People receiving your phone--how is the signal strength?

[tekhna]

Effing Samsung and their effing radios.
Signal strength blows.

-112 dBM next to my Rezound at -84 dBm.

Both on ICS.

 

[Jdroids]

Except many report that the Mot reception dropped significantly with the ICS update. So I'm not sure how good a comparison is with a post ICS Razr. Personally I'd rather see a comparison of the S3 & GNex in fringe type areas.

Razr signal reception didn't change with ICS. It's just ICS reporting dbm differently than GB. Still a lot of folks don't realize this when comparing dbm.

 

[JustSomeDudeHere]

Effing Samsung and their effing radios.
Signal strength blows.

-112 dBM next to my Rezound at -84 dBm.

Both on ICS.

Oh man, that is really disappointing.

 

[Jdroids]

Um, we didn't hear about reception issues when these same guys were reviewing the GNex. It was all roses with those reviews at the beginning. It was only quite awhile afterwards when the internet was flooded with reports of data drop issues with the GNex that the reviewers went back and acknowledged an issue.

Personally I give more credence to reports we're getting from users than these reviewers.

To be exact, some reviews of verizon Gnex already said it's signal reception is subpar. It was GSM Gnex that reviews didn't say anything negative, which turned out to be correct anyway. It appears that GSM variants of GS3 also seem to be very decent on signal reception.

This leads me to believe that Samsung's reception issue with verizon is mainly due to CDMA radio chip or software (firmware, driver). But GS3 in US has Qualcomm S4 chip which we can trust. That leaves only the radio software they can screw up on verizon. Hopefully not this time...

 

[Premium1]

So i received my sgs3 today and as soon as it was activated i went into my basement where even the maxx would bounce between 4g lte and 3g. Sitting in the same spot as with my maxx( no longer have it so can't say what the dbms are) my sgs3 is holding 2 bars of lte and has stayed like that the entire time. It also is reading -109dbms. I loaded up instagram, facebook, and the play store, and all loaded without any issues. So at least for me anyway the sgs3 is doing its job. I was surprised to see it doing so well in an area that even my maxx had issues. For me I do not care that it shows higher dbm, when clearly it holds a signal and loads everything I am not worried about it. It seems people are putting to much into the #'s. I will keep testing it out over the next few days and see if anything changes.

 

[DWF89]

ICS Razr -86 to -93 dBm

Galaxy S3 -81 to -83 dBm

Nuff said.

 

[ifp]

Please use this app to check your signal strength and post results there

This is why your Verizon Nexus signal "sucks" - Galaxy Nexus - RootzWiki

I feel the need to quote and point out this link again, it's required reading for comparing an ICS device vs a non-ICS device. Basically don't bother unless you're using his app or something similar to grab all the info.

Effing Samsung and their effing radios.
Signal strength blows.

-112 dBM next to my Rezound at -84 dBm.

Both on ICS.

There is no way that the Rezound is using the same signal strength measurement. You're talking about a difference of approximately 630x signal power. You should give the app in the link a try and post the RSRP signal strengths.

 

[rflores5432]

Absolutely horrible signal so far!!!! Used to get extremely good 3g signal in my house and then 4G at times and that was okay but can barely get a single bar on 3g in my house now with my GS3. And around town thunderbolt was strong with good 4g and GS3 hardly finds any 4G now. :-( .

 

[XeeN]

Great signal at home here. Went from 3G Inc on VZW to 4G... getting 22 down 8 up from the speedtest app. Los Angeles (Sunland area).

 

[JustSomeDudeHere]

Effing Samsung and their effing radios.
Signal strength blows.

-112 dBM next to my Rezound at -84 dBm.

Both on ICS.

Tekhna, aside from the numbers, can you comment on the performance/usability of the Rezound vs sg3 side by side? (Data drops, Download speeds, interrupted or failed downloads, music/video streaming, etc?)

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

 

[tekhna]

Oh man, that is really disappointing.

Photo, sorry it's crummy--taken with an iPhone 4, that's why! Rezound is hard to read, but it says -84, the GS3 -111.

 

[tekhna]

Tekhna, aside from the numbers, can you comment on the performance/usability of the Rezound vs sg3 side by side? (Data drops, Download speeds, interrupted or failed downloads, music/video streaming, etc?)

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

The data has dropped a few times on the GS3, not sure if it was my phone or server-side. Calls take a really long time to connect. Finally hung up and called again after 30 seconds. I'll check data speeds.

 

[Ken7]

Ken7, I like you.... Don't take it the wrong way....lol.

Agree with alot of what you're saying. Folks...we still need to compare phones for real world use in the same locations.

Ken, on ICS, the bars and decibels for 4G really are more accurate. Found this out after the ICS update for the RAZR. That's why it's good to compare it to the RAZR on ICS. I really believe some of the complaints for RAZR users are cosmetic. They see worse so they think it's worse. Also...I think leaving the RAZR on global messes with reception and battery life. My data speeds are always slower on global.

About the Bionic and reception....hey...Moto cant hit a home run every time. Look at the GS2 vs. the G Nex. And absolutely agree about reception history and Moto. These manufactures have been making phones before Android even existed. Moto and decent, better than most reception goes back many, many years.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

Yeah, I like you too...no guys, this is not a love fest!

Jroc, I wasn't aware there was a toggle for global use. Interesting. It makes sense that battery life would suffer.

I agree about the 'cosmetic' effect of reduced bars and the perception of reception (hey, 'reception perception' ). But I think Rushmore reported a worsening of reception with the ICS upgrade, so I wonder if there wasn't some real issue in some cases or in some areas?

So I'm assuming you saw no change in reception, which is great. Are you taking a look at the S3 or the Razr HD?

 

[Ken7]

Effing Samsung and their effing radios.
Signal strength blows.

-112 dBM next to my Rezound at -84 dBm.

Both on ICS.

Ouch and 3/4s! That's the biggest disparity I've yet read. Did you try this in several locations at several times? Almost seems too big to be valid.

 

[Wampa1]

Signal went from -89dB on TB to -104dB on S3 but I'll take the worse signal over constant data drops on the TB. Good riddance on that POS phone.

 

[Ken7]

This leads me to believe that Samsung's reception issue with verizon is mainly due to CDMA radio chip or software (firmware, driver). But GS3 in US has Qualcomm S4 chip which we can trust. That leaves only the radio software they can screw up on verizon. Hopefully not this time...

Well I guess the 'potentially' good thing about that is that even if the reception turns out to be sub par, this time around it may really be correctable with a software update. I never believed that was true with my GNex and it seems to have turned out that way. Of course if it turns out to be an antenna issue...oh well.

But I think the only way to approach this realistically is, if you have S3 reception issues that are really hampering calls or internet connectivity, it's not safe to assume there will be a 'fix'. I think you have to ask if you can live with the phone the way it is. If it does get improved with subsequent updates, fine, but if not can you live with it?

 

[jroc]

Yeah, I like you too...no guys, this is not a love fest!

Jroc, I wasn't aware there was a toggle for global use. Interesting. It makes sense that battery life would suffer.

I agree about the 'cosmetic' effect of reduced bars and the perception of reception (hey, 'reception perception' ). But I think Rushmore reported a worsening of reception with the ICS upgrade, so I wonder if there wasn't some real issue in some cases or in some areas?

So I'm assuming you saw no change in reception, which is great. Are you taking a look at the S3 or the Razr HD?

Yea no change. Bars and decibels got worse, actual phone and data use didnt for me. Speed tests right before and after ICS were basically the same. I would say my decibels got about 10 decibels worse going from GB to ICS. I agree I believe some ppl are having actual reception issues tho.

I am looking at both. I got a family plan, 3 lines, dont want all Moto phones on it. The screen is killing it for me with the Inc 4G. The pros of Amoled are just too hard to give up right now. I got one upgrade available right now....dont know what phone to use it on yet. I got a RAZR, Rezound, and a Droid X1 and Droid 1 splits time on the last line.

 

[thechidz]

I was at -98 decibles and I just sold the phone outright, going to pick up a razr maxx. 4G data, when working was extremely fast, but was not reliable.

Keep in mind Gingerbread and ICS record signal strength differently. Real worl examples are much better indicators like does the phone hold the 4g signal or switch to 3g often.

 

[Ken7]

Jroc, having had the Razr, Rezound and GNex, I still found the Rezound to be the reception king. As good as the Razr Max was, I think the Rezound still had an edge. Are you finding that?

 

[PJnc284]

Well managed to finagle the microsim into my Thunderbolt running LiquidSmooth 3.2 (aosp gingerbread). Wonky stuff going on with the LTE numbers though.