[YourMobileGuru]

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus is one of the most popular handsets on this website, and for good reason, it is the first Nexus device on Verizon and one of the first devices in the world to get the heavily anticipated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and one of the few that will run it in “stock” form, free of carrier and OEM customization. The device itself is powerful beast, with a glorious screen. For these and other reasons this device should, at least on paper, be one of if not THE best Android phone on the market.

But the Verizon Galaxy Nexus has a pretty significant flaw, a flaw that is often completely ignored or when not ignored sidelined in favor of emphasizing the benefits of the device. That flaw is signal strength and the ability to stay on 4G. People acknowledge it but the truth of the matter is that I don’t think that people realize just how bad the problem is, including the people who run this site.

With that in mind I have been doing a little experiment over the last two weeks. I am in the rare position to own 6 of Verizon’s 4G LTE devices and have all of them on service. I chose a room at home that gets mediocre cellular reception and have been keeping track of the dBm of each device at 4 different times throughout the day. These times were different each day but in general were late night (after midnight, before I went to bed), early to mid morning (whenever I got up), afternoon, and evening. For those that do not know dBm is the true measure of cellular signal ranging from -120 (no signal whatsoever) to -60 (perfect or nearly so). The data was taken from the Status screen in the settings menu, not an app or widget to minimize the possibility of error. Each measurement was taken right after the other.

The raw data is presented below in the following graphic but here is a summary:

			Week 1 Average 	Week 2 Average	Average Weeks 1&2
VZW Galaxy Nexus		-101.8			-101.9			-104.3
HTC Thunderbolt		-90			        -90			        -90.5
HTC Rezound		        -93.2			-93.2			-92.8
Droid RAZR			-92.9			-92.9			-92.8
Droid 4			        -92			        -92			        -93
Droid Bionic			-85.3			-85.3			-85.8

All devices are running STOCK firmware and NOT rooted.

As you can see the Galaxy Nexus has by far the worst signal of the bunch. The two week average had a difference of 19 dBm between the worst (Galaxy Nexus), and the best (Droid Bionic). For a device that was so maligned I was quite surprised to see how much stronger the Bionic was than anything else in the stable. In some tests I found the difference to be nearly 30 dBm between it and the Nexus.

Now I can see some of the responses now “he must have a defective device” but I can assure you my device gets within a 2-3 dBm difference of every other Galaxy Nexus I have had the chance to compare it to, so it’s highly unlikely.

Now before some of you decide to string me up, I want to make it clear that the purpose of this post is NOT to bash the Nexus. Remember that I do actually own one, and if I hated it that bad I would have returned it during the post holiday return period. The purpose of this is to educate people and to bring attention to a serious problem that must be fixed ASAP.

I’m a huge believer in people should buy what makes them happy and ignore the haters and device evangelists, but given the fact that I do change phones so often I am also in a position where I am not as emotionally invested in my purchases and can look at things a little more objectively than most. There are some really nice things about the Galaxy Nexus and ICS, and some things that are not so nice, and a few things that really suck ... signal strength is one of those things that really sucks. I must say that when I began this experiment I knew that there was a significant difference but had no idea that it was as pronounced as it is.

I sincerely hope that this is merely a software issue and Samsung, Verizon, and Google are able to get it straightened out in short order, because as of right now I can’t recommend anyone get the Nexus as their primary device, because a phone that doesn’t get reception when you need it is worthless.

Raw data below:



EDIT: I said the following in a post later in the thread but I think it bares mentioning here as well:

The point of this thread is to educate the members of this site who are considering getting this device and are on the fence. I've been following a number of threads comparing this to the RAZR and REZOUND and while this issue always comes up it tends to get overlooked because of all of the gushing over ICS and the screen and what have you. It's easy to overlook when you have a whole flight of apologists who chime in and respond with something to the effect of "mine works fine" or "I dont have that problem" or "it must be where you are" etc or the ever popular "you must have a bad device"

After reading this some people will buy it anyway and that's fine, but at least now they can't say they haven't been warned and THAT is why it is listed as a Public Service Announcement.

Wow this thread sure has spurred on a lot of good discussion which was the intent. I’m going to address some of your points but not as direct quotes since there has been so much discussion and some people are saying the same things.

* First of all I challenge someone to find the word scientific in the original post. You won’t because I didn’t. I too have had research training (in my case social science but the principles are the same) so I am well aware that this is not 100% scientific. But I take issue with those who say it has no validity whatsoever.

* In an ideal world I would have had more than one device, measured in more than one place, by someone else (double blind study), in a lab where conditions could be controlled, but that’s not practical in the real world. I used as many scientific controls as I could given the circumstances.

* Don’t like my numbers present your own but you need to use similar or better controls. But if you don’t have one or more of the same devices that I do all running stock firmware (meaning not rooted, no updated radios, custom roms, etc.) then it is an invalid comparison to mine. Other than an unlocked bootloader my device is 100% stock.

* As for my own bias, honestly I was completely blown away by how much of a difference there was consistently. I had done some measurements before, but in the back of my head I told myself they must be isolated incidents and that the data would even out to something closer to the others (it was obvious that it was poor but it couldn’t be THAT bad) and was surprised that it didn’t. This whole thing started with a discussion I had with a Verizon employee, who was also having issues with his device. He and I were both looking forward to this phone coming out and buying it as soon as it was available. He was convinced that the problem was hardware and would not be fixed with software updates. I on the other hand was more optimistic of an improvement given what I remember of the Droid Charge last year.

* I am well aware that EM radiation from the body can effect dBm so any time I present these kinds of readings or do speed tests the device is un-cased and lying on the table (or in some cases in a charger dock). I NEVER hold the device when taking the readings.

* The data is presented in this order but the readings were not taken in any particular order, in fact numerous times the Nexus was the first one measured.

* As for the 3G vs 4G dBm measurement if you noticed in one of the posts in the first page Droid800 brought this up and I changed the setting on my Nexus forcing 3G and the dBm was 5 points better, so even if you accept a 5 point margin for error the difference is still compelling. I’m not 100% sure he is completely right there about the other devices since I have seen stark differences with the Bionic when swapping between the two when doing some testing at work when we were trying to find out why the LTE wasn’t working in our building (Verizon later adjusted the towers in the area to make it work most of the time). My Verizon rep certainly believed that changing the setting in the phone changed the dBm reading. But for the sake or argument I am willing to concede that he is probably right.

* I’m actually still collecting data (Nexus forced to 3G) and will release a chart showing another weeks data at the end of the week (Sometime Sunday when I get around to it) but honestly I don’t expect that much of a difference based upon the last two days.

* To those of you who flat out “don’t believe” my data that is your right I guess, but I would challenge you to look at your own biases. I’m not naive enough to believe that “numbers don’t lie” but I also know that generally refers to skewed statistics which is why my raw data is presented in the graphic at the bottom of the original post for anyone to read who wants to.

* Those who argue that the numbers must be wrong because you get better signal: Good for you that means you are in a better coverage area. I never said I was in a great coverage area. I could get better numbers too if I went to another room or outside, but that’s not the point. As long as my readings are tall taken in the same place the comparison between them and other devices is still valid.

Let’s keep the discussion going. A couple of you have reacted shocked that the thread has gone on this long and been liked as many times as it has. NEWSFLASH this device has issues, people know it and the discussion isn’t going away any time soon. It is my expectation to keep this tread going until Samsung, Google, and Verizon fix the problem. Everyone is welcome to post opposing views if you want as long as you are respectful about it.

[...]I never said that the Nexus had a flaw that could not be fixed I said that the STOCK nexus has a flaw and it does, poor reception.

Like I said earlier, I would like nothing better than to see an OTA come out that fixes this issue so we can end this thread with

Problem Solved: Install the newest OTA and enjoy your (like) new phone.

But right now the phone as it is is a questionable buy because of the reception issue. People considering buying it should know that and thus the PSA.

[superbleester]

Nice point. I'm running the 4.04 radios and they are by far the best. I have no problems at all now.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[YourMobileGuru]

Nice point. I'm running the 4.04 radios and they are by far the best. I have no problems at all now.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I sincerely hope that the upcoming OTA fixes this issue.

[trigun123478]

I agree with you I have the Galaxy nexus and the droid charge. The charge display's -58 dbm in my room and my nexus displays -77 dbm. The charge holds a solid signal almost every where I go, in fact when I go to my friends house which is out in the country I even get 2 bars of 3g. The nexus on the other hand I always find my self with no service. No the stupid bars aren't just lying to me, I mean when I try to load a page it won't load says no data connection. That same friends house the nexus has no signal, and I have to use there wifi.This keeps happening to me I have full bars of 4g and I can't use any data. It's gotten me so frustrated I've wanted to throw this phone against the wall, because data drops isn't the only problems I've had mic cuts, and random reboots. I really hope the update that's coming fix's a lot of our problems.

[YourMobileGuru]

I agree with you I have the Galaxy nexus and the droid charge. The charge display's -58 dbm in my room and my nexus displays -77 dbm. The charge holds a solid signal almost every where I go, in fact when I go to my friends house which is out in the country I even get 2 bars of 3g. The nexus on the other hand I always find my self with no service. No the stupid bars aren't just lying to me, I mean when I try to load a page it won't load says no data connection. That same friends house the nexus has no signal, and I have to use there wifi.This keeps happening to me I have full bars of 4g and I can't use any data. It's gotten me so frustrated I've wanted to throw this phone against the wall, because data drops isn't the only problems I've had mic cuts, and random reboots. I really hope the update that's coming fix's a lot of our problems.

I would love to be able to compare my Nexus to the Charge we used at work as a demo phone until last week but I have only brought my Nexus to work twice since the signal is always above -100 dBm and the device therefore all but useless.

[Droid800]

Uh, you do know that on your list, the only phone that shows your actual 4G dBm on the Status screen is the Nexus, right? All of the other ones are showing you dBm for 3G or 1x.

[YourMobileGuru]

Uh, you do know that on your list, the only phone that shows your actual 4G dBm on the Status screen is the Nexus, right? All of the other ones are showing you dBm for 3G or 1x.

No I didn't but I also didn't differentiate between 3G and 4G, more often than not the Nexus does not even show 4G. My point here is the general poor signal of the phone.

EDIT: just out of curiosity what other devices show 4G dBm on the status screen and how would one get 3G 1xrtt dBm on the Nexus?

[Droid800]

No I didn't but I also didn't differentiate between 3G and 4G, more often than not the Nexus does not even show 4G. My point here is the general poor signal of the phone.

EDIT: just out of curiosity what other devices show 4G dBm on the status screen and how would one get 3G 1xrtt dBm on the Nexus?

The only other device that I'm aware of that shows it is the LG Revolution. (and I believe the Spectrum may as well, since it has the same software)

The only way to make sure that all of the devices are on a level playing field dBm-wise is to force them all into 3G.

[YourMobileGuru]

The only other device that I'm aware of that shows it is the LG Revolution. (and I believe the Spectrum may as well, since it has the same software)

The only way to make sure that all of the devices are on a level playing field dBm-wise is to force them all into 3G.

Well as I said the point of this was to show the general poor signal of the Nexus weather you talk about 3G or 4G.

[Droid800]

Well as I said the point of this was to show the general poor signal of the Nexus weather you talk about 3G or 4G.

Oh definitely, its worse than the others, but its not quite as bleak as your numbers suggest. Anandtech did a write-up about it, and the Bionic (which shares its LTE chipset with the RAZR) had a dBm that was very close to the Nexus'.

[YourMobileGuru]

Oh definitely, its worse than the others, but its not quite as bleak as your numbers suggest. Anandtech did a write-up about it, and the Bionic (which shares its LTE chipset with the RAZR) had a dBm that was very close to the Nexus'.

I took a measurement from the Nexus -105 dBm forced 3G rebooted the phone waited a few minutes for everything to load and then took another measurement (after verifying that the device was still in CDMA mode) took another one and it was -100 dBm so a very slight improvement. The Bionic and Razrare-86 and -91 respectively with the other three in the -90's just with the other tests I did earlier tonight.

I know the Bionic and RAZR are basically the same chip-set not sure why the Bionic is so much better. It's been that way with every measurement I took even before I started this organized record keeping.

[pool_shark]

The only time I have signal issues is in my office in an area on the first floor.
Last week I had to move upstairs and had a 4G signal the entire day.

I know the signal issue is pretty wide spread, but I don't have the problem.

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Meh... I'm not dropping calls like my fiance does at my place. I live in a concrete hurricane proof condo i call "the bunker". I've lived there 1 month and have poor signal in the building. I have yet to drop or miss a call. My fiance, on the other hand, who doesn't live there, has dropped calls near the window. For reference, she has an iphone4. What piece of crap that thing is. Doesn't connect to her car's bluetooth half the time. And when it does, she sounds like a robot.

Oh yeah, i have 4.0.4 radios. Korean made nexus. Vzwrocks, do you have a China made nexus?

[cadman]

I will say this....the GN stinks with signal. It's a fact. It's just not strong....right in line with samsung phones since flip phone days.

Now, to be fair, lately my wife's iphone 4, my trusty dinc and my father's dinc are getting in the 90's where they used to be in the 70's.
With all the drop offs lately, especially in the Lehigh Valley area where I live, I can't help but think if the problem is worse because Verizon is upgrading my 4g area.

Will I buy a samsung phone again? NEVER. But this phone is nice when you have a signal.

I guess what I am trying to say is signal has been bad, but not so much worse then other devices lately. It's just that the GN can't hold the weak signal as well as other manufacturer devices.

[Nakrohtap]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Nexus is the only phone running ICS on LTE. Doesn't this make for an uneven playing field, since other phones are all running Gingerbread? When the update to ICS is rolled out for these other devices very soon, we'll see then if they have any of the same issues the Nexus is experiencing, or if they will need to be tweaked as well. I realize that Motorola seems to use better LTE radios. Just wondering if ICS could be part of the issue.

[cadman]

I hope it's part of ICS and can be fixed but I think it's hardware not software related....

[YourMobileGuru]

Oh yeah, i have 4.0.4 radios. Korean made nexus. Vzwrocks, do you have a China made nexus?

Mine was also made in Korea (launch day hardware) and the fact that people running the newer radios giives me hope that software update (whenever it finally lands) will improve things.

I will say this....the GN stinks with signal. It's a fact. It's just not strong....right in line with samsung phones since flip phone days.

Now, to be fair, lately my wife's iphone 4, my trusty dinc and my father's dinc are getting in the 90's where they used to be in the 70's.
With all the drop offs lately, especially in the Lehigh Valley area where I live, I can't help but think if the problem is worse because Verizon is upgrading my 4g area.

Will I buy a samsung phone again? NEVER. But this phone is nice when you have a signal.

I guess what I am trying to say is signal has been bad, but not so much worse then other devices lately. It's just that the GN can't hold the weak signal as well as other manufacturer devices.

After owning a Fascinate I told myself the same thing: same **** poor radios that never got better during any of the updates from Eclair to Froyo, and finally Gingerbread. The ONLY reason I got this device was because it's a Nexus (well that and the screen :-) ) The Charge we were using at work was a lot better than the Fascinate as well so that may have factored in too, but that was after several software updates because as I recall there were complaints about it when it first came out as well.

The sad thing is that it just seems to be CDMA radio code/hardware that Samsung doesn't know how to make I have an AT&T GSII as well ant it gets great signal.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Nexus is the only phone running ICS on LTE. Doesn't this make for an uneven playing field, since other phones are all running Gingerbread? When the update to ICS is rolled out for these other devices very soon, we'll see then if they have any of the same issues the Nexus is experiencing, or if they will need to be tweaked as well. I realize that Motorola seems to use better LTE radios. Just wondering if ICS could be part of the issue.

Yes but the radio code is NOT part of ICS, it's closed source belonging to Samsung, Verizon, and Qualcom. That's why you can't build code for the CDMA/LTE Nexus from the AOSP and have it work without hacking in this other stuff.

I hope it's part of ICS and can be fixed but I think it's hardware not software related....

Me too... me too... but I'm really torn on that. On one hand we have the fact that my Fascinate never got any better so that was clearly a hardware issue but the Charge did so that was software. Since those running 4.0.4 radio code report things being better that may be a sign that it is software, but since a lot of this is relative (not a lot of numbers being presented here) it may just be people's impressions (at least in some cases) because they dont know how much better that it can be.

I'm not sure what to think

EDIT: I do know one thing, I want the next Nexus to be made by Motoroola, best radios in the business

[smcd5213]

I'm all but convinced a significant portion of the launch day Nexus stock was afflicted by serious hardware issues. Unfortunately, some of that stock is still around in certain Verizon stores and possibly when you get one from their website too.

I got my first one on launch day. Horribly disappointing, virtually unusable data connection and dropped calls.

Swapped it out within that first week for a second Gnex; same issues. The odds that I, or anyone else for that matter could get two identically poor performing devices with the same issues at two different Verizon stores seems indicative of a much wider spread problem. Compound that with early reports late last year/early this year of users going through three or four of them with the same issues, while others state theirs have been fine since launch day and you can safely bet their were some manufacturing or supplied hard ware issues.

I gave up right after the new year and got a Rezound. Like every other HTC device that I've owned, it worked flawlessly out of the box and has since. I don't even have to think about it; the thing just works.

Then about a month ago I decided to give the GNex one last shot. Took advantage of an Amazon Wireless special and got my current (3rd) Nexus.

It was shipped by Amazon, came from one of their distribution centers, and had 4.0.2 already installed. (Not a refurb.) It has, much to my pleasant surprise, worked without issue from the first day. In fact, it's every bit as solid and reliable as my Rezound. The signal strength is excellent, no 4G/3G switching issues, the callas are clear and have not dropped once, the speaker is loud, the screen is great, it just works like it should and a month in, I honestly don't even think about it anymore...it's been excellent.

After dumping my second Gnex for the Rezound, I would have totally agreed that Samsung devices must have some inherent or weak radio issues. With this latest Nexus, I couldn't say that as the signal strength matches my Rezound.

I hope an update comes soon and addresses the issues for those that still have them. However, I'm wondering if part of the reason it's taken so long is that the bad hardware can't be fixed by an OTA, so VZW is waiting for as many of those earlier devices to come out of the market via attrition (returns/exchanges/people who gave up and went with a different phone etc) before pushing the update. If it will not fix the signal issues and given that Samsung/Google/VZW will never admit to a QC issue publicly; it will seem very obviously a case of bad hardware if the update goes out and doesn't fix the signal issues for people. That would be even worse. You just don't do that. All along VZW has maintained a public stance that the Nexus "has no signal issues" and maybe that's technically true if the device is made to spec, but by now it seems clear that there were more than a few bad devices that made it out into the hands of consumers.

Anyway, my two cents and worth every penny I'm sure. Since I now own one, I'm on board with the "there are good ones" campaign.

The effort that went into the OP's chart is appreciated but is probably based on flawed data given how ICS reports signal strength compared to the other devices. Plus, I'm not so sure this is "PSA" worthy as it seems that given the sheer number of threads on this and other forums, it's not exactly a new topic, but I totally understand the frustration that would drive such an endeavor to create "proof".

[YourMobileGuru]

I'm all but convinced a significant portion of the launch day Nexus stock was afflicted by serious hardware issues. Unfortunately, some of that stock is still around in certain Verizon stores and possibly when you get one from their website too.

I got my first one on launch day. Horribly disappointing, virtually unusable data connection and dropped calls.

Swapped it out within that first week for a second Gnex; same issues. The odds that I, or anyone else for that matter could get two identically poor performing devices with the same issues at two different Verizon stores seems indicative of a much wider spread problem. Compound that with early reports late last year/early this year of users going through three or four of them with the same issues, while others state theirs have been fine since launch day and you can safely bet their were some manufacturing or supplied hard ware issues.

During the time in question Verizon was having a lot of 4G issues in general which very likely factored into how many people were having issues. Pep;e wit better devices may not have noticed as much but those that were borderline or poor were upset enough to complain. Something like 70% of electronics (not just phones) returned as defective are not in fact defective but retailers replace them to make the customer happy.

I gave up right after the new year and got a Rezound. Like every other HTC device that I've owned, it worked flawlessly out of the box and has since. I don't even have to think about it; the thing just works.

Then about a month ago I decided to give the GNex one last shot. Took advantage of an Amazon Wireless special and got my current (3rd) Nexus.

It was shipped by Amazon, came from one of their distribution centers, and had 4.0.2 already installed. (Not a refurb.) It has, much to my pleasant surprise, worked without issue from the first day. In fact, it's every bit as solid and reliable as my Rezound. The signal strength is excellent, no 4G/3G switching issues, the callas are clear and have not dropped once, the speaker is loud, the screen is great, it just works like it should and a month in, I honestly don't even think about it anymore...it's been excellent.

After dumping my second Gnex for the Rezound, I would have totally agreed that Samsung devices must have some inherent or weak radio issues. With this latest Nexus, I couldn't say that as the signal strength matches my Rezound.

I hope an update comes soon and addresses the issues for those that still have them. However, I'm wondering if part of the reason it's taken so long is that the bad hardware can't be fixed by an OTA, so VZW is waiting for as many of those earlier devices to come out of the market via attrition (returns/exchanges/people who gave up and went with a different phone etc) before pushing the update. If it will not fix the signal issues and given that Samsung/Google/VZW will never admit to a QC issue publicly; it will seem very obviously a case of bad hardware if the update goes out and doesn't fix the signal issues for people. That would be even worse. You just don't do that. All along VZW has maintained a public stance that the Nexus "has no signal issues" and maybe that's technically true if the device is made to spec, but by now it seems clear that there were more than a few bad devices that made it out into the hands of consumers.

Anyway, my two cents and worth every penny I'm sure. Since I now own one, I'm on board with the "there are good ones" campaign.

The effort that went into the OP's chart is appreciated but is probably based on flawed data given how ICS reports signal strength compared to the other devices. Plus, I'm not so sure this is "PSA" worthy as it seems that given the sheer number of threads on this and other forums, it's not exactly a new topic, but I totally understand the frustration that would drive such an endeavor to create "proof".

You're entitled to your opinion of course but as far as I know I am the first to actually present numbers to back up my impressions and thus the PSA prefix. Anyone can say i am having signal issues, I am demonstrating it with cold hard facts.

If you scroll down a few posts you will see that I forced the device to 3G like Droid800 suggested and then rebooted the phone to make sure it took and the change was almost nothing (5 dBm), but given the vast difference between the Nexus and the other phones in question I have a hard time believing my data is that skewed.Even if I adjusted all of my figures by 5dBm it would be just as bad. Most of the time when I took these readings the device was in 3G anyway.

[smcd5213]

Yet there are Nexuses, like mine, that have no issues whatsoever. (Granted it's the third one I've tried, but still.) Your chart can't account for that. Logically, about the only explanation that can is that some or even many early devices were affected by bad/faulty hardware. Attempting to quantify that is obviously going to be very difficult.

So to broadly state "PSA Serious Flaw in the Verizon Galaxy Nexus" is a little bit of a blanket statement.

Serious flaws in some of them? Sure, no question. I saw it, and many others have as well.

Serious flaw in all of them? That's not accurate either.

Hard numbers? Frustrated owners have been posting screen shots of their signal readings along with those of others devices for months now. Yours is very nicely done, but with all due respect I don't think it's the definitive statement that's going to wake Verizon up and do something about it.

[2defmouze]

TL;DR

Moto radios > Samsung radios

Didn't need any fancy testing to confirm that, lol.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

[cadman]

TL;DR

Moto radios > Samsung radios

Didn't need any fancy testing to confirm that, lol.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

Agreed...This phone is definitely form over function.....but IMHO it is so nice and thin, even with a thick case on it...has nfc (don't use it for payments though) ICS, soft buttons, no bloatware (verizon's two pieces of software are actually helpful to those who may not have unlimited data).

Give me an HTC branded nexus with a moto radio and I would be in heaven.


Problems is that the launch was fumbled.....accessories i.e. docks are not readily available 4 months after launch, etc.

Also, the radio upgrade from 4.02 to 4.04 did not help me with reception one bit. Only how fast it goes from 3g to 4g without using the airplane mode trick. Rooting and using Bugless Beast has made my third device much more functional.

[YourMobileGuru]

Yet there are Nexuses, like mine, that have no issues whatsoever. (Granted it's the third one I've tried, but still.) Your chart can't account for that. Logically, about the only explanation that can is that some or even many early devices were affected by bad/faulty hardware. Attempting to quantify that is obviously going to be very difficult.

So to broadly state "PSA Serious Flaw in the Verizon Galaxy Nexus" is a little bit of a blanket statement.

Serious flaws in some of them? Sure, no question. I saw it, and many others have as well.

Serious flaw in all of them? That's not accurate either.

Hard numbers? Frustrated owners have been posting screen shots of their signal readings along with those of others devices for months now. Yours is very nicely done, but with all due respect I don't think it's the definitive statement that's going to wake Verizon up and do something about it.

Posting screen shots showing poor signal is not showing numbers over time and anyone can do that. Tracking performance over time and comparing them to multiple other phones is hard numbers. That's what I did and if I wanted to get Verizon's attention I would not have posted this here I would have sent it to them directly. I'm not going to bother with that because they already know about the problem weather they want to admit it publicly or not. Their own employees are returning their devices over this issue and it's gotten enough attention in the blogs and reviews it's impossible for them to NOT know about it.

The point of this thread is to educate the members of this site who are considering getting this device and are on the fence. I've been following a number of threads comparing this to the RAZR and REZOUND and while this issue always comes up it tends to get overlooked because of all of the gushing over ICS and the screen and what have you. It's easy to overlook when you have a whole flight of apologists who chime in and respond with something to the effect of "mine works fine" or "I dont have that problem" or "it must be where you are" etc or the ever popular "you must have a bad device"

After reading this some people will buy it anyway and that's fine, but at least now they can't say they haven't been warned and THAT is why it is listed as a Public Service Announcement.

[YourMobileGuru]

Agreed...This phone is definitely form over function.....but IMHO it is so nice and thin, even with a thick case on it...has nfc (don't use it for payments though) ICS, soft buttons, no bloatware (verizon's two pieces of software are actually helpful to those who may not have unlimited data).

Give me an HTC branded nexus with a moto radio and I would be in heaven.


Problems is that the launch was fumbled.....accessories i.e. docks are not readily available 4 months after launch, etc.

Also, the radio upgrade from 4.02 to 4.04 did not help me with reception one bit. Only how fast it goes from 3g to 4g without using the airplane mode trick. Rooting and using Bugless Beast has made my third device much more functional.

Tony have you been following what's going on with that fancy dock that Jerry reviewed a while back that does not work on 4.0.2 but does work on 4.0.4? Turns out it is apparently an Android issue and I am wondering if that one device is the tip of the iced burg and maybe they KNOW it so that is why we aren't seeing as many accessories (and maybe they just didn't bother because it is a niche phone).

HTC hardware with Moto radios would indeed be nice but I would still like a Moto device. They have definitely had their bad ones but something with a similar form factor the Razr MAX (maybe not quite as wide and with edges a little more rounded) running JellyBean would make an awesome Nexus IMHO

[jerrod6]

How do can you tell where your device was made?