Weak Signal (Verizon)

[orporter]

I just up-graded to the Verizon Note 4. First impressions. The reception is much stronger on the Note 4. My Note 3 was awful after the upgrade, period. Nothing I did or Verizon tried helped. My reception out of the box, in my house, is -84 dBm, the 3 never came close to this. My Note 2 had this same kind of performance. I am very pleased with this so far. Hope it holds up. I was tired of having to go where T-mobilers went to make calls at my place of work. I like having a smart phone but I also like having a phone that can make calls where it should. Reception is important as these devices advance.

 

[DynoMikeR]

Mine was on global out of the box, weak signal also. Had to switch it to LTE manually. Works great now! It's worth a check. Settings, more networks, mobile networks, network mode..

 

[byrds8]

I tried that it did not do anything for it. What is weird is when it reboots it will hit 5bars and sit about -84dbm until its done booting up then drops to like -98dbm. Its almost acting like the radio is not as sensitive as it should be so its ignoring the rest of the signal in. I dont think I have ever seen this phone hit 5 bars even outside.

 

[scallawag]

Re: Weak Signal

My experience is the exact opposite. The Note 4 is a significant improvement to both the 2 and 3. Call quality and reception is night and day difference. I am on Verizon.

I live in a very fringe area most phones and carriers drop calls and Verizon is the only carrier to have. I don't look at the signal strength readings as they don't matter to me. On the N4 the calls don't drop and are very clear web pages load nicely I do see in the status bar the phone changing from 4G to 3G and back but I don't care about that as long as the phone preforms good.
In my constant search for the best call, data, GPS, reception I have tried many phones the ones I still own are LG G3, Droid Turbo, Droid Maxx, Samsung S5 and Note 4.
The Note 4 is hands down the very best. It is so much better it is no contest. On the G3 and Maxx I have to sometimes go out on the porch to keep calls form dropping and they are the second best. The Turbo is the absolute worst.
It's so nice to just sit at my desk and talk that I think this Note 4 DE will be with me for A very long time.

 

[BFGOD]

Thanks. That was my problem

 

[hrimcealde]

Thanks, DynoMikeR. I've been going crazy in the two days since i got my N4 - everytime it would go into a dead zone, the signal wouldn't come back until i restarted the phone. But this advice is exactly what was wrong with it, and now it's working great! And I didn't even have to spend half my day on the phone with customer support at Verizon.

 

[DynoMikeR]

Thanks, DynoMikeR. I've been going crazy in the two days since i got my N4 - everytime it would go into a dead zone, the signal wouldn't come back until i restarted the phone. But this advice is exactly what was wrong with it, and now it's working great! And I didn't even have to spend half my day on the phone with customer support at Verizon.

Happy to share what I found. Glad it worked out for you as well.

 

[nikkeya]

Thank you so much. I though it was just an issue in my house only 2 bars all the time. Worse if I'm in certain rooms. Finally googled and found this. I switched from Global to the LTE/CDMA and now I have all my bars!

 

[beh]

Re: Weak Signal

I have the same on mine. I don't have as good a signal as on my N3, but that was on AT&T. When I had my Note 2 on Verizon, getting about the same on my Note 4. So for me it's just worse on Verizon. I get 4 bars usually and no problems with getting LTE and sometimes as low as 1 or 2 bars at home, but still LTE and no dropped calls or internet. I'm just ignoring it like I did on my N2. It just gets me ticked that Verizon advertises these super fast XLTE speeds and better coverage, and I've never noticed that with my N4. I got the same speeds on my Note 2 which wasn't an XLTE phone if I remember right. I'm in a 4GLTE area with XLTE capabilities too. It's fine though, the speeds I get aren't slow.

It's Verizon though, so since I refuse to pay what AT&T wants for the Note 4, I'm going to see what my Data usage is next month. If it's high, I'm going to either try My Verizon N4 on T-Mobile where I can get more or Unlimited Data for almost the same price as the next Data package up on Verizon, or Sell my Verizon N4 and get a N4 on T-Mobile. Hopefully I will have less data usage next month and will just stay with Verizon.

I agree, the whole point of the phone is to be able to make and receive calls and not have them dropped wherever you are. My Note 4 does that on Verizon not only in dense cell tower areas but also where if there is going to be any signal it will be Verizon.
Interestingly, in trying changing from global to LTE/CMDA at my home location I get exactly the same radio signal strength readings.