How's the signal strength of the Verizon Galaxy S4?

[804hokie]

Before making the switch, I had seen many posts on Samsung radios performing worse than Motorola's. Fortunately, I've yet to have any discernible issues.
I seem to get 1 less signal bar (but I read that that's not the best measure of signal strength) than with my old Droid Bionic at home, but no dropped calls (which are very clear) and LTE speeds are faster. Signal strength readings of -93 dBm, 47 asu for the GS4, but not having my Droid Bionic anymore I can't do a comparison of this, but I do have the old Speed Test results.

GS4:

Droid Bionic:
And LTE
Test Date: Apr 2, 2013 1:20:09 pm
Connection Type: Lte
Server: Washington, DC
Download: 20216 kbps
Upload: 12778 kbps
Ping: 70 ms

I'll also say that the GPS now gets a fix on my position faster than with my Bionic, and with 18-satellites (when the Bionic would see half that at most). I'm very satisfied with the GS4 so far.

 

[Johnathon Wofford]

Ive had the GS4 now for about three weeks. The features are neat, the feel of the phone is awesome, the battery life for me was a nice step up, but the most important thing for me was reception. And it is with the most important thing that I am most disappointed. I got caught up in all the hype and bought myself an unlocked amazon.com GS4 and I bought 2 other GS4s from the Verizon store the next day for my dad and brother. All three phones get pretty disappointing reception. Calls all fine, but I noticed that some of my texts were not sending. I do a lot of buying and selling of merchandise so I bought this phone thinking it would be the fastest thing out there with internet, what I found is that it was slower than my 2 year old droid bionic. I remember when I first got my bionic, the speed was literally faster than my home computer. I have a hard time comprehending that with 2 years of Technological Advancements, how does $700 phone actually perform worse than a Motosaurus like bionic? Ive hardly downloaded anything, all I really check is ebay and fb. Oh well, whats done is done, I just want to put it out there so that someone else who is out there and maybe on the fence about this phone, if you need speed....pass, Samsung dropped the ball on this one big time.

 

[exempli_gratia]

(on Verizon) Certainly better than my GNex. But that's not saying much.

Actually with the last patch the GNex wasn't too bad, but the S4 certainly seems better.

 

[Mark_Venture]

As I've used the S4, I've had many instances of the phone showing 4GLTE "bars" but signal strength is -103 to -105db and doesn't have working data coverage. At the same time, my wife's iPhone 5 has 4GLTE signal and works fine.

 

[Johnathon Wofford]

Update....has nothing to do with reception, but after about a months use, the screen is broken. I dont even know when it happened cause I dont remember it taking any steep drops. From the original droid, to the bionic, probably a good 4-5 dozen drops on each phone and the most I had was chips around the edges....kinda surprised cause I thought I wouldnt even need a case, I was gonna get one anyway, just hadnt gotten around to it. Too bad, so sad, no use crying over spilled milk. Anyone in Los Angeles thats good at replacing screens?

 

[crxer]

Really? I replaced my rezound (which worked great with that huge extended battery) for the S4 and i am SO dissapointed. My rezound had much much better audio quality. It also had reception that was two times better now i lost my unlimited data for this thing. I am returning it and waiting for the one if verzion ever releases it. My rezound at the verzion store had full 4g bars the galaxy S 4 had 2 i asked the guy he said "don't worry about it blah blah".

I told him i wanted another one same thing even his own gs4 had like 3 or 2 bars in the actual store! I am sooo dissapointed i am thinking of taking it back what pisses me off the most is i lost my unlimted data the guy said i had 4 days to decide which is a lie. You lose it as soon as you change your plan and the new plan actually cost me MORE! He also forgot to give me my receipt anwyays i am going to get it tomorrow then return this phone after about a week of playing with it. HTC ONE HERE I COME!! Htc has insanely good radios and i never had problems with reception on those esp my rezound it did have the most horrid battery life of any phone i ever used. But with the extended battery the rezound is a great phone.

 

[Notsosure]

Really? I replaced my rezound (which worked great with that huge extended battery) for the S4 and i am SO dissapointed. My rezound had much much better audio quality. It also had reception that was two times better now i lost my unlimited data for this thing. I am returning it and waiting for the one if verzion ever releases it. My rezound at the verzion store had full 4g bars the galaxy S 4 had 2 i asked the guy he said "don't worry about it blah blah".

I told him i wanted another one same thing even his own gs4 had like 3 or 2 bars in the actual store! I am sooo dissapointed i am thinking of taking it back what pisses me off the most is i lost my unlimted data the guy said i had 4 days to decide which is a lie. You lose it as soon as you change your plan and the new plan actually cost me MORE! He also forgot to give me my receipt anwyays i am going to get it tomorrow then return this phone after about a week of playing with it. HTC ONE HERE I COME!! Htc has insanely good radios and i never had problems with reception on those esp my rezound it did have the most horrid battery life of any phone i ever used. But with the extended battery the rezound is a great phone.

I can have 1 bar or even 5 bars but doesn't change the fact I have no problems with call quality.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Mark_Venture]

...He also forgot to give me my receipt ...

you sure they didn't send you an "e-receipt"? The last few accessories I purchased, they did e-receipt only.

 

[Notsosure]

you sure they didn't send you an "e-receipt"? The last few accessories I purchased, they did e-receipt only.

Verizon account on the website also has a copy of the receipt. So its fairly easy to obtain another one.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jnuschke]

I switched from a iphone 4 for the larger screen and ability to multi task. For these items it has been great, however my signal appears to be weak 24/7. I have been next to a coworker in the field with an iPhone 4 who could surf the web, and I have zero signal. No cell no data. VERY FRUSTRATING.

 

[getbretweir]

Outside Phila, switched from T-Mobile Nexus 4 and my Verizon S4 blows it out of the water.

S4 via Android Central App

 

[Nerelda]

I travel a lot with my phone for work. I've been able to test it out in very low signal areas the past few days. Places I had low to almost no signal, I'm getting better signal. I've also noticed that since some days I work in a building that actually blocks the signal and thus typically killing battery quickly, the S4 handles these situations very well. I still don't get signal in the building, but the battery lasts all day rather than just a few short hours.

 

[tx_tuff]

I travel a lot with my phone for work. I've been able to test it out in very low signal areas the past few days. Places I had low to almost no signal, I'm getting better signal. I've also noticed that since some days I work in a building that actually blocks the signal and thus typically killing battery quickly, the S4 handles these situations very well. I still don't get signal in the building, but the battery lasts all day rather than just a few short hours.

Better then what phone? I'm others words what phone did you have before?

Tapatalk mofo

 

[Nerelda]

Better then what phone? I'm others words what phone did you have before?

Tapatalk mofo

Sorry, I got sidetracked and forgot to put that. I had an HTC Rezound before my S4.

 

[wpn00b]

I work for VZW and have had so many calls regarding the S3 and S4 signal strength. The S3 is far worse than the s4 regarding signal issues, but they both seem to struggle when other devices don't. I just wanted to come here and drop a line and say Please, in the name of all that is Holy, call Samsung and report the issue to them as well. They give us zero support on this (seriously...call them and ask if they've had ANY signal issues with the S3. Even though there were 2 software updates sent out to fix them in the past 2 months alone and there was even a hardware issue...loose antenna screw... fixed in September of 2012, but they've never heard of it) and our network team says the coverage area is to blame, even though other phones have no issue at the exact location.

Please send an email from their website or call them and let them know the issues you are having. I've submitted so many dropped call support tickets that my fingers are numb. All I get back is "Marginal/Variable Coverage Area...blah blah blah". SO WHY DOES AN IPHONE 4 WORK JUST FINE THEN?! Let Samsung know also and we can get to the bottom of this. It's too slow when it's left to Verizon to field all of the calls, duplicate the issue, then notify the manufacturer, who will deny a problem exists until 4 months into the issue, then troubleshoot and test, duplicate the issue, code an update, send said update to Verizon, who will then test the update for 2 months and then finally release to customers, who at that point are so upset with their 3rd replacement that they give me the Nth degree for doing my job and demand a new phone even though the update is available.

Call Samsung to report the issue and troubleshoot if you like, then call us and understand that we will try our best to troubleshoot the issue as well, including the network. Hopefully, with Samsung getting calls from customers as well, a fix will come out sooner than later and we will all be happy once again.

/vent

 

[blackpowderchowder]

um it sucks I switch from my htc evo 4G which I bought two years ago and I got 4G 3G in my house perfectly but once I got the Samsung today I've been noticing that I get 1 bar of 3G. kinda weird eh I'm about to root the old one and do something about this.

 

[campyman]

Hey Man Give us Contact Numbers and Email addresses.... we will flood them with calls and emails....I switched from Motorola Razr to Galaxy S4 and I have crappy signal in my house with a metal roof, yes I know the signal gets blocked, but my razr...(which i passed down to my son) still gets 4 bars and 4g while mine and my wife's shiny new Galaxy S4s have the speck and 3g... the signal on these things suk suk suk....
but i love all the cool stuff you can do with them, still without phone signal, it kinda defeats the purpose!!

 

[zhelf]

in my office where i spend most of my day 6-5 i have very poor signal strength with pretty much any carrier outside my office verizon has great signal here.

my note 2 had fine signal strength never a dropped call or lack of service i only had one bar but it was enough since i have wifi on all day. the note 2 signal would be -90 to -110

The s4's i tried and i tried two with 2 different sim cards both suffered from dropped calls and numerous unable to or failure to send text messages. which is quite annoying for me trying to communicate with people.outside of my office at home signal was perfect never had any issues. But i would say it has worse signal than the note 2, i cannot wait for the new motorola phones as they usually have great signal strength. the s4 would be -95 to -116 so not much of a numerical difference but i could see a real world issue and thus had to return mine

 

[Mark_Venture]

i... the s4 would be -95 to -116 so not much of a numerical difference but i could see a real world issue and thus had to return mine

If I recall correctly, the RSSI values are logarithmic, and not linear.. ie. the gap between -95 and -96 is less than the difference between 99 and -100, and so on.

So -90 on one device and -95 on another can be a really big difference.

 

[tunk123]

I upgraded from S3 to S4 and the signal SUCKS. It is worse than my S3, which wasn't too hot either. My S3 dropped in the drive way and got run over and smashed by a truck, and I reactivated my old Incredible to bridge the time until the S4 was available. I was in heaven with the signal strength of the Incredible! I knew my S3 signal was bad comparatively, but when I went back to the Incredible, I realized how bad it truly was. I assumed the S4 would be better, but NO, it is worse!!!!! This holds true at home and at work, and places in-between. I ditched a landline a couple years ago for home, and had no real problems until...now. The S3 was still workable as a main phone at home, with no landline, even with low signal...I had to move around for stronger bars, and every once in awhile would lose the signal. Now, it is actually embarrassing because the S4 cannot hold a call in my house! I cannot even complete one phone call. It is horrid. Sigh...