Pixel XL signal strength

[veedo]

Anyone in outlying areas with normally iffy reception able to report comparisons? I feel like I'm talking to people on Match.com, when I need to be on FarmersOnly.com!

Lol. Dude I spend most days in the pickers. This is my first non moto phone since Nokia in 1999. Will keep you posted.

 

[Jason Stroud1]

Hey guys, I'm on Verizon and could get no service until I found the APN settings in cellular network settings and selected Verizon, now I'm getting better service than my wife's s7 edge, before I couldn't get anything.

 

[Amele]

I did get the OTA for the wifi and I can't see that it helped much, maybe a little. When my wifi is
strong (which is rarely) it gets on fine, but when it's sort of middling, it doesn't. The Note could and did get online with that middling area of wifi which is where the wifi sits usually. We'll see. I do like the phone in general particularly since I have found some apps to do the things I was missing most in the Note.

 

[hortmil]

What's wrong with my battery/network strength?

Hi,

Some background - in the past I've had a Nexus 5 which always had terrible battery life despite being replaced a few times so I assumed it was normal - it seemed to drain whether I was using it or not. I then switched to an iPhone 6, which always had comparatively awesome battery life and if I didn't use it would hardly use anything and would last for days. Same with my work iPhone SE - if I don't use it then I only charge it every few days.

I've now switched back to a Pixel XL. Fantastic phone and glad to be back on android, but seems to exhibit the exact same battery issue as the Nexus 5 - what gives? I barely used the phone last night and didn't charge it overnight, and now it's mostly drained? Here's the screens:



The only thing I can see is that the network quality looks consistently terrible, which doesn't make sense as this is all in a city (Calgary, Canada) and I have no issues with call quality/speed. The Nexus 5 looked the same. Is there something I'm missing? Carrier is Koodo on all these phones.

If anyone has any idea what is wrong here the help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: What's wrong with my battery/network strength?

Welcome to Android Central! I moved this from General Help to the Pixel forum, since I thought it would be most useful for other Pixel users to chime in. However, I will note that my 6P has also been exhibiting increased Android System/OS battery percentage use, with similar usage graphs, so I wonder if there might be an issue with Nougat.

 

[Bearcats98]

Re: What's wrong with my battery/network strength?

To eliminate the network quality, turn data off overnight and see what it looks like.

My next test would be to leave data off for a night and then turn on wifi to see what that does to the battery.

 

[hortmil]

Re: What's wrong with my battery/network strength?

Thanks - that probably should have been my first action, but I went straight into disabling LTE instead and that seems to have calmed the background draining and made my battery behave like it should. This is last night, with me being unable to sleep, 2h 43m SOT:



Of course though, I'd like to leave LTE on, and I shouldn't have to do this! Is there a possible network issue with my carrier and LTE?

 

[miyanc]

Hey guys, I'm on Verizon and could get no service until I found the APN settings in cellular network settings and selected Verizon, now I'm getting better service than my wife's s7 edge, before I couldn't get anything.

mine is selceted ( no other option ) and still terrible service.

 

[miyanc]

OK so I am not sure what the asu numbers mean but so far signal is not good. I havent seen anything above -100. and still getting drops or trouble talking. Usually its the other person cant hear me. I am thinking of calling it in. I doubt there is anything they can do but who knows. I did notice the advanced calling is there now. NOt sure if that was some update, but it wasnt there as of saturday.

 

[Jason Stroud1]

mine is selceted ( no other option ) and still terrible service.

Well I'm not sure what to tell you, I've had no problems after I found the APN settings. Like I said I had my wife's s7 edge and was comparing.

 

[jamezr]

OK so I am not sure what the asu numbers mean but so far signal is not good. I havent seen anything above -100. and still getting drops or trouble talking. Usually its the other person cant hear me. I am thinking of calling it in. I doubt there is anything they can do but who knows. I did notice the advanced calling is there now. NOt sure if that was some update, but it wasnt there as of saturday.

Maybe you have a bad unit?

 

[Shepx13]

My advice for everyone having concerns is to try the phone out yourself and see how it works for you. Numbers don't mean crap. I commute 65 miles each way for work, most of which is over iffy reception. The Nexus 6p was touted as having amazing reception. IMO it sucks, and is by far the worst phone I've ever had as far as holding onto weaker cell signal.

FWIW my Note 7 was amazing and by far the best phone I've had in that regard.

 

[Almeuit]

I get mine in probably .. 40-50 minutes from now so I will be able to start checking .

 

[miyanc]

My advice for everyone having concerns is to try the phone out yourself and see how it works for you. Numbers don't mean crap. I commute 65 miles each way for work, most of which is over iffy reception. The Nexus 6p was touted as having amazing reception. IMO it sucks, and is by far the worst phone I've ever had as far as holding onto weaker cell signal.

FWIW my Note 7 was amazing and by far the best phone I've had in that regard.

i only started looking at numbers after having a problem. and yes so far either note7 was better then this, signal wise and the best I have had.

 

[Amele]

My pixel xl has been doing a little better on the wi-fi, just a little but enough to make me optimistic. The Verizon signal is usually ok unless the weather is really bad but sometimes it takes almost 4 minutes (I timed it) to actually show the signal, to really be online with the network, where I live.
But I am at the very back of a 3 house compound, with a ton of trees so I am not surprised. And Verizon is the only company that works even that well around here. Go six blocks south and T mobile works ok but not here. Weird. But what I am saying in my usual overly long way is that the signal strength both wifi and Verizon has improved a little since I first set up the phone.

 

[Go0gle]

Re: What's wrong with my battery/network strength?

A few things you can do that make a huge difference:

1) Change "Keep Wifi on During Sleep" to "never" or "only while charging" in WiFi settings

2) In the Location menu, turn off "WiFi Scanning" and turn off "Bluetooth Scanning"

3) Turn Location to "battery saving" unless you need high accuracy of course

Those three things really help prevent the steady, constant drain - the first two especially.

 

[w8tnonu22]

I exchanged my pixel today due to having some wifi connectivity issues on a captive portal wifi. The new one is doing great on signal. Using the same app and side by side it's the same as my note 7 this round. I will say that the note 7 usually shows full signal where the pixel xl shows one base, but the dBm are the same. So the note is a little more lenient on the signal bars. So far so good with this one. Hopefully the wifi will work which I'm a little pessimistic on that due to I'm thinking it's going to be a software issue. Just wanted to give a update.

 

[john_v]

Always ensure to check the actual -dBm signal strength within the phone settings / network info area. Bars can be calculated VERY differently from phone to phone. The -dBm is the true strength so you will know how good it is.

This. My Priv always shows 1-2 bars less than my wifes S7 side by side, but doesn't act like it's got low signal. Still get good speed even w/ low bars

 

[miyanc]

just made a ticket for signal issue. we shall see.

 

[rebretz000]

I have the Nexus 5X and just received a Pixel XL. I'm using AT&T as my network.

I noticed that my Pixel XL has an extremely weak cellular signal. At my house it shows -115dBm while my Nexus 5X has -95dBm. They talked up the Pixel and it's three antennas and the phone having great signal strength but mine is horrible. I was wondering if anyone else who went from a 5X to a Pixel have similar strength issues or if my phone is defective.



I have since received another Google Pixel XL and the signal strength is just as bad. I have tried three different SIM cards and even went to the AT&T store to get a brand new SIM card and the signal strength is still awful. The weak signal strength also killed the battery. My Nexus 5X always has green signal strength. Look at how bad the Pixel XL is.