Official Signal Strength and Reception Thread

[Recker]

Re: low signal strength?

I have a much weaker signal in NW Ohio on the Nexus compared to my Droid X. At work I have 4G and at home I just have 3G and they are both weaker. I noticed that when I walked away from my Network Extender (3G) at home the signal would drop off quickly. I called tech support twice. First time they had me remove the battery and sim card for ten minutes. Second time we did a factory reset. I was having dropped called, no internet, and some texts would not send. It seemed to help just a little bit.

Today I took it back to the store to have them look at the settings to see if I missed something. They could not find anything setup incorrectly. They said to just keep using it and see if the problems continue.

My guess is an update will come out to fix it at some point. Hope so, it is a really great phone otherwise.

 

[bennolen]

Re: low signal strength?

Don't do that, it can screw up your sim card. *228 is only for 3g phones.

So it appears no way to update the PRL manually then on newer phones.

On a side note, how crazy that an update command would screw up a card. In this case, the phone prevents it. I take it other phones do not.

 

[Premium1]

Re: low signal strength?

So it appears no way to update the PRL manually then on newer phones.

On a side note, how crazy that an update command would screw up a card. In this case, the phone prevents it. I take it other phones do not.

I know some of the first lte phones did not prevent it, but looks like verizon wised up and prevented it to save some sim cards.

 

[Silent Patriot]

Re: low signal strength?

Can barely hold a 1x/3G connection at my apartment which is on par with the coverage I had here with the old Touch Pro 2. Will very occassionally see 4G light up here, but not enough to even matter. Getting Network Timeout Errors running Speedtest about 1/3 of the time. Called CS and asked if they thought a network extender would help and if they'll send one out to try while I'm still within the 14 day trial-period; but they want to try some troubleshooting first and I don't have an alternate line to call from here. Said I'd take it to the store in the next few days and have them take a look at it there to make sure it's not a hardware problem.

I'm sure they're already aware of the issue, but if you're having severe problems like me, please call CS and log the issue so that they can justify put some engineering resources into it ASAP!

 

[FluxTZ]

Re: low signal strength?

I've lost 10% of battery in 30 mins of little usage. Seems like its due to the radio fighting to get signal strength... It keeps bouncing from 4G to 3G and WiFi.

Noticed this right after I activated the phone.

 

[CBCstillmatic]

My nexus is no worse than my DInc2 reception or bars signal

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[steevereeno]

Re: low signal strength?

My signal issues continue to be sporadic here in Cincinnati. I'm in a very strong 4G area per Verizon's coverage map. Last night my Nexus had 0 to 1 to 2 bars of 4G after arriving home from work, and would then switch between 3G and 4G for the rest of the night, between 0 and 2 bars. Tonight on my drive home from the office which is only 5 miles away, I had anywhere from 2 to 4 bars of 4G. Only a mile west of where I live had 4 full bars which is very frustrating. When I drove into the garage here at home, though, 4G went down to 0 bars and switched over to 3G. Now that I'm in my condo on the 2nd floor, 4G fired back up with 2 bars. At work on 3 to 4 bars of 4G I pulled down 15Mb and 3Mb up. Here at home with 2 bars, I pull down 6.5Mb and only 0.35Mb up. I wish I had a Razr or Rezound just to compare the signal strength to on 4G. My Droid X always had full bars here at home. Hopefully a software update can improve this.

 

[Hodaman]

Re: low signal strength?

Picked up my GN yesterday and did not get to play around with it much until work today. Coming from an Eris I figured I was in for a shock, just not this kind. My workplace has marginal signal here with no 4g coverage. I could stream audio video in most places at work through 3g with my eris with no issues. The GN is noticeably worse, and many times it has no data connection whatsoever. Ill keep it for a week to see if there are any fixes, if not I guess I will reluctantly exchange for a rezound or razr...... Fk this.

 

[Defconrock]

Re: low signal strength?

Picked up my GN yesterday and did not get to play around with it much until work today. Coming from an Eris I figured I was in for a shock, just not this kind. My workplace has marginal signal here with no 4g coverage. I could stream audio video in most places at work through 3g with my eris with no issues. The GN is noticeably worse, and many times it has no data connection whatsoever. Ill keep it for a week to see if there are any fixes, if not I guess I will reluctantly exchange for a rezound or razr...... Fk this.

Yea I'm in the exact same boat.

I can't even open Google.com at my desk. Used to be able to stream netflix and HBO go.

So disappointing.

 

[racedog]

Re: low signal strength?

My wifi signal is lower than other phones I've used, Tbolt and Charge. This isn't thrilling me too much because of the way I use this phone around my home and office. The phone radio also seems really weak but I'm not having an issue with calls at all.

I'm going to do some checking for the next few days and will post a personal review in a few days in that thread. I really do like this phone overall but the wifi radio has thrown up some real red flags for me and its something that I'm going to have to give some thought to in terms of keeping this phone.

 

[Defconrock]

Re: low signal strength?

I think I'm going to give this phone a few days next week and then return if if things don't improve.

Right now it's a brick with next to no connection while every single person around me is streaming Pandora and playing Words with Friends. No point in keeping a phone, no matter how nice it is, if you can't get service.

The weird thing is that it did fine at home. Just a battery sucking brick at the office.

Any ideas?

 

[steevereeno]

Re: low signal strength?

I think I'm going to give this phone a few days next week and then return if if things don't improve.

Right now it's a brick with next to no connection while every single person around me is streaming Pandora and playing Words with Friends. No point in keeping a phone, no matter how nice it is, if you can't get service.

The weird thing is that it did fine at home. Just a battery sucking brick at the office.

Any ideas?

I have the complete opposite scenario. I have stellar 4G coverage and speed at work and sporadic coverage and far slower speeds at home. I could care less about it working so well at the office. I need 4G at home!

 

[sc4fpse]

Re: low signal strength?

Luckily my apartment at school is in visible range of a cell tower. Unfortunately, my parents house, while in a suburb, is in a lovely little area between cell towers. 3G coverage on the first floor is usually 0-1 bars, kicks into 1X in one corner of our family room, and is a complete network (voice included) deadspot in another corner. Upstairs is a fluctuating 0-2 bars of 3G, and will occasionally pick up a weak LTE signal that lasts anywhere from 5 minutes to 12 hours. That was my experience with the Thunderbolt, anyways.

The Nexus? Yikes. Came home, sat in the 1X corner... nope. Complete network deadspot now. The original deadspot was all the same. I couldn't connect to the voice network in my driveway either. Holy crap. 3G throughout the rest of the house was awful, to say the least... 50 kbps app downloads in the marketplace. Upstairs 3G is still at 1 bar, but I have connected to LTE occasionally... but it seems less common as on the Thunderbolt.

This phone is incredible. The radio so far is my only real complaint. I pray that this is something that can be tweaked with an OTA, because while it is the only issue the phone has, it could be a deal-breaker.

The only positive I could maybe foresee out of this is complaining enough to get a free/heavily discounted network extender. If I can't get the voice network outside in our driveway in an area on the map that says we have full voice coverage... yeah, Verizon, you're gonna be forking one of those bad boys over mighty quick.

 

[meth68#AC]

This may sound strange to alot of you, but the more i use my nexus the more i like my bionic. The nexus may go back till the bugs are fixed , mainly signal strength if it is even fixable with an update.

The bionic has good signal , i can wireless tether withit and everything works as expected. There is alot i like about the nexus, but also alot i dont like. For my needs the bionic just seems like a better option. Why pay all this money to upgrade to a phone thats not guite yet ready for prime time. Thats just my opinion. Please dont fry me for it. LOL. And the battery life doesn't seem the best either.

I returned my bionic because I had horrible connection issues, I would lose 4g then it wouldnt switch to 3G I wouldn't have data at all 50% of the day. I guess my nexus will do the same now

 

[davesax36]

Re: low signal strength?

The only positive I could maybe foresee out of this is complaining enough to get a free/heavily discounted network extender. If I can't get the voice network outside in our driveway in an area on the map that says we have full voice coverage... yeah, Verizon, you're gonna be forking one of those bad boys over mighty quick.

Don't count on it. I've been giving verizon $1500/yr for my phones for years, and they won't even give me $50 off the network extender. I live directly between two towers and no device hands off properly between them in my neighborhood. They know exactly where their dead zones are and continue to claim that the "terrain" here in pancake-flat north Texas is causing my network issues.

 

[Mac58]

Re: low signal strength?

I am having same issue. I notice that there are less bars present on my GN than on my fiances Razr. However, I still get calls and data output is the same. In fact, sometimes I have no bars what-so-ever and my data and calls come through. I am guessing it is just a software issue and nothing is being affected. However, with other people who have posted their lac of bars is leading to bad signal. I dont know what the issue is then. Hopefully you guys got duds?

 

[CBCstillmatic]

Re: low signal strength?

My girlfriend still has a a DInc2 and I was with IPhone users and an ReZound owner last night and when I compared throughout the night the Iphones maybe had 1 extra bar at times but they were all usually the same. My old X however always had full bars so when I got the DInc2 I thought something was wrong with it so maybe Moto's are slightly better in this reguard?

I did drop data a few times but a battery pull fixed it and been solid since(Knocks on wood)

 

[meth68#AC]

I live in Jersey City, NJ and I'm having 4 bars with LTE. I work in NYC so will have to test out on Monday.

This is nice to hear because I live close to jersey city and my bionic had crazy issues with no dar a when switching from lte/3G and vice versa

 

[Carpus]

Re: low signal strength?

how do you find the time without signal? Thanks.

 

[dman2275]

Re: low signal strength?

I played with the GN yesterday for an hour and a half. I really wanted to upgrade ( this was the phone I have been waiting for) but the weak signal strength (which will lead to low battery) issue stopped me.

I had my Charge next to the GN and my charge signal consistently had a much stronger signal. I was able to surf the web with it and still received data (I was in a 3G area) with the low signal, but I am sure the battery will take a beating when the signal strength showed over -100 dBm. My Charge was always -20 dBm lower.

I loved everything about the phone and ICS. This was a deal breaker for me right now until they fix it with a patch or new radio update, I am sticking with my Charge. I follow numerous other forums and websites and there are many threads with the same signal strength complaints and battery issues.