Database Users

XPERIA X1 SIGNAL RECEPTION: Cool, OK, so-so or crap ??

Many users have complaint about poor (weak) signal reception...
But others (as me) are getting full bars and excelent coverage
Please vote and tell the world your Xperience

Mine seems to be okay. My completely subjective opinion is that it's not quite as good as my old Motorola Q9h Global, but it is about as good as my Nokia E71-2.

Considering that I live in zone 1 of one of the worlds major capitals the signal is crap ! ... in terms of reception DEFINITELY the worse phone I ever had (this is Vodafone / London)

Amanox said:
Considering that I live in zone 1 of one of the worlds major capitals the signal is crap ! ... in terms of reception DEFINITELY the worse phone I ever had (this is Vodafone / London)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tested another carrier ??
Testd another phone ??
Xperia is crap ??
or Vodafone is crap ??
This is exactly what we expect to find with this poll

I have no problem whatsoever with signal reception anywhere in the city, almost alway full bar.
in buildings (basement, any floor upwards) i got either 2 bars or 3 bars AND HSDPA.
i live in Jakarta, Indonesia btw...

Well.. I'm from Telcel Mexico, and I've been testing several radios (stock, xperia's 1.10.25. I dont remember) and the latest from the blackstone.. I've something to say... My Motorola MPx220 has better reception... even my girlfriends LG's Shine has reception in some places I dont
I'm hopping that Sony Ericcson can solve this.. (believe me.. it's really a shame that my girlfriend makes fun of my SUPER POWERFUL phone's crap reception..)

The signal on my X1i is fine, although i can see that the bars fluctuate a lot depending on the location i have never had any dropped calls. I assume that the measurement system on the X1i is far more accurate than i.e. a Nokia where it shows always a full signal until you dial a call and then it drops down a few bars to its actual reading.

I would say the signal is as strong as with the Nokia N95 and the SE w900i before. I cannot complain.

Don't mind your X1.. blame your operator for the signal!

2008 I had 4 phones all using Vodafone UK.... W960i, W880i, W890i and the X1, going round the same places the signal strength is on par with the w960i for me and better than the w880i and w890i... So that is comparing against 3 other Sony phones....

In the Central US with T-Mobile reception is just fine. = to my w850i

For me the X1 works much better than Tytn and Kaiser. I know than Tele2 (Swedish operator) have done som uppgrading. 2G / 3G switching works great now. Before the upgrade it was bad.

Had my x1 a week, currently it's getting the same if not slightly better signal than other HTC/SE phones in our house. Our town has poor reception in most areas but my x1 has been no different from other phones so far.

Well i know there were concerns about using T-mobile UK with the X1 but i've not really had any problems. I used to have the w580i and i'd say that was worse than the xperia. My house isn't particulary great for signal and i have two/three bars. So yeah...no issue here!

No problems at all here -London on Vodafone

I think we should separate X1i and X1a pole. Look at my reception on X1a with AT&T 3G. I paid $30 for internet

damskie said:
Don't mind your X1.. blame your operator for the signal!
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Click to collapse
Location: My home address
Operator: O2
Phone: HTC Hermes = connects to HSDPA in every room - never loose signal
Phone: HTC Polaris = connects to HSDPA in every room - never loose signal
Phone: Xperia = Connects to GPRS in most rooms, very occassionaly HSDPA - looses signal regularly
I have tried 3 Xperias all with the same result.
You want me to blame my operator?
When the Xperia is close to a base-station/transmitter there are no signal problems. As soon as the environment gets slightly tricky, it can't cope, unlike my older HTC phones as demonstrated above.
At work, I don't have a problem with any of my phones including the Xperia; I have a base-station on the roof of my office building

randy_c said:
I think we should separate X1i and X1a pole. Look at my reception on X1a with AT&T 3G. I paid $30 for internet
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Click to collapse
I have both X1a & X1i
My reception on X1a with TIGO 3.5G 850MHz is always HSDPA FULL BARS (urban)
I pay half that for 3,600 kbps internet
Still wanna blame the Xperia ??
That's not fair (for the phone)

I ve been with vodafone for the past years at the same address and all other phones get better signal ... however, the main problem is that the Xperia keeps dropping the signal for no reason. to give an exampe ..
Phone lies on my desk with 2 bars reception... when I reach for the phone to write a message or make a phone call, chances are that just by picking it up, e.g. moving it for a couple of inches, the phone will drop the signal .. then I ll have to wait for a minute till it picks it up again - as soon as it does it is back up to 2 bars and I can start making the phone call.
this is however only in areas where the signal is generally weaker e.g. where u would normally not get more than 2 bars anyway (like where I live - although I get full reception on my nokias with the same sim card).
If you are somewhere with good reception then there is no problem
hope that helps

Amanox said:
I ve been with vodafone for the past years at the same address and all other phones get better signal ... however, the main problem is that the Xperia keeps dropping the signal for no reason. to give an exampe ..
Phone lies on my desk with 2 bars reception... when I reach for the phone to write a message or make a phone call, chances are that just by picking it up, e.g. moving it for a couple of inches, the phone will drop the signal .. then I ll have to wait for a minute till it picks it up again - as soon as it does it is back up to 2 bars and I can start making the phone call.
this is however only in areas where the signal is generally weaker e.g. where u would normally not get more than 2 bars anyway (like where I live - although I get full reception on my nokias with the same sim card).
If you are somewhere with good reception then there is no problem
hope that helps
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Click to collapse
Yep, I get that as well.

(POLL) HD2+T-Mobile OR TouchPro+ATT

Which would you choose in my situation? Keep the TP w/ATT or keep HD2+T-Mobile? I live in Hawaii if that helps.
Main problem...
ATT= Better coverage with 3G. Almost every place I go, it stays at 3G 95% of the time, but either it's the small Touch Pro 1, or the 3G is slow.
Touch Pro= Small screen(hate to say this but my eyes have gotten worse in the last year. Very hard to read), GPS takes minutes to get a lock, and my GPS programs always lags at least 3-5 seconds of where I really am. Bluetooth doesn't work well with Microsoft Voice Command.
AND
T-Mobile= 3G is weird. I have signal 60% of the time. But if I walk indoors, I could be at 50% signal, but it might switch to Edge (not sure if it's the HD2 fault). When I have a 3G signal, I swear it seems faster than the same bars for the ATT 3G.
HD2= LARGE SCREEN! I LOVE IT! GPS signal locks in 10-30 seconds at most. And the GPS has maybe at most a second lag of where I really am. Bluetooth and Microsoft Voice has issue. And my Igo8 doesn't play well with TTS on the HD2, when it works on my Touch Pro.
SO which choice should I go with? It seems I should stick with the HD2, but T-Mobile signal bothers me. Its weird to see 3G go away and E pops up. And once in a while no phone signal, but if I dial when that happens, it gets a signal and dials. So as a PHONE, it works. But using the Internet on Edge is not so good. BUT the phone is awsome compaired to the Touch Pro I have.
I'm running out of time, so I thought I would ask your view.
On a side note, I vacation once a year to CA to take kids Disneyland and Legoland etc, how good is the coverage for 3G in your experience for ATT and T-Mobile?

T-Mobile is upgrading HSPA+ so for a few months in major cities it will be the fastest and strongest network until verizon rolls out LTE. So you should see some increase in the coming months. I care more about the device than the network speed but thats my personal preference. I used EDGE on my iPhone 3G instead of 3G better battery life, edge was actually faster lol. Any who I hated the Touch Pro or FUZE w/e and swapped it out after 3 months of use. Had the iPhone until last sunday when I bought myself a HD2. This phone blows everything out the water right now. I would never switch back.
Also A 3rd option would be buy a HD2 full price and unlock it. Thats what I did.

I chose to go with the HD2 on AT&T's network.
Is Hawaii 1900 or 850 for AT&T?
3G on AT&T has been a lot better lately, they're finally getting enough capacity in to deal with all the iPhone tards here in the Bay Area.

sgtcurry said:
T-Mobile is upgrading HSPA+ so for a few months in major cities it will be the fastest and strongest network until verizon rolls out LTE. So you should see some increase in the coming months. I care more about the device than the network speed but thats my personal preference. I used EDGE on my iPhone 3G instead of 3G better battery life, edge was actually faster lol. Any who I hated the Touch Pro or FUZE w/e and swapped it out after 3 months of use. Had the iPhone until last sunday when I bought myself a HD2. This phone blows everything out the water right now. I would never switch back.
Also A 3rd option would be buy a HD2 full price and unlock it. Thats what I did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if HSPA+ is being released in Hawaii...
Miwa said:
I chose to go with the HD2 on AT&T's network.
Is Hawaii 1900 or 850 for AT&T?
3G on AT&T has been a lot better lately, they're finally getting enough capacity in to deal with all the iPhone tards here in the Bay Area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got me there. But AT&T while, it didn't seem fast, I seem to always have a 3G signal. More often than I care, I notice the "E" showing up on the HD2. Even when it tells me it had 3 bars on 3G before changing to E with 3-5 bars.

I have T-Mobile HTC HD2 service and I work in orange county near Disneyland (within 3 miles). The signal strength is very good and I rarely see an EDGE signal popping out.
San Diego also has good signal strength similar to Orange County. My girlfriend lives in San Diego so I go down once in a while.
I would get T-Mobile HD2 and you can always use Wi-Fi from home if you do not have very good 3G coverage there.
I use Wi-Fi at home even I have 3G anyway! My home is at LA county and it is still got pretty good 3G speed.
I have yet tried my 3G coverage in northern California but will get to try it in a few weeks since I am attending my friend's wedding up in the north close to San Jose.
Hope this helps and you really cannot go wrong with the HD2~!

Just came out of ATT to buy this awesome device... no question HD2 & T-Mo. Ofcourse, 3G coverage is less, but in the SF city I have full coverage (better) & most importantly, no more freaking dropped calls!

I have both, HD2 all the way. So far in OC, signal quality is about the same (2G/3G) except T-Mobile doesn't drop my calls, and call sound quality is slightly better.

starstreak said:
Which would you choose in my situation? Keep the TP w/ATT or keep HD2+T-Mobile? I live in Hawaii if that helps.
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Click to collapse
I can't comment on ATT's 3G coverage in HI but just to throw another option in here, if you wanted to go with the ATT network (I used to have Tmobile and wasn't crazy about it), then look for an HD2 T9193 on Ebay or elsewhere and you're good to go. It has the 850mhz hardware to support the ATT 3G network. I'm thrilled with mine so far. You'll be spending more on the hardware but you don't get forced into a higher priced data plan - you can opt for their 'MEdia Net' for $20/month (rather than $30+/month) and no no contract, which IMO is an 'upgrade' in and of itself.

Just go to t-mobile give it a shot, you have 30 days to cancel your contract so you can always go back to att.

Getting fed up..

Not so much of a Samsung vibrant issue, I don't think at least, but hear me out.
Been with Tmobile for 6 years now. Always had a crappy flip phone, up until my touch 3g came out. I knew that back then Tmobile 3g coverage and speeds were lacking to say the least, they joined the game too late. Anyways, few months after that, things began getting way better. Speeds doubling, coverage getting better, I began to like it. Then, got me a nexus one, and I loved how much better Tmobile has got. I was getting amazing speeds with great coverage, 3g everywhere I went... here in Aurora, Tmobile is testing faster that other carriers via 3g, beats sprint by a long shot.
But lately... I am just wanting to sell my phone and switch carriers. My vibrant gets great speeds at home still, sometimes in the 599kbps range though, but usually over 1.2mbps. But, it constantly switches to edge, causing my data to be useless. Pages would halt, won't even load a thing until 3g is back. Coverage has gotten way worse too, half the places I go, 3g just always times out... at my girlfriends place, it literally switches to edge 1 minute after you begin using it, same with her my touch slide.
So, is there anything I could do? I understand that all this can be a result of a higher network load and towers in my area not being able.to handle it, but I really do love my phone, and Tmobile plans, anything?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Probably not what you want to hear, but I get crap 3G if at all in my apartment, and sometimes even drop EDGE, so I just always use wi-fi at home. Tmo's 3g is decent but not amazing in my neighborhood, but I think it's the construction of the building that kills it when I'm at home. Other than that, I don't know of anything you can do.

Vibrant just can't hold onto a 3G signal.
You know, I been saying this from day one, but everyone is so consumed over the GPS issue.
I have several T-mobile smartphones. They all get 3G in my home, except the vibrant is always on edge.
Simply put, it's the phone, not T-mobile. Vibrant can not hold onto a 3G signal, instead it drops down to Edge when the signal is not strong enough for 3G. Other phones will hold onto 3G.
I've switched to a new sim card, so thats not the issue either. It's the phone.
Hopefully They fix this issue also when they roll out the GPS fix.

Yes, it's the Vibrant.
3G stayed locked on my HD2, unless the signal really was low. The Vibrant switches to Edge, even with 4 bars of 3G.
This needs to be addressed ASAP.

aiwapro said:
Yes, it's the Vibrant.
3G stayed locked on my HD2, unless the signal really was low. The Vibrant switches to Edge, even with 4 bars of 3G.
This needs to be addressed ASAP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine don't. It'll hold on 3g with no bars , my phone hates edge...

smashpunks said:
Mine don't. It'll hold on 3g with no bars , my phone hates edge...
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I've seen that too on my phone. I have seen the phone go to Edge when it had 4 bars of 3G, and then I have seen it stay on 2 bars of 3G. Strange, it seems like the network would be the cause, but it is definitely the phone, because again, my HD2 did not perform this way.

SamsungGalaxySVibrant said:
You know, I been saying this from day one, but everyone is so consumed over the GPS issue.
I have several T-mobile smartphones. They all get 3G in my home, except the vibrant is always on edge.
Simply put, it's the phone, not T-mobile. Vibrant can not hold onto a 3G signal, instead it drops down to Edge when the signal is not strong enough for 3G. Other phones will hold onto 3G.
I've switched to a new sim card, so thats not the issue either. It's the phone.
Hopefully They fix this issue also when they roll out the GPS fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know, I thought that it could he the phone, but Then my girlfriend got my touch slide just few days after I sold my nexus one, and she has been having identical issues as I. I figured that since her slide is the same way, it couldn't have been the phone. You're right though it seems, my nexus one has always been solid, it just started happening when I got my vibrant. I just figured that maybe with Tmobile finally getting a nice smart phone and getting busier it was the carrier, not the phone. It is kind of annoying, at my house, it always cycles between no bars and 4 bars, with no bars, my 3g speeds are high too, 1.5mbps down and 500-700up
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

My MT3G gets the same coverage at my apartment and my wifes MT3G gets the same coverage on the road as my Vibrant. Does that mean it's not the carrier, or the phone but it's Android?
If you don't like it return it, get a different carrier, and more than likely your problems will be solved.

Its T-Mobile. My g1 had the same issues. Switching between e and 3g, and lately I've just been staying on e because it saves the battery. T-Mobile has a **** network and I live in southern California, so its not like I'm in some podunk town. Web pages shouldn't be not loading and just hanging forever. Apps shouldn't just get stuck on refreshing. Like I said this happened all the time on my g1. Their network blows.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I'm pretty sure it's the phone
I magically drift from 5 bars 3g in my house to like 1-2 bars edge just letting it sit on my desk
I don't think it's T-Mo, I live very near a tower and the wife's phone has no issue with it

If you're having problems with data sessions hanging for too long because the phone is cycling back and forth between 3G and EDGE you should lock the phone on 3G.
I have barely noticed any difference with my CLIQ and Vibrant. The only problem I do notice is when I'm at the edge of the 3G network and the phone wants to hold onto the weak, 2 mile away 3G signal when there is an EDGE tower within 1 mile away. My CLIQ simply switched to EDGE until 3G was deemed good enough.
You can solve this by either locking on 3G (not recommended if 3G is extremely poor) or locking it on EDGE if you're in a bad area for 3G.
Also I don't trust the speedtest.net app on the Vibrant. There is a serious problem with it, it's very inconsistent and inaccurate some of the time. Samsung will be pushing out the GPS fix bundled with other fixes and that could include a connectivity enhancement. One problem I know of for sure is that this phone reads WAY too low for it's received signal strength and it could be performing as such for others (underestimating 3G network coverage and switching to EDGE to maintain a signal)

It is the phone in as much as the Vibrant is just more accurately and quickly detecting the changes in signal strength. All phones experience this but many manufactures calibrate things differently so that users perceive a better signal when in fact the signal strength deviates greatly on all phones from all carriers.
There are many variables that effect signal strength including things around your home that can interfere. There are many things i like about T-Mobile and many i do not but right now and for a while they do have the fastest network. They do not have the best coverage in the most areas that title goes to verizon.
See if you have a friend on another network who can come to your place and you can compare actual call quality and data speeds. I suspect they will all work about the same.

Weird, I've been having the exact opposite situation, LOVE my N1 but it would drop to G in one spot on my way to work and not reconnect to 3G unless taken to Airplane mode or restarted, I would also completely loose all signal in some stores in town. So far the Vibrant hasn't done that and I've even managed to have a signal in places I didn't before

z0phi3l said:
Weird, I've been having the exact opposite situation, LOVE my N1 but it would drop to G in one spot on my way to work and not reconnect to 3G unless taken to Airplane mode or restarted, I would also completely loose all signal in some stores in town. So far the Vibrant hasn't done that and I've even managed to have a signal in places I didn't before
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the same as me. My n1 next to my vibrant the v will be on 3g and the n1 on edge. N1 had this switching to edge issue so funny people with the n1 aren't mentioning it... nexus one 3g issie

I have an N1 that usually shows 1 or 2 more bars of 3G than the Vibrant does in the same locations. However my Vibrant seems to hang on to 3G with more tenacity than the N1. Also the N1 shows more bars of E as a general rule then the Vibrant does, but as mentioned the N1 shifts to E much more frequently. I suspect that it is the phone and not the carrier.

z0phi3l said:
Weird, I've been having the exact opposite situation, LOVE my N1 but it would drop to G in one spot on my way to work and not reconnect to 3G unless taken to Airplane mode or restarted, I would also completely loose all signal in some stores in town. So far the Vibrant hasn't done that and I've even managed to have a signal in places I didn't before
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
N1 was way worse than vibrant to me for several reasons. Just like mt3g, it would constantly fail to send texts, so I'd either have to wait 5 minutes and try again, or restart. Overall, 3g is a little more concistent on the vibrant, just switching to edge a lot. On N1 I literally would get an up arrow on 3g icon stuck and data would be stuck as well, I would reboot it 2-3 times per my 3 hours of streaming Pandora...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Signal Stength

I've noticed that the S4 seems to have very poor if not disappointing Signal Strength. This is Firmware independent as I have had the same results on 100% stock firmware, rooted stock firmware, and CM10.1.
At home I get HSPA+ service only via AT&T. On my iPhone 3G, 4, and 4S I used to get 3 or 4 bars, occasionally 2 bars of service in my room on a nightstand where I leave my phone at night. In fact I'd get pretty much 3 or 4 bars in the entire house. With the S4 I'm going between 0 bars, no service, and 1 bar. Occasionally I will manage to get 2 bars.
Likewise, in another area over the weekend I was going from no service to 1 bar of EDGE (2G service!) and occasionally 1 bar of HSPA+ where friends who also had AT&T with iPhone4's were getting 2 bars of HSPA+ 3G. Another friend with iphone5 and AT&T actually was getting 2-3 bars of LTE.
Anyone experiencing similar woes and disappointing service? If so, any way to improve it?

WoodburyMan said:
I've noticed that the S4 seems to have very poor if not disappointing Signal Strength. This is Firmware independent as I have had the same results on 100% stock firmware, rooted stock firmware, and CM10.1.
At home I get HSPA+ service only via AT&T. On my iPhone 3G, 4, and 4S I used to get 3 or 4 bars, occasionally 2 bars of service in my room on a nightstand where I leave my phone at night. In fact I'd get pretty much 3 or 4 bars in the entire house. With the S4 I'm going between 0 bars, no service, and 1 bar. Occasionally I will manage to get 2 bars.
Likewise, in another area over the weekend I was going from no service to 1 bar of EDGE (2G service!) and occasionally 1 bar of HSPA+ where friends who also had AT&T with iPhone4's were getting 2 bars of HSPA+ 3G. Another friend with iphone5 and AT&T actually was getting 2-3 bars of LTE.
Anyone experiencing similar woes and disappointing service? If so, any way to improve it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have noticed the same disappointing service from AT&T. I moved from Verizon to AT&T due to a work contract change. I went from 4G LTE to full bars of EDGE. This is pretty much unacceptable but there is nothing I can do about it. During the days I can manage to get 4G HSPA+ but its still not even close to what LTE was. Driving down some major highways I still drop calls on AT&T. Also up north at my cottage I can get no bars and with verizon (droid razr maxx) I could get 3 out of 5 bars and 3G coverage. AT&T does not even come near to what Verizon has been doing. They really need to step up their game...

WoodburyMan said:
I've noticed that the S4 seems to have very poor if not disappointing Signal Strength. This is Firmware independent as I have had the same results on 100% stock firmware, rooted stock firmware, and CM10.1.
At home I get HSPA+ service only via AT&T. On my iPhone 3G, 4, and 4S I used to get 3 or 4 bars, occasionally 2 bars of service in my room on a nightstand where I leave my phone at night. In fact I'd get pretty much 3 or 4 bars in the entire house. With the S4 I'm going between 0 bars, no service, and 1 bar. Occasionally I will manage to get 2 bars.
Likewise, in another area over the weekend I was going from no service to 1 bar of EDGE (2G service!) and occasionally 1 bar of HSPA+ where friends who also had AT&T with iPhone4's were getting 2 bars of HSPA+ 3G. Another friend with iphone5 and AT&T actually was getting 2-3 bars of LTE.
Anyone experiencing similar woes and disappointing service? If so, any way to improve it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fosser2 said:
I have noticed the same disappointing service from AT&T. I moved from Verizon to AT&T due to a work contract change. I went from 4G LTE to full bars of EDGE. This is pretty much unacceptable but there is nothing I can do about it. During the days I can manage to get 4G HSPA+ but its still not even close to what LTE was. Driving down some major highways I still drop calls on AT&T. Also up north at my cottage I can get no bars and with verizon (droid razr maxx) I could get 3 out of 5 bars and 3G coverage. AT&T does not even come near to what Verizon has been doing. They really need to step up their game...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys, you are talking about two different issues.
The OP complains that his SGS4 gets fewer bars than his iPhone (I assume on same provider). I would not judge signal strength this way. 4 bars on iPhone could be equal to 1 bar on SGS4 in terms of pure measured signal strength. Go to system menus on both phones to check the signal strength value. Do not just compare the number of bars.
Fosser2 - you are in general complaining about AT&T. Yes AT&T sucks an has sucked for years. Nothing new there. Although there are areas where AT&T beats other providers.

kreoXDA said:
Guys, you are talking about two different issues.
The OP complains that his SGS4 gets fewer bars than his iPhone (I assume on same provider). I would not judge signal strength this way. 4 bars on iPhone could be equal to 1 bar on SGS4 in terms of pure measured signal strength. Go to system menus on both phones to check the signal strength value. Do not just compare the number of bars.
Fosser2 - you are in general complaining about AT&T. Yes AT&T sucks an has sucked for years. Nothing new there. Although there are areas where AT&T beats other providers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea. I can see the DB stength in setting on the S4, the only thing is on iOS raw signal data is not available. At least unjailbroken. I did have my 4S jailbroken on OS 6.1.2. However I already reflashed it back to stock with 6.1.3 in preparations for selling it so I cannot rejailbreak it currently, nor even get onto it since there is no SIM. They may have different metering for signal stength. I actually had a patch installed on my old iPhone 3G at one point because original metering on it was completely off and would display 3 bars then drop to 1 when youd go to make a call. However I am for certain getting more "No Signal" messages on the S4 than the iPhone. And standing next to two iPhone users on the same network with 1-3 bars each while I have "no signal" shows something about the S4.
Exactly. I was on AT&T before and I am still on AT&T. Same locations as well, and comparing it to other AT&T users with other phones in same location. Throwing a Carrier Change and different location into the mix along with a new phone makes it impossible to compare. Fosser you're bound to have different dealings with providers in different areas' Around here where I am AT&T is king for signal and Verizon is very sketchy.(AT&T has two towers in town, Verizon only has one) So its hard to tell if its the phone in your case or just location or carrier that has the issue.

kreoXDA said:
Guys, you are talking about two different issues.
...
Yes AT&T sucks an has sucked for years. Nothing new there. Although there are areas where AT&T beats other providers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I lol'd at this - because it's really true. In many (most?) areas in my state, AT&T is the absolute worst. In my county, it's the absolute best, especially in terms of data speeds.
But since my S4, I have noticed rare (once every several days? maybe once a week?) cases where I will have 1 bar and seemingly no data coverage at work for a period of probably 5 minutes, where I normally easily get 4-5 bars. It's probably just a tower thing - perhaps the nearest tower is going offline and it's using one from across town for a brief period or something.
Otherwise, I've had about the same coverage on my S4 as my S2, if not better. I would recommend calling AT&T repeatedly. At work, I deal with our cell phones all the time, all 110 of them on AT&T. We get duds, it seems. The best way I've found to correct the situation is:
Call AT&T, explaining that we've done a factory reset on the device. They will "reset something on their end" (afaik, they are simply clearing a cache of your device on the network, letting it re-associate itself) and have you reboot the phone again.
9/10 times, this temporarily fixes the intermittant problems we have with the device, because, it is in-fact intermittent. :/
Call again the next time you have coverage issue. They might do the same thing again for a couple calls. For enterprise accounts, they seem to be willing to move forward on the 2nd call.
After calling a few times about the issue, ask if you can get a replacement device under warranty. Now that they have you documented that you have a recurring problem, they are usually more than happy to replace the device under warranty.
If you have a local AT&T corporate store, perform the last step in the store to get the warranty replacement. No need to wait for shipping, plus the risk of them sending you a crappy refurbished phone.

At&t reception, I still feel it's better than other phones?

Just spend the day at the lake yesterday, on a dock...Usually I'm lucky to get any reception at any place in that area, but I was able to walk up on the hill and get LTE where no other phone has ever gotten it, even just a few weeks ago and again 2 months ago.
I see a lot of people saying the reception isn't good, but I feel it's better than any other phone I've had to date? Regardless of what the signal bars show or the db shows, I can get signal where I never have before.
Just sayin'

[accidentally posted the reply, removing]

tele_jas said:
Just spend the day at the lake yesterday, on a dock...Usually I'm lucky to get any reception at any place in that area, but I was able to walk up on the hill and get LTE where no other phone has ever gotten it, even just a few weeks ago and again 2 months ago.
I see a lot of people saying the reception isn't good, but I feel it's better than any other phone I've had to date? Regardless of what the signal bars show or the db shows, I can get signal where I never have before.
Just sayin'
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I think the Wi-Fi and cellular reception problems are in the european model - I had great reception with B20 software and the B27 update made it even better

tabletalker7 said:
I think the Wi-Fi and cellular reception problems are in the european model - I had great reception with B20 software and the B27 update made it even better
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This is a good point. It might be helpful if people would include which specific region model they are using. My reception is definitely on par with my Note 3 on AT&T in the USA (USA model).

celticchrys said:
This is a good point. It might be helpful if people would include which specific region model they are using. My reception is definitely on par with my Note 3 on AT&T in the USA (USA model).
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My Axon 7 blows away my Zenfone 2.

My axon 7 beat the pants off my Nexus 6p when I tried using speedtest.net. Both wifi and lte were significantly faster. Also using the US model. B27 seems to have improved things even further. No complains at all!

I'm using A2017U in europe, LTE band 3. My previous phone was Xperia Z and comparing Axon 7 to it, cell and wifi reception is better in any way of using (2.4 and 5ghz, 3G and LTE). So no problem with wifi and cell reception on mine A2017U. Very satisfied.

Ditto
celticchrys said:
This is a good point. It might be helpful if people would include which specific region model they are using. My reception is definitely on par with my Note 3 on AT&T in the USA (USA model).
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Ditto on both points. I also previously used the Note3 and I get a super signal with the Axon 7, even in places where the Note was hit/miss. Love the phone.

Troll thread. It's obvious that a sizeable minority of owner have reception problems and telling people that 'I'm alright Jack' is unhelpful at best and smug and weird at worst.
Idea for another thread:
Lots of smartphone owners complain of easily cracked screens. I threw mine under a bus and it's fine.

tele_jas said:
Just spend the day at the lake yesterday, on a dock...Usually I'm lucky to get any reception at any place in that area, but I was able to walk up on the hill and get LTE where no other phone has ever gotten it, even just a few weeks ago and again 2 months ago.
I see a lot of people saying the reception isn't good, but I feel it's better than any other phone I've had to date? Regardless of what the signal bars show or the db shows, I can get signal where I never have before.
Just sayin'
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Click to collapse
I don't agree, not as good as my Moto X or my Idol 3 on band 17 LTE or HSPA 850mhz. It's the lower bands it has an issue with.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

I have good reception for LTE in most places. WiFi is very good. However, when it comes to radio signal for LTE this is the worst phone of all that I have ever owned. I do not get involved in all sorts of tests but according to the Signal strength mine is usually about -5 higher than all the others. It is acceptable in most places as I live in a large city with good reception on AT&T. However, as I related on the ZTE forum I was at an assembly the other day and I was the only person with an Axon 7 in the whole place. Every other person had either an iPhone (most popular) or some other Android like a Samsung Galaxy. In the outer hallway I had a good signal, but when I went into the main auditorium all I got was a flashing red notification light letting me know that I had ZERO signal, while my wife's Moto X Pure and my daughters shattered iPhone 6 both had very good reception. The Moto is on T-Mobile and the iPhone is on Verizon. I do not think the carrier had anything to do with this issue. Clearly there is a problem with the Axon 7 when it comes the LTE signal strength. I am beginning to think it may be hardware related somehow and unable to be repaired with a software update ...unless they boost the signal strength through software which will also take a toll on battery longevity. Maybe they have the antennas positioned poorly inside the phone?? So I am trying to patiently wait to see what ZTE accomplished with their next update. But if they cannot fix the LTE signal strength then I will have no choice but to move on to another phone. Even though most of the time I am using WiFi, having a phone that cannot communicate in low signal areas when every other phone can, is not acceptable.

On TMO I'm getting a 2x stronger signal than my S7 Edge. Quite impressed. The Wi-Fi signal is much stronger also. I can stream music in my shed from the Wi-Fi ap in the house. The S7E couldn't even detect the signal.