How's the signal strength of the Verizon Galaxy S4?

[paintdrinkingpete]

The same, better or worst then the Verizon phone you have now?

Unfortunately not that great. My office always has low reception and it is noticeably worse with the S4. I am holding on to my DNA for now...I may be forced back it as the reception was much better. The rest of the phone I am quite happy with. The camera is sick...best cell phone camera I have ever used...and I have used them all on Verizon.

Coming from a Droid DNA, the signal strength on the S4 seems weaker/lower than the DNA but not substantially so.

Motorolas are pretty much known to have better radios than Samsung, at least recently, so I'm not surprised if the DNA got better reception. I'd really like to see someone who upgraded from a Galaxy S3 to chime in...

WTH why cant Samsung fix their craptastic radio's....

Because they are more concerned about adding a bunch of useless (for most people) sensors and features that help suck up another 2GB of storage As Samung said, it is for the greater good .... Bleh.

Nobody is making you get one...

 

[snookasnoo]

Ah so he has no right to complain..got it..just take whatever Samsung deigns to give you and consider yourself lucky.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Ah so he has no right to complain..got it..just take whatever Samsung deigns to give you and consider yourself lucky.

No, but that's kinda what the Galaxy S line is....

Nexus = simplistic design, minimal extra features (i.e. SDCard support), vanilla OS
Galaxy S = ALL the bells and whistles! As many gimmicky cool features as you can shake a stick at! Touchwiz!

That's what it is -- those sensors and features are what drive a lot of the sales of this particular model. Some prefer the Nexus line of phones, other prefer the feature-rich models.

Everyone has a right to complain, but if you feel those extra features are useless, there are other phones out there to choose from...

 

[mmf115]

Coming from an iphone 4, and my signal is a lot weaker at my office here in Midtown NYC. 4G is showing on top, but nothing is connecting. On my I4, I had no problem with 3g. For some reason my S4 is not attempting to connect via 3G either.

Is there a way to disable 4G and use 3G only at times when no 4G signal is available, and I dont have my battery destroyed by the phone searching for a 4G signal?

Thanks

 

[Premium1]

Coming from an iphone 4, and my signal is a lot weaker at my office here in Midtown NYC. 4G is showing on top, but nothing is connecting. On my I4, I had no problem with 3g. For some reason my S4 is not attempting to connect via 3G either.

Is there a way to disable 4G and use 3G only at times when no 4G signal is available, and I dont have my battery destroyed by the phone searching for a 4G signal?

Thanks

Check under networks or something like that. I don't have a phone with me at the moment but there should be an option for 3G only I think. Unless they took that away too now.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Coming from an iphone 4, and my signal is a lot weaker at my office here in Midtown NYC. 4G is showing on top, but nothing is connecting. On my I4, I had no problem with 3g. For some reason my S4 is not attempting to connect via 3G either.

Is there a way to disable 4G and use 3G only at times when no 4G signal is available, and I dont have my battery destroyed by the phone searching for a 4G signal?

Thanks

on the S3 you can't do it *easily*...but it can be done.

You have to find a way to get to the Device Info screen. I get there by using Battery Monitor widget (under "Tests"), then change the network type to "CDMA auto (PRL)". To change back to turn 4G/LTE back on, you have to go to "Settings --> More Settings (under applications and network) --> Mobile Networks --> Network Mode" and change that to "CDMA/LTE/EVDO".

Again, that's on the S3...the S4 is possibly completely different.

 

[LBTRS]

I came from a Droid Razr Maxx and my signal strength appears to be about the same as the razr maxx. Of course I have only used it a day and been on wifi most of the time but the 4G I have used seemed fine.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

I came from a Droid Razr Maxx and my signal strength appears to be about the same as the razr maxx. Of course I have only used it a day and been on wifi most of the time but the 4G I have used seemed fine.

Again, my comments here are as a current S3 owner...

The thing about the S3 is that when in good 4G coverage area, the phone works great...it's on the "fringe" areas when things start to get dicey. It doesn't seem to do the switchover from 4G to 3G very well, so sometimes it seems like it's constantly switching back and forth and/or not switching over when appropriate (trying to use a really weak 4G data vs. stronger 3G signal). Also, especially in 3G areas, it seems to get a much weaker signal than other devices, like iPhones, on the same Verizon network. Again, just my own observations.

Honestly, I'd have to say that radio quality has probably been my *only* consistent complaint regarding my experience with the S3. It has otherwise been a superb device.

Judging by the posts on this issue over in the S3 forums, it does seem like Motorolas seem to have the best reception for Android phones on VZW, and iPhones are pretty good too...both better than S3.

I live and work in a pretty solid 4G area, so I haven't had too many issues owning an S3, but I do notice the signal issues from time to time when traveling. Subscribed to this thread because I'm considering an upgrade to the S4, and curious if it has better reception than the S3 does.

 

[Cattails_r_Edible]

Samsung is known for their sub-par radios!

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

 

[Jdroids]

Samsung is known for their sub-par radios!

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

Lol, can't argue with that. But they are starting to get it under control recently. Note 2 has good signal reception just as good as any Moto, HTC phone. GS3 is known to have good 4G but weak 3G reception. I think that's firmware issue as it's using qualcomm S4 multi-mode chip that's used by many other devices without much 3G issues. I hope GS4 is more like Note 2 than GS3 on signal reception. Time will tell.

 

[jtversky]

Haven't purchased yet, but did take a look during my lunch break. Signal was within 1-2dBm of the RAZR MAXX HD they had right next to it...

 

[Premium1]

Haven't purchased yet, but did take a look during my lunch break. Signal was within 1-2dBm of the RAZR MAXX HD they had right next to it...

That's pretty solid then. And I am sure with updates it will only get better.

 

[DreamSTi]

Surprisingly, my S4 has had identical reception as my iPhone 5. I'm VERY happy about it

 

[azdmelani]

Again, my comments here are as a current S3 owner...

The thing about the S3 is that when in good 4G coverage area, the phone works great...it's on the "fringe" areas when things start to get dicey. It doesn't seem to do the switchover from 4G to 3G very well, so sometimes it seems like it's constantly switching back and forth and/or not switching over when appropriate (trying to use a really weak 4G data vs. stronger 3G signal). Also, especially in 3G areas, it seems to get a much weaker signal than other devices, like iPhones, on the same Verizon network. Again, just my own observations.

Honestly, I'd have to say that radio quality has probably been my *only* consistent complaint regarding my experience with the S3. It has otherwise been a superb device.

Judging by the posts on this issue over in the S3 forums, it does seem like Motorolas seem to have the best reception for Android phones on VZW, and iPhones are pretty good too...both better than S3.

I live and work in a pretty solid 4G area, so I haven't had too many issues owning an S3, but I do notice the signal issues from time to time when traveling. Subscribed to this thread because I'm considering an upgrade to the S4, and curious if it has better reception than the S3 does.

+1. My office building in NYC is on the fringe of signal sometimes and I dont want my data to get any worse.

 

[baja141]

I got this phone yesterday. Coming from HTC Dna. The signal on this phone is horrible, and I am not counting signal bars. I also find it takes long to find 4G when it loses it. Some ppl may say don't worry about signal, but to me that's the most important, whose need a phone if you can't make a call or surf the Web. Also from Brooklyn nyc

 

[Multanii YO]

signal is adequate but it is a step down from what Im used to. Speaking of 3g and voice. 4g LTE is not in my area yet.

 

[skinut424]

I just received the Verizon Samsung s4 yesterday. I am having a difficult time picking up a 4G LTE signal at my home with it (If I set it on a counter and don't touch it I get a signal). I also have a Verizon Jetpack 4620. The Jetpack pulls in a 4G LTE signal at -112/-113 db (and shows two bars). When I get a signal on the s4 it shows -114db. Otherwise, the 3G signal is strong at -89db.

The Speedtest.net app reports between 5.5 and 11.5 Mbits download and between 300-400Kbits upload when on 4G LTE.

 

[azdmelani]

So far I think the radio on the S4 is on par or better than the S3. But I havent done any speed tests confirming this.

 

[ddsdavid]

The S4 is not nearly as strong as my DNA was and is slightly worse than the iPhone 4S.

 

[bassjo]

Coming from a Droid DNA, the signal strength on the S4 seems weaker/lower than the DNA but not substantially so.

I too came from the DNA and have noticed that in my office I had between 3 & 4 bars of 4G signal. The S4 seems to bounce from 3G to 1 & 2 bars of 4G.