PSA - Serious Flaw in the Verizon Galaxy Nexus

[Johnly]

Exactly.

And there you have it, the Galaxy's serious flaw is not dropping calls.

I give VZWrocks credit though, he spent time getting this put together; however, the numbers aren't valid. The test needs to be broadened with a proper control, and there isn't one...add that, and you have a believer here...

 

[Dreamliner330]

^I figured you'd make a re-appearance.

If someone takes a measurement of the signal in the same location multiple times, seems pretty scientific to me.

 

[dcastillo]

its a good experiment, but not scientific....
Way to many variables...
the order that the phones were lined up alone could affect the signals...
only having one of each phone is an issue considering how sensitive the radio circuitry is, even identical phoens will not have the same signal strength, you would need a larger sample...
Im assuming he had to hold/touch the phone to view the reading...
His body alone affects the signal reception...
even rotating the phone will affect its reception strength

Its a cool experiment, and its hard to deny the Nexus does have signal issues based on tons of user feedback... but the experiment isnt extremely scientific

 

[bplewis24]

^I figured you'd make a re-appearance.

If someone takes a measurement of the signal in the same location multiple times, seems pretty scientific to me.

Except that is entirely unscientific to compare Apples (3G signal) to Oranges (4G) signal. The entire experiment is invalid unfortunately.

Brandon

 

[habanophile]

I will admit that there may be an inherent flaw in the device, but it has not affected me in any way so far. Cool thread.

 

[rbess1965]

The test may not be scientific but the community sentiment on these forums pretty much tells all. Look at the posts on the Nexus. Look at the problems being posted. Then go look at the posts on the Maxx. The sentiment is so obvious. Maxx owners are way more happy with their purchases. It's not in any way scientific, nor does it have to be to the open eye. How many posts do you see on the Nexus that are titled http://forums.androidcentral.com/droid-razr-maxx/163371-lack-drama.html ?
Check it out and that’s exactly what you see. People can see the contrasting opinions scientific or otherwise. If Nexus owners were that happy why is it I only see a few people defending it from other owners of it saying there's a problem? Face it, there is one. I'm glad that yours is fine but don't try to sell everyone else on a phone that clearly has more than minor issues for everyone else.

 

[dmmarck]

The test may not be scientific but the community sentiment on these forums pretty much tells all. Look at the posts on the Nexus. Look at the problems being posted. Then go look at the posts on the Maxx. The sentiment is so obvious. Maxx owners are way more happy with their purchases. It's not in anyway scientific, nor does it have to be to the open eye. How many posts do you see on the Nexus that are titled "No Drama phone"? Go to the Maxx forum and thats exactly what you see and people are not crazy they can see the differences. If Nexus owners were that happy why is it I only see a few people defending it from other owners of it saying there's a problem? Face it, there is one. I'm glad that yours is fine but don't try to sell everyone else on a phone that clearly has more than minor issues for everyone else.

Trying to glean anything realistic and measureabe from the state of nature that is a messageboard is beyond rational and logical comprehension.

 

[Dreamliner330]

So, let's test each phone without touching it in a perfectly scientific clean room with ample amounts of room away from any other radio source to accurately test measure results? Yeah that seems completely realistic as everyday use.

I seem to remember a certain company saying not to hold your phone in order to get signal...

The ability to maintain a voice connection is more important than data.

When I had my Nexus S I remember people saying that a new radio update would fix all of the call dropped problems. It never did and I'm not willing to play that game again.

 

[rbess1965]

Trying to glean anything realistic and measureabe from the state of nature that is a messageboard is beyond rational and logical comprehension.

Fair enough but we have to gather our info somewhere. Those of us who are simply trying to purchase a decent device with our hard earned money are just trying to make informed decisions. Hell the sales people know less about the phones they are selling than the users on these forums. As a consumer I'm just trying to combine what venders say, what you say and what reviewers say to help me make that decision. Why else would we be on here. Thanks for your well thought out advise though and I appreciate you making me feel stupid for considering the opinions of people just like yourself on this forum. I'll try to take it all with a grain of salt from now on. I can tell you this however, the things I've read on here steered me clear of the Nexus and put me in a Razr and for that I'm thankful to the rest of you.

Cheers!

 

[dmmarck]

No worries, I know what you're saying.

 

[ElectroM]

Has anyone on here with poor signal flashed the radio and firmware themselves? Not just using the OTA? I did that long ago and it seemed to be better after I completely flashed everything, boot.img, radios, software, everything. You need an unlocked bootloader, but you would be flashing files downloaded from google.

I have flashed the firmware and radios on mine. I have also tried GummyNex and the Kang 4.04 release. So far the Kang 4.04 is the best, but nothing really improves the signal issue. I still have very poor data connections and I still drop calls, and I am in a very good 4g area. I am convinced this is a hardware problem. I am on my 5th GNex and they all had problems. I don't think it will be fixed by firmware, and that is why there are delays in releasing it. I do know I will no longer buy Samsung products if this is not fixed. I was in Best Buy last Saturday looking for a new laptop, and the salesman wanted to show me a Samsung laptop. I told him no way I would buy a Samsung. Their laptops may be good, but I won't buy one.

 

[thebignewt]

My background is science. My quesion to those who say that the OP's "experiment" isn't valid is this: How do you explain his data? (this doesn't qualify as an experiment, nor did he profess it to be one). My second question is: Do you regard his data as showing a significant difference between the signal strenths of the 6 phones? My take is that there is a difference in signal strenth where he lives, a significant difference. I would be loath to attribute it to his hand touching the phone, the orientation of the phone, the fact that 6 phones were operating simultanously as someone suggested.

 

[TabGuy]

^I figured you'd make a re-appearance.

If someone takes a measurement of the signal in the same location multiple times, seems pretty scientific to me.

It may seem scientific to you but it's not.

If I look out the window 100 times between 9pm and 4am I might conclude from that set of observations that sun never shines where I live. How many times a sample is taken has little to do whether it's scientific or not.

 

[TabGuy]

The test may not be scientific but the community sentiment on these forums pretty much tells all.

The community here is not a random sampling of the full data set of all Nexus phones. Not even close. In fact, it's a sampling skewed to represent those that complain the most about a given device. Therefore, it can't even begin to "tell all."

Just because 100 people come here and make a post about something not working for them is not a projection about the large number of phones sold. And, in fact, for everyone saying something doesn't work there is often a similar number that say theirs does work. Followed by a punishing post by the complainers telling the satisfied group to butt out. This type of punishing behavior tends to quiet those that are satisfied so the resulting posts tend to be overwhelmingly in favor the aggressive complainers.

 

[tony bag o donuts]

The community here is not a random sampling of the full data set of all Nexus phones. Not even close. In fact, it's a sampling skewed to represent those that complain the most about a given device. Therefore, it can't even begin to "tell all."

Just because 100 people come here and make a post about something not working for them is not a projection about the large number of phones sold. And, in fact, for everyone saying something doesn't work there is often a similar number that say theirs does work. Followed by a punishing post by the complainers telling the satisfied group to butt out. This type of punishing behavior tends to quiet those that are satisfied so the resulting posts tend to be overwhelmingly in favor the aggressive complainers.

same could be said of those who have functional devices.
many times people have responded to those having problems that it's the user and they should get an iphone or a bb that is more there speed.

It goes both ways.

 

[Dreamliner330]

It may seem scientific to you but it's not.

If I look out the window 100 times between 9pm and 4am I might conclude from that set of observations that sun never shines where I live. How many times a sample is taken has little to do whether it's scientific or not.

But if you place 5 reflective balls outside your window and observe that the one on the left is constantly less shiny, you will accurately conclude that it is duller than the rest.

The specific number is not important in terms of signal strength, the relationship to the other phones is.

 

[TabGuy]

My background is science. My quesion to those who say that the OP's "experiment" isn't valid is this: How do you explain his data? (this doesn't qualify as an experiment, nor did he profess it to be one). My second question is: Do you regard his data as showing a significant difference between the signal strenths of the 6 phones? My take is that there is a difference in signal strenth where he lives, a significant difference. I would be loath to attribute it to his hand touching the phone, the orientation of the phone, the fact that 6 phones were operating simultanously as someone suggested.

This is a very good question. The answer is that we don't need to explain the data, the one taking the experiment does. Also, it's entirely possible that the Nexus does have the problems described. It's just that the example shown doesn't really say much.

It's just as possible that if there is a software bug it could be in the the software that measures the signal strength on the phone itself. Maybe the Motorola phone is presenting numbers that make it look better. Didn't the iPhone 4 have a largely publicized "bug" when it first came out over inflating the signal strength?

There is no proven standard in this unscientific example set of arbitrary observations.

 

[TabGuy]

same could be said of those who have functional devices.
many times people have responded to those having problems that it's the user and they should get an iphone or a bb that is more there speed.

It goes both ways.

You are absolutely right. And, that's exactly why no conclusions can be made by a bunch of noisy tech forum participants.

 

[TabGuy]

But if you place 5 reflective balls outside your window and observe that the one on the left is constantly less shiny, you will accurately conclude that it is duller than the rest.

The specific number is not important in terms of signal strength, the relationship to the other phones is.

The example you give is a good one because I can observe directly the reflection of the balls. The one that was shown by the OP isn't the same dataset because the signal strength can't be observed directly it is being reported to the experimenter via software interface. That software is different on each phone.

 

[anthony2558]

10 pages of comments to relay that the signal on the nexus sucks. Good work from the OP. There will always be naysayers, because their stuck with the nexus and will be consistently looking for something to fix its poor reception. Its a pretty phone tho.

via RAZR Maxx