HD2
Phone Voice quality
On phones 1 and 2 its was bad with a lot of noise.
Phone 3 its was better still the (canned voice)
On phone 4 , the quality was better then all three of them.
Clear and no noticeable voice data losses.
Even whispering was loud and clear !!
Internet 3g Hsdpa
On phones 1, 2, and 3. Internet was not usable. And that was not even due to the fact of a smaller screen size.
But it was the speed internet can put up a page that is viewable.
Phone 3 was acceptable. But not usable.
Phone 4,.,.
Weird enuff with the same Provider, the same sim card, the same dataplan.
Internet WORKED. Almost everytime it tells me its connected using HSDPA.
Even when its in 3G mode. It loads pages in "almost" a flash.
And yess i am a HTC fanboy.
And since the rumors started spreading about the LEO.
I wanted one, Now ive been using one for about a week. And its the best winmo phone HTC has ever created imho.
I too can confirm that the reception on this handset to be excellent.
In the locations of my office, I would normally only get 2 bars of 3g reception on my old Hermes phone.
But with this phone, i can get 3 or somtimes 4 bars of reception.
Back at home, the signal i get is pretty rubbish. Normally i wouldn't receive any 3g signal at all with my Hermes, and i can often see it dropping back to a 2g line. On the HD2 however, I get around 2 bars of 3g signal and a HSPDA connection!! What a surprise that was eh?!
At both locations, call quality is superb. (But then again I think this should be expected, because I would always have a 2g signal, regardless of whether I was at home or at work.)
Sorry that my results aren't very 'scientific' or precise. But I just want to say that signal is definitely not an issue with this handset. I would say that it's probably the best out of HTC's whole range of products, and definitely up there with the best of Nokias / SEs / Samsungs can produce. So no worries.
Does anyone know if the reception is better or worse than Nokia's E90?
So far it has the best reception. every phone I owned before had 2 or 3 bars at best, mostly 1 or 2 where I live, the hd2 is almost always at 4 bars
T-Mobile UK
No change in reception bars on this T-Mobile HD2. I have come from an HD - offers? However, the phone works very much faster that the HD and the Kaiser and there is absolutely no faulting the quality of the sound. It really just works! That may sound a strange comment to make about a 'phone' but those of us that have PDA/phones for a while will know that a PDA cannot always be counted upon as a good phone.
Very happy with my HD2
I'd guess it's not mentioned in reviews because it depends on so much. What was the phone you are comparing it to like? What network are you on? Where are you? What bands do you use? GPRS or 3G?
For what it's worth compared to my Touch Pro I've been picking up a weak 3G where on my TP I'd have GPRS.
I have found the reception on mine to be better than my iPhone 3gs so far.. Used to get very poor signal at home on my 3gs.. Nearly get full signal on the HD2.
Without a doubt, the HD2 has better reception than my iPhone 3GS.
It is by far, better than my SEX1. I get 2 bar where the X1 got none. I love this phone!!!
Within the past 12 months I've owned the following:
3GS
Blackberry Bold
Omnia i900
Nokia N78
Touch Pro
I live in a poor reception area. Only the N78 from the above list didn't drop calls on a frequent-enough-to-be-annoying basis. The HD2 is easily on par if not slightly better than the N78 (I'm yet to have a call dropped).
Put simply, the Note 4 has the worst signal strength of any phone ive ever had. I use 3 UK. Signal is weak inside house especially downstairs. Recently i have had the blackberry passport which was amazing signal wise. I currently have an iphone 6 plus too. The 6 Plus can make calls downstairs just about. The Note 4 has no reception.
In fact i have noticed the signal is weaker wherever i am...
Anybody else notice this. .
I really like the Note 4 but the weak radio is going to give me a problem. Maybe samsung can improve the radio with a firmware?
gavinfabl said:
Put simply, the Note 4 has the worst signal strength of any phone ive ever had. I use 3 UK. Signal is weak inside house especially downstairs. Recently i have had the blackberry passport which was amazing signal wise. I currently have an iphone 6 plus too. The 6 Plus can make calls downstairs just about. The Note 4 has no reception.
In fact i have noticed the signal is weaker wherever i am...
Anybody else notice this. .
I really like the Note 4 but the weak radio is going to give me a problem. Maybe samsung can improve the radio with a firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note 4 N910C, Mexico.
I'm having the same issues, WiFi signal is excellent, no problems whatsoever, but the cellular signal is really low.
Take a look at the screenshot, I'm in the city downtown, where usually I have really good signal using another phone (Xperia Z1)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8wLXzMtrTkRS3ZzRU5uUlBZOHc/view?usp=sharing
I agree n910u australia very poor signal
same here
It depends on the phone signal gaining hardware.i too have a sony which has excellent signal strength always.
Sent from my D2005
This is not good. Maybe we should not have asked Samsung to build a phone using metal! I also have the Gear S which is great. But I need the Note 4 to use the Gear S. I also need a phone to make phone calls so this seems like a design issue. Sad.
Here, in downtown Amsterdam I have bad 4G/LTE signal inside my apartment too, but it's even worse with my Galaxy S5. On the other hand 3G is full bars. In the elevator of my apartment building the S5 loses his signal completely (no network) while the Note 4 survives with a very weak signal. But overall both the Note 4 and Galaxy S5 suck at cell reception. You will have to learn to live with it.
Check if you have the latest firmware or baseband installed?
if not, try to update it.
Unlocked N910C Useless as a phone
My reception ANYWHERE is crap. I'm using AT&T's network and I have a Galaxy Tab S unlocked that has a phone and that has 3 or 4 bars to the GSNote 4 having maybe 1. I'm wondering if this happened because I rooted with CF Autoroot, as it seemed to appear after that, but I have no idea. I unrooted and flashed the latest firmware (NK5) and I still has the same crappy phone reception problem.
I too have ****ty reception.. wifi is good. but cell reception is bad..
Same here, N910C
Baseband: ANJ4
Same here , like my old phone m8. It must be metal case problem?
I have the same problem with Note 4 as with 3.
One of the reasons I changed to was the problem with calls was shut down in poor reception areas.
The problem is not there at all with my daughters iphone.
We can drive in to bad areas and mine is cut off and she's not.
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA Free mobile app
gavinfabl said:
Put simply, the Note 4 has the worst signal strength of any phone ive ever had. I use 3 UK. Signal is weak inside house especially downstairs. Recently i have had the blackberry passport which was amazing signal wise. I currently have an iphone 6 plus too. The 6 Plus can make calls downstairs just about. The Note 4 has no reception.
In fact i have noticed the signal is weaker wherever i am...
Anybody else notice this. .
I really like the Note 4 but the weak radio is going to give me a problem. Maybe samsung can improve the radio with a firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My NZ version note 4 got the same problem. The WiFi is suprisingly good, but the cell reception is **** as f**k and when I use 4G or 3G it got disconnected easily.
Its qualcom varients problem. My exinos one was just fine. Common problem for me too.
fahad2mail said:
Its qualcom varients problem. My exinos one was just fine. Common problem for me too.
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Click to collapse
It is not just the qualacam. I have the n910C and it too has a very bad signal. I have tried every baseband to date and they have no effect. It is only the 3G and LTE that are bad. GSM is OK.
I sometime cannot even get the 3G while my iPhone has a full signal. I too noticed it after rooting. I just don't remember it being this bad when I first bought it.
gavinfabl said:
This is not good. Maybe we should not have asked Samsung to build a phone using metal! I also have the Gear S which is great. But I need the Note 4 to use the Gear S. I also need a phone to make phone calls so this seems like a design issue. Sad.
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Click to collapse
The frame metal has nothing to do with reception (see the placement of the main antenna relative to the body on page 8). I cannot comment on other models but I've got the Canadian N910W8 and my signal is EXACTLY the same as my other 2 Galaxy S4's.
In your cases, I believe it's rather a software issue/mismatch (CSC/modem/RILJ, etc), especially If you bought it from a different country/region, you should probably start with the phone's CSC, matching it against your residential location...
Also, try choosing a non LTE network connections under More Networks > Mobile Networks > Network Mode. If the signal improves considerably, you're living in a poor LTE area. As of right now, since VoLTE is not yet widely supported, only your download speeds would be affected by leaving your phone connected to a non LTE network.
Same problem with my brother's note 4 bought from UAE. Its an exynos version. Turning LTE off does not improve the signal strength. On the other hand my note 1 (exynos) and lumia 1020 have excellent reception in the same room.
sixline said:
Same problem with my brother's note 4 bought from UAE. Its an exynos version. Turning LTE off does not improve the signal strength. On the other hand my note 1 (exynos) and lumia 1020 have excellent reception in the same room.
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Click to collapse
OK, you bought the phone from UAE, but where are you located/using the phone? If you're using it in a region/location other than UAE, then you should probably consider installing the modem for the region you're currently living in, and also changing the CSC.
Mine is from Slovenia and using in Greece. Signal is crap. I have nexus 7 2013 and has far superior coverage with the same network. So no network different there.