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

[dtreo]

I've got a tower right outside my office window and my Thunderbolt is currently at -38 dBm

When I get my S3 I'll do an "apples to apples" comparison with my Bolt which will show how good/bad the S3 radio is since my proximity to a tower is a non factor

Whoa. -38. That's some serious signal coursing through your place. You could hold three phones at once for comparison using the extra arm growing out of your back!

 

[Premium1]

So, from what I'm seeing, Samsung has improved upon the strength of the radios. I have noticed that the dbm's are no longer as accurate a measurement of signal strength as they once were. For example, my Droid 4 says that I have -93dbm in 3g with 3 bars, and it is slower than all hell. In 4g, it says the same number, but with only 2 bars, and it still downloads music from the web faster than my wifi. Granted, I know that Gingerbread reports the numbers differently than ICS does. But, I think that with 4g becoming the new standard, the dbm's need to be adjusted to take into account the strength of 4g vs 3g. Just a thought... cant wait to buy this phone Thursday!!!

Maybe they will issue an update that makes the bars and dbms relate more to one another because as it stands now I have 2 bars of 4g in my basement but dont really take much of a hit from when I had full bars of 4g with my maxx. But I am glad the sgs3 works and radios have been improved. Hopeully they will continue making them better with future updates.

 

[Ken7]

I was always frustrated with the reception on the GNEX as I live in a house in a fringe LTE area clad in old school Aluminium siding which has been murder not only on my LTE signal but disastrous for a mere 3G signal. After 4 days of comparing the signal from both devices this is what I am seeing: (Standing in the same place in different areas of the house swapping the same SIM card between both devices running 4.0.4)

GNEX: 4G: connected 1 or 2 times with -100 to -124 (unusable download speed)
GNEX: 3G: connected most of the time with -93 to -124 (100-300 kB)

GS3: 4G: connected about 1/3 of the time with -93 to -100 (avg 1-6 MB download)
GS3: 3G: connected 2/3 of the time with -86 to -99 (300-600 kB download)

Take what you will from that. I am happier with the GS3 then I was on the GNEX radio wise. I am getting signal in places I never got before with the GNEX and while it still isn't touching my wife's fruit phone reception (3G wise) it is usable for some small things that I couldn't do before when I was without wifi.

Thanthalin, just so I'm not misinterpreting your results, are you saying that with 3G the GNex connected more often that the S3 (most of the time vs 2/3 of the time) despite the higher speeds of the S3 when it did connect?

 

[eq0120]

this is a great thread, and i would like to thank the OP for starting it. I'm ready to jump ship from sprint to verizon, and all of my friends are saying do not go with a samsung. I understand why cause i have a sg4t (galaxy2) for sprint and drop between 3-5 calls a day, and its getting very frustrating, and costing me money cause its my work phone. Everyone recommends motorola for signal, and i back that up. when i had a moto photon i rarely dropped calls, but switched to the samsung for the bigger more beautiful screen and rooting community, what a mistake that was! i might just wait until moto comes out with their new verizon phone, and hopefully soon. I think you guys have changed my mind about the sg3.

 

[2waterfowl]

My Gnex is sitting right next to my wife's new G3. Here are my results:

Gnex = -79 dBm
SGS3 = -80 dBm

Can't make a good jump from these results. Just sayin.

 

[haevolution]

Both my Nexus and SGS3 have better voice signal than my Moto DX had. Had many dropped calls with that phone. Don't recall any with the Nexus and none so far with SGS3 either.

 

[atlharry]

Just compared my GNex to my wife's GS3.

-79 dBm - GNex
-70 dBm - GS3

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[21plays]

mine is -58

 

[wickets]

Can you make calls (without them dropping) at -117 db? Just wondering. My phone is -94 db at home (far from tower) and, while I never drop calls, I get the missed words every now and then.

I'm at -120 usually when I'm home......never had any issues with calls, texts etc. Sending a pic via sms can take a while LOL

 

[KenA]

I'm coming from the HTC Dinc2, but the "phone" service is worse. I have dropped several calls since receiving the S3 last week. I'm getting anywhere from -85 to -100+ normally.

 

[thatfeel]

so 4g is pretty much impossible for me to use I guess.

I finally got connected to it for a brief moment and checked the DBM.

I'm 122DBM 18 ASU on 4G

Apparently 95 DBM and 1 ASU on 3G

so internet is pretty much worthless on my phone while at home

 

[squiddy20]

Glad you know my history buddy it goes way back and I get what I want when I want it. Yes Evo 4g, Evo 3d, Galaxy S2 skyrocket, Lg Revolution, Galaxy Nexus, and now Galaxy S3 on Tmobile. Don't hate brother educate yourself is what you need to do. CDMA VERIZON devices have poor service anyway. Enjoy your poor battery draining LTE network on Verizon the overpriced and overrated network.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 on Tmobile..

I would like to point out (again) that, of the above listed phones 2 of them you "owned" for no more than 3 weeks, which likely means you didn't actually ever own them because you more than likely traded them in. Additionally, of the remaining 4 phones, 2 you only "owned" for less than 8 months. Are you having fun with those ETFs? No wonder you were homeless 5 years ago (page 2).
Finally, just because *you* can't afford Verizon's services, doesn't mean they are "overpriced and overrated". Lots of people don't mind the high prices and actually find Verizon's network quite robust and useful.

 

[rushmore]

wow, 100's? dam, that is bad. i've been eyeing that device as well but keep hearing about bad signal. thanks for the heads up.

There are far too many variables to take a few person's results, so best to test for yourself and compare to the device you have now. Enough people that have them that I trust say the signal is not bad like the Charge or Gnex and more an equal between the Incredible and Razr. I have the Incredible and the Razr, so will test (when Best Buy sells the darn thing) and see if this perspective is correct.

Go Kats!!!!

 

[rushmore]

so 4g is pretty much impossible for me to use I guess.

I finally got connected to it for a brief moment and checked the DBM.

I'm 122DBM 18 ASU on 4G

Apparently 95 DBM and 1 ASU on 3G

so internet is pretty much worthless on my phone while at home

This info on it's own does not give perspective unless you compare to another device you have, since this could be the case for any device, where you live.

 

[smitty0255]

here are mine. rezound on ics leak and GS3.

 

[jdubb82#AC]

I have good coverage for 3G and 4G in my area where I live and would typically see -70 dbm or higher on 4G with my Galaxy Nexus . However inside my apartment signal drops because its an old building built in the 1860's with 1.5 foot thick brick exterior walls. Inside I woud normally have -100 to -110 dbm before I would loose 4G to 3G...or sometimes signal all together (wifi is definitely my best friend here). There is a back window where I could get -89dbm on 4G on a good day.

With the Galaxy S3 the interior signal strength has not changed much for 4G and in fact is slightly worse with -112dbm and -109dbm in the back window. Butt--and this is a huge, round, voluptuous butt--it holds on to 4G better than the Nexus which would drop when I walk in the door. 4G now stays on when moving around longer than before with an active data connection. I don't really need wifi anymore but still use it anyway. Numbers are numbers but at the end of the day in practice this has worked better for me than the Nexus.

 

[mikesmith]

Is this good? Cause I still get a lot of dropped 4G connections with it.

Is my phone faulty or is this normal/to be expected?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[rmader]

How do you pull up phone info on the SCH-I535.

Thanks for the help

 

[atlharry]

How do you pull up phone info on the SCH-I535.

Thanks for the help

Settings -> About Phone -> Status

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[tekhna]

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.



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.

Good call on using the the aditional signal app. The GS3 is a bit worse, but it's not so absurdly awful as my initial comparison showed.