Reception question

[mhettrich]

I have the Nexus 5 now and I am using AT&T. I am coming from an iPhone 5s, and the signal on the nexus is much weaker. Would manually adjusting the APN settings help with this issue?

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[madlaw1071]

BUMP

Just got mines last night and I agree, radio on ATT is rather weak compared to my S4 and One.

 

[angry english]

it was the 1st thing i said about the phone on monday, the cell reception and wifi or fairly weak compared to the N4 and other phones i have/had

 

[c0rbindallas]

I also am noticing this. In fact I've noticed that mostly ALL of the android devices i've used don't ever seem to work as well on ATT's network compared to my Iphones. If it's as simple as changing APN that would be awesome!

 

[Runningwarrior08]

In all honesty with T-mobile in my office I was lucky to get 1 bar with my N4, I now get 3... My wifi is just as good if not better than my N4.

Some phones report more signal than they actually have, the algorithm to show the bars is different. This was notorious with sprint and HTC, showing 3G full bars when you would have nearly zero signal. The N5 with no carrier modifications to make them look better will display your true signal. The best way to check if your signal is actually weaker is to use an app the will tell the full dB of the signal.

Rootmetrics is a good app for this ( may be called "cell phone coverage map" in the play store.)

 

[rexxcastle]

I am having the same issue on ATT, my S4 and HTC get great signal, my N5 is getting garbage signal. Just made a post about it earlier. Maybe its an ATT thing? Or maybe a bad radio and we are noticing it more than the other providers (since tmobile and sprint are bad most everywhere anyways)

http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...ne-else-having-signal-issues.html#post3225383

 

[Runningwarrior08]

I am having the same issue on ATT, my S4 and HTC get great signal, my N5 is getting garbage signal. Just made a post about it earlier. Maybe its an ATT thing? Or maybe a bad radio and we are noticing it more than the other providers (since tmobile and sprint are bad most everywhere anyways)

http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...ne-else-having-signal-issues.html#post3225383

In all honesty I have amazing signal with T-Mobile everywhere I go, so saying my signal is bad everywhere is kinda annoying. But to go with your question. I think it is an APN problem.

The default APN on the n5 for att is not the best one. On my buddies att n5 once we changed the APN from phone his signal increased amazingly. But the problem is it keeps defaulting back to the original APN no matter what.

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[zipro]

I have the Nexus 5 now and I am using AT&T. I am coming from an iPhone 5s, and the signal on the nexus is much weaker. Would manually adjusting the APN settings help with this issue?

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Must be specific to US frequencies. The European version is absolutely awesome when it comes to reception. As a matter of fact, I've never had a phone with reception this good.


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[N4Newbie]

I honestly do not know how accurate this might be, but I have read that the main reason the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 have relatively poor signal issues is that they have so many different radios and antennas within. Multiple radios/bands/antennas means the phone can be used on virtually any network and in most countries, but also means that each of these systems (especially antennas) must be smaller than they would be on the more common carrier/frequency-specific phones they are often compared to.

 

[rexxcastle]

In all honesty I have amazing signal with T-Mobile everywhere I go, so saying my signal is bad everywhere is kinda annoying. But to go with your question. I think it is an APN problem.

The default APN on the n5 for att is not the best one. On my buddies att n5 once we changed the APN from phone his signal increased amazingly. But the problem is it keeps defaulting back to the original APN no matter what.

Posted via Android Central App

Come out to Va, Tmobile is the suck around here, Not as bad as sprint is in this area but worse than Big Red and Big Blue

 

[onthecouchagain]

In all honesty I have amazing signal with T-Mobile everywhere I go, so saying my signal is bad everywhere is kinda annoying. But to go with your question. I think it is an APN problem.

The default APN on the n5 for att is not the best one. On my buddies att n5 once we changed the APN from phone his signal increased amazingly. But the problem is it keeps defaulting back to the original APN no matter what.

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What are you apn settings for Tmobile? Do you mind sharing?

 

[N4Newbie]

What are you apn settings for Tmobile? Do you mind sharing?

APN settings do not directly affect signal strength; the primary impact is on the ability to send/receive MMS messages and use a cellular data connection.

 

[grayzweb]

I'm using T-Mobile and I have noticed signal dropping more than on the Nexus 4.
I travel a lot and once I dropped signal and it never came back until I rebooted? I tried toggling airplane mode, but still wouldn't come back until reboot.

I do get LTE now, so that's a nice bonus.

WiFi has been good. No problems there.

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[yfan]

The other phones you guys have.. Are those AT&T branded phones?

As I said in the other thread, this might be a provisioning issue. Either wait a few days till the network automatically detects your phone or call them to manually provision.

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[madlaw1071]

Try a hard reset. I was experiencing signal issues on ATT and the hard reset seems to have helped.

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[rexxcastle]

Try a hard reset. I was experiencing signal issues on ATT and the hard reset seems to have helped.

Posted via Android Central App

like a complete data wipe/Factory restore? If yes then i have done that once and have since gone to AT&T and also got a new sim card to see if that helped

 

[bgeorger]

I did a complete hard reset including flashing the factory image and still getting terrible signal.

 

[onthecouchagain]

APN settings do not directly affect signal strength; the primary impact is on the ability to send/receive MMS messages and use a cellular data connection.

Oh... gotcha.

Then could a weak/poor SIM card be the culprit for these lower signals? Or is it just the Nexus 5 hardware itself (or software)?

- - - Updated - - -

like a complete data wipe/Factory restore? If yes then i have done that once and have since gone to AT&T and also got a new sim card to see if that helped

Did the new SIM help??

 

[zipro]

Oh... gotcha.

Then could a weak/poor SIM card be the culprit for these lower signals? Or is it just the Nexus 5 hardware itself (or software)?

- - - Updated - - -



Did the new SIM help??

I don't think the SIM card has any influence on the reception quality, unless you use it to cut through the antenna cord :-/


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[Matthew Heinrichs]

I'm having similar issues with Nexus 5 in Canada (carrier is MTS). I'm in full service areas and my reception dips down to 1 bar at times. I'll lose LTE at times. My Nexus 4 and Galaxy S3 (all the same sim) had full service all the time. Never was an issue. I'm also using 802.11AC with my compatible router and that too has weak signal. Not very impressed. I've already found more issues with my Nexus 5 in a couple days than I experienced in half a year with my N4. Makes me think there is a hardware issue here.

Oh and for the record APN settings do not affect your signal like N4Newbie states, likewise I tried changing them with no improvement. Reboot doesn't change anything either.