Sprint Galaxy S5: Cell signal

jordo487

Well-known member
Jun 7, 2011
220
2
0
I thought someone else posted something in a comment, but wanted to ask if anyone else on Sprint is having cell strength issues? When I was on my S3, at my house or other random places, I use to get "ok" signal, but now I am getting horrible signal, bounce in and out of 3g/LTE when it would always be LTE on my S3. Also has anyone contacted Sprint on the issue. Not sure if it would be part of a Sprint issue or hardware. I know the S series isn't the best in the world for signal, but didn't think Samsung would put in a worse signal.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: Sprint cell signal

I thought someone else posted something in a comment, but wanted to ask if anyone else on Sprint is having cell strength issues? When I was on my S3, at my house or other random places, I use to get "ok" signal, but now I am getting horrible signal, bounce in and out of 3g/LTE when it would always be LTE on my S3. Also has anyone contacted Sprint on the issue. Not sure if it would be part of a Sprint issue or hardware. I know the S series isn't the best in the world for signal, but didn't think Samsung would put in a worse signal.

I'm with sprint and just got a S5. Today I had constant dropped calls. I chatted with an online rep about it and she said the tower close to me is undergoing NV upgrades that will not be complete for a month or two. This is confirmed using the resources on this site: Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

I donated a few bucks and can see the development of the towers across the US :)

Edit: Forgot to mention my old phone (evo 3d) was having calling issues recently as well. All locations are different. I will be testing extensively this week!
 
Re: Sprint cell signal

I posted about the weaker signal in another post. The S5 is 6-8dBm weaker than my S4. If I put the phone on my pocket I drop to 3G where I didn't on my S4.

Posted via Android Central App
 
Re: Sprint cell signal

While this may be a Sprint issue, I can tell you my S5 is running -3 to -5 dBm better then my S4 when compared side by side on US Cellular!
 
I thought someone else posted something in a comment, but wanted to ask if anyone else on Sprint is having cell strength issues? When I was on my S3, at my house or other random places, I use to get "ok" signal, but now I am getting horrible signal, bounce in and out of 3g/LTE when it would always be LTE on my S3. Also has anyone contacted Sprint on the issue. Not sure if it would be part of a Sprint issue or hardware. I know the S series isn't the best in the world for signal, but didn't think Samsung would put in a worse signal.

Just got my s5 on Friday and I am experiencing the same issue. One odd thing I do notice is when I make or receive calls my signal jumps up a couple bars and remains stable throughout the duration of the call. Test it out, make a call and see if you signal jumps. I contacted sprint and got the same sad story, we are upgrading your local cell towers. My girlfriend has sprint and it appears the tower work could be accurate as her signal, S3, was the same. I'm holding out for another week or so and then I'm going to raise some hell.
 
Just got my s5 on Friday and I am experiencing the same issue. One odd thing I do notice is when I make or receive calls my signal jumps up a couple bars and remains stable throughout the duration of the call. Test it out, make a call and see if you signal jumps. I contacted sprint and got the same sad story, we are upgrading your local cell towers. My girlfriend has sprint and it appears the tower work could be accurate as her signal, S3, was the same. I'm holding out for another week or so and then I'm going to raise some hell.

I remember reading someone explaining this bar increase on here or another forum. They said it's because when you are on data only it shows the bars for the data signal and when you switch to call it adjust the bars for the call signal strength.
 
I am in Georgia and I not having problems with the signal as much as others. It just shows 3G alot where on the S4 it was LTE all the time. One difference is that I am now able to make calls in the elevator and before with the s5 the call would drop as soon as the elevator door closed.
 
Just got my s5 on Friday and I am experiencing the same issue. One odd thing I do notice is when I make or receive calls my signal jumps up a couple bars and remains stable throughout the duration of the call. Test it out, make a call and see if you signal jumps. I contacted sprint and got the same sad story, we are upgrading your local cell towers. My girlfriend has sprint and it appears the tower work could be accurate as her signal, S3, was the same. I'm holding out for another week or so and then I'm going to raise some hell.

I have watched while making and receiving calls and my signal strength also shows max bars, however, after the call ends I am back to 1 or less bars. I have called customer care and they were caring and asked me to stop into the local store which I did. Nothing was found wrong by the technician but he said if it continues I should stop back in. I have only had the phone for 4 days so I will absolutely be going back before the 14th day if it continues as I do NOT want to end up with a refurbished phone. I have no idea what is causing the signal strength to drop but I am hoping it gets corrected. (I understand that it is said to not matter, I get that).
 
I have watched while making and receiving calls and my signal strength also shows max bars, however, after the call ends I am back to 1 or less bars. I have called customer care and they were caring and asked me to stop into the local store which I did. Nothing was found wrong by the technician but he said if it continues I should stop back in. I have only had the phone for 4 days so I will absolutely be going back before the 14th day if it continues as I do NOT want to end up with a refurbished phone. I have no idea what is causing the signal strength to drop but I am hoping it gets corrected. (I understand that it is said to not matter, I get that).

That means your phone is showing TRUE data strength for your area. The display bands match the type next to them...if 4g/lte it should show true high speed data strength. If 3g it should show true 3g/hsdpa(+) strength. If in a call it should show either 2g/edge strength or your 3g/hsdpa(+) strength.

There is not one band or one signal. There is more than one data type and your indicator only shows the most relevant signal.
 
Same here I had the s3 and always had lte than I went to get the gs5 because of spark and where I'm at on the coverage map it shows I'm in spark turbo coverage but I only get 1 bar I never seen more than that. But with this one bar I have seen low and high speeds the highest was 27mbps so hopefully this gets fixed unless the coverage map on their site is lieing