Database Users

Samsung changed the GPS antenna in vibrant

Hi today I bough a Samsung vibrant from T-Mobile an the date on the box is 10/26/10 and it came already updated software and I truer the GPS and its perfect locked in 8 seconds and while I was driving it kept on the road spot on. I had vibrants before maybe 4 of them and the back cover is smooth I think the ones I had before I fulfilled feel the dots now its smooth. I think they changed the phone internals becouse even the vibrants I had before after update the GPS was crap. Anyone had any experiance?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Mine locks pretty quick too, I never had any GPS problems since I got the phone two weeks ago.

So does that mean the rest of us that got our phone, few months back are screwed?

That's what owning a samsung phone is like always getting screwed. The days are numberd
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

What?! Does this mean we wont get a fix for the other people? I'm always travelling and GPS is one of the most useful things I need... my old blackberry has a perfect GPS isn't this meant to be a smartphone
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

The thing is that all the phones have something wrong or screwed IP there is no phone that is perfect its just us we are beeping to perfectionists.

My wife and I got ours on the buy 1 get 1 free deal. Ours are both dated 09/26/2010. The SIM Serial # on hers ends in 22288F and mine end in 22296F.
It takes me about 45 second to a minute to get a lock running Axura 2.0.4 and I got a lock using 6 of 7 satellites with accuracy of about 70 feet.
My brother-in-law standing right next to me with a HTC Dream G1 locked on 12 of 14 satellites in about 9 -10 seconds and a accuracy of 10 feet running stock.
My wife running stock saw 2 satellites and never got a lock.
EDIT: This thread is now depreciated. Please visit http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=878970 for a fix. I thought I would put the edit here so you don't have to read to page 7 to see the link to the fix.

they didnt change the antenna..give it a few days and i gurantee u it wont work as good

My gps has worked since day one
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

You did not buy a GPS Receiver, you bought a phone with a GPS antenna which is used to track your movement. It just also happens to receive signals from GPS satellites that you are able to use. If you require dead on GPS location then you should go buy a GPS Receiver.
Think of all the things this phone does. It doesn't do any of them better than a device designed to do just that. All-in-one devices are never as good as the devices they are designed to combine.

Zylograth said:
You did not buy a GPS Receiver, you bought a phone with a GPS antenna which is used to track your movement. It just also happens to receive signals from GPS satellites that you are able to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is correct, BUT when pretty much EVERY other Android phone on the market out performs it in this aspect, there is a flaw in the system. As stated, the G1 locks on faster & stays locked on much better than this phone.
With that said, I tell the GPS where I want to go, and by the time I've left my neighborhood, it's working great. The fact that it takes 10 times longer to lock on doesn't really matter to me.
Using all of the Bionix ROMs and now using the Axura 2.0.5 ROMs, I've been happy with my GPS. When I was using complete stock, it was crap. IIRC, JI6 wasn't bad though.
I'm currently playing with a friends Galaxy Tab and inside nowhere near a window, it locked on and showed my location without the wireless network assist or verizon location assist being turned on (but that could just be because the phone is bigger and would therefore use a larger antenna).

It's just sad what has happened to businesses, they really just don't care about consumers. I really doubt we'll ever see a fix and if we do, i doubt it'll work for more than 50% of people. I've never been so disappointed with a company. The only thing we can do is just never buy samsung again. Just so disappointing all around.

Microwave frequencies antenna design is fraught with both peril and magic
tjhart85 said:
I'm currently playing with a friends Galaxy Tab and inside nowhere near a window, it locked on and showed my location without the wireless network assist or verizon location assist being turned on (but that could just be because the phone is bigger and would therefore use a larger antenna).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NOPE! All antennas must be designed with a physical length that matches the frequency they are designed to operate at. For GPS this is 1575.42 Mhz and therefore due to the physics of radio frequency ALL GPS antennas are about 7.5 inches long, they have to be to work. Antennas typically work better if they are designed with some type of coil (wrapped around something) so by the time you take 7.5 inches of wire and coil it the resulting antenna is quite small. You can also make a panel antenna by creating a trace of conductive line on a flat surface, but the length still has to be the same to work. Regardless of the size of the device it is going into, if you want the antenna to work at a specific frequency it must be a specific length - end of discussion.
So if the GPS issue varies from phone to phone so much, assuming the antenna is the problem, but it can be affected by software, what is likely the problem? Logic would say that it might be either poor quality control in manufacturing causing slight variances in length (at 1575.42 Mhz a small difference in length can make a big difference) or a design that partially obstructs the antenna. Software can not fix the physical antenna issue, but it can compensate by attempting to filter noise better thus increasing the receiver sensitivity, boosting transmit power, or by shifting phase of the signal to make minor adjustments to the effective conductive length of the antenna.
Another possible issue (but less likely because I see no way for software to effect this) is that Samsung did not get a good impedance match between their antenna and their radio. If this was the case you would lose a great deal of signal to and create a lot of noise because of reflective power. Transmitting at a lower power would reduce over all signal, and boosting power would just create a greater reflective power problem.

lolcopter said:
My gps has worked since day one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I too am a replacement Vibrant GPS lover now. Both phones were stock. It has been a week with the new phone and I have not seen any decrease in the GPS performance yet. The old phone had mic issues
I have read many of the GPS posts, but will admit I have not read them all so I don't know if this was talked about yet. While outside tonight as I was doing my daily test I turned the phone upside down so screen is facing the ground and my signal improved from the mid 30's of the "in use" sats to the low to mid 40's. It was nice to see a lot of green for a change. Accuracy improved too. Not sure how the GPS gear is mounted in the phone, but it sure looks like there is a lot stronger signal coming in the the back side then the screen side.
My "use wireless networks" is off
I did this test a number of times while keeping the phone the same distance from the ground. Same results. If there is any other questions or other tests I would be happy to do what I can.
So there you go, the GPS works great, we all just need to hold the phone above our heads..

Zylograth said:
You did not buy a GPS Receiver, you bought a phone with a GPS antenna which is used to track your movement. It just also happens to receive signals from GPS satellites that you are able to use. If you require dead on GPS location then you should go buy a GPS Receiver.
Think of all the things this phone does. It doesn't do any of them better than a device designed to do just that. All-in-one devices are never as good as the devices they are designed to combine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My g1 and mytouch 3g and nexus all had great GPS. The sgs is advertised as the premier device. We have every reason to expect GPS to work and we have absolutely no reason to think one of the advertised features will be broken. GPS is a huge part of smartphones, and since its proven to work on thousands of handsets for years it should work on our vibrants. Maybe new technology gets flexibility but this is GPS we are talking about, its been done and been done perfectly a thousand times over. The phone has plenty of small bugs which is acceptable. Its not acceptable for GPS to be f****d. I think even Samsung would say its unacceptable that I have to carry around my nexus one for its GPS. My vibrant works until I'm about 2/3 of the way to my destination. So basically my screen starts spinning when I'm about as lost as possible. Thank God for my nexus one

GPS on the Vibrant is not a hardware issue. If they have change the hardware, which I doubt, it wouldn't have fixed anything unless they also changed the software. And if they've fixed the software -- which they did in JI2 and JI6 for most people -- then we'll get that fix with the official 2.2 release. OR you could just flash a custom wrong and get good GPS now.

Hi this is the software I have on the phone.
Firmware version. 2.1-update1
Baseband version. T959UVJI6
Karnel version. 2.6.29
Build number. ECLAIR.UVJI6
I don't know if anything diferrent.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using XDA App

I don't understand the comparison to other devices and talk of "I'll never buy another Samsung device."
Since the Galaxy's screen demolishes the competition, I guess the rest of the manufacturers out the are just junk. They are supposed to be top of the line devices so their screen should be as good as this subpar samsung.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

My GPS has worked since day one.
raverj said:
Ditto
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Click to collapse
+1
But certainly Samsung should be better at fixes and T-mobile couldn't be any slower.
Still by far the best device I've ever had, and I had a lot. Axura
And Froyo pull it all together.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Weak WiFi Signal

(Search feature is down but I don't remember seeing anything about this)
It seems like the wifi signal is really weak on my Nexus S (stock, MoDaCo rX, and Cyanogen alpha). The only time I get full bars is if stand right in front of the router. Sometimes it will drop a bar or two even when I am in the same room as the router.
I'm out of the country at the moment and unable to test it with my network at home to compare performance to the N1 or MT4G I used to have. Can I get some feedback from other users about their wifi strength? I might have to find a way to return/exchange the phone from here before the end of the remorse period if it's a problem unique to my device.

c_licious said:
(Search feature is down but I don't remember seeing anything about this)
It seems like the wifi signal is really weak on my Nexus S (stock, MoDaCo rX, and Cyanogen alpha). The only time I get full bars is if stand right in front of the router. Sometimes it will drop a bar or two even when I am in the same room as the router.
I'm out of the country at the moment and unable to test it with my network at home to compare performance to the N1 or MT4G I used to have. Can I get some feedback from other users about their wifi strength? I might have to find a way to return/exchange the phone from here before the end of the remorse period if it's a problem unique to my device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually have it listed as a known issue in the FAQ after seeing an article pop up from Androidcentral.com shortly after launch.
But, yes, I can confirm this. I'm literally sitting right next to my router and have a full three bars. If I move to the couch, it'll switch between 2-3 and if I go into my bedroom, it'll do it from 1-2. I'm in a relatively small apartment, btw lol.
Interestingly enough, while the graphic displays a weaker signal and testing from market apps does indeed show a weaker signal, I don't really notice much in the way of speed loss or instability.

Yap, same here.
If i go to about 30 ft away, i'm done...no wifi!

unremarked said:
Actually have it listed as a known issue in the FAQ after seeing an article pop up from Androidcentral.com shortly after launch.
But, yes, I can confirm this. I'm literally sitting right next to my router and have a full three bars. If I move to the couch, it'll switch between 2-3 and if I go into my bedroom, it'll do it from 1-2. I'm in a relatively small apartment, btw lol.
Interestingly enough, while the graphic displays a weaker signal and testing from market apps does indeed show a weaker signal, I don't really notice much in the way of speed loss or instability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, just read your thread (slapping myself on the wrist for posting too soon). Unfortunately, it does seem to cause some instability for me as it occasionally disconnects completely due to the low signal.
Do you think this is the same for all devices and has just gone unnoticed for those who don't heavily rely on wifi. Or would an exchange be my best option at this point? Not sure how much of a hardware vs software fix this would be...

No issues here. The reception isn't great, but it's a phone. Small WiFi card. Maybe my expectations are too low, but I feel like 30-50 feet through the walls and/or floors of a house/apartment is pretty reasonable for a device like this. Of course, as always, the more obstacles (physical barriers and electronic interference) the signal has to go through to get to your phone, the worse the reception will be at any given distance, so there are a lot of potential influencing factors.

zorak950 said:
No issues here. The reception isn't great, but it's a phone. Small WiFi card. Maybe my expectations are too low, but I feel like 30-50 feet through the walls and/or floors of a house/apartment is pretty reasonable for a device like this. Of course, as always, the more obstacles (physical barriers and electronic interference) the signal has to go through to get to your phone, the worse the reception will be at any given distance, so there are a lot of potential influencing factors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why it's such a handicap not being able to test it on my home network at the moment where I could compare it to my experience with my previous android devices.

alot of routers no longer have external antennas reducing the possible range. just an idea but who knows

c_licious said:
Yea, just read your thread (slapping myself on the wrist for posting too soon). Unfortunately, it does seem to cause some instability for me as it occasionally disconnects completely due to the low signal.
Do you think this is the same for all devices and has just gone unnoticed for those who don't heavily rely on wifi. Or would an exchange be my best option at this point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure either way, actually. It may be something that can be fixed with a software update or tweak considering that the Nexus One(which has a noticable stronger signal) and the Nexus S seem to be pretty close in model number(BCM4329EKU86 Nexus One vs BCM4329GKUBG Nexus S).
I couldn't find a tear down that detailed the WiFi chip found in the Galaxy S devices which would be more useful for a comparison. So, I guess, my point is that it may be something a relevantly unnoticed flaw in the device itself and exchanging it might not do anything.
I guess this is our trade off for a working GPS unit?

I dont think its based off of root, i'm on stock, and the same thing happens to me!!

The Nexus S uses a low power wifi chip, which is thought to be the cause of this (VERY well known) weak wifi reception issue. Google "Nexus S weak wifi".
You can verify it easily by running a wifi sniffer (e.g. "Wifi Analyzer" from the market). The NS's reception drops quickly with distance from router. This isn't the router's fault.

ravidavi said:
The Nexus S uses a low power wifi chip, which is thought to be the cause of this (VERY well known) weak wifi reception issue. Google "Nexus S weak wifi".
You can verify it easily by running a wifi sniffer (e.g. "Wifi Analyzer" from the market). The NS's reception drops quickly with distance from router. This isn't the router's fault.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely isnt the routers fault. I have two MTS, my original G1 and N1, Two Laptops a PS3 and a PSP.
This is the only device that struggles to find a signal.

jspookss said:
Definitely isnt the routers fault. I have two MTS, my original G1 and N1, Two Laptops a PS3 and a PSP.
This is the only device that struggles to find a signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a former G1 guy myself, it had a very strong signal, Nexus S not so much. It is making me a bit irritated. It is an important feature sine I prefer to use wifi instead of 3G. It's much faster.

I have the same issue. When I turn on wifi the status icon takes about 20 seconds to turn from grey to green and on top of that even in the same room I don't get full bars. This really blows.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Big wifi limitation on sg ii !

Hi there
I found a BIG limitation in the SG II Wifi.
The problem is that: the Wifi class on the SG II is N but each time you try to put it online, getting a signal from your router, your MAX wifi speed connection will be ALWAYS at 65mb/s
(off course my router support WiFi N and i perform a check also on other routers from friends of mine having, finally, the same result)
Now i'm running the custom rom from LitePro (K8 kernel based) and this problem still there.
I presume it is only a software limitation and not an hardware limitation.
Can someone find a solution? Is it maybe necessary to modify the apks that make the Wifi work like we did with the camera sound?

Borg3D5 said:
Hi there
I found a BIG limitation in the SG II Wifi.
The problem is that: the Wifi class on the SG II is N but each time you try to put it online, getting a signal from your router, your MAX wifi speed connection will be ALWAYS at 65mb/s
(off course my router support WiFi N and i perform a check also on other routers from friends of mine having, finally, the same result)
Now i'm running the custom rom from LitePro (K8 kernel based) and this problem still there.
I presume it is only a software limitation and not an hardware limitation.
Can someone find a solution? Is it maybe necessary to modify the apks that make the Wifi work like we did with the camera sound?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. How are you calculating the connection speed?

@wifi-settings, click on the connected network and the shown mbit's will never be over 65... And in the app: overlook fing (nice network tool) will say the same.

Why would you need 600 Mbps on a mobile phone?
I have an dual N band router too but seriously on my phone I don't see the point of more them 20 mbps...

jaapschaap said:
@wifi-settings, click on the connected network and the shown mbit's will never be over 65... And in the app: overlook fing (nice network tool) will say the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, exactly

Mew178 said:
Why would you need 600 Mbps on a mobile phone?
I have an dual N band router too but seriously on my phone I don't see the point of more them 20 mbps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not?
If i pay a phone 600 euros and who made it tell me that the Wifi is N so i WANT a WiFi N because my money are real money, not charms

I a lot more concerned with battery life and wifi range on my G2 then how fast it goes
I noticed when I use G instead of N the range seems be increase.

Mew178 said:
I a lot more concerned with battery life and wifi range on my G2 then how fast it goes
I noticed when I use G instead of N the range seems be increase.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunatly i think that the battery problem is a tecnology problem: you have what you can have from this kind of tecnology, we can just make it a bit better but to have a reasonable time of charge we need a new kind of battery tecnology, compared to what the actual phone SLCD and Amoled screens ask to work .

Make sure you are on a channel without other APs.

To the OP, find an Android mobile phone that connects at a higher data speed than 65-72 Mbps and then come back with another dramatic thread.
Can you guys please do some research before making these dramatic threads?

Have u guys seen any difference in real life use ?
Forget about the numbers .
I always do video chats and works great.
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Borg3D5 said:
Hi there
I found a BIG limitation in the SG II Wifi.
The problem is that: the Wifi class on the SG II is N but each time you try to put it online, getting a signal from your router, your MAX wifi speed connection will be ALWAYS at 65mb/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the expected speed of 802.11n on a small device.
QAM-64 modulation delivers at most 65-72Mbit/s on devices without MIMO. A cell phone will not have MIMO capability for cost and size reasons (requires several antennas).
No vendor provides MIMO wifi chips for cell-phone usage, so even if you tried you would get rotten battery life and a huge cell phone as the MIMO chipsets are designed for having mains power or laptop batteries, and the antennas need physical separation.
This assumes 20 MHz channel. 11n does allow for a 40MHz channel, but you will never get this in practice on the 2.4GHz band as the standard requires devices to look for interferers in the band and back off to 20MHz channel for a long time if they see any. Given how crowded the 2.4GHz band is you will always see interferers hence you will always be forced to use 20MHz channels.
Search for 802.11n-2009 on wikipedia. (I'd post the link but the forum will not allow it)

Nevermind wifi speed. I used to get good signal sat in bed with my sgs 1. With this one I get 1 bar or no connection at all. Sometimes if i turn the phone I get enough for it to resume a download.
Fair enough 1 bar gives suffient speed but it drops completely
I've tried playing with channels, changing n/g to just g etc but the signal is just weak. Nothing changed with my router, my old phone got 2/3 bar signal, my wife's HTC desire gets 2. The laptop full bars.
I'm hoping this will be fixed in a firmware update some time.
Shame cus otherwise I love this phone. (Although bit miffed with Yamaha instead of wolfsen sound, hope they release version with wolfsen. Or sgs3 )
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

65mb is more then u need in a phone wouldnt you think plus range like other have said is more important

Borg3D5 said:
Why not?
If i pay a phone 600 euros and who made it tell me that the Wifi is N so i WANT a WiFi N because my money are real money, not charms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well in theory you should get better range with n chipset (though some are reporting the opposite!)
So you pay more money to get N and with it better range and slightly better throughput than G ?

skibadee said:
Nevermind wifi speed. I used to get good signal sat in bed with my sgs 1. With this one I get 1 bar or no connection at all. Sometimes if i turn the phone I get enough for it to resume a download.
Fair enough 1 bar gives suffient speed but it drops completely
I've tried playing with channels, changing n/g to just g etc but the signal is just weak. Nothing changed with my router, my old phone got 2/3 bar signal, my wife's HTC desire gets 2. The laptop full bars.
I'm hoping this will be fixed in a firmware update some time.
Shame cus otherwise I love this phone. (Although bit miffed with Yamaha instead of wolfsen sound, hope they release version with wolfsen. Or sgs3 )
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same with me. Witn iPhone 4 I had 2 bars and good connection, with SGS2 I am forced to switch off wifi and using 3G instead, because no more than one bar of signal and I can't open any web page. I just ordered Netgear WN3000 repeater and I hope it will help me to increase the signal, but I will have more antennas in my bedroom to frying my small brain

Manafa said:
Same with me. Witn iPhone 4 I had 2 bars and good connection, with SGS2 I am forced to switch off wifi and using 3G instead, because no more than one bar of signal and I can't open any web page. I just ordered Netgear WN3000 repeater and I hope it will help me to increase the signal, but I will have more antennas in my bedroom to frying my small brain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here!!!!!
I'm next to my router and I get 3/4 !!!!!
It's really a problem! I used to have signal in some areas, whereas now with GS II I get no signal at all

Manafa said:
Same with me. Witn iPhone 4 I had 2 bars and good connection, with SGS2 I am forced to switch off wifi and using 3G instead, because no more than one bar of signal and I can't open any web page. I just ordered Netgear WN3000 repeater and I hope it will help me to increase the signal, but I will have more antennas in my bedroom to frying my small brain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my experience is different from yours. I get slightly better wifi reception than my captivate with wndr3700 router
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I don't think the graphical representation on the notification bar is important. I've got better reception on my G router than I have with my htc hero.
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i dont see how this is such a big limitation. if youre gonna be that upset and nit picky about a device, then any phone u get thats worth any amount of money wont satisfy you.

WiFi really poor?

Is it just me or do you find the wifi strength to be really poor?
My friend was at my house last night and his htc incredible said full signal and mine said 1 bar
Does software affect anything?
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Nope but the signal strength is poorly indicated bars mean little if you have no bars and full strength signal .
Use speedtest.net to measure .
jje

Yes I also noticed that when the signal is poor but the device is connected, the connection is blend but solid..
But the GS2 receiver is 1/3 than the receiver of the desire HD
I noticed some improvement with KF2 baseband imho the best receiver and the minor battery drainer for the device

for me its working fine. No issues

chaplu said:
for me its working fine. No issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't say "issue" but that i've noticed that the power of the GS2 wifi receiver is minor in confront of the DesireHD receiver
Imho it is the only sin of this fanstastic, strongest device

Yeah, I also have poor wi-fi signal, regularly 1 or 2 bars less than iphone 4 or even my old htc desire. Sometimes this will happen even if I stand barely 2 feet away from the router. But the connection is always solid, when it's there.

adem_7 said:
Yeah, I also have poor wi-fi signal, regularly 1 or 2 bars less than iphone 4 or even my old htc desire. Sometimes this will happen even if I stand barely 2 feet away from the router. But the connection is always solid, when it's there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right....if the connection start, don't worry is will be rock solid
But, often the problem is catch the connection when the signal is poor

Agree on this. Mine showing 2 bars but i cant browse or it is slow as hell. On desire no problem at all.
Nuked from Galaxy S II conquered by VillainROM v2.1.0

Well as long as it works (mine does, flawlessly), I really couldn't care less about how many bars are displayed.
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The wifi strenght sucks on my SGII too..
I was used to surf from my room , even with my iPod touch 3g (only B/G), but the SGII takes just one bar of signal and doesen't work, and that's strange considering that it supports B/G/N...

Well,it's a little crappy compared to the Desire HD admitedly,but meh,whatever.The final result is the same.The Desire HD has had the best wifi receiver among all my phones by the way,so we aren't comparing the S2 with some ****ty phone.

It puzzles me everytime I see one of these threads. I find the WiFi reception on the device to be great, much better than my last handset, Desire HD. The DHD would struggle to hold a connection in the rear bedroom of my last house, which was at the opposite end of the house to the router. It was so bad I had to use Connectify.me as a bridge via my laptop! The SGS2 would hold a connection without issue, even going out into the rear garden, something my N1 could not achieve. I'm stumped as to why some people really struggle with the signal strength on WiFi.
Regards.

Most of the the time my SGS2 show 1 out of 4 bars, even when i'm very close to wi-fi access point, however i woudn't say that the connection is worse comparing to when I have 4 bars. Probably this is a software issue...

should hope dev improve this. my Desire still can get the signal even if i'm outside of my house, and while reversing the car going out through the gate, it still catch the signal. GS2 didnt get this kind of reception, but it is fast once it does get reception.

I used to have the same Wi-Fi problems with my Galaxy S2 having little or no reception while all my other devices were working fine.
I fixed the problem by setting my phone to use static IP at all times when connected to the wireless network.
To do this go to:
Wireless and network > Wi-Fi Settings > Advanced (menu button)
Then check "Use static IP" and fill in the network details.
Ever since I did that, I have been getting at least three bars signal at all times and had no problems getting a connection inside or outside the house. I reckon it's a bug with the android firmware itself (I'm using rooted stock 2.3.3 KF3 btw). That or it hates my D-Link router.

ADropBear said:
I used to have the same Wi-Fi problems with my Galaxy S2 having little or no reception while all my other devices were working fine.
I fixed the problem by setting my phone to use static IP at all times when connected to the wireless network.
To do this go to:
Wireless and network > Wi-Fi Settings > Advanced (menu button)
Then check "Use static IP" and fill in the network details.
Ever since I did that, I have been getting at least three bars signal at all times and had no problems getting a connection inside or outside the house. I reckon it's a bug with the android firmware itself (I'm using rooted stock 2.3.3 KF3 btw). That or it hates my D-Link router.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try this when I'm at home mate and I'll report back
Cheers
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Just tested KG2 modem and its giving a much stronger signal at what was the extremes of range for other modems . Signal not wifi indicator .
jje

Im less than 2 meters away from the router and it indicates 2 bars of 3!! I had better indicators for the previos phones
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JJEgan said:
Just tested KG2 modem and its giving a much stronger signal at what was the extremes of range for other modems . Signal not wifi indicator .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm this JJe.
Also,lynxboy,something must have been wrong with your Desire HD.Currently,the S2 is the second best phone I've had in terms of connectivity,but my DHD is on a level of its own.It sometimes even beats my laptop and doesn't lose connection no matter how I hold it.I never believed that the S2's wifi is actually bad,but it's certainly not as good as the Desire HD's.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

The SGS2 doesn't like all routers equally. A couple of us with Netgear router's are getting great performance - better than with previous devices. It doesn't seem to like D-Link. D-Link's also cause its battery to drain faster. There's a thread started on that already.

Anandtech in depth WiFi testing of the Pixel C ..... It's bad

http://anandtech.com/show/10081/wifi-testing-with-ixia-wavedevice/4
Anandtech just got a really fancy, manufacturer-grade WiFi testing setup and did some initial testing with the iPad Pro and the Pixel C.
In the case of the iPad Pro and Pixel C, we found that WaveDevice was able to show a number of notable interesting data points from both an end user perspective and an engineering perspective. With the rate vs range test, it was possible to clearly see how well a device would perform in response to worsening reception from a user experience perspective. From an engineering perspective, it was possible to identify the root cause for the Google Pixel C’s poor Wi-Fi performance by using WaveAnalyze and an RF analysis blade in WaveDevice. While determining the root cause is still beyond what we can do with limited information on the hardware, an OEM would be able to act on the information provided by WaveDevice to improve their product before it reaches mass production.
In addition to the rate vs range test, the roaming latency test was quite illuminating. While root cause analysis is more difficult and best left to actual engineers, it’s quite obvious that the iPad Pro passed this test with flying colors while the Pixel C shows some serious deficiencies. If you regularly encounter large Wi-Fi networks with multiple access points all under a single SSID/name like eduroam, it’s obvious that the Pixel C will be an exercise in frustration if you’re hoping to keep a working Wi-Fi connection on the move. Even when the device roams successfully, the time that the device spends moving from one access point to the next is long enough on average to result in noticeable connection interruptions. When it doesn’t roam successfully, it seems to get stuck on a single access point and basically drops off the network entirely without manual intervention or has to re-authenticate and acquire a new IP address, which is guaranteed to cause most traffic to be dropped.
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In a nutshell, we might need to file a class action lawsuit.

I'm not very technically minded, so just wondering in simple terms, does the article suggest this might be a hardware issue? Something that can't be fixed with future software updates? Thx

aalin13 said:
I'm not very technically minded, so just wondering in simple terms, does the article suggest this might be a hardware issue? Something that can't be fixed with future software updates? Thx
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From the article:
It may be that we're looking at something like improper impedance matching somewhere in the system, amplifiers that are either poorly selected or poorly integrated, and/or a phase-locked loop somewhere that isn’t set up or designed properly for this task.
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Basically, they said they are not familiar enough with the hardware in the Pixel C to say if the problem is hardware or software related. Google probably knows, but good luck getting them to admit to anything.

oRAirwolf said:
Basically, they said they are not familiar enough with the hardware in the Pixel C to say if the problem is hardware or software related. Google probably knows, but good luck getting them to admit to anything.
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Thanks, so there is still hope. This wifi concern is the only thing holding me back from buying one right now, my Nexus 10 has started to have issues with random reboot and extremely slow charging (20 hours to go from 20% to 100%), so I'm thinking of buying a Pixel C as a replacement

aalin13 said:
Thanks, so there is still hope. This wifi concern is the only thing holding me back from buying one right now, my Nexus 10 has started to have issues with random reboot and extremely slow charging (20 hours to go from 20% to 100%), so I'm thinking of buying a Pixel C as a replacement
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For the record, I have absolutely no problems with WiFi with my Pixel C. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with a highly saturated WiFi environment. I think the WiFi is unquestionably bad, but my usage scenario generally revolves around reading the news while pooping and watching media in airports/airplanes. In my scenario, none of the problems have even remotely affected me.

oRAirwolf said:
For the record, I have absolutely no problems with WiFi with my Pixel C. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with a highly saturated WiFi environment. I think the WiFi is unquestionably bad, but my usage scenario generally revolves around reading the news while pooping and watching media in airports/airplanes. In my scenario, none of the problems have even remotely affected me.
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Haha, sounds like how I use my tablet as well, and I also live in an apartment with saturated WiFi. Guess I can always buy it and return it if the WiFi is an issue. When you say WiFi is unquestionably bad, do you mean that it is slower and has weaker signal than other devices? Given that my home internet is still on DSL, I think I might not even notice the difference in WiFi speed

aalin13 said:
Haha, sounds like how I use my tablet as well, and I also live in an apartment with saturated WiFi. Guess I can always buy it and return it if the WiFi is an issue. When you say WiFi is unquestionably bad, do you mean that it is slower and has weaker signal than other devices? Given that my home internet is still on DSL, I think I might not even notice the difference in WiFi speed
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I just mean that the problems are widely reported and backed by the test data in that article. I have never had any noticeable issues myself, though.

No surprise here.
IPad Pro is a $1000+ real product with the full forces of Apple R&D, manufacturing and Q&A behind it.
Pixel C is more like a prototype made by a small team inside a big company whose core business isn't to build and sell devices.
It's borderline silly to compare these 2 without comparing the budgets, the staff and the marketing/sales "intentions".
That's been said there is no doubt the Pixel C has room for wifi optimizations but then is this really necessary ? it's not meant to be widely sold at a huge scale. Its purpose is not to have the best wifi possible. I'd rather have Google staff working on next gen Android & Chrome OS features for the Pixel C rather than wasting their time fine tuning & optimizing its wifi...
People should stop considering the Pixel C as a real product. It's more like a dev kit / prototype / experimentation device. Not a real device that you can find in a shop next door like an IPad or a Samsung tablet. It's meant for Googlers to work on new features, for 3rd party apps devs to prepare their next gen apps and for tech enthusiasts to preview stuff.
So, in that context, thinking about a class action is just plain silly.

No problems at all with WiFi. How can ortople be sure it's not an external factor at play? I wouldn't trust Anandtech. They take bribes from anyone with deep edbough pockets. No better than paid for survey companies.
Until they post an ethics and gifting policy, you should disregard anything they have to say.

What exactly is the wifi issue? I got a Pixel C recently, knowing about the issue roughly; but I've never had any issues. I just ran a Speedtest connected to a 5Ghz network and pulled down 106Mbps (down) and 25Mbps (up); this is about the same I get on a wired connection (actually better on average, for some reason).

i've had absolutely no issues, either, but i also have a device from the newer batch (612300) and i'm running n. it actually works better than my nexus 10 in some cases, though i have yet to test it in an area with saturated wifi.

CrazyPeter said:
I wouldn't trust Anandtech. They take bribes from anyone with deep edbough pockets. No better than paid for survey companies.
Until they post an ethics and gifting policy, you should disregard anything they have to say.
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I am not saying you are wrong, but I have never seen anything to give me the impression that their objective testing is skewed in any way. They clearly have subjective opinions about products and it is no secret they tend to lean towards iOS devices. That being said, they generally have, by far, the most thorough, quantifiable testing and results of any mobile device review site.
Do you have any sources or examples to back up your claims? I would definitely like to know, as I do consider them to be a trusted source for thorough, numbers based, and high level reviews. I tend to leave the subjective opinions up to myself, though.

Proved my deep suspicions from Day 1 and yes there is absolutely ground for a class action here since this product is being sold as the Android tablet , not an experimental product with a disclaimer that core features like wifi may be seriously broken.

undertaker2k14 said:
Proved my deep suspicions from Day 1 and yes there is absolutely ground for a class action here since this product is being sold as the Android tablet , not an experimental product with a disclaimer that core features like wifi may be seriously broken.
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ROFL so what's a class action gonna do? Get you like $300 cash or $500 of Google play, after 3-4 years.
If you don't want the tablet, sell it, and give it someone who wants it

May be nudge Google's hardware team towards better QAand something is always better than nothing.

No issues with wifi, either using my home router or tethering. So I don't know what the issue is as a practical matter.
Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

I would be interested to know what scenario people are reporting good Wi-Fi performance in. I know that my c definitely has a problem as soon as the Wi-Fi signal drops below -75dB. This happens when trying to use when in the garden. The main issue is that it drops the connection and refuses to connect to it again without the Wi-Fi being switched on & off. It reminds me of the behaviour that I used to get with the 'don't connect to connecting with poor Wi-Fi signal' - except that -75dB isn't really a low signal. All my other android devices (oneplus 2, hudl2 & Nexus 5) all give reliable performance at the same distance (20m).

boboskins said:
I would be interested to know what scenario people are reporting good Wi-Fi performance in. I know that my c definitely has a problem as soon as the Wi-Fi signal drops below -75dB. This happens when trying to use when in the garden. The main issue is that it drops the connection and refuses to connect to it again without the Wi-Fi being switched on & off. It reminds me of the behaviour that I used to get with the 'don't connect to connecting with poor Wi-Fi signal' - except that -75dB isn't really a low signal. All my other android devices (oneplus 2, hudl2 & Nexus 5) all give reliable performance at the same distance (20m).
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Only had this tablet a week but I have had no Wifi issues and I live in an apartment with metal studs that cause problems for many of my other devices. As a matter of fact I write this sitting in a garden with a -80db signal. I am on N so that may (I hope) have something to do with my lack of wifi issues.

here is a comparsion of my Pixel vs my phone 10 feet from the router. My phone saturates my link, while the pixel comes up 100mbps short. It is still fast enough...but at further ranges it gets worse fast.
https://goo.gl/photos/NdC3KG4186xuifDW6

oRAirwolf said:
For the record, I have absolutely no problems with WiFi with my Pixel C. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with a highly saturated WiFi environment. I think the WiFi is unquestionably bad, but my usage scenario generally revolves around reading the news while pooping and watching media in airports/airplanes. In my scenario, none of the problems have even remotely affected me.
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Same here, I live in a tiny, packed city (1.3 square miles, about 50k people) across the river from NYC and I have easily 15-20 WAPs showing up on any wifi device and while I did have wifi problems, turns out it was my sh!tty verizon router and the overly packed 2.4 GHz band. Once I got an AC router and hopped on the 5 GHz band I've had no problems at all!
natezire71 said:
What exactly is the wifi issue? I got a Pixel C recently, knowing about the issue roughly; but I've never had any issues. I just ran a Speedtest connected to a 5Ghz network and pulled down 106Mbps (down) and 25Mbps (up); this is about the same I get on a wired connection (actually better on average, for some reason).
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I've only seen problems connecting with very poor wifi signals. The only time I ever really had problems connecting was in a hotel where it would see the WAP, try to connect and then fail, even with the "only connect to strong WAPs" option turned off. I have no problems at my apartment or at my parent's house.
undertaker2k14 said:
Proved my deep suspicions from Day 1 and yes there is absolutely ground for a class action here since this product is being sold as the Android tablet , not an experimental product with a disclaimer that core features like wifi may be seriously broken.
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I'm sorry but people like you are the reason why we need labels on everything warning someone about every possible thing that could happen, just so they can cover their a$$es in case some idiot attempts to sue for something ridiculous (e.g. a warning on a jar of peanuts that says "warning: contains peanuts!"....yes, Planter's peanuts actually has that warning on the jar lol). I think you're using a bit of hyperbole there, the wifi is not "seriously broken" because it obviously works fine for most people, including myself and it seems like largely a software issue since Cheep5k8 has largely fixed most of the issues with his kernel. There's probably not even a large enough amount of people that even on the Pixel C, I wouldn't doubt that less than 50k have it. It's a pretty expensive device that wasn't really marketed at all, not many people outside of Android/Tech geeks know about it.
beardymcgee said:
ROFL so what's a class action gonna do? Get you like $300 cash or $500 of Google play, after 3-4 years. If you don't want the tablet, sell it, and give it someone who wants it
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More like $3.00 or $4.00 :laugh: Have you even been involved in a class action lawsuit? I've gotten the emails before that says I could claim a payment if I wanted to but the payouts are hysterically laughably low, I think for the Amazon e-book price fixing scandal, I could claim about 10-30 cents because I bought like 5 books from them over the course of a few years. I think the biggest payout I've ever received was a few bucks and that maybe have been on a few hundred dollar purchase, hell even class action lawsuits on cars that cost $30k+ receive payouts of maybe a few hundred dollars hahahaha Instead of selling it and getting something that works better he'd rather keep the tablet then ***** and complain about how the wifi sucks and he deserves to be repaid for buying something with sub-par wifi