Related
I work and go to school full time so 90% of the time I'm inside of a building. I'm finding that even seated in front of a huge window I have no data signal it just says "emergency calls only" and the wifi is so terribly weak I can't even connect to the campus wifi. Anything I can do to improve this before I consider other options?
Sent from my Nexus S
Bronk93 said:
I work and go to school full time so 90% of the time I'm inside of a building. I'm finding that even seated in front of a huge window I have no data signal it just says "emergency calls only" and the wifi is so terribly weak I can't even connect to the campus wifi. Anything I can do to improve this before I consider other options?
Sent from my Nexus S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile will NEVER be good at building penetration with their current network; it's the high frequencies they use and the lack of close-together towers.
WiFi seems to be hit or miss for people. I have zero issues with WiFi on my phone, but lots of people complain the NS is weak. You might consider a swap if you're still in the remorse period. Other than that, unless you get closer to the WiFi, there's nothing you can (currently) do to the phone that will boost the reception, but software updates might address that (new modem software, etc).
that is the nature of AWS 1700+2100 (t-mobile) signal
some areas are really good, some areas are horrible
i myself i'm victim of that, no much you can do about it, other than to report weak signal areas, so that they can put up more towers to cover the black spots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI)
as for WiFi signal... i don't seem to have that trouble
i can connect to WiFi G and N just fine, fast and strong 3 bars, or 4 bars, but never max
Bronk93 said:
I'm finding that even seated in front of a huge window I have no data signal... and the wifi is so terribly weak I can't even connect to the campus wifi. Anything I can do to improve this before I consider other options?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find that I am having the same problem.
The understand network signal issue that "AllGamer" and "distortedloop" mention. But I am came to the Nexus S from a G2. I wanted a purely Google phone and paid for the Nexus S. In the same buildings (Work & School), My G2 would report a stronger WIFI signal.
Any reason for this noted discrepancy? I'm not complaining, just trying to understand and find out if there is a solution.
I think I'm still in my 14 day period, so I may swap it out. But it feels like I've been setting up phone preferences and reinstalling programs for months. I've been through several G2s because of that darn hinge and now another Nexus-S.
Please somebody--- say there's a fix.
I get 2 bars of wifi only 10 feet from my home router even. Im out of my grace period but I have the 10$ a month best buy insurance, could that be used? Sadly I'm looking at the g2 and hd7, some form of reliable data is a must for me.
Sent from my Nexus S
I live in a terrible service area. With my Sprint phone I had to actually go outside to be able to make and receive calls and I live in the Northwest. Its f***ing wet here. On Tmobile I get great service...on my couch only. Its better than having to go outside, and I don't mind it that much to be honest. I just leave my phone on my couch while I'm at home and all is well. As for WiFi, I've never had any issues though I've read about all the people complaining. My wife and I both have great WiFi reception or at the very worst, reception on par with every other phone I've owned. She goes to class inside a concrete building from the 70s and gets fine WiFi and no one on any carrier gets any real cell reception in those buildings.
I don't have experience with any other carrier, so I have no basis for comparison, but I've never found T-Mobile to be particularly bad inside buildings in general. Some are just really bad. I suspect it has a lot to do with the design and materials of the building. I've never had an experience of having such bad coverage by a window, though. Maybe you're only in range of one tower, and the window you're standing at is just on the opposite side of the building from that tower? I dunno.
Thanks for all the feedback fellas. I'm going to see if the best buy insurance will cover a phone swap.
Sent from my Nexus S
It most likely won't. Your best bet would be an exchange if you're within the 30 days or selling the nexus and buying a different phone off contract.
Sent from my SubCyan CM7 Google Nexus S!
zorak950 said:
I don't have experience with any other carrier, so I have no basis for comparison, but I've never found T-Mobile to be particularly bad inside buildings in general. Some are just really bad. I suspect it has a lot to do with the design and materials of the building. I've never had an experience of having such bad coverage by a window, though. Maybe you're only in range of one tower, and the window you're standing at is just on the opposite side of the building from that tower? I dunno.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile's overall service is definitely location-dependent.
I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. My house is single story, wood frame & 1/2" stucco construction built in the 50s. It's in the "hills", but in direct line of sight of two different towers. One's maybe 3/4 miles, the other just over a mile.
Until a couple of months ago, I could not get any signal in my house, on either voice or data. They did something in the fall and I started getting voice and EDGE, and occasionally I'll get a single bar of 3G in some rooms of the house.
AT&T and Verizon, 5 bars inside my house, but in fairness to T-Mobile, in the early days of the iPhone, I remember having lots of dead spots inside the house with the iPhone.
distortedloop said:
T-Mobile's overall service is definitely location-dependent.
I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. My house is single story, wood frame & 1/2" stucco construction built in the 50s. It's in the "hills", but in direct line of sight of two different towers. One's maybe 3/4 miles, the other just over a mile.
Until a couple of months ago, I could not get any signal in my house, on either voice or data. They did something in the fall and I started getting voice and EDGE, and occasionally I'll get a single bar of 3G in some rooms of the house.
AT&T and Verizon, 5 bars inside my house, but in fairness to T-Mobile, in the early days of the iPhone, I remember having lots of dead spots inside the house with the iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crazy. I never had a smartphone when I lived in Rochester (MN), so I know nothing about 3G there, but I never had problems with voice calls unless I was in the subway or I buried myself in the core of one of Mayo Clinic's monstrous stone buildings. In Saint Cloud the only place I can recall getting no signal was in the middle of the cinder block labyrinth known as our student union building. In Portland, I get reception pretty much everywhere, though 3G coverage just doesn't exist still in sizable patches outside the city's core.
But yeah, I imagine it's like that with pretty much any carrier; some places, coverage just blows.
I've decided that I am willing to give up my nexus to get service through another carrier with better service in my area. Does anyone have experience with at&t? Does their band allow for better reception in buildings?
Sent from my Nexus S
Yes if you live in an 850mHz area for ATT then building penetration is spectacular. But It's not totally common.
Also I read an ATT version of the nexus s is confirmed now. So that's an option.
I concur with RogerPodacter on AT&T. Their 1900 mhz signal isn't much better at building penetration than T-Mobiles 1700/2100 AWS, but 850 should be. I don't think a lot of areas are actually 850 yet.
If coverage and building penetration are your main concerns, I really feel Verizon is the way to go. Everywhere I hang out that I don't get a signal on either my T-Mo or my AT&T phone, the folks with Verizon are getting good strong coverage. I live and work in the suburbs and surrounding areas of Los Angeles; since cell service is very much dependent on the area you live in with all the companies, your experience may be much different.
Along those lines, I was at Lake Mohave (Bullhead, AZ area) recently, and neither my AT&T i9000, iPhone 4, or T-Mobile Nexus One could get a signal at all for voice or data, but the guys with old original model iPhones were pulling in a signal. Go figure.
My Own Fustration
Hmm...my problem is that 50% of the time when I am on the subway and the signal drops off, when I arrive at the next station, it remains off. There seems to be some kind of glitch (either in the actual OS or else something caused by something I have running in the background) whereby the phone antenna just turns "off", so to speak, and the only way to fix it is to restart the phone.
TokyoGuy said:
Hmm...my problem is that 50% of the time when I am on the subway and the signal drops off, when I arrive at the next station, it remains off. There seems to be some kind of glitch (either in the actual OS or else something caused by something I have running in the background) whereby the phone antenna just turns "off", so to speak, and the only way to fix it is to restart the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you can try turning airplane mode off and on, see if that helps
How would I know which AT&T signal is available in my area?
Sent from my Nexus S
Bronk93 said:
How would I know which AT&T signal is available in my area?
Sent from my Nexus S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how accurate this is, since it's 2 years old, but it's a good start: http://www.cellularmaps.com/att_850_1900.shtml
distortedloop said:
I'm not sure how accurate this is, since it's 2 years old, but it's a good start: http://www.cellularmaps.com/att_850_1900.shtml
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow! i'm actually surprised there are less 850 coverage than 1900 areas (according to that map)
on a related note.
wish more Cell phone carriers had this feature
http://www2.windmobile.ca/en/pages/storesandcoverage.aspx
using google map, to check live coverage, and you can report weak spots, so they can build a new tower to cover the weak spots
I've been using the HTC One for the last couple of days deciding between it and my Xperia Z.
This phone is the best I've used and IMO feels better than XZ in several ways.
However, the signal strength in low reception areas is very unstable. Compared with the XZ it is poor which I am not happy about it as I was planning to return the XZ and keep this. On XZ I get 3 bars of 4G and it stays that way with no dropped calls. On the HTC it's 1 bar and then switches to 4 bars 3g (on XZ full bars on 3g) then back to 4g. I've had calls drop mid conversation 7 times in 2 days! This is mainly in lower signal areas including indoors.
I have till today to return the XZ but I am honestly not sure what to do. Even the earpiece sound on HTC is better than XZ..hmm..
Do any of you know if HTC are any good with updates regarding signal stability?
If it's something fixable then I'd rather keep the HTC One. Other than this it's a flawless smartphone. So frustrated the signal reception is like this.
Signal seems slightly better than my Galaxy S3
I have great signal with this phone better than my nexus4 & iPhone.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
my signal is so much better than my htc sensation, tested with the same sim card and htc one has 2 bars better constantly.
How many of you people saying "it's better than my..." are talking about 4G signal strength?
Are you guys on 4g too if I may ask?
I'm baffled as too why this is happening when directly compared to the XZ. Maybe it's only in low signal areas.
I've kept it on 3g only and performance is more stable and holding on to signal better. There is no question in my experience that XZ holds on to 4g signal much better.
Haven't decided what to do yet as I much prefer the HTC but the 4g issue is a real shame.
Most probably know this, but just FYI -- often radios will fall back to HSPA from HSPA+ to save juice when no data is being used. This might be in play here.
I couldn't bring myself to return the HTC so will return the Sony.
The other advantages to me could not be over looked especially the processor, speakers, display and sense.
However I really hope the signal on 4g will improve with an update. I'm pretty sure this was addressed with other phones in the past.
This video I saw also show some of the advantages of HTC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqhUGpSd3mc&feature=youtube_gdata_player:
I was using my friends HTC ONE In canada and he'd constantly have service (like 2 bars) as he was on LTE. LTE isn't available in all areas and where we live we get 3 bars of LTE if we're lucky. So all he did was turn LTE off and it was full bars as usual. The amount of bars we had with LTE was for the most part better than my Iphone5 and my other friends samsung galaxy s3.
I don't know about 4g signal but 2g/3g signal is far better than any phone I have ever had, my local tesco express is a killer for reception on every phone I have had except the one x which held up well but had like 2 bars 3 if I was lucky, with my one I get 4 bars and even 5 bars sometimes as I walk around the store and I have had the phone a week now and no signal or gps or wifi problems at all.
I was having connection issues even on 3G/H+ so what ive done is just turn off LTE and just kept it on GSM/WCDMA as i dont even have a 4G LTE plan and that has seemed to fix my issue so it may help other non-LTE users having signal issues.
RyanDawson said:
I was having connection issues even on 3G/H+ so what ive done is just turn off LTE and just kept it on GSM/WCDMA as i dont even have a 4G LTE plan and that has seemed to fix my issue so it may help other non-LTE users having signal issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are right with regards to this. As stated earlier I'm keeping the phone but this clearly demonstrates an issue with 4G that needs to be addressed. I tried the demo unit in store again and disabled wifi; same thing with 4G performance.
In poor signal areas I lose reception totally and concerned I have a faulty phone, where as the iphone gets 2bars, I lose it all together on the one. Was in the meeting today and everyone had reception but me, however it sometimes came back with one bar...
If the signal is strong, I have no problems, is where there is weak signal I get issues. Anybody else confirm the same?
Oh sorry I misread. Other reviews have mentioned it is fine with LTE.
I finally made my return but returned the HTC and kept the Sony. Obviously the HTC betters the Sony in some ways but I need reliable call quality.
I don't care what HTC call the antenna but in my experience it does not perform as well as others.
I pay more for LTE and it bothered me to keep losing calls.
To be honest this is mostly in low signal areas but regardless the Sony and the Lumia held on much better to a weak 4g and 3g signal.
themomouk said:
I finally made my return but returned the HTC and kept the Sony. Obviously the HTC betters the Sony in some ways but I need reliable call quality.
I don't care what HTC call the antenna but in my experience it does not perform as well as others.
I pay more for LTE and it bothered me to keep losing calls.
To be honest this is mostly in low signal areas but regardless the Sony and the Lumia held on much better to a weak 4g and 3g signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So is this problem happens when you have 4g. İ bought my fone from uk fones4u so if its same ill have to send it back
cihanleanne said:
So is this problem happens when you have 4g. İ bought my fone from uk fones4u so if its same ill have to send it back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it's mostly with 4g only and most noticeable with call switching to 3g. I too am with EE and got it from p4u. If you don't make many calls I think it's ok. Honestly though I wouldn't trust it in low signal areas and say you need an urgent email. In my opinion the radio is not the best. Not sure if it's h/w or s/w fault but even when I sowed it to the guys in p4u inside a shopping centre it had the worst signal compared to others (4g). However WiFi is excellent.
You may have an issue with antenna connection to the motherboard as a result of production tolerances. Try to see if you can test another unit to verify that the issue exists.
Nabeel Kiani said:
I was using my friends HTC ONE In canada and he'd constantly have service (like 2 bars) as he was on LTE. LTE isn't available in all areas and where we live we get 3 bars of LTE if we're lucky. So all he did was turn LTE off and it was full bars as usual. The amount of bars we had with LTE was for the most part better than my Iphone5 and my other friends samsung galaxy s3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you're able to get LTE in canada?
If i can ask you a few question,
1) which area you at?
2) where your friend got HTC one?
3) are you with rogers?
Thanks =)
Just wanted to add that the poor signal reception experienced is with regards to the UK 4G Lte.
This is currently with the EE network which operates the LTE on 1800 MHz.
I have tested it against the Sony Z, Nokia Lumia 920 in the same spot and the reception was inferior and overall poor.
In the store I tested it against a S3 (4g) and iPhone 5 all on the same network and it showed lower reception in 4g.
Please note that the problem is with 4g and functions well on 3g and WiFi is excellent as previously stated.
Just got my N4 last night, I have been driving the same commute for years now and i know every deadspot along the way.
Last night on my way home I was streaming the Anthonycumia show audio feed via Chrome, and I was holding 3-4 bars of LTE
when I got zero service historically. Unreal! not 1 time did the stream cut out when I was constantly having issues with all my older devices,
Droid x
Galaxy nexus,
Note 3
LG G2
Those older devices would all drop signal to 0 up in the sticks, where the Note 4 holds 2-4 bars consistently.
In the house, I would get 1 (2 if lucky) bars of 3g and could barely every hold a phone conversation.
Now, again 2-3 bars LTE and I can even use download booster.
Impressed to say the least. Anyone else noticing amazing signal?
Samsung finally has a great radio!
I'm with you, signal has been great.
I concur...i work in a lot of dead spot areas where the rich live and since they dont need cell coverage because of wifi they dont allow towers around. Note 3 was dead inside the house im working...now its mostly on 4g most of the time except for a few random outages...big improvement overall, at least if i walk out i get excellent coverage now
Sent from my SM-N910V using XDA Free mobile app
you guys are lucky...
The cell coverage at my house has always been atrocious, but I'm actually consistently getting a decent signal at my house with the Note 4. I'm really happy about it.
mlee0921 said:
you guys are lucky...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
verizon just sucks in general, but there's hope. call and complain about your awful speeds numerous times.
my speeds, when LTE first came out, were like 10-15mbps. then as more people got phones, especially the dumbass iphone, the speeds were horrendous and for 2.5 years, i would get 0.5mbps. yeah, not even 1mbps. 3g was faster.
so once a week, i called to complain to verizon over and over, and basically every time had them put in a service ticket because their tower was obviously unable to handle the amount of phones around here.
months later, all of a sudden my speeds jump...and now i'm getting a constant 25-30mbps every day in the same exact area.
honestly, i'd say complain and have atech goto the tower itself.
jayochs said:
verizon just sucks in general, but there's hope. call and complain about your awful speeds numerous times.
my speeds, when LTE first came out, were like 10-15mbps. then as more people got phones, especially the dumbass iphone, the speeds were horrendous and for 2.5 years, i would get 0.5mbps. yeah, not even 1mbps. 3g was faster.
so once a week, i called to complain to verizon over and over, and basically every time had them put in a service ticket because their tower was obviously unable to handle the amount of phones around here.
months later, all of a sudden my speeds jump...and now i'm getting a constant 25-30mbps every day in the same exact area.
honestly, i'd say complain and have atech goto the tower itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to say your complains didn't work, but what probably happened was that they installed and enabled AWS (XLTE in marketing speak) in your area. Something that Verizon was going to do anyways.
oilfighter said:
Not to say your complains didn't work, but what probably happened was that they installed and enabled AWS (XLTE in marketing speak) in your area. Something that Verizon was going to do anyways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they claimed there's no XLTE over here. the only place in NJ that has it right now is atlantic city, and that's over an hour south of me.
i honestly think the tower was overloaded and maybe they worked on it. i'm in an area that was hit hard by Sandy 2 years ago, and since then, the LTE has sucked. apparently a lot of VZW fiber lines in the area were damaged bad during the storm, which is why we had little to no data service during the storm down here.
the voice quality during calls, sounds crystal clear. much nicer than the note 2!
I agree totally. Reception on this phone is unmatched by any Verizon phone ive had to date and ive had plenty. Its so good im hoping root comes in a hurry so i can freeze the update packages in titanium backup so the phone will not take an update and ruin the experience like KitKrap done to the note 3.
concur...at my desk right now, on my N3, I would barely get a signal. had to set my phone on the very edge of the desk near the window.
with this beautiful beast, I'm getting 4 of 5 bars.
I wasn't very hopeful after reading comments here but the signal strength for data has been WWWWAAAAYYYY better than my old GS3. I'd drop in and out going in and out of buildings and I go into a lot of concrete construction buildings and skyscrapers for work and usually I'd kick back to 3G. So far it hasn't dropped back and is chuggin' along.
Im coming from Motorolas and they have excellent signal strength. I dont see a difference in signal so it is a great improvement from the previous samsung phones ive had (S3 and Note3).
Both my wifes Note 4 and mine have had calls dropped and signal issues in our house. We just switched to Verizon for the first time. We came from US cellular and Straight talk and never had a single reception issue at our house. We live just north of Milwaukee in a town of 30k people. We called Verizon to complain and they started a ticket to have it checked out. The technician emailed me back a few days later and said everything is fine at the tower and in our area. He said there are several factors that can contribute to poor reception like building material of the house, tree/leaves foliage especially in summer months (ah its November and every leaf is on the ground now) and other RF in the area. Again, I never had a dropped call with any of my phones with US cellular in the 8 years I was with them. Needless to say, we were about to cancel our service with them and they offered to give us a free signal booster for our house. Hopefully this will fix our problems at our house, from what I have read, those signal boosters make a world of difference.
Whats weird is the signal strength is usually about -103dbm which is about the same when I checked with some of my old US cellular phones in our house. Because its happening with both my note 4 and my wifes, I don't think its the phone.
Sounds like the note 4 has good radio in it so hopefully my house is just in the cellular Bermuda triangle for Verizon and the booster will solve our issues at home.
This phone really impress me too with its signal power even in low signal areas it has really good signal.
Have to agree. I work at 2 locations and at the second spot there is horrible reception with my old Note 3 and iPhone 6 (when I had it). But when I came in with my Note 4 I was pleasantly surprised to see that my 4G icon was on with data. And my battery life is better because it's not working overtime for a signal.
No complaints here
Sent from my SM-N910V using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
my iPhone 5s (expectedly) got terrible signal at my school, so did my DROID Razr M. Now i'm rocking 2 bars of 4g. No complaints here.
Same here!
Noticed it while driving to work. My hour commute was hell with my note 2 if I didnt have music pre-downloaded to my phone. When I streamed music, I'd lose signal half of the trip (which is normal for any phone before the N4).
Last couple days I've noticed that I can stream music with little to no pause for streaming.
I live in bumfk... phone has a good radio regardless
Im still waiting on my nexus 6 but I would like if some people could do a signal strength comparison to other phones. I currently have a nexus 5 and would like to know those mostly. Could everyone post results?
jokersax11 said:
Im still waiting on my nexus 6 but I would like if some people could do a signal strength comparison to other phones. I currently have a nexus 5 and would like to know those mostly. Could everyone post results?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On Cricket Wireless (AT&T) I get 5-10 db higher signal on the N6 over the N5 in the exact same spot. I also get about 5 db better signal than my wife's G3. At work I cannot get an LTE signal with the N5, with the N6 I get an "ok" LTE signal.
^^ Nice!!
I can't give OP any numbers but I'm coming from a Nexus 5 also. Overall signal (data and voice) is stronger than the 5. The GPS locks on a lot quicker even when in the car, assuming you're in an area with LTE.
Im also about 5 to 10 db better woth my Nexus 6 compared to my OnePlus One.
WiFi at home has Nexus 6 at 60 Mbps and OnePlus One at 45 Mbps.
Call quality and overall reception is better and volume in ear is better on Nexus.
It's a Motorola.... it's gonna have probably the best overall performing radio around.
AT&T (ALL-Phones)
I have a 10-mile stretch where i cross into Illinois from Indiana going home from work
Nexus 5: Constantly Drops connection all the way to the house and doesn't keep data for more than a few seconds after that at the house will constantly drop connection (I think its trying to get onto the AT&T network in Indiana since its not roaming.
Note 3: Typically holds the data connection all the way till about the 9th mile marker but is completely useless all the way. At home it will stay on the OFF Network but rather useless signal.
Nexus 6: Holds data connection till the 8th mile point which completely usable data for browsing the web/facebook/sometimes youtube at 720p and at the 8th mile point promptly drops connection and connects to the Illinois OFF-Network Tower and holds a strong connection.
On a 300 mile trip from Chicago to Detroit I had LTE service at least 90%of the time.
Thinking about the N6, myself. I've heard Motorola holds patents on CDMA radios that make their reception better than others... Any truth to this?
Just like every other Moto device the reception is rock solid for me.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
nathanotis said:
Thinking about the N6, myself. I've heard Motorola holds patents on CDMA radios that make their reception better than others... Any truth to this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, but didn't Google buy Motorola just for their mobile patents? If so, they own it now, which means any OEM partner of Google would likely be able to utilize that. All speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.
Only phone I've compared the Nexus 6 to is my iPhone 6 on Verizon and T-Mobile. They seem, for all intents and purposes, to be completely equal. The 6 is known for good signal strength and measuring the db while in a few locations, they've been nearly identical. This is good news, though, I'm not sure a lot of people on XDA care about a comparison with the iPhone
As for tablets, my Nexus 6 is about 2-3 db higher in my house than my Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet on Verizon. Nothing major.
Cheers,
-Collin-
I have noticed in several places my N6 retains a LTE signal where my N5 would dump to HSPA or EDGE.
Several buildings on my college campus have under ground classrooms and labs, I have a LTE signal in some of those rooms now, where I never have before.
Another thing, the Nexus 6 swaps from HSPA to LTE after a call within two seconds... my N5 would sit and wait for about 20 seconds usually. It seems with Mtero PCS I am not able to make any VOTLE calls yet.... not sure when or how that will happen.
littlerm said:
On Cricket Wireless (AT&T) I get 5-10 db higher signal on the N6 over the N5 in the exact same spot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found the same improvement: 5 to 10dB. The signal in my house varies quite a bit, I just walked around with both in hand.
CollinFX45 said:
Not sure, but didn't Google buy Motorola just for their mobile patents? If so, they own it now, which means any OEM partner of Google would likely be able to utilize that. All speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.
Only phone I've compared the Nexus 6 to is my iPhone 6 on Verizon and T-Mobile. They seem, for all intents and purposes, to be completely equal. The 6 is known for good signal strength and measuring the db while in a few locations, they've been nearly identical. This is good news, though, I'm not sure a lot of people on XDA care about a comparison with the iPhone
As for tablets, my Nexus 6 is about 2-3 db higher in my house than my Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet on Verizon. Nothing major.
Cheers,
-Collin-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google now has a license to use Motorola's patents, just as Lenovo does. They don't own them, Motorola does.
Mine is about the same as my G3 and wife's S5. The death star is terrible where I live, in my home j get -109dBm in average. The best I have seen is on campus I get -70dBm both are for LTE.
My N6 has great connectivity. My "old phone" HTC M8 GPE wouldn't be able to connect in a certain parts of my office building. No issues on the N6. I'm very happy about this!
-Jason
ryude said:
Google now has a license to use Motorola's patents, just as Lenovo does. They don't own them, Motorola does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure this is true.
https://gigaom.com/2014/01/30/google-paid-4b-for-patents-why-the-motorola-deal-worked-out-just-fine/
From what I've read, Google now owns those patents, not just licensed. I'm sure they will let leveno use them as part of the purchase deal, but I'm not sure. They got the company for a steal vs what Google paid for it.
On the subject, I can't give hard numbers but I have noticeably better service on at&t with the most recent 98R modem running the latest Chroma ROM.
My connection was bad when I first got the phone but like any phone I own it was rooted and flashed within mins of getting home I highly recommend updating the modem/ radio asap I get great signal and data connection with the 95r radio on att try em and see what works best for u but for most ppl 95r or 98r greatly improve reception
Also running chroma like the dev says who makes chroma its very stock like with a few tweaks that google should have in lp alrdy but don't I used to be a cm fanboy but rather enjoy chroma so if u get a n6 u won't be disappointed
Sent from my Nexus 6
My nexus constantly switches between 3g,H,<E... It's never consistent.... Some days I get LTE at the bank some days I don't.... Today I went into the secret menu to force LTE only. I've had a good signal and haven't lost data at all today. That tells me LTE is everywhere where I live. Whats up with all the switching? I've noticed much better battery life today also.
I am one of the folks seeing terrible signal issues with my phone. It drop service in areas where no other TMobile phone has. I have an open ticket with essential and have not heard back.
Some folks seem to have no issues with TMobile and the phone. I am wondering if it is related to what TMobile bands they are using.
I am using band 4.
Are folks that are not having signal issues on different bands? I know it is a long shot but would be curious to know if those that don't have problems are on different frequencies.
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How do you check which band you're on?
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Download the LTE Discovery app from the Play Store. You will see your connected LTE band in the top left box. You can download it from here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.simplyadvanced.ltediscovery
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I'm on band 12. My TMobile LTE+ data connection throughput sucks.
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knome said:
I'm on band 12. My TMobile LTE+ data connection throughput sucks.
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Click to collapse
What phone are you coming from and how did it compare. I was really hoping that those on the lower mhz frequencies would be doing better than those on the higher frequencies.
This was based on the fact that folks on Verizon and ATT seem to have less signal issues and they generally use the lower frequencies where TMobile still has a ton of Band 4 higher frequency coverage.
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This phone doesn't work for $#1t on T-Mobile. I tried to cancel before they sent, they ignored me, and now trying to get anyone to respond to return the damn thing. They've been ignoring requests to communicate. I hate this company. Worse experience than buying a no name Chinese phone.
My phone is working perfectly on T-Mobile band 4, I have no problems with either data or signal. Phone calls, internet, display, everything is perfect. This phone is one of the best experiences I have so far this year, and believe me I got several phones during this year. One plus 3T, one plus 5, Huawei 9 Pro, Xiaomi Mi Mix, galaxy S8 Plus, HTC U11 international version, pixel XL, Huawei P10 plus, I have my note 8 still in the package because this phone is so good. And this phone is in my top 4 so far.
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I'm on band 12 and have a slightly better connection than with my old HTC 10. And overall it's been a tiny bit better for me everywhere.
Lucky people on band 12, I'm rarely on that band. Always always on band 4 on Tmo even though the Cali bay area is supposed to be blanketed in band 12...
I'm in the Foothills area of North Carolina and almost always using Band 4. I have had terrible service with this phone similar to you. No other phone I have has struggled to connect to the cell towers like this one does. It either loses signal completely or the signal is so weak the phone doesn't work. This is happening in areas where my iPhone 7 Plus, Axon 7, and Pixel XL work fine. I've had to resort to WiFi calling for it to be reliable. I started a support ticket last week and after trading emails with them and waiting an average of 30 hours for each response after 3 days I got fed up and I filed a complaint with the BBB. The very next day I received an email stating they had "initiated your return request" claiming I will receive a package within 5-7 business days. They are exchanging it for a new one. We'll see. That was Friday 09/08/17 and so far I have not seen any kind of a shipping notice. I may not get one however so I'll just have to wait the number of days and see what happens. The email said I will receive a package from their partners at Asurion so they may not send tracking info. Essential the company is very hard to deal with. I was never able to talk to someone over the phone. When I called I basically was told by a voice message to send in an email "for faster service". Boy that's a joke. I'm hoping I will receive a new phone and not just a box and label to send the original one back in.
Anyway, my signal strength varies from 3 bars to no bars in the areas where other phones have 3-4 bars with reliable service.Using a signal strength app it reports an average of -10 dBm weaker signal than all those other phones.
I just got my phone today and it's working beautifully on TMO Band 2. Not having any issues at all!
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foopy said:
I'm in the Foothills area of North Carolina and almost always using Band 4. I have had terrible service with this phone similar to you. No other phone I have has struggled to connect to the cell towers like this one does. It either loses signal completely or the signal is so weak the phone doesn't work. This is happening in areas where my iPhone 7 Plus, Axon 7, and Pixel XL work fine. I've had to resort to WiFi calling for it to be reliable. I started a support ticket last week and after trading emails with them and waiting an average of 30 hours for each response after 3 days I got fed up and I filed a complaint with the BBB. The very next day I received an email stating they had "initiated your return request" claiming I will receive a package within 5-7 business days. They are exchanging it for a new one. We'll see. That was Friday 09/08/17 and so far I have not seen any kind of a shipping notice. I may not get one however so I'll just have to wait the number of days and see what happens. The email said I will receive a package from their partners at Asurion so they may not send tracking info. Essential the company is very hard to deal with. I was never able to talk to someone over the phone. When I called I basically was told by a voice message to send in an email "for faster service". Boy that's a joke. I'm hoping I will receive a new phone and not just a box and label to send the original one back in.
Anyway, my signal strength varies from 3 bars to no bars in the areas where other phones have 3-4 bars with reliable service.Using a signal strength app it reports an average of -10 dBm weaker signal than all those other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in Raleigh NC and have mostly band 4 and connection issues. I still have not heard back from Essential service on a replacement.
It almost seems as if they are trying to wait me out for the return period and not respond.
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In West L.A. and currently on Band 2 and getting about 50Mbs down.
I know his might sound bad,but I had the same connection issues and tried to reach out to support with no luck. Ended up selling the device for more than I paid on a reputable site which I won’t name..... within about ten minutes also?
I've tried the phone all over LA and being on band 12 Tmobile, I've basically noticed that the phone really flies when the signal is good, but when the cell signal is slightly sub-optimal, the data throughput goes into the toilet. I don't know if the antennas just suck, if I'm holding it wrong, or if the design just hinders the performance, but compared to my pixel XL, the slower speed is extremely noticeable.
I have a guess as to why the antennas struggle though, they might just be too small or obstructed for anything but strong/clear signals because even though the back is ceramic, signals are not able to go through it. At the essential launch event in LA. they showed how the ceramic was laminated over a solid titanium backing on the frame. There aint no antennas under there
All I know is, this made the phone unusable for me, which sucked because I loved the design.
I finally got my replacement phone and the reception is no better. I have never had an issue with reception except for this phone. The essential phone is the first phone that can not hang onto a signal in my house.
I agree with the above this is an antenna issue and no software can fix it. The phone is unusable unless you have perfect signal.
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Yeah I gave up on using Tmo on this phone. Swapped it back to my Verizon sim and the service works well enough.
I live in Philadelphia northern suburbs and the PH-1 phone either hop on Band 12 (700 MHz) or Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz or AWS). When my phone is on Band 12, the speed test is in no more than 25 Mbps down/8 Mbps up at best. On Band 4, I get anywhere from 40-90 Mbps down/15-45 Mbps up. I thought that it was odd when I first got the Essential PH-1 phone but then I checked against "old" HTC 10, HTC A9 and Axon 7 mini. They all behaved the same, the signal strength was about the same and the same features, like VoLTE, HD Voice, etc. worked the same. The place where I work is a black hole for any mobile signal due to how the building is constructed so I have been relying on Wi-Fi Calling with all of my phones, including PH-1, for many years now. At home, the T-Mobile tower is about 500 ft. away but most of the time it is on Band 12 in my area so BW is no too high.
I read somewhere that in general T-Mobile only owns a small, 5x5 MHz chunk of bandwidth on Band 12 in most places in the US and probably cannot do 10x10, 15x15 or 20x20 MHz aggregations on Band 12. That is why T-Mobile went aggressively after Band 71 (600 MHz) and is doing Band 2 (1900 MHz or PCS) refarming and adding Band 66 (1700/2100 MHz or AWS-3) support. A lot of issues that I am experiencing with signal strength may be attributed to the T-Mobile tinkering with towers or doing some weird crap with their network. Simply not having enough bandwidth (i.e. 5x5 MHz vs. 15x15 MHz) could be a big factor. Here is the link to check how much bandwidth T-Mobile has in your corner of the US - http://www.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-spectrum-holdings. Pop your zip code in and you'll exactly what you have to play with.
Another factor that I can think of that separates this phone from the others is that it has 6 magnets crammed too close to other components and how they may affect an RF signal reception no one knows?
Hmm if it's all the Tmobile network shortcomings and them experimenting with weird configurations, I would assume that would affect my Pixel XL reception... but the pixel XL usually has 2x to 10x the speed of my PH-1. Maybe it's the magnets, or the titanium laminated ceramic back doesn't allow for enough antenna to be exposed to get a good signal when reception is not optimal...
How do you change lte bands on essential phone?