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I installed the new radio yesterday and I haven't had the chance to see if it increases battery life because I was using my phone more than usual today, but has any1 noticed any improvements in battery life?
jorge89 said:
I installed the new radio yesterday and I haven't had the chance to see if it increases battery life because I was using my phone more than usual today, but has any1 noticed any improvements in battery life?
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It seems slightly better (could be placebo), but I do notice that after about 14 hours or more, my 3G/network connection would suddenly disappear (nothing to do with the settings) and I would need to reboot for it to return to normal.
Signal strength seems alright. But I did not test the wifi.
Been using it for a week or 2 now and no issues so far, haven't necessarily noticed any difference in battery life but signal strength does seem to be boosted even if only slightly.
Been using the new radio for a couple weeks here too. I haven't noticed any change in battery life whatsoever. T-Mo signal is ****ty inside the building I work in and that hasn't improved. Signal outside may have improved. No 3G here to test.
Short version: It doesn't seem to hurt, so why not?
I have been using the new radio.
I flashed it on my G1, as well as my girlfriend's MT3G.
I live in a brick building which eats cell phone signal for breakfast.
I must say, since I've upgraded, I get better signal, as well as more reliable voice and data connections on my G1. I have EDGE service only at my house.
I have also noticed better 3G signal when I am at work, and I actually am able to access EDGE from the basement at work (I previously had no signal in the basement).
Now my girlfriend still seems to be having issues getting reliable voice and data connections, although her idle signal strength seems to have improved, at home, at least, on her MT3G.
Okay, so WiFi is usually better than 3G when it comes to battery life; but what about WiMax? I don't have a stable signal yet so I can't reliably test the two. What are ya'll experiences (for those within a reliable 4G area)? Better, the same, worse, or a lot worse?
Award Tour said:
Okay, so WiFi is usually better than 3G when it comes to battery life; but what about WiMax? I don't have a stable signal yet so I can't reliably test the two. What are ya'll experiences (for those within a reliable 4G area)? Better, the same, worse, or a lot worse?
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I don't have reliable 4G in my area, but I notice that even turning on the wimax 4G radio dramatically drains my battery. Don't know if its becasue its constantly searching for signal or just becasue the radio is turned on. My 2 cents, but I know it's not very thorough..
Any time you have a radio turned on and do not have a signal it will drain the battery trying to find a signal.
If you go to an area with poor 3g service, your battery will drain crazy.
They are testing 4g in my area, so it is up and down a lot, so I cannot test.
From reading other posts, I believe 4g may take slightly more battery.
Since Froyo has been released, the 4G battery drain isn't nearly as bad as it was on 2.1. I've noticed that the speeds have substantially increased as well as better battery management as well.
infamousjax said:
Since Froyo has been released, the 4G battery drain isn't nearly as bad as it was on 2.1. I've noticed that the speeds have substantially increased as well as better battery management as well.
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Yeah, that's why I wanted to see how things are now. We all know how 4G got slammed by reviewers for killing the battery, but the new radio might have changed that. I'm just curious at how it compares to 3G now under ideal conditions (good signal).
I have full 4G coverage where I live and to be honest when 4G is on, the battery drainage difference is not much, when compared to 3G.
I have 4G in my area as well, but I leave it off because it goes back and forth from being connected to not being connected. I did notice last night that my battery went from 70% to 5% over night... Anyone know what could cause that?
pscalett said:
I have 4G in my area as well, but I leave it off because it goes back and forth from being connected to not being connected. I did notice last night that my battery went from 70% to 5% over night... Anyone know what could cause that?
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I have the same problem. I'm in the Baltimore area and the 3G/4G switches back and forth. I figured out that when the phone isn't in 4G, it searches for a 4G connection, but you can put it to 3G only (with an app called Phone Info) until Verizon is done with their 4G coverage.
4G uses more power than 3g, which uses more power than wifi.
4g<3g<wifi.
it's significantly worse on 4G, so much so that I have an extended battery and I still don't use it.
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AvatarOfFrost said:
I have full 4G coverage where I live and to be honest when 4G is on, the battery drainage difference is not much, when compared to 3G.
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there is something wrong with your phone then, maybe it's not sleeping. you should be noticing a huge difference.
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I believe there is a bug in the signal strength indication on the Fascinate, the one that shows the signal strength in -dBm.
You can see the signal strength of the cell signal on the Menu, Settings, About, Status screen. Or you can place a widget on your Home screen. There are several widgets available, I'm using Mobile Signal Widget.
I have a network extender, which basically creates a cell tower right in your home. With my Motorola Droid, I used to get signal strengths down to about -50 something and 60's in indicated signal strength. I can hold both of our Fascinates right next to the network extender's antenna and they will read no better than -86 dBm. So far I've seen signal strengths from -86 dBm to -106 dBm (terrible).
I believe there is a bug in the software (Baseband) on the Fascinate. Previously, I thought the hardware (antenna/radio) wasn't very good, but now it may be software related.
Has anyone seen a signal strength stronger than -86 dBm on the Fascinate?
That's a good point. Mine has never gone below -86dbm either. It fluctuates between -86 at it's best and -106 at it's worst.
Ill keep an eye on this with my phone
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I have no experience with cell phone radios so take this with the appropriate helping of salt.
Most radios have input protection that attenuates any signals greater than a set maximum level to prevent damage to the radio. I'm guessing the Fascinate reports it's receive signal level post input protection. It appears you just discovered this threshold for the Fascinate. Honestly, -86 dBm is plenty of signal, anything more is just for show
Again, I'm only speculating here.
Martian21
Interesting theory. I have emailed Verizon support as well. Hopefully, I will get a technical response and not a canned response from them.
With mine, it only fluctuates in -5dBm increments lol. I thought it was a litle wierd. I've seen -86, -91, -96, -101, and -106 lol.
As far as what the OP is talking about, my BB Tour (alltel) is the same way. It won't ever display anything lower than a -80.
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
shazbonk said:
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
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I was thinking about this the other day. Is it possible "time without signal" is simply a poor translation? The reason I ask this is when taking my phone off the charger overnight, I went directly to this setting to see what it reported. The phone reported having been unplugged for 2 minutes and already showed 5% TWS. I had been looking at the phone the whole time and didn't see it drop at all. What I did see is it going from 3G w/ arrows to 3Gd. So maybe this percentage isn't time without signal but rather time not active (i.e. 3G d).
I agree w/ the 3g d, I did not update to DI01 yet and it said I have 20% TWS throughout the day, but the phone didnt make a no service sound.
On my drive home everday I pass a Verizon owned tower.
I've stopped at a liquor store about 200 yards away from it and they maximum signal my Fascinate would pull down was -86dBm (4 bars as well).
My Cell Standby is usually around 11%.
Battery life of my Fascinate is very good.
xliderider: Any news/word from Verizon on this? What kind of Network Extender do you have? Got a brand/model #? Been thinking of picking something up like this.
So it isn't just my phone. My Fascinate goes from -86 to -106 as well. I had my Droid and Fascinate sitting next to each other, both reporting 4 bars. I went into status, and my Droid's signal strength was -77. The Fascinate was at -86. It's gotta be capped.
You're holding it wrong.
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You are probably right. With 4 full bars I can't get better than -86
I've been having the same problem...I was told by Verizon that it just has a "weaker" antenna. I go throughout the day with about 20% TWS. Never had that with my other Verizon phones.
do you get dropped calls or otherwise poor service?
I am returning my incredible due to dropped calls (while at home) using Verizons network Extender. I have had the incredible since April 29th (I believe that was the first day it was released). I have had the signal boosted twice by Verizon but still can't get close to 40' without dropping. One thing I noticed on the incredible while in the same room with the Extender is it would read let's say a -86dbm before placing a call then when placed and on the Extender network the signal would automatically go to -56dbm (stronger signal than -86dbm) and then back up after my call. What I saw was the Extender wasn't active until you make a call... Having said that, I am hoping the Fascinate will be better than the inc was... I will let you know when the Fascinate gets to me Wed or Thursday.
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Got the Facinate a day early : )
So far it is defiantly working better than my Incredible on my verizon network extender!
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Mines 0%
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Sounds like it could have the same problem that affected the Vibrant. It NEVER showed higher than -81dBm, and would often reflect no signal (-0dBm is spectacular but it really means no signal within the Android system). Now with the update it reflects up to -51dBm like it should for GSM/WCDMA with Android and doesn't drop to -0dBm anymore. This of course effected the bars, often dropping to no bars or 1. Now after it's been fixed, plenty of bars and proper -dBm readings.
Posted this in the Fascinate forum, but I'd like to know if it is affecting your devices as well:
I believe there is a bug in the signal strength indication on the Fascinate, the one that shows the signal strength in -dBm.
You can see the signal strength of the cell signal on the Menu, Settings, About, Status screen. Or you can place a widget on your Home screen. There are several widgets available, I'm using Mobile Signal Widget.
I have a network extender, which basically creates a cell tower right in your home. With my Motorola Droid, I used to get signal strengths down to about -50 something and 60's in indicated signal strength. I can hold both of our Fascinates right next to the network extender's antenna and they will read no better than -86 dBm. So far I've seen signal strengths from -86 dBm to -106 dBm (terrible).
I believe there is a bug in the software (Baseband) on the Fascinate. Previously, I thought the hardware (antenna/radio) wasn't very good, but now it may be software related.
Has anyone seen a signal strength stronger than -86 dBm on the Fascinate/Epic?
I remember seeing it at -68 dBm on my Epic yesterday.
Hmm, thanks for that. Was that on 3G?
I also feel that this is impacting battery life. My signal is always reading worse than the Evo and TP2 (in the same location) but calls are not dropped.
This leads me to believe that the signal is actually better than the phone thinks. but since the phone thinks the signal is weaker than it is, it boosts the radio power (thus eating more battery.)
If this is not the case, the flip side is much worse and the Epic's antenna is a poor design, requiring higher power.
Every phone that Samsung comes out with that runs Android and the QSC6085 modem processor always has the same general problems.
The Fascinate, Epic 4G, Moment, Intercept, and Acclaim all generally have poor battery life, signal, GPS, and network performance issues, and other related bugs.
I know of other phones like the Droid/X/2 that have the same Qualcomm modem and have no issues whatsoever with network and GPS connectivity.
Is there any way to get source for the Droid phones and fix what's wrong on the Epic?
Thanks for all the replies. Verizon CS wasn't any help, at least the one Guy that responded to my email that I sent them.
LOL. He told me I have to contact the developer of the signal strength app I had on my phone for the problem I was reporting. WTF?
I responded by asking him to send it to higher level technical support personnel.
We'll see how that goes.
In the meantime, I'll probably exchange my Fascinate for a Droid X to get a phone with better reception, GPS function, and network performance.
xliderider said:
Posted this in the Fascinate forum, but I'd like to know if it is affecting your devices as well:
I believe there is a bug in the signal strength indication on the Fascinate, the one that shows the signal strength in -dBm.
You can see the signal strength of the cell signal on the Menu, Settings, About, Status screen. Or you can place a widget on your Home screen. There are several widgets available, I'm using Mobile Signal Widget.
I have a network extender, which basically creates a cell tower right in your home. With my Motorola Droid, I used to get signal strengths down to about -50 something and 60's in indicated signal strength. I can hold both of our Fascinates right next to the network extender's antenna and they will read no better than -86 dBm. So far I've seen signal strengths from -86 dBm to -106 dBm (terrible).
I believe there is a bug in the software (Baseband) on the Fascinate. Previously, I thought the hardware (antenna/radio) wasn't very good, but now it may be software related.
Has anyone seen a signal strength stronger than -86 dBm on the Fascinate/Epic?
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I have the newest Airrave just installed today its in the other room behind my flatscreen and I get 65-db GPS locks in milli seconds and calls are crystal clear data is extremely fast
I recently made the jump to 7.1.1 which has been really excellent and stable. I haven't been getting the best battery life with it though and my signal strength is consistently weak (even though the phone reflects 3/4 bars LTE most of the time). I am currently on project fi
I am not sure what's causing this buy is anyone else having similar experiences?
I had that problem. I flashed the 7.0 bootloader and radio and its better.
Woodrow256 said:
I had that problem. I flashed the 7.0 bootloader and radio and its better.
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What kind of improvement did you see?
Its hard to say really. At first it seemed like it helped but now my phone is back to not being able to hold 4g in weaker areas. Just not as bad as the 7.1 radio. Its fast and easy to flash a different radio and bootloader. You dont even have to erase anything. U literally have nothing to lose. If your signal acts worse just flash back or try another radio/bootloader.