Anandtech - "Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue"

[milan03]

What would you foresee as a reasonable time period for a fix given that you feel it's simple?

Not sure as I'm not a Verizon/Google engineer, but I assume it should be included in that next update. My unit holds 4G signal pretty well but then again NYC has a pretty good coverage. Its the fact that other phones hold onto 4G even when the reception is consistently low, while GN radios drop it to the stronger 3G/1x to preserve battery as low signal environments will drain your battery on ant phone. I'm sure its more of a feature than a issue but I do understand the concern.
Other than that, the radio is superior to any other LTE phone I've ever tested.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Holsum]

Not sure as I'm not a Verizon/Google engineer, but I assume it should be included in that next update. My unit holds 4G signal pretty well but then again NYC has a pretty good coverage. Its the fact that other phones hold onto 4G even when the reception is consistently low, while GN radios drop it to the stronger 3G/1x to preserve battery as low signal environments will drain your battery on ant phone. I'm sure its more of a feature than a issue but I do understand the concern.
Other than that, the radio is superior to any other LTE phone I've ever tested.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Ain't that the truth.

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[wtherrell]

Every LTE UE on the market except Motorola has been using cat 3. But what's bugging me is the amount of freaking complaints about the number of bars, lower signal levels, etc... Everyone is caught up with some absolutely irrelevant non-issue, and obsessing about it...
Does your GN LTE performance suffer? No? I thought so...

YES! It does suffer. At home, When I have only the one tiny tip of the 4G triangle lit my download speeds are around 3 to 4 mbps. At same spot in my house friend's Bionic had 2 bars and download speed of 8-9 mbps. Last night at Charlotte Airport I had 3 4G bars and download speeds of 20.4.

 

[milan03]

YES! It does suffer. At home, When I have only the one tiny tip of the 4G triangle lit my download speeds are around 3 to 4 mbps. At same spot in my house friend's Bionic had 2 bars and download speed of 8-9 mbps. Last night at Charlotte Airport I had 3 4G bars and download speeds of 20.4.

Bars aren't the proper way of reading your signal level. Use dBm instead. Every manufacturer has their own interpretation of "number of bars".
It you don't like GN return it and get Bionic which has UE category 2 LTE chipset much slower than the one in GN.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Droid800]

This is a display rezound in my local store. Got about 23 down and 12 up. Side by side, my nexus got 12 down and 4 up. So we're talking about a 50% hit in speed. Same tower, same location.

I still don't know if that alone would be enough for me to want to switch to a rezound. Sense felt so ugly after getting used to ics' beauty.
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[Ken7]

Depends where you are. When I'm in East Meadow, I typically get 27 down & 14 up. When I'm at home in Seaford, I get 10-13 down & 5-7 up. Go into Suffolk & it's 3G only.

We just came back from midtown. In a restaurant on 38th & 3rd ave, I got 8 up & 16 down. Better than at home, but nowhere near the guy that was getting 60 down in NYC. Don't know how he did that.

 

[Ken7]

This is a display rezound in my local store. Got about 23 down and 12 up. Side by side, my nexus got 12 down and 4 up. So we're talking about a 50% hit in speed. Same tower, same location.

I still don't know if that alone would be enough for me to want to switch to a rezound. Sense felt so ugly after getting used to ics' beauty.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Whatever anyone thinks about the Rezound, I saw in the time I had it that it has an amazing radio! I'm not surprised by the differential and it again points out the real world differences in these radios.

But with that said, I don't intend to swap my Nexus for the Rezound.

 

[Droid800]

Whatever anyone thinks about the Rezound, I saw in the time I had it that it has an amazing radio! I'm not surprised by the differential and it again points out the real world differences in these radios.

But with that said, I don't intend to swap my Nexus for the Rezound.

I just don't know. It would be a huge difference from ICS. I would get used to it, but I would still miss ICS.

 

[CelebrationOfReason]

This has been my experience to comparing my GNex with and Charge and Thunderboldt using Open SignalMaps....there is a signal strength issue.
I can only get 4G at my house if I go upstairs (better line of site to the nearest tower). I previous had the Charge, it was weak also but I frequently had 4G in the whole house. Another member of the household has the Thunderbolt and consistently has 4G anywhere in the house with very few drop outs.

 

[Droid800]

This has been my experience to comparing my GNex with and Charge and Thunderboldt using Open SignalMaps....there is a signal strength issue.
I can only get 4G at my house if I go upstairs (better line of site to the nearest tower). I previous had the Charge, it was weak also but I frequently had 4G in the whole house. Another member of the household has the Thunderbolt and consistently has 4G anywhere in the house with very few drop outs.

There isn't a signal strength issue. There is a signal QUALITY issue, and also a problem with how the phone is processing that signal.

 

[milan03]

This is a display rezound in my local store. Got about 23 down and 12 up. Side by side, my nexus got 12 down and 4 up. So we're talking about a 50% hit in speed. Same tower, same location.

I still don't know if that alone would be enough for me to want to switch to a rezound. Sense felt so ugly after getting used to ics' beauty.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I hope you ran more than one test, and I really hope you didn't run them side by side, but you actually ran one at a time.

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[TrendyProfessional1]

Bars aren't the proper way of reading your signal level. Use dBm instead. Every manufacturer has their own interpretation of "number of bars".
It you don't like GN return it and get Bionic which has UE category 2 LTE chipset much slower than the one in GN.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

So now I have to ask.... what lte chipset is in the razr?
Thanks

 

[CarryMe]

In my opinion, the problem, if there is one, is the cutoff threshold that seems to be to low on GN and the phone drops to 3G quicker than other LTE phones on the market.

Now that I am thinking about it, if the GN drops to 3G quicker than other LTE phones on the market, wouldn't that mean that its cutoff threshold was set too high not too low? Meaning that the GN will switch to 3G at a higher 4G signal strength than the other LTE phones?

 

[Droid800]

I hope you ran more than one test, and I really hope you didn't run them side by side, but you actually ran one at a time.

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Multiple tests. The rezounds were all around what that picture shows.

The nexus' were all around what I posted.

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[milan03]

So now I have to ask.... what lte chipset is in the razr?
Thanks

Motorola's own, Category 2, code name: "Wrigley". Capable of up to 50mbps down.
All non Motorola LTE chipsets are Category 3 capable of up to 100mbps down in a 20Mhz channel.

 

[milan03]

Multiple tests. The rezounds were all around what that picture shows.

The nexus' were all around what I posted.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Rezound has an absolutely wonderful Qualcomm's MDM9600, really fine tuned, I've had it myself, but I'm seeing comparable or better throughput and latency on my galaxy Nexus under the exact same conditions.
I wouldn't go back to 2.3.4 + sense even if you paid me to do it...

 

[Droid800]

Rezound has an absolutely wonderful Qualcomm's MDM9600, really fine tuned, I've had it myself, but I'm seeing comparable or better throughput and latency on my galaxy Nexus under the exact same conditions.
I wouldn't go back to 2.3.4 + sense even if you paid me to do it...

I guess it really depends on where you are. In my area, the Rezound is drastically better, but I don't know whether Verizon is going to address the issues the Nexus has.

 

[milan03]

I guess it really depends on where you are. In my area, the Rezound is drastically better, but I don't know whether Verizon is going to address the issues the Nexus has.

Smartphones aren't area controlled and it sounds really funny when you say "Rezound is drastically better in my area". They all have the comparable LTE baseband, and there are so many variables and factors that are responsible for LTE airlink performance you'll be seeing on your handset.

 

[budmonster]

What are the advertised LTE speeds we should be seeing? I'm only getting around 6-9mbps down and around 3-10 up, I thought it was maybe just my phone but I went up to VZW today and put my GNEX right next to the display one. Both had full bars and got the same low speed, around 7mbps down and 8 up. When I'm at home I only get 2 bars but get around that same speed. How is that possible? I wasn't able to compare it to the Rezound(VZW rep couldnt figure how to turn 4G on properly) but it seems like most of the 4G devices there where getting the same 4G speeds.

When doing a speedtest are you suppose to pick the server closest to you? The farther away I go, the better speeds I get. I'll click on one server close to me(Pittsburgh) and get 8/5mbps then ill click on a server in Aalabama and get 25/10mbps. How can it jump like that.

I like the GNEX and I also like the Rezound but I don't want to return my GNEX unless it's definitely a problem with the phone.

 

[nkd]

Now THAT sounds encouraging! That's precisely the issue I have and it sounds like 'back to the future' may be part of the answer. I wonder if they'll roll the radio back to 4.01.

But the thing that concerns me is the fact that after the Anandtech article, VZW no longer seems to be taking this issue seriously. Lots of damage done with that article IMO.

EDIT: Oh well, in reading another post it seems that 4.01 was very unstable. Back to the drawing boards.

I highly doubt that someone and anandtech convinced verizon. Samsung and verizon are more than capable to handling the problem on their own. They probably said that just to calm everyone down.