cell reception issue?

[zhelf]

hey guys i am currently on AT&T and me and the fiance are switching to VZW i have a captivate and will possibly be getting a fascinate and the wife def will be. i noticed when checking the signal strength of the fascinate next to the droid x in the store (floor models) the droid x had a signal of about -79 and the fascinate had -92 is this a bug? does the fascinate have a weaker radio? or could this just be a faulty device type of deal just want to be sure because it worried me and wanted to double check before we purchase them.

thanks guys.

 

[will i am]

so far all the calls I have made have been really good sound is pretty good on fascinate even having a dock as a charger sound is good when using slacker radio!

 

[dbdynsty25]

I've got both the X and the Fascinate and they are virtually identical when it comes to the signal reading...in fringe (my office and house) areas and in well covered areas. So no problems with either. Faulty unit?

 

[zhelf]

thanks thats what im thinking they are floor models so that never helps lol. thanks for the input though im glad in real world use they read the same since they were right next to each other on display. that helps me feel better thank you.

 

[Elvaxim]

My signal seems to be really poor.

 

[jrkrace]

Ditto on the poor signal. My Dinc was much better in terms of signal, however, I never had a problem making a call. Receiving them is a different story. Yesterday, I had the phone on my desk and I received a voice mail alert. The phone didn't even ring and I'm across the street from the tower...

 

[droidtones]

My phone consistently fluctuates from 1x signal to 2 bars of 3G, even in areas where other Verizon users and my old Palm Pre Plus (RIP) had maxed out bars.

 

[iAmMills]

Yeah I'm having the same issue. I have yet to see anything above 2 bars no matter where I am at. I even pulled out my storm to check out the service it was getting and it was still higher than the fascinate.

 

[cobcwc]

I have the fascinate and was in the store to compare to the Droid X. They both showed about the same number of bars, maybe the X one higher or so, but as you indicated the dBm differed. My Fascinate shows -106 dBm for no bars, -101 for 1, -96 for 2, -91 for 3 and -86 for 4 bars, never a better signal than -86dBM, while the X in the store was showing readings in the 70's & 80's with 2 - 3 bars.

I have not dropped any calls yet, but I have had trouble with text messages getting through. Between the signal strength and the echo sound of my own voice, I am comtemplating returning it.

 

[zhelf]

see this is weird because i picked up a fascinate for my fiance and the signal in terms of bars at home was the same but the dbm only differed by about 2 or 4 so the radio is really not much weaker it seems. but i live in good coverage area we get about 3-5 bars on average inside usually 3-4 but outside always 4-5

 

[xliderider]

Bars don't mean much. Look at the signal strength in dBm. Realize that the dBm scale is not linear but logarithmic. For every 3 dBm change in signal, the power of the signal doubles or halves. A change of 10 dBm is a 10 fold difference.

 

[oldAGE]

I'll add my two cents with a twist... I generally receive very poor VZW coverage at my home and the addition of EVDO smartphone to our mix really became an issue as an EVDO enabled device always tended towards that service whereas 1X only would easily pick up a preferred roaming partner tower and give me 4 bars and sub -90 d in the house. This was years of frustration for me and my last ditch effort with VZW was the purchase of a Network Extender. That worked perfectly on my original STORM and my wife's little LG.

Cut to the chase -- the wife upgraded in July to a DroidX and it's access to the Extender seems to be skittish to the point where I opened a ticket with VZW. Last Thurs I upgraded to a Fascinate and it too does not behave "nicely" with the extender. The #48 always tells me that I have "Network Extender Coverage" but my bars run from 1X to maybe one bar. Now the Fascinate has a nice ABOUT PHONE feature in settings that identifies Battery Use and tells you what's consuming the battery and I am finding that my Cell Standby "Time Without Signal" is in the 80% range.

Obviously, ranging for a signal will consume battery so I am wondering what it really going on here. I intend to open a ticket with VZW when I have a free moment.

Any responses and replies are appreciated.
AGE

 

[droidX1991]

Same here, my service sucks on the fascinate. It was much better on my DX.... Did a factory reset and still no luck =(

 

[beto89]

I always checked my dbm signal in the settings on my Incredible, at home I'd average -70, with the fascinate i'm averaging -85 or so. But I've been at spots today where I had poor signal (-106) and 3g still worked, so I'm happy lol

 

[xliderider]

AGE, I'm also using a Network Extender at home due to really poor Verizon signal. I find that the Fascinate doesn't even report a strong signal when in the same room as the NE. My Droid would get down to -67 or so. The Fascinate shows -85 dBm when its literally 12 feet away from the extender.

As for the cell standby issue, it might be a bug with the software. Droid Eris and even Droid 1 owners sometimes had this issue. The cell standby shouldn't be any higher than the teens, it definitely shouldn't be 30% or more.

 

[droidX1991]

Is there going to be a fix for this any time soon?

 

[xliderider]

Is there going to be a fix for this any time soon?

They can't change the hardware (radio), but they could release a software fix in the form of a baseband update. The baseband file is the software that controls the radio in the phone. You can see the current baseband version in Menu, Settings, About, Status.

The Droid 1 got several baseband updates since release last November.

Nothing will get done though unless Verizon receives a lot of complaints about this.

 

[nickf126]

I have no scientific data here, but it *seems* to me that I am getting a worse signal in my house than I did with my Droid1. I also had the unfortunate experience of getting 3 back to back "lost network connection" messages while using the internet.

 

[droidX1991]

Damn you Scuba Steve!!!

 

[xliderider]

I just started a thread here:

http://forum.androidcentral.com/verizon-fascinate/34671-possible-signal-strength-bug.html

I believe there is a bug with the Fascinate's indicated signal strength. ATM, I don't know if the Fascinate has a bad radio, or if it is just the bug. My gut tells me the hardware/software isn't as good as the Droid 1 I came from, but without an accurate dBm signal strength indicator, I can't tell.