Database Users

3g --> H

what does the h mean? sometimes wjen i startup some app lets say msn the 2 3G icons say H instead of 3g, what does this mean? cus most of the time when it goes to H it wont connect to msn

H mean HSPDA and it's super fast 3G in effect so it's better your connected via that than the standard 3G.

I have read about this. It is supposed to be here in Austin on Tmobile but I have yet to see the "H" on my phone. All I see is the 3G symbol and mine was shipped with the newest ROM available.

get a custom rom

The range of HSDPA from the cell tower is vastly smaller than with gsm(gprs/edge) or 3g, its not that many hundreds of meters, so if you live say a few K from the tower, or a large obstruction between your house and the tower, the phone will likely drop down a level to get a more stable signal, so even though the maps say it is enabled in that area, it is fairly specific wehere you can get it.
I can see my tower, and i only get 1bar H indoors.

I'm quite confused by this thread.
I've always assumed that HSPDA was a lesser connection compared to 3G as I never get a 3G signal where I live, I get a good level of HSPDA in most areas of the town but general gprs signal quality is poor.........
Even started get H reception at home recently and my house is behind two ruddy great hills......
I always just assumed HSPDA was somewhere in between gprs and 3G because my coverage was normally so piss poor.......

conantroutman said:
I'm quite confused by this thread.
I've always assumed that HSPDA was a lesser connection compared to 3G as I never get a 3G signal where I live, I get a good level of HSPDA in most areas of the town but general gprs signal quality is poor.........
Even started get H reception at home recently and my house is behind two ruddy great hills......
I always just assumed HSPDA was somewhere in between gprs and 3G because my coverage was normally so piss poor.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Downlink_Packet_Access

ahhh ok, now I see, it was always 3.5g on my N95, not HSDPA. Thats where the confusions come from........ thankyou.

so getting H is better or worse then 3g? for my experience is that when i get H it works less fast then with 3g =[
and btw what does 3g+ mean?

H is meant to have better speeds, but due to crowded systems and poor support for the standard in mobile towers it seems to be quite slow here in the uk in some areas.

lunaticz0r said:
so getting H is better or worse then 3g? for my experience is that when i get H it works less fast then with 3g =[
and btw what does 3g+ mean?
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Click to collapse
better than 3g, and not as good as 4g
Still uses 3g ('3'rd 'g'eneration) technology, but faster than '3g'
a full bars 3g signal will be faster than 1 or 2 bar H signal. Thats why your phone swaps.

Basically, most of our phones will probably display a 3G icon or a H icon on the taskbar. 3G speeds are considerably faster than 2G, Edge, GPRS etc. However, 3.5G speeds are even much faster than 3G speeds. 3.5G is the same as HSDPA/HSUPA, reaching speeds of up to "7.2mps", although i've read somewhere that speeds of up to 14.2 mbps are possible (never tried it though lol)

Poor 3G (UMTS) signal strength

Hey,
I seem to experiencing poor signal strength when on 3G UMTS. 2G GSM seems to achieve much better signal strength for some reason.
I have never seen 4 bars of signal that I once got with my HTC Desire. On the Droid Pro its always flirting with 1-2 bars.
Signal strength in Status reveals around 75-90dB and never better... The area I am in is completely saturated with towers (downtown Toronto).
Is this a software issue or should I take my phone back to the store for warranty / exchange?

Same problem
Hi,
I'm having the exact same problem - have tried it in two countries now, with two different sim cards, and had the same issue. GSM gets 4 bars - UMTS gets 1 or 2 max, or simply none. At the moment I have zero bars and over 100 dbm. Currently on E-Plus network in Germany.
Any help would be most appreciated... many thanks in advance.

The same in different countries tried all ROMs starting from 2.x.x to 2.3.3 - no difference.

Change from global to gsm mode
Sent from my DROID Pro using XDA App

From the first day it is in gsm mode.

Dissapointed in phone signal

Having just upgraded from the Xperia T to the Xperia Z2 there is only one thing that annoys me a lot. Comparing to the Xperia T, my Z2 has a much weaker phone reception signal. I work in another town and between home and work I always had a good phone signal with the T.
Now, on this same stretch of A-road, I have no signal whatsoever with the Z2. Same network provider, same sim card, same phone contract. Nothing has changed other than the phone itself. Phone network is O2
Phone Build: 17.1.1.A.0.402
Baseband: 8974-AAAAANPZQ-00005-08
Any comments?

I think cause its waterproof.

Agreed. Just switched from Z2 to G3 and G3 has much better signal..
On my Z2 at home constant dropped signal, no LTE
On my G3 hasnt dropped yet and LTE all the time.
Nexus 5 was a little better than Z2 but not as good as G3

JJD809 said:
Comparing to the Xperia T, my Z2 has a much weaker phone reception signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weak on its own does not tell us too much.
Need to examine what the phone itself receives in dbM for signal strength and it will tell you just that if you look in
Settings-> about device->Status
what does signal strength show in each of the devices you mentioned ?

One Twelve said:
Weak on its own does not tell us too much.
Need to examine what the phone itself receives in dbM for signal strength and it will tell you just that if you look in
Settings-> about device->Status
what does signal strength show in each of the devices you mentioned ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is weak too.
It says -75dBm 19 asu
What does that mean?

One Twelve said:
Weak on its own does not tell us too much.
Need to examine what the phone itself receives in dbM for signal strength and it will tell you just that if you look in
Settings-> about device->Status
what does signal strength show in each of the devices you mentioned ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sitting at my desk at work getting signal info as requested. Got info from Z2 then shut it down, removed sim and placed it in the T, powered up and looked up the signal info. Both phones alternated between HSPA and GPRS
**Xperia Z2**
Signal Strength: -111 dBm 1 asu
Mobile network type: HSPA
Signal Strength: -107 dBm 2 asu
Mobile network type: GPRS
**Xperia T**
Signal Strength: -113 dBm 8 asu
Mobile network type: HSPA
Signal Strength: -95 dBm 9 asu
Mobile network type: GPRS
With a direct comparison between the two phones when moving about, the Z2 has the weaker signal reception....

JJD809 said:
Sitting at my desk at work getting signal info as requested. Got info from Z2 then shut it down, removed sim and placed it in the T, powered up and looked up the signal info. Both phones alternated between HSPA and GPRS
**Xperia Z2**
Signal Strength: -111 dBm 1 asu
Mobile network type: HSPA
Signal Strength: -107 dBm 2 asu
Mobile network type: GPRS
**Xperia T**
Signal Strength: -113 dBm 8 asu
Mobile network type: HSPA
Signal Strength: -95 dBm 9 asu
Mobile network type: GPRS
With a direct comparison between the two phones when moving about, the Z2 has the weaker signal reception....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to what you have said, HSPA reception is stronger on the Z2. - On GPRS the T appears stronger.

diego9016 said:
Mine is weak too.
It says -75dBm 19 asu
What does that mean?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How many bars do you see ?
for reference, the smaller the number (when its negative numbers) the better the signal.
-60 is good, -112 is call drop territory. you're doing ok so why do you think its weak ?

That might be true and I cannot argue that, but the point remains that I have no phone reception/signal with the Z2 for most of the way when driving to and from work on the A33. With the Xperia T I have signal all the way.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app

defsix said:
According to what you have said, HSPA reception is stronger on the Z2. - On GPRS the T appears stronger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes but Z2 isn't all that much better than T. 3g is weak for both phones.
The larger difference is with 2G, less call drops on the T than Z2.
JJD809 said:
That might be true and I cannot argue that, but the point remains that I have no phone reception/signal with the Z2 for most of the way when driving to and from work on the A33. With the Xperia T I have signal all the way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use a hands free to take calls in the car.
i don't know how practical this suggestion is going to be, but if you can identify where the antenna is situated on both phones (user manual?) then you try to orient the z2 in a manner that does not block the antenna. Can make a difference when cell signal is weak. The way you do this is try and position the phone in different orientations and see if you get signal strength to increase (that means a lower figure in dbm)
eg, with a tab i use, i found orienting the tab in a different orientation means less obstruction and a better signal with wifi.

The phone connects to my car via Bluetooth connection to the MMI system. The phone fits in the cupholder, standing upright, in the console between the front seats.
The antennas of both phones are in the top half of the phones according to the manuals.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app

ok, so the question is why is the 2g over 12dbm less on the z2 than the T. However 3g is working fine.
both phones have antennas in the same area and are positioned identically in the car.
There may be a way to boost the 2g signal in some setting in a hidden service menu but it will drain battery faster.

Have you tried changing the preferred network mode to gsm. I find that in week 3g or 4g areas my Z2 spends too long hanging onto the week data signal before switch to the mode with the better signal strength for calls.
It seems to concentrate on data more than call signal to the point that I have had loads of missed calls due to no signal but if I switch off 4g or set the preferred mode to gsm I get full bars and no call issues but obviously i dont get data unless I change it again. Hopefully this is just a software issue.

Grumps69 said:
Have you tried changing the preferred network mode to gsm. I find that in week 3g or 4g areas my Z2 spends too long hanging onto the week data signal before switch to the mode with the better signal strength for calls.
It seems to concentrate on data more than call signal to the point that I have had loads of missed calls due to no signal but if I switch off 4g or set the preferred mode to gsm I get full bars and no call issues but obviously i dont get data unless I change it again. Hopefully this is just a software issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bro did you sorted the isseue?
I have the same problem?

Weak cellular signal strength

What do you guys think about the cellular strength. Mine loses lte signal and switches to 3g where my other devices keep the lte signal (with reasonable speed). It's about 5-15 dbm more than the other phones. The 3g signal is good tho.

I also experienced this, wanna know is this normal or my phone is defective.

Haven't noticed a difference myself but I have only had the phone for a couple of weeks now. I also flashed to the UK firmware and live in a major metro area . Oddly enough my house is always a dead spot no matter what phone I use. The Tmobile 4G LTE Cellspot fixes that for me at home though so I can't really comment otherwise.

signal bars at Zero?! is this normal?

Hello guys! I don't know what's going on but since I have this device almost every time the signal bars are at zero. Anyone having this issue?

Yep, this phone has terrible reception. Although, the signal bars don't necessarily reveal how strong the signal really is. Indoor reception is worse than outdoor. I have one or even no bars inside my house, but I can still get lte+ speeds. As soon as I walk outside I have full bars, and not much difference in download speed. I have missed more calls with this phone than any other phone I've had though. Really bummed cuz this phone is so close to being the best phone I've ever had.

atrix_noob said:
Hello guys! I don't know what's going on but since I have this device almost every time the signal bars are at zero. Anyone having this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(On T-Mobile network) At home phone shows more than half of bars, at work, outside and in most places phone shows at least half of the bars. I did see no bars couple of times in few places, but it didn't create any issues. Comparing it to other phones and if dB signal is to be believed, then it is safe to assume that Essential has about -6 to -8 dB less than devices from leading manufacturers.

Airwolf79 said:
Yep, this phone has terrible reception. Although, the signal bars don't necessarily reveal how strong the signal really is. Indoor reception is worse than outdoor. I have one or even no bars inside my house, but I can still get lte+ speeds. As soon as I walk outside I have full bars, and not much difference in download speed. I have missed more calls with this phone than any other phone I've had though. Really bummed cuz this phone is so close to being the best phone I've ever had.
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Click to collapse
Yes, I agree. The reception on this phone is super weak

Charkatak said:
(On T-Mobile network) At home phone shows more than half of bars, at work, outside and in most places phone shows at least half of the bars. I did see no bars couple of times in few places, but it didn't create any issues. Comparing it to other phones and if dB signal is to be believed, then it is safe to assume that Essential has about -6 to -8 dB less than devices from leading manufacturers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree I have a Note 8 and on tye Essential the signal is much weaker.

atrix_noob said:
Hello guys! I don't know what's going on but since I have this device almost every time the signal bars are at zero. Anyone having this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll get this on certain stretches of highway. It will go to no bars, then bars with no internet. I set to airplane mode and then I'll get bars and LTE again.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

cfclay said:
I'll get this on certain stretches of highway. It will go to no bars, then bars with no internet. I set to airplane mode and then I'll get bars and LTE again.
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Click to collapse
Yes, sometimes even if I have no bars at all the service seems to function properly. Maybe it's a software related thing.
Right now I'm at zero bars but the LTE keeps working fine. Idk what is going on lol

I live in a fringe area of Verizon. This phone is no weaker than my old Samsung S4.