Weak radio/poor reception

[John Dodson1]

Does anyone elses watch seem to not pick up as well as let's say a phone or tablet with the same service? I'm noticing that my watch won't pick up reception on at&t until I drive between 3 and 5 miles past where my Nexus 9(weaker than my old nexus 7) picks up reception which is also on at&t. I also hover in hspa when my tablet has been on lte for some time.

Is that just the nature of the beast since it's a wearable or do I need to try another sim or swap it out for another device?

 

[foxbat121]

When it comes to radio antenna, size does matter.

 

[anon(26204)]

What I was told is that the watch doesn't have the great antennas as the phones /tablets. That's why you're probably picking up HSPA versus LTE. I'm in the same boat with my Urbane 2 and S7 Edge. I've had the watch for about a week now and I have yet to pick up LTE on it However, my S7 Edge is on LTE all day long.

 

[John Dodson1]

I guess that makes a lot of sense as far a having Hspa vs LTE. I'm getting no reception at so on my watch for quite a ways though where my tablet is getting it. Maybe it's my fault though. I'm trying to use it in area where we mostly have sprint.

 

[foxbat121]

Also, the watch only supports 2 out of 4 LTE bands AT&T uses. If your area happen to use one of those 2 missing bands for LTE, your watch will never see it.

 

[evlarberryman]

I agree on the antenna and size matters. I thought I read that these watches extend the antenna into the watch band. If that's the case then shouldn't they be on par with a smartphone in size?

As far as results, I get LTE most of the day on my watch. Albeit I'm in an with very good service by AT&T.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[foxbat121]

In my house where ATT signal is pretty weak, the watch is on par with most of my phones, maybe one bar less. But it certainly can't compare with antenna size inside the tablets OP mentioned. My POS Samsung Galaxy Alpha gets no bars most of time, on the other hand.

 

[John Dodson1]

I forgot all about missing the two LTE bands. That doesn't even really bother me so much though honestly. Hspa is plenty fast to do what the watch is designed for. The problem though is this watch really seems to get reception poorly compared to my Nexus 9. I know they say the bigger the device the better the radio but that's not really true. I'd say it's comparable to a Nexus 5 or Nexus 6 phone but no better. My old Nexus 7 second generation did a little better than the Nexus 9. I'm talking about having 3/4 of my bars on the Nexus 9 and having absolutely nothing on the watch.

Should I be considering getting a replacement or am I asking for too much?

 

[evlarberryman]

I did exchange mine after the first few days because the phone wasn't connecting to the network on cellular very well. The new one they have me at the att store works much better.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[John Dodson1]

I spoke with an att representative and they suggested I do an exchange.