Fixing to buy a Nexus 5...questions about AT&T

[Chad H]

Hey guys,
I was thinking about buying a new black Nexus 5 32GB. I really love the way this phone looks and all the reviews have raved about it. My question is, how is the signal? On this forum and I've seen a few others that with AT&T people are seeing dramatic drops in signal with the Nexus 5 on that particular network. I'm dying to go to Android and leave my iPhone 5S. I've always loved Apple and iOS but iOS7 is just god awful so I'm dying to switch. I've thought about going with the Galaxy S4 google play edition but would really like a Nexus device. Any help or insight would be great!

 

[williams448]

I have been an AT&T customer for 5 years now, and I get just as good signal, voice & data, as I ever have. No noticeable difference here.

Sent from my badass Nexus 5

 

[ring o fire]

I've noticed better reception than I got with my iPhone 5.

 

[Zendroid1]

My reception is the same as with my iPhone 5s

 

[newsman787]

I have found my signal reception on AT&T excellent with my Nexus 5. Real plus is LTE after having had a Nexus 4.

 

[itssimplyjeff1]

coming from a lumia 920, the LTE was great on it, especially in NYC. Nexus 5 is just as great. That said, I'm glad android allows you to toggle 2g/3g/LTE

i usually put it on 2G for when im not going to be browsing the web. i still get my emails as they come, and it saves a lot of battery i think. and even though i have unlimited, i still use wifi when possible. im on 12 hours and 20 minutes since last charge, with 2 hours and 9 minutes of screen time. still have 41% left.

 

[Chex313]

It depends where you are...I'm embarrassed to say that I have not even bothered to get an LTE sim yet. That's how good their 3G is. I can vouch for these states I have been through in the last 5 days....All of PA, NJ up towards NY,MD, VA, WV on 81, DE all of it, OH. East coast is really strong on 3G.

My distaste for entering an Att store seems stronger than my lust for LTE. I'll force myself soon....

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Jonneh]

It depends where you are...I'm embarrassed to say that I have not even bothered to get an LTE sim yet. That's how good their 3G is. I can vouch for these states I have been through in the last 5 days....All of PA, NJ up towards NY,MD, VA, WV on 81, DE all of it, OH. East coast is really strong on 3G.

My distaste for entering an Att store seems stronger than my lust for LTE. I'll force myself soon....

Posted via Android Central App

Perhaps I already had the correct sim? But, all I had to do was dial 611 and talk with a customer service rep to tell them to change my unlimited "smartphone data plan" ($30) to the unlimited "4G LTE smartphone data plan" (also $30) ; same price, so no difference. I basically called and just got LTE enabled, that's all. Took about 10 minutes in total because he ran into an error on the first try, tried a different way, and got it through immediately. Worth a shot, Chex313!

 

[Gekko]

AT&T GoPhone is excellent.

 

[thekarens]

the AT&T signal is excellent where i live. but we don't say "Fixing to buy" up here in the big city.

Houston is the 4th largest city in the US and I've heard that saying several times over since I moved here 14 years ago. And AT&T has excellent signal here to stay on topic

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[JasW]

Houston is the 4th largest city in the US and I've heard that saying several times over since I moved here 14 years ago. And AT&T has excellent signal here to stay on topic

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

The people you heard saying that weren't named Ellie Mae and Jethro, were they?

 

[thekarens]

The people you heard saying that weren't named Ellie Mae and Jethro, were they?

LOL, nope never met anyone by those names.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Gekko]

 

[flipped4dinc]

Straight Talk now has access to AT&Ts LTE. I'm using it and so far so good.

 

[rhea]

Straight Talk now has access to AT&Ts LTE. I'm using it and so far so good.

I wish I could report the same. I was hoping my month-old ST AT&T sim which I had activated on my N4 would work, but so far, weaker signal, no LTE in an LTE area, and no changes in my attempts to get ST to provision the sim for the N5.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Peter Rokkos]

Sorry but I disagree with everyone in this forum on signal strength. In my opinion, the Nexus 5 has a noticeably weaker signal strength on ATT. I've had a Nexus 5 since day 1 of its release and switched immediately from a Samsung Galaxy S3. I simply popped in the SIM card from the S3 and was set. I love the Nexus for many many reasons and even my initial concerns on battery life have been solved a bit - particularly since adding some battery management apps - DU Battery Saver - which lets me last the day easily now.

But specifically,

-Before switching, I had fairly strong LTE bars in central NJ at home, now I seldom if ever get LTE, only H? I think that is it. On occasion, LTE does come in but with only 1 bar.
-In Northern and Southern NJ, similarly, much weaker LTE strength when I can get it, and more often than not, H.

At first I wondered weather this was accurate, but using the SpeedTest app, I confirmed great speeds of 48-50 MB on WiFi, something like 8-10 MB when I can get LTE, and maybe 1-4 MB on H. This is not enough for me to switch, but it does seem to be a reality. I'm convincing myself that not being on LTE is OK because it helps battery life but I assume constantly searching for LTE probably hurts.

-WiFi seems to be weaker as well by the way, in an upstairs bedroom, farthest point in the house from my WiFi modem, I definitely get a bar or two less WiFi signal.

If someone has a suggestion on fixing this problem, happy to hear it. By the way, this problem existing from out of the box, before I put any app on it or made any changes - including installing the battery saver app.

 

[dan1431]

I was recently passing through EWR (Newark International Airport) and while I realize that EWR is not representative of the entire state, my N5 had as good as, if not better signal strength (as measured in dBm) than my colleague's at&t S4.

In fact in the Lufthansa Lounge, my N5 got better speeds on LTE than my colleagues S4.

Having said that, your experience may and inevitable will differ.

Dan

 

[Jonneh]

Sorry but I disagree with everyone in this forum on signal strength. In my opinion, the Nexus 5 has a noticeably weaker signal strength on ATT. I've had a Nexus 5 since day 1 of its release and switched immediately from a Samsung Galaxy S3. I simply popped in the SIM card from the S3 and was set. I love the Nexus for many many reasons and even my initial concerns on battery life have been solved a bit - particularly since adding some battery management apps - DU Battery Saver - which lets me last the day easily now.

But specifically,

-Before switching, I had fairly strong LTE bars in central NJ at home, now I seldom if ever get LTE, only H? I think that is it. On occasion, LTE does come in but with only 1 bar.
-In Northern and Southern NJ, similarly, much weaker LTE strength when I can get it, and more often than not, H.

At first I wondered weather this was accurate, but using the SpeedTest app, I confirmed great speeds of 48-50 MB on WiFi, something like 8-10 MB when I can get LTE, and maybe 1-4 MB on H. This is not enough for me to switch, but it does seem to be a reality. I'm convincing myself that not being on LTE is OK because it helps battery life but I assume constantly searching for LTE probably hurts.

-WiFi seems to be weaker as well by the way, in an upstairs bedroom, farthest point in the house from my WiFi modem, I definitely get a bar or two less WiFi signal.

If someone has a suggestion on fixing this problem, happy to hear it. By the way, this problem existing from out of the box, before I put any app on it or made any changes - including installing the battery saver app.

Hi Peter,

I don't have a suggestion on fixing your problem, but I do have a suggestion for you if you are concerned about the phone constantly looking for an LTE signal where there is none. Pull down your notification panel and click the top right corner (picture of a bunch of squares and the silhouette of a person) [alternatively just use two fingers to swipe the notification panel down]; now, click where it says "Settings"; then look for "More..." under the first section listed (titled "Wireless & Networks"); once you hit more you'll find "Mobile Networks"; from there, click "Network Mode" which probably reads as "LTE", and a pop-up will show where you can choose for the phone to only use 3G (H+ if possible), or even only use 2G (EDGE, which would save an insane amount of battery life but perform slowly without wifi).

Hope that helps.