Nexus S WiFi performance compared to the Nexus One

[HTMLSpinnr]

I'm new to both the Nexus S and the Android platform in general - my former device being an EDGE/Wifi-only Blackberry Curve. Inside my home, 3G coverage is sparse (blame Low-E glass?), thus I tend to rely on Wi-fi to augment T-Mo coverage and to lower my likelihood of hitting the soft 5GB cap. Previously, this worked reasonably well except in the far opposite corners of my house w/ the Blackberry.

I handle Wi-Fi as part of my day job and will profess my router location is not ideal being on one edge of my house. That said, I have the phone setting 3 ft from the router side-by-side w/ the Blackberry. The Blackberry consistently reads 3-6dBm higher than the Nexus S in the same location. In the opposite end of the 2400 sq ft single-story house, the discrepancy can be as high as 12dBm, putting the Blackberry as barely "usable" and the Nexus as unusable.

Because moving my router isn't an option at the moment, I've bought some 9dBi gain antennas for the router w/ the hope that I can reduce Tx power (not sharing so much w/ neighbors) and improve reception at the same time. My chosen channel is clear and not overlapping any nearby neighbors. Interference is generally low. The router is set to 84mW (a DD-WRT recommended max to avoid distortion).

That said, having compared the Nexus to a nearly 2 year old phone, the results are alarming and make me question whether there's a bad batch of phones or whether the antenna design is just "poor" (or my aging router is just on its way out).

Does anyone know what the specs on this "low-power" Wi-Fi chipset (max Tx power) and antenna (gain vs attenuation) for the Nexus S?

Are there any MT4G users out there w/ similar problems? I'm tempted to return this phone for the MyTouch4G based on the Wi-Fi performance, a buzzing ear-piece, support for UMA, and general stability of the device. Feedback welcome.

 

[HTMLSpinnr]

Exchanged my phone tonight due to a buzzing ear-piece and with the hopes that WiFi would get a bit better. Ironically on the Best Buy demo unit, the performance was a bit closer to the Galaxy tab we compared it to in the BB store. Sadly, my exchange didn't fare as well. When I got home, the exchange unit is just as bad as the first unit for WiFi performance. Sounds like high-gain antennas on the AP, or a new 802.11n router are the only tricks left in my bag unless there's something Samsung is willing to do for us.

What's worse is that BB only permits one exchange in the 30 day period, so no jumping ship to the MT4G unless I sell and buy at the off-contract price.

Despite that, they were pretty cool about the whole process since I just "dropped in" w/o the box, receipt, etc. They performed the exchange w/ just the phone and waited patiently while I copied the data from the old phone to my laptop (their transfer device didn't "understand" Nexus yet).

 

[Smokexz]

Jerry, check out the wifi performance with 2.3.1, maybe that was one of the glitches they fixed.

Sent from my Nexus S

 

[HTMLSpinnr]

Summary: While the WiFi performance of the Nexus S is still sub-par compared to most devices, my router, or more specifically, DD-WRT on my router had something to do with it after all.

Tonight, I switched from DD-WRT to Tomato after I discovered that no matter what Tx power I chose (50, 71, and 84mW), the resultant RSSI on the Nexus S was constantly poor in a fixed location in my house - even after upgrading the antennas to monster 9dBi units. This meant to me that DD-WRT wasn't really applying the Tx power value after all and some sort of default prevailed.

I then flipped the router to Tomato v1.28 which defaults to 42mW on WRT54G v1.x hardware and observed the same RSSI on the phone (-73 or worse). I bumped output power to 50mW (17dBm) and saw an immediate improvement on the phone all over the house. What was easily -73dBm is now -63dBm in the same location. At last, WiFi on the device is usable.

I'm also using a pair of Alfa 9dBi gain antennas on the router which vastly reduced the receiving error rate - great for lower powered devices like the Nexus. I've also moved the router to a slightly more centralized location and away from metal wire shelving.

Others having a similar problem can try these avenues if the options are available to you. Remember to not exceed legal Tx powers (84mW is a WRT54G reasonable maximum and still within legal limits).

 

[anon(52425)]

I too have awful wifi performance. I am sitting about 6 feet from my router and I have 2 bars. If I place my hand over the top back portion of the phone it drops to 1 bar. Needless to say I am a bit disappointed. My previous phones (iPhone 4, dell streak, nexus one) all had excellent strength. I really hope a fix is on the way.

 

[tracker198x]

The wifi antenna is located on the top right back of the phone. If youcover it up the signal goes down drastically.

 

[anon(52425)]

Yeah but 6 feet from the router I shouldn't have only 2 signal bars.

 

[Smokexz]

I am sure this is a software issue, if not... we might have some issue on our hands. Lol

Sent from my Nexus S

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

I am sure this is a software issue, if not... we might have some issue on our hands. Lol

Sent from my Nexus S

Let's hope it's just software, but it's up in the air right now as far as I'm concerned. Samsung is using some sort of ultra-low power wireless technology, and that could be part of the problem.

 

[street.hawk]

Nexus S still has better throughput and latency compared to Iphone 3Gs.

Hey,

I thought I might put in my 2 cents in this discussion as well.

- I tested both my iPhone 3Gs and Nexus S on the same wireless G network and I am getting slightly better throughput and latency on Nexus S even though the wireless reception is -20db better on my iPhone.

I guess at the end of the day what matters is which one is faster and clearly it's Nexus S so I think there is nothing to worry about.

Also, they both detect the same wireless networks around my house. It's only my laptop which picks a couple of extra really faint wireless signals so I am not too worried.

 

[smile_fadillah]

My HTC Desire Z is definitely MUCH better at picking up wifi then my Nexus S.. :-( so much for upgrading to gingerbread..

 

[Nawktonson]

The wi-fi signal is really terrible on this phone. My connection always keeps dropping even when I'm sitting right next to the router. I never had this problem on my BBerry Curve 8900. At least the OS doesn't feel 10 years outdated on my Nexus

 

[Master_Chronos]

I too have had terrible signal strength on the Nexus S since day one. A few internet searches later and I realise it's a common problem that people aren't actually reporting to Samsung.

Samsung are the manf of the phone, this problem needs to be reported to them en mass.

To help peoples in their way
Google's General Help page @ Help – Nexus S

Samsung's 'My Samsung' where you can register your device and open Support Cases
UK
My Samsung SAMSUNG
USA
Samsung

Other countries - go to the :: Mobile Exciting!! - Samsung Mobile :: website and choose your country, from there join/register and Open a case!

fyi Android Issues should be logged at <source.android.com/source/report-bugs.html>
This is not an Android issue - it's more than likely an issue with the low-power WiFi chip used in the Nexus S under-performing.

PLEASE Anyone who is experiencing problems with the Nexus S and WiFi report it directly to Samsung - open a case with them... and then chase them up! When logged into Samsung you will see 'Contact Us' links to Phone Numbers - ring them and complain!

The more complaints they receive the more likely they are to fix the problem!

 

[Khoi Nguyen]

Nexus S

My Nexus WiFi and 3G is horrible after switching from the Epic (I didn't want the keyboard). Sitting a my office desk the two phones are a night and day difference. The bars are constantly fluctuating.

-Sending text messages are a pain, error message "text not sent"
-No LED, stupid
-The back, settings, search and home buttons are so ridiculously dim they might as well not even light up. Having switched from the Epic, I am always miss pressing them in daylight situations
-Google Voice has hijacked my phone's voice and text system, I have signed out of GV but cannot get my phone's original VM and incoming call functions back

Overall very disappointing. It seems with all the issues of the Epic the Nexus S is worse. I will be switching as soon as possible.

 

[thegewp]

I have a Nexus S 4G and have had constant issues with wifi. I dont think i've ever had more than 2 bars with any home access point and the only way i can get the hp procurve at work to connect is if i'm standing right under it. Even then i only have 3 bars and the router tells me i'm connected at 11Mbit and nothing more. The procurve does N quite well and i get a 270Mbit connection on my laptop through 2 walls. Was really hoping to boast about that with the Nexus S with N speeds but my old palm pre was way faster on wifi.

 

[Rahabib]

I have the T-mobile version and I have to say the Wifi is pretty bad. My iPod Touch has a much better signal. Its usable, I rarely get disconnected, but it fluctuates a lot even when you are standing right next to the router.

 

[raWill]

The WiFi was so bad on my phone that I have finally taken it back. To make matters worse this was my first new phone in 6 years!!

I couldn't even maintain a decent connection in my house, cafe's, etc to make this phone worthwhile. I wanted it to make Skype calls on the go. 3G however, was excellent.

I noticed that the reception issues were 10x worse when actually holding the phone whilst trying to maintain a WiFi connection. Getting full bars of signal within line-of-sight with the router placing my hand behind the phone (as you would hold it to make a phone call) it would drop to 1 bar of signal, or one dot.

Along with this it suffered from a lot of software stutters, graphical glitches & audio problems. Rebooting the phone often fixed this for a short while. The WiFi strength issue, however, had no fix.

Very disappointed in the phone considering it was the latest and not a cheap :-$ $500, luckily all I wasted was $20 credit for one month as I received a full refund.

 

[dobiegillis]

Anecdotaly I believe my Nexus S has a somewhat poorer and slower connection to my home wifi than my HTC Glacier. Even when both are on the 2.4ghz network. I'll test tonight.

 

[Nirvana328]

any changes on the wifi radio given the numerous updates the Nexus S has gotten? I'm considering buying a Nexus S and was just curious how the wifi strength is, and if it's tolerable or not. FYI I'm also coming from a Nexus One, so if possible how much worse is the Nexus S radio (with current software) compared to the Nexus One. Thanks

 

[Rahabib]

any changes on the wifi radio given the numerous updates the Nexus S has gotten? I'm considering buying a Nexus S and was just curious how the wifi strength is, and if it's tolerable or not. FYI I'm also coming from a Nexus One, so if possible how much worse is the Nexus S radio (with current software) compared to the Nexus One. Thanks

honestly if you care about wifi that much, I would wait until Samsung/Google works this out.