Horrible Antenna/Signal

jssm6501

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Anyone else noticing that the PH-1 has poor signal strength?. I recently kept losing reception while driving throughout the day and figured it was just Sprint's network until I happened to notice that my old cheap LG phone on the same crappy Sprint network not only had voice service, it had a strong 4G data connection! So I kept an 'eye' on this issue for several days now on two other phones which are on the same phone plan and sure enough, every time my Essential phone lost signal, the LG & Samsung phones still had decent signal. This sucks because it's basically a deal breaker because what good is the phone if it won't pick up signal!! After some research, it seems others have noticed the same issue. Is this something that an update can fix or is it due to hardware/internal antenna issues?
 

cfclay

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Uh, do you mean you all of sudden look down at your phone and there is no LTE symbol and connectivity until your restart? Oh yea
 

messypotamia

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Here's what I did to compare radio quality in my PH-1. I just recently got my PH-1 working with its US Mobile (a verizon mvno) sim.
I have an off-contract (but still on monthly account) Verizon Galaxy S4 I've had for 4 years. I know where it drops it's signal based upon listening to streaming music while I walk/hike, and while I'm driving up the highway through the hills just north of here. My wife's S5 does pretty much the same thing at the same places. Hers did not participate in this test.
WiFi turned off both phones (GS4 & PH1) for consistency.
I start listening to streaming music as I leave my driveway from both phones simultaneously. At the place where the Samsungs usually lose signal, my GS4 lost sound for the usual 1-2 minutes, but the PH-1 kept finding enough signal to play. I was somewhat surprised.
Hope this helps. And I also hope that there is not any discernible deviation in radio/antenna quality or performance among the units which Essential is shipping.

As an aside to this thread's subj, and because I'm in an adventurous mood, I just ordered one of these
[OnePlus 5T Midnight Black 8GB RAM + 128GB Storage] phones to play with.

//MP
 
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mylgt1

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I just activated mine on Monday on Sprint and notice the same thing. My old G5 has better signal and went to a Sprint store to check all different phones and the essential had the worse of all! Always has signal at 100 to 118dbm which is horrible! I really want to keep this phone especially for the price but if signal is bad, what's the point. At home my G5 could play most games on lte if my cable was down but the essential won't on a data intensive game or app
 

Armeniandave

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I hope your not expecting to use the OP5T on your Verizon mvno because it lacks the proper band as far as I know.

My essential phone seems to hold a signal fine and is comparable to my S8+
 

messypotamia

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I hope your not expecting to use the OP5T on your Verizon mvno because it lacks the proper band as far as I know. +

You're absolutely correct, I missed that somehow yesterday (made quick buy decision while having too many espressos), but read some more about it today. This morning I "chatted" w/ their cust svc and told them to cx the order which I'm sure has not shipped yet. I had other reservations even before discovering this, based upon phone conv about "unwanted software", in which the guy's answers were jibberish.
 

PAC757

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I just have my PH-1 for 2 days and this phone has the worst reception / cell signal of any phone I've owned, I have tried everything, reset network settings, factory reset, new SIM card, and every known working AT&T APN. there is definitely a problem with either the modem or antenna in this phone. I have never seen a signal strength any better than around - 115db, that's outdoors, inside my home, work, restaurants, grocery store ect.. I have absolutely no signal and usually sitting somewhere around - 126db. I put the same AT&T SIM card in 2 different unlocked phones, an HTC U11 and a Huawei mate 9 and both of these phones work fine in all the above mentioned places that the PH-1 has no signal. That's to bad because the rest of the phone is pretty nice.
 

anon(9638631)

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I have T-Mobile.

Driving on the I-10 heading west from Downtown Phoenix to the west suburbs and vice versa, I noticed my PH-1 will lose all "bars" for a few seconds here and there but the LTE symbol will never go away while these bars disappear. Also, when said bars disappear, my IP Widget app says that I have -105 to -116dBm and around 30-35asu with 30-40%ish signal strength so according to that, it never is really losing any signal. It's getting a bit weaker but never going into a "no service" mode. I tried a test call on speaker phone for the whole 20 mile stretch and looked at the phone the whole time while in the car (not driving of course). The bars disappeared here and there quite often but the phone call was crystal clear the entire time and my dBm was anywhere from -78 to -116 throughout the trip, naturally the higher dBm was when the bars disappeared. On the return trip, I browsed the net via Chrome and never lost connectivity and my speeds were very fast even though the bars disappeared periodically.

From my unofficial testing, the "bars" in the notification bar don't mean a thing.
 

msr360

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I have T-Mobile.

Driving on the I-10 heading west from Downtown Phoenix to the west suburbs and vice versa, I noticed my PH-1 will lose all "bars" for a few seconds here and there but the LTE symbol will never go away while these bars disappear. Also, when said bars disappear, my IP Widget app says that I have -105 to -116dBm and around 30-35asu with 30-40%ish signal strength so according to that, it never is really losing any signal. It's getting a bit weaker but never going into a "no service" mode. I tried a test call on speaker phone for the whole 20 mile stretch and looked at the phone the whole time while in the car (not driving of course). The bars disappeared here and there quite often but the phone call was crystal clear the entire time and my dBm was anywhere from -78 to -116 throughout the trip, naturally the higher dBm was when the bars disappeared. On the return trip, I browsed the net via Chrome and never lost connectivity and my speeds were very fast even though the bars disappeared periodically.

From my unofficial testing, the "bars" in the notification bar don't mean a thing.

Yes the bars are definitely not accurate by the signal and modem are very weak.

I've ran side by side the PH-1 and Pixel 2 for several days. Not comparing the signal strength by the bars and using LTE Discovery it's always a -10 to -20 difference
 

anon(9638631)

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Side by side with my KEYone and Moto e4 at home and at work, they are all about the same in terms of signal dBm and I've never had an issue with either of those devices in terms of bad signal strength.
 

anon(9638631)

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I just walked down to the sub-basement at my work, 2 floors of concrete below the streets of downtown Phoenix. I carry an iPhone 6s on Verizon for work. I took my Essential with me.

iPhone bounced between no signal and one bar. To be fair, it was on one bar more than it was on none. Essential was registering -96dBm and maintained that the whole time I was down there. It may have fluctuated a few dBm here and there but at least it had a signal.
 

mogelijk

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I just walked down to the sub-basement at my work, 2 floors of concrete below the streets of downtown Phoenix. I carry an iPhone 6s on Verizon for work. I took my Essential with me.

iPhone bounced between no signal and one bar. To be fair, it was on one bar more than it was on none. Essential was registering -96dBm and maintained that the whole time I was down there. It may have fluctuated a few dBm here and there but at least it had a signal.

I've thought for a while that Essential's build quality is lacking, in the sense that some phones just aren't assembled well and that QC isn't picking up the issues. For example, there are some that continue to have photo issues when, for seemingly most of us, the camera app issues are solved (not that the camera is great, just that it works decently now and takes some good shots in good lighting). Or how some continue to have issues with the phone stuttering or freezing, when for most of us the phone works buttery smooth.

I suspect the same thing with the antenna, that perhaps in some phones the antenna isn't quite properly placed, so it sits behind the ceramic rather than being in the plastic strips between the titanium and ceramic. I have my phone on T-Mobile and it seems to be fine even in areas other phones report a poor signal.

I really hope the assembly and QC checks are better on an Essential 2.
 

anon(9638631)

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I've thought for a while that Essential's build quality is lacking, in the sense that some phones just aren't assembled well and that QC isn't picking up the issues. For example, there are some that continue to have photo issues when, for seemingly most of us, the camera app issues are solved (not that the camera is great, just that it works decently now and takes some good shots in good lighting). Or how some continue to have issues with the phone stuttering or freezing, when for most of us the phone works buttery smooth.

I suspect the same thing with the antenna, that perhaps in some phones the antenna isn't quite properly placed, so it sits behind the ceramic rather than being in the plastic strips between the titanium and ceramic. I have my phone on T-Mobile and it seems to be fine even in areas other phones report a poor signal.

I really hope the assembly and QC checks are better on an Essential 2.
I agree wholeheartedly.
 

anon(9638631)

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Re-tested my signal strengths on my 3 current devices. Work is Downtown Phoenix inside of a building. Home is Phoenix suburbs inside house. These are an average of three readings at each location. Service is T-Mobile. Note: Even when my Essential Phone is reading -110 to -120dBm, phone calls are clear and data speeds browsing the net are fast.

Essential Phone PH-1
home: -91dBm 50asu 69%
work: -100dBm 40asu 55%

Honor 7x
home: -86dBm 55asu 77%
work: -94dBm 46asu 64%

Moto e4
home: -84dBm 57asu 80%
work: -90dBm 50asu 70%
 

bembol

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I just got it even though I keep hearing problems my addiction says to go for it. LOL

Worst case is I can sell it like my previous 70+ upgrades.

My question is issues like this can be CORRECTED THROUGH SOFTWARE UPGRADE right?
 

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