VZW Galaxy Nexus ICS 4.0.4 Radios

[mgrosvold]

Does anybody really know or have concrete evidence that 4.0.4 will have new and improved radios or will signal strength reporting simply me modified??

I bought my phone last Friday. I really want to keep it. I have 11 days left to decide. The signal issue is a go/no-go item for me.

I should have done all this research before. I am so surprised that Google's flagship phone by Samsung has so many issues. The battery life I can live with. The speaker/volume issue I can work around. Weak radios is a problem for me.

Thanks

 

[blazin247]

I haven't seen any concrete evidence yet, mostly just a "seems to get better signal" type thing. I wouldn't take anyone else's word on it anyhow, what is a problem or a fix for one won't be the same for another. I'm rooted, but decided against flashing the update and will instead wait for it OTA. My advice? Root, flash it, and see. If it doesn't, you can restore and return your device, if it does help, you have a rooted, much better signal phone right?

 

[anon(596177)]

Does anybody really know or have concrete evidence that 4.0.4 will have new and improved radios or will signal strength reporting simply me modified??

I bought my phone last Friday. I really want to keep it. I have 11 days left to decide. The signal issue is a go/no-go item for me.

I should have done all this research before. I am so surprised that Google's flagship phone by Samsung has so many issues. The battery life I can live with. The speaker/volume issue I can work around. Weak radios is a problem for me.

Thanks

the 4.0.4 radios dont show any more bars than the 4.0.2 radios (in my experience). There are a couple places where i do indeed now see 3 bars instead of 2 for instance, but overall that doesnt change much. The big think=g about the 4.0.4 radios is that it makes switching between the different radios MUCH faster, and I can tell you first hand that is completely true.

 

[mgrosvold]

Certainly appreciate your input and advice. I know just enough about rooting, flashing, etc to be dangerous. I did use CWM/Rom Mgr/Cyanogen Mod ROM on my Droid 1. Not sure that I am brave enough to mess with this new phone. I guess as long as I can get confident in knowing the procedure to roll back to stock, I'll give it a shot.

Thanks again.

 

[zmonster1]

I don't see a big change in the number of bars, what I do see improvement on is switching from 4G/3G/wi-fi.

 

[nuchdog]

+1 on the switching. At work I'm in a basement and get a very week signal. My phone is always switching from 3G to 4G and back. It used to get stuck and emails, etc. wouldn't come in for large periods of time. the battery would die after 5 hours or so I would have to turn 4G off. After 4.0.4 I can now leave my 4G on all the time and my phone will switch to 3G and back cleanly with out burning my battery to death. As for whether the signal is better, I'm not sure. I feel like it does a better job of maintaining data and not dropping calls since it hasn't happened in the past week, but maybe i just haven't noticed.
Either way, try out one of the 1 click unlock/rooters and load up the update. Try it for 10 days and if not use the 1 click unroot/lock to put it back to factory and return it. Remember that we are basically beta testing the software on this phone for Google. It will get better over time. The question is how much better and how soon.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-galaxy-nexus-rooting-roms-hacks/
and
[GNex TOOLKIT V5.3] Drivers, Backup, Unlock, Root, CWM, Flash, Mods + MUCH MORE [GSM] - xda-developers

 

[Droid_Evo_8]

Certainly appreciate your input and advice. I know just enough about rooting, flashing, etc to be dangerous. I did use CWM/Rom Mgr/Cyanogen Mod ROM on my Droid 1. Not sure that I am brave enough to mess with this new phone. I guess as long as I can get confident in knowing the procedure to roll back to stock, I'll give it a shot.

Thanks again.

It's only dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. As soon as I got home with my new Nexus, I wasted no time rooted with this procedure. 5 minutes later, I'm already rooted. You can also use that toolkit to roll it back to stock.

 

[mgrosvold]

First I've seen that tool Kit. Looks like GREAT information. Thanks very much. Looks like I'll be giving root and 2.0.4 a shot soon.

 

[Droid_Evo_8]

First I've seen that tool Kit. Looks like GREAT information. Thanks very much. Looks like I'll be giving root and 2.0.4 a shot soon.

You're very welcome. Happy rooting.

 

[Synbios]

The radio included with 4.0.4 shows more bars for me, but it lies. The signal reporting in 4.0.2 is more accurate.

Here was my situation:

I have done speed tests at 4, 3, 2, and 1 bars of signal. In an area where I usually get 1 bar with 4.0.2, it now shoes 3 bars. I ran a speed test and it is akin to the 1 bar test. I'm pretty sure it is not the speed test, as the Internet connection in general in that area is very weak and runs slow. That's just my experience.

Also,
I can safely say switching between 3G and 4G is very fast. I leave 4G radio on all the time, and the only time it ever switches to 3G is when I'm in the subway or an elevator. With 4.0.2 the switch was soooo painfully slow or sometimes non-existant (I needed to turn on airplane mode on and off or reboot the phone sometimes). 4.0.4 definitely fixed this problem.

I can't wait until raw signal strength meter is out for this. I absolute hate reading signal from bars, they're so meaningless. I was a huge fan of the raw dBm on CM and I have been using that for years until this Gnex.

 

[davidnc]

I flashed just the 4.0.4 radios last Friday.
I did notice I get lower dbm's and more bars at times than I did .This is at home which is just inside 4g coverage area.Also depending on location seems like I get a lower dbm and more bars when I traveled further into the 4g coverage,than I did with 4.0.2 radios .At home I was getting good to great radio signals at home with either.
However at work today which is just a 3g area wasnt as much of an improvement,as it was at home area .It seemed to be about the same as with 4.0 2 radios.
So although with either radio mine always got decent radio signals at work

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[Mordecaidrake]

Am I the only one that hasn't had any problems with data connections?

 

[davidnc]

Am I the only one that hasn't had any problems with data connections?

I havent either,always been able to connect to web,an no dropped phone calls


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[fillossofer]

I flashed 4.0.4 ROM yesterday and I'm really glad I did. Much better experience all around. The 3g to 4g switch lag was really annoying and it appears to be fixed. I really wouldn't judge the GN before running 4.0.4.

 

[Synbios]

I havent either,always been able to connect to web,an no dropped phone calls


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

I get dropped calls when switching from 4G to 3G.

 

[kesnik]

I previously owned a HTC T-bolt and had to Root/Rom the phone to make it usable. With the GNex I have no desire to root except for the radio issues so I decided to try the 4.04 Rom/Radio's. I used the GNex ToolKit found here. I didn't root, just unlocked the bootloader and flashed the 4.04 rom. The hardest part about the whole process is setting up your pc so the tool kit has driver support for the GNex. Afterwards I just left the bootloader unlocked.

As others have mentioned, I have found that the phones switches between 3g/4g way better. I never had a problem with connectivity even know the signal bars were very very low. I don't know for sure but the bars seem to report a slightly higher reading now.

I have never had a problem with the phone rebooting or locking up during a task or while using it but on several occasions I have experienced a locking up or reboot when I wake up the phone. As soon as I hit the power button to wake up the screen it either reboots or locks up requiring a battery pull. I am mentioning this here because I wonder if it?s a radio problem or a problem with the leaked ROM. Anyone running just the 4.04 radio's on 4.02 having the same problem?

-Kesnik

 

[mysterx]

I can't speak to whether more bars display before/after 4.0.4. However, I can say that my perception is that call quality is MUCH improved. My wife has a cheap Sammy Intensity II, which is who I call most from my GNex. Before 4.0.4, it sounded like she was talking with marbles in her mouth. And if my 8 yr old girl happened to answer the phone, I spent most of the conversation saying, 'What? Can you repeat that?'. I always assumed it was just the crappy Sammy Intensity II causing the issue. But after installing 4.0.4, it is like my wife is talking to me from a new phone. So, my perception is that call quality has been MUCH improved with 4.0.4. As always, take this with the typical grain of salt.

-me

 

[mgrosvold]

The hardest part about the whole process is setting up your pc so the tool kit has driver support for the GNex.
-Kesnik

Thanks...

I found that out. I tried multiple times last night to get the batch file/automated process to work with no success. I will try the manual process tonight.

 

[mgrosvold]

But after installing 4.0.4, it is like my wife is talking to me from a new phone. So, my perception is that call quality has been MUCH improved with 4.0.4. As always, take this with the typical grain of salt.

-me

That "sounds good" (pun intended). I appreciate you sharing your experience.

 

[mgrosvold]

I get dropped calls when switching from 4G to 3G.

No 4g here so won't have that problem. Thanks for your input.