How accurate is the signal strength meter?

[anon(92556)]

So, i've been having a lot of dropped calls recently, and just decided to pack around both my Optimus and Hero for a while, just to keep an eye on the signal strength meter from the status screen instead of watching the bars. I did notice that the Hero always seems to be about -10 better than the Optimus, but I haven't activated it yet to see if the phone holds calls better or not. As i'm sitting here typing this, the Optimus is showing -84 while the Hero is showing -74dBm.

Anyone have any idea if these are an accurate representation of the actual signal to the phone, or is this also software controlled? I am just curious as to why my optimus is dropping so many calls. I haven't ever had this many problems with sprint in the past, and not sure if another phone would alleviate these issues.

 

[sonicbluemustang]

Ive only had a couple drop calls but I think its due to switching towers.

 

[uberjam545]

I'm not really an expert in this kind of stuff but I'd think that the Hero would get some what better reception because it's a higher end phone. As for the meters accuracy maybe you could find an app and see what that says but I'd think that the meter your looking at now would be very accurate or LG wouldn't include it into it's phones.