Anyone Else Having Sprint GS III Radio Issues??

MBM7881

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Dude, thats not normal, have them swap your EVO out for another one, or try the SGS3. They are both great phones, but from my experience, the EVO's radios were much better than my fiancee's SGS3, almost as good as the Photons. The best thing to do is to look at signal strength under settings and not bars, every phone manufacturer measures and displays bars differently, it's all about the dBm's.


how do i check this and what dBm numbers/percentage would be considered good? thanks
 

fgkay

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I have been watching this thread closely because I have been considering a S3 after recently returning a EVO LTE because of reception issues (I went back to my EVO 3D). I use my phone mostly at home, which is in a 'fringe' Sprint reception area -- meaning I usually have 1-bar; 2 max. I was missing calls with the EVO LTE, and text msgs wouldn't always send. This rarely happened with the 3D or the orig EVO before that. Sprint gave me an Airave a few years ago but I actually returned it last year because the EVOs worked great without it.

Sprint already reset my upgrade eligibility after I returned the LTE, will they do it a second time if I get the S3 and it doesn't work out for whatever reason?
 

carlos516x

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I don't see why not. You are given 14 days to try the phone. Doesn't hurt to try. I'm curious to see if the results turn out better for you. By the way, how the Verizon reception by you? Is it just as bad a sprint?
 

fgkay

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I don't see why not. You are given 14 days to try the phone. Doesn't hurt to try. I'm curious to see if the results turn out better for you. By the way, how the Verizon reception by you? Is it just as bad a sprint?

Verizon coverage is also spotty here as confirmed by friends who often visit.
 

usguyver

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Yes, I had exactly the same problem.

My family currently has a couple of iPhones and I'm coming from an og EVO, all of which don't have the signal strength issues my Galaxy S3 had. The S3 constantly roamed, and every time it did, there would be a nagging notification alerting me something was wrong. Sometimes it would come back to Sprint, but most of the time it would remain roaming. And to make matters, WIFI was incredibly bad as well. Forget about 802.11n, and 802.11g was half the strength of what it should have been.

To make a long story short, the very next day, I had to return the Galaxy S3 and go back to the og EVO. I'm now looking to try again with another phone.... :(

Try the evi LTE

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
 

smooches680

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Well I live in GA and I tell you the radios truly suck. I got better service on my S2.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums
 

cuffs50

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And another example. Same exact spot moments apart. I truly hope this can be fixed with a software update.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums
 

MaLLoThaPrince

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Dang guys I'm in Augusta Georgia and haven't ran into these problems yet and hope to not run into them..hope it gets better for you all with problems

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
 

mak916

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And another example. Same exact spot moments apart. I truly hope this can be fixed with a software update.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

Its the network. I keep hearing these stories in different forums with both the GS3 and the EVO LTE. I have the GS3 and my phone works really good when I'm not at home. But when I am home my bars go up and down. My WiFi signal goes up and down as well. Then my phone goes into roaming when I have full bars on WiFi. My other phone the Photon is constantly dropping calls at home. It works good outside the house. I believe it is the Sprint network.
 

cuffs50

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Hopefully sprint will follow through with their promise to improve their network.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums
 

Csan508

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Okay here is one thing that i Have noticed about the evo lte/sgs3 and that is this they run the same s.o.c system on chip so what does this Have to do with anything you might ask simple same radios but what is diffent is the software for the radios so people shouldnt say this was bad or good but in stead say i Have had some bad luck with them

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums
 

eyecon82

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The gps on these phones are the best I've ever seen on any phone. It picks up the gps signal faster than even my garmin. Not only me but every reviewer has said the gps radio is on this phone is a real preformer. Hearing this makes me wonder if you might be trolling just a bit.

Tell me please what's wrong with this gps? It finds more satellites than there are bars in the graph. The dev will have to update this app to provide a graph to show all the satellites this phone finds.

View attachment 29244

________________
Just Flash It !!!
agreed...GPS is absolutely amazing...I get a lock mostly in less than a second, few secs max!!
It is so sad that you guys are having these issues with your GS3..I am currently testing an ATT GS3 to make sure I can make it with a limit on data. The GS3 I have is absolutley flawless and both radios including WIFI are superior in relation to the GS2. I can only think that this isn't a Samsung problem but in fact a Sprint one. And many don't realize how much singal strength effects battery life..I can honeslty say that my GS3 on Att gets 12 hours with heavy use but I know with Sprints weak and degrading signal it won't come close to my ATT gs3

I agree...my radio, GPS, and WiFI are much better than the SGSII....I am getting 1000kbps in areas where I was struggling to get 20kbps with my sgsII...less dropped calls etc...

the radio is almost on par with the OG Evo

the GPS is a million times better than any device out there...locks within seconds...my car and portable GPS can't even do it that fast
 

uberterrific

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I pre-orderd my GSIII and got it on the 22nd of June. The phone rocks, but the radio signal strength is bad... GPS on the other hand is awesome! I found an app on the playstore called "Network Signal Speed Booster*" It seems to help a bit.... I had the EVO LTE before & had even worse radio problems with it...
 

boomerbubba

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I found an app on the playstore called "Network Signal Speed Booster*" It seems to help a bit...

Mostly this app seems designed to rape your privacy. By installing it, you are granting the app permission to run in the background always, harvest your phone number and those you talk to, as well as the unique serial number of your device (IMEI) for tracking, and your location, then transmit all this information to who-knows-where over an internet connection.
 
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Bjamar24

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I have to say I started with the let evo and the radio sucked..I switch to The s3 and I have the best service I have ever had with sprint....

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums
 

sparksd

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wrt "Network Signal Speed Booster" - I tried similar apps and found I could accomplish the same effects by toggling airplane mode which I believe is equivalent to what these apps do. They cannot increase the strength of the signal nor increase the sensitivity of the phone's antenna.

Dave
 

Ntchwaidumela

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They are updating the network. It is going to take time before many of us see the improvements. You can see what they are doing in your area with this tool.

https://network.sprint.com/

I spoke with a Sprint rep a couple of days ago with a question about the available mobile hotspot, and asked as to when we might expect the LTE network to be available in Chicago. It's already available in the Northwest Indiana area, which is a much smaller market, with fewer towers. Anyway, I was told our Chicago towers are being worked on at this time and Sprint is hoping to get most of them ready to go by the end of this month or early next month. All I can say is, we'll see. I'll believe it when my notification bar shows 4G.
 

brownhornet

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I think it's pretty much a concensus that Samsung's radios are pretty horrible when compared to competitors. The shocking part is the fact that it seems that they've done nothing to improve this.
 

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