S4 poor signal reception

[Des Richardson]

How do you find the signal reception of the S4?
I swapped an iphone 4 for the 4s and struggle to get any usable signal with the S4 where the iphone is ok.
I've got them running side by side in field test mode so that they give a number reading of signal strength. The iphone says -90 and the Galaxy s4 says -105. I've tried swapping the sim cards over, changing the network modes and everything but the readings are just the same.

What it means, because the numeric signal scale is logarithmic, is that the galaxy is getting about one thirtieth of the signal strength of the iphone. That's absolutely rubbish. Its not bad where there is a strong signal but I can't use it for phone calls here at home.

I reckon that the bottom line is that S4 just doesn't have a very good antenna. I like the galaxy but stuck with using my iphone. Thinking I will buy something else eventually but don't want to waste money on something else that won't work.

I wondered what other people had found - if this was a common thing.

 

[dancing-bass]

it seems to be a common complaint about Samsung phones - for whatever reason the radio stack they use is weaker then the competition, iPhone included. I don't have one but I've heard from many people the iPhone has great reception, especially compared to Samsung. Unfortunately the only thing you can do about it (if you want to stay with Android) is sell/swap the S4 for something else, perhaps the MotoX

 

[osvanberg]

it seems to be a common complaint about Samsung phones - for whatever reason the radio stack they use is weaker then the competition, iPhone included. I don't have one but I've heard from many people the iPhone has great reception, especially compared to Samsung. Unfortunately the only thing you can do about it (if you want to stay with Android) is sell/swap the S4 for something else, perhaps the MotoX

That's a load of crap imo! I have a lot of iPhone friends and my S4 kicks their **** 7 times of of 10 easily when it comes to reception!

 

[Lucy Davies]

What about downloading an app called network signal speed booster from the play store? It's had 1 million downloads. That may work or it may not. Haven't tried it myself yet but thinking about it. I don't think my signal is to bad though.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[dancing-bass]

I had a Gnex previous to my S4. If you want terrible reception (and call quality) go grab a Gnex. My S4 runs circles around it based on reception and call quality alone (nevermind all the other stuff my S4 does easily that would bog down my S4).

Wifey's iPhone 5 usually seems to hold a signal better then my S4, but there have been times when she's got nothing and I've still got a bar or 2 (both on the same carrier).