Nexus 5 vs Gnex reception on T-Mobile

[khazara]

I have a galaxy nexus running cm 11. It has decent reception on tmo in my area. I just wanted to make sure the nexus 5 radios are at least as good before buying. Thanks!

 

[deftdrummer]

Read through the forums, and you will find a lot of info about the signal indicator for Nexus 5. The phone in general I have found gets decent signal on par with other phones that are available.

The issue as I have come to understand lies with the Nexus 5 running vanilla Android and not adhering to any particular carrier's algorithms to indicate signal strength .

As such the phone often shows one to two bars lower than it should and sometimes reads no signal when in fact the phone does have good signal in terms of dBm.

 

[B. Diddy]

That has been my experience as well. I'll often see 1 or 2 bars, but reception has been fine. I've actually gotten better cell reception on T-Mobile than Verizon in the Silicon Valley (especially Cupertino).