[racedog]

I've had the V30 since last Friday morning and been working with it to decide whether to keep it or move back to my Sammy S8 or give the V30 back, sell the S8 and move on to something else completely. I've always been a Samsung person, at least since the S2 up to the S8 and including a Note 5. But, I have to tell you that I HATE Bixby, I hate the button taking up space. Yes, I know I can turn it off but the button placement and Bixby still sending out an occasional notice has turned me off to Samsung.

So, I decided to try out the V30 even though the last LG phone I had was a candy bar plain phone back somewhere in the mid 90's. For the first couple of days I was Ok with the V30 but hadn't committed to keeping it but yesterday I did some checking and found that it has one thing going for it that really surprised me. We live in a highly marginal area and phone reception has been hit or miss so we rely on wifi calling. In doing tests on my Samsung I knew that my reception ran about -120dbm and calling or receiving calls was totally hit or miss without the wifi calling. I had wifi calling turned on from the beginning with the V30 so didn't bother to check out signal strength until yesterday. What I found really blew me away. The V30 signal strength for the last day is consistently running between -113 and -115 dbm. Not killer strength but enough for consistent quality sounding calls. Doing download tests I found the the V30 is pulling down about 15megs down and 1.5 to 2.0 up. In testing the S8 I get about 3 to 5 megs down and about .4 to .8 megs up.

This V30 is really outshining the S8 in side by side radio tests, running in the same location with about an inch distance between them and using the same network and the same sim (switching back and forth). That is not the carrier, it is not the sim, that is radio quality and ability to draw in signal via the antennae.

The V30 has its strengths and weaknesses but the radio quality is critical to me and it will be staying here and the S8 will be going bye-bye. I may have to consider getting another one for my wife as she is using a Sammy S7 and I may have to consider moving her into her own V30.

[DamianP]

great to know! so side by side you would say 5-7 dbm better ? both using the same bands?

[bhappy11]

That is really good to hear. What cell sefvice do you have?

For us T-mobile users. If its pulling a strong signal now. Then once 600 mhz band is out. It should really shine!

This was a big concern. My LG G5 signal is terrible. And the GPS isn't the best. Heck I can just be sitting still and watch the signal jump up and down.
I was worried maybe the V30 may be the same.

Thank you
for sharing your experience.

[middbrew]

That's good to hear. I travel a lot and definitely get into some low reception areas.

[racedog]

Oops! Forgot to mention I'm on TMO.

[racedog]

great to know! so side by side you would say 5-7 dbm better ? both using the same bands?

Yes 5 to 7 dBm better consistently. Ive taken multiple measurements during the day and night and the numbers are consistent.

[Jheebs]

Samsung radios are mediocre at best, always have been...

[recDNA]

My V20 is better than my old Note 7 and my current Note 3. I get clear reception in big box stores that had zero signal in Note 7

[bhappy11]

Samsung radios are mediocre at best, always have been...

Disagree. The new galaxy s8's two of my coworkers. S8 and s8 plus pull in better signal than anyone else's phones at my work.

[Jheebs]

Unless they changed something, Samsung radios were always reviewed to be sub par... maybe they finally fixed those issues.

[dbdynsty25]

Yeah this is funny...my experience is the complete opposite. I work from home and a few times a day I'll send a text message that I have to resend because I didn't have enough signal. It has NEVER happened on my S8 in the six months I've owned it. So without doing side by side testing per se, I'd say the S8 is pulling a better signal than the V30.

[DamianP]

Yeah this is funny...my experience is the complete opposite. I work from home and a few times a day I'll send a text message that I have to resend because I didn't have enough signal. It has NEVER happened on my S8 in the six months I've owned it. So without doing side by side testing per se, I'd say the S8 is pulling a better signal than the V30.

I will agree in my comparison of my unbranded Note 8(On ATT) is getting better signal side by side to a branded ATT V30, sometimes as much as 10dbm and typically 4-6dbm.

[minnemike]

Conflicting results being reported might be due to the actual tower you are connecting to and each phone handling certain bands better than the other. I guess back to the old standard - carrier service, or in this case, phone band capabilities, are gonna always be case by case depending on location.

[bhappy11]

Thought I woukd bump this up. Since more people have gotten retail units. And have had them for about a week or so.

How is the signal in your V30 from previous phones?

[bhappy11]

Thought I woukd bump this up. Since more people have gotten retail units. And have had them for about a week or so.

How is the signal in your V30 from previous phones?

[ffejjj]

This was a big concern. My LG G5 signal is terrible..

Totally agree. I was a bit worried when I bought my daughter's G6 because her G5 had terrible reception. The G6 has been much better. Hoping the V30 continues that trend.