Official Signal Strength and Reception Thread

[Premium1]

Re: low signal strength?

I still remain concerned that this could be a hardware issue. Hopefully this is not the case.

What phone have you had that could not be helped via an ota update for the radio? I had a fascinate, know a few friends with a charge, had a thunderbolt, and all saw signal increase through ota's. I mean it may not make it as great as some moto radio's but it still increased it very much which also helped with battery.. Just curious as to what you base your assumptions off of.

 

[Ken7]

Re: low signal strength?

Wifi at 5 feet: Nexus 5 waves, Bionic 5 waves
Wifi at 25 feet: Nexus 4 waves, Bionic 3 waves
Wifi at 50 feet: Nexus 2-5 waves, Bionic 2-4 waves.

I call it a wash.

3G/4G in random areas today: Anywhere between 2 and 5 bars, with it averaging 2-3 bars.

What matters though, is performance and actual signal strength. I wonder if the icon is just messed up, or if the signal strength is really that low. When I was at 2-3 bars of 4G, I was still pulling down 12Mb with 52ms of latency. On 5 bars, I was pulling down 14-15Mb with 50ms of latency. I didn't check the signal strength in the settings to verify, but I bet Anandtech will when they finish their review. As long as it still performs great and there is no strain on the batter, that's all that matters to me.

My Nexus wipes the floor with the Bionic when it comes to rendering web pages and actually scrolling. It isn't close.

Brandon

Brandon, it's been verified by many, myself included, that the signal strength as reported in the phone's stats (NOT the signal 'bars') is very low compared to other VZW 4G phones. I've seen differences in the same spot by as much as 30dBm!

 

[will54880]

Re: low signal strength?

yes i do have a nexus, as well as an infuse

 

[davidnc]

Re: low signal strength?

No complaints of an signal issue.
Mine couldnt be any better

 

[mitra88]

Re: low signal strength?

I am also 17hrs with 0% witout signal time. Not bad for me.

 

[mitra88]

Re: low signal strength?

I still remain concerned that this could be a hardware issue. Hopefully this is not the case.

Considering comments from P3Droid about the test build of the next baseband, I would remain hopeful.

 

[kayefjay]

Re: low signal strength?

Ive had it unplugged for 35min and at 95% battery and 4% with out signal.

 

[mikestorm]

Re: low signal strength?

People seem to be using 'bars' as a comparison. That's fine if you're comparing one Galaxy Nexus to another, but it's a poor comparison if you're comparing your Nexus to other phones. The bars are simply a visual representation of your signal strength. This stands to reason that there's an underlying algorithm that dictates how many bars should show vs. relative signal strength. What you might not know is there's no 'industry standard' for this algorithm. Consequently, bar representation is not consistent across carriers and phone manufacturers.

Not surprisingly, many phones that I've had are very optimistic with their bar representation. I've been on phones with a -105dBm signal strength which show 3-4 bars. It would appear (at least to me) that Google is using a much more objective algorithm to depict bar signal strength. I would expect to see one-two bars with -105 dBm, and that's indeed what I'm seeing.

At any rate, I'd love to see the math behind the scenes for Samsung's Galaxy Nexus vs. HTC's Thunderbolt.

 

[majiklantrn]

Re: low signal strength?

Wasn't there a big stink on Apple with signal bars?? Before they did the patch I had full signal. After their patch I had 1 -2 bars less.

 

[bplewis24]

Re: low signal strength?

Brandon, it's been verified by many, myself included, that the signal strength as reported in the phone's stats (NOT the signal 'bars') is very low compared to other VZW 4G phones. I've seen differences in the same spot by as much as 30dBm!

Yes, I see that now. Unfortunately I can't test two phones side by side without going into a store now. I'm about to head out and keep my phone on 4G the entire day now to see how battery life is as well as how the signal strength/connection is. Will report back.

FYI though, my Bionic switched from 4G back to 3G periodically throughout the day as well.

Brandon

 

[will54880]

Re: low signal strength?

That is why I took the screen shot that I did. Also, the db hung around -120 at my house.
Duluth/Superior just had 4G turned on 12/15/2011. Parts of Duluth have great signal, one of the outlying communities had full coverage and download speeds in excess of 40MBps. I am going to ride out the trial period and hope the next update fixes the issue.

 

[bplewis24]

Re: low signal strength?

I am also 17hrs with 0% witout signal time. Not bad for me.

That is similar to my experience from Friday, although I was on wifi for most of the day. I wish I would have kept my battery stats from yesterday, because I was out playing golf and had it on 3G most of the day.

I CAN confirm though, that I never lost a signal out on the course in a remote location outside of the city, because I have to use data each time I pull up the GPS satellite images of the course.

Brandon

 

[mikestorm]

Re: low signal strength?

Wasn't there a big stink on Apple with signal bars?? Before they did the patch I had full signal. After their patch I had 1 -2 bars less.

Yes. Apple learned their lesson and it would appear Google has taken note. iPhones used to show show 4-5 bars yet some folks dropped calls left and right. Upon review, Apple decided their bar algorithm was "flawed' as it was much too optimistic.

They rolled out a patch that was essentially a tiny bit of code to make their bar algorithm more objective, and the result was those call dropping prone iPhones had 1-2 bars all along.

Methinks it wasn't a mistake. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that they were deliberately optimistic with the bar algorithm to mask AT&T's signal strength deficiencies. If you think about it:

• [*]a 1 bar call that doesn't drop will still give you angst.
  [*]a 1 bar call that does drop will get you angry and frustrated
  [*]a 4 bar call that doesn't drop is expected
  [*]a 4 bar call that drop will illicit confusion and/or you coming to the conclusion that the dropped call was a fluke.

Apple's phones got away with the red bullets until 'antennae gate'. Then they bit the bullet, updated their algorithm, and the scales fell away from everyone's eyes.

 

[mitra88]

Re: low signal strength?

That is why I took the screen shot that I did. Also, the db hung around -120 at my house.
Duluth/Superior just had 4G turned on 12/15/2011. Parts of Duluth have great signal, one of the outlying communities had full coverage and download speeds in excess of 40MBps. I am going to ride out the trial period and hope the next update fixes the issue.

Wow! 120dBm is quite bad. I also get that range of signal at my office room. :-\ My home has relatively good signal. My work also does, except for my very own office..... But, either my home or my office, I just turn on Wifi. That's one of the ways to save battery, IMHO.

 

[bplewis24]

Re: low signal strength?

So, I just did about an hour or so of some field testing (non scientific). For the first half hour, my phone intermittently lost 4G connection and kept switching back to 3G. On 4G, I drove around and was constantly in the 1 bar range (-105 dB), and then it would switch to 3G and be in the 4bar range (-75 dB).

Then, on the way back home, going through the same areas, the phone stayed connected to 4G and had between 2-4 bars for long stretches of time. Here are the results on the way back:

3 Bars

Then, I got home and sat outside of my apartment and immediately went down to 2 bars (-104dB):

Then, inside the apartment, down to 1 bar:

Overall, I think this may be a baseband issue. 3G works fine and great at all times with a strong signal. 4G did not, even when in a area with strong coverage, but then on the way back through that same area, it worked great. In my apartment, not so much.

Anandtech seems to think this is the same antenna that is in the Droid Charge, which people here are claiming gets a much stronger signal. I imagine things will improve with a baseband update.

Brandon

 

[Ken7]

Re: low signal strength?

What phone have you had that could not be helped via an ota update for the radio? I had a fascinate, know a few friends with a charge, had a thunderbolt, and all saw signal increase through ota's. I mean it may not make it as great as some moto radio's but it still increased it very much which also helped with battery.. Just curious as to what you base your assumptions off of.

I had a Charge and it was never good. My friend still has a Charge and received the big OTA update. His too is still not good. It's my experience with the Charge that makes me concerned about Samsung radios in terms of the hardware. Yes, hopefully an OTA update will help, but let's face it, from the many many reports, this radio needs a lot of help.

I had zero issues with the Rezound radio and very few issues with the Bionic's. The Bionic's radio was not as good as the Rezound, but still a lot better than the Nexus. With that said I like the Nexus better than any of them.

 

[Ken7]

Re: low signal strength?

I am also 17hrs with 0% witout signal time. Not bad for me.

Well keep in mind that 0% loss of signal says nothing about the quality of the signal or how much time you spent on 3G when you should have been on 4G.

 

[Ken7]

Re: low signal strength?

Considering comments from P3Droid about the test build of the next baseband, I would remain hopeful.

Yeah, I agree, I'm hopeful. I wonder what the timing of this release will be. It would be great if it's before the return window closes for many people.

 

[davpel]

Re: low signal strength?

My experience with the Charge radio was very different. I always had excellent signal strength and my downloads were often in the 30+ mbps range.

 

[thunderstruck]

Re: low signal strength?

I had a Charge and the signal was so bad I took it back and cancelled the contract. I think the question is whether it's a bad radio or bad antenna design? Either could be the culprit, but at least a bad antenna would be easier to fix for Sammy.