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

[Valkaneer]

Aright at 12:30 PM the S3 has -112 dBm 22 and the S4 has -101 dBm 6 asu

The S4 does come pretty close some times to the S3 I have seen them as close as -5 dBM and that would be the S4 being closer to like -107 or -109 So it's does move a bit.


I guess I should mention my wife has Verizon and I have an At&t phone i'm testing out. Don't know if that makes a difference at all.

 

[Jaycemiskel]

Yeah that makes a difference if you're directly comparing the reception on phones that are on two different networks. Kinda makes all the data invalid because it could be just because of the network.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[haevolution]

So far my S4 seems like quite an improvement over the S3. I had little to no signal in my basement with the S3 - could barely send a text message and voice call was out of the question. Not a problem with the S4 - call quality sounds good and actually have two bars.

 

[EODK9Trainer]

I just picked up my new Samsung S4 today at the Verizon store. I've had a Droid for the last few years. My signal has always been excellent in my home with the Droid but this phone is showing a weak signal. I've yet to talk with anyone with this phone so it may not be any different. Just stating what I'm seeing so far.

 

[adlx21]

Living in San Francisco, and im usually getting 3G as opposed to atleast 1 bar 4G with my old rezound. When im outside.....I seem to be getting a lot of 3 bars of 4G when my rezound had full bars...... hrm?

-101 dBm 16 asu... looks like on 3G too..

 

[skyjjc]

About the same as my Resound. On lte in Washington state

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[jephanie]

I live in the heart of Verizon's 4G territory in the Cincinnati area.

My Galaxy Nexus: -93 dBm 2 asu
My son's Galaxy S4: -109 dBm 31 asu

I've read in a number of places that the ASU figure is the important number and that the closer it is to 50 (on a scale of 1-99), the better the actual strength. Based on that, his S4 is fantastic and my Nexus sucks. That being said, though, we ran a pair of Speedtests using the same server and got these results on 4G (Wi-Fi off):

Test 1:
Nexus: 2.92Mbps down, 2.81 Mbps up
S4: 3.84Mbps down, 2.52Mbps up

Test 2:
Nexus: 3.96Mbps down, 2.65Mbps up
S4: 3.64Mbps down, 1.32Mbps up

For the record, these scores are about one tenth of the speed we get on Wi-Fi.

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Has anyone done some side by side comparisons of the verizon note2 to the s4?

 

[Drfehlgood]

So I got the S$ yesterday, and coming from a Rezound, I noticed that connectivity was ALOT worse. Switching from 3 to 4g in places where there should be no coverage drops (mpls-st paul area) and after I did a little digging, I noticed that the @#$ thing came preloaded searching for a global network. Once I changed it to CDMA/LTE and did a restart, it went from 1 bar to 3, and social aps were actually loading pictures the way I thought it should. At first I thought defective sim card, but I think thats the issue. If you are having problems, check there first. If I still notice it after the weekend I will be returning it for a DNA.

 

[majorpayne]

Has anyone done some side by side comparisons of the verizon note2 to the s4?

i can tonight if it's needed wife has a N2 i have the S4 what tests do you want to see

 

[berdinkerdickle]

i can tonight if it's needed wife has a N2 i have the S4 what tests do you want to see

That would be appreciated.
Just go into settings / network - and get a side by side reading of the dBm.

 

[berdinkerdickle]

I finally got to see a Verizon S4 outside the store to compare to my Note2
A friend of mine got his yesterday.
We opened them both up to Settings / Mobile Network Signal Strength, and at the time we both happen to be on 3G. Our signals were exactly perfectly the same.
We sat them both down on the counter right next to each other.
Then his jumped to slightly worse than mine, and I said; 'wait, mine is better'. Then he said; 'But look, mine is now on 4G (lte)' I looked at mine again and now it had also went to 4G, and our signals again were exactly the same.
Although unscientific, his did appear to grab the 4G LTE signal before mine.
Either way, the S4 in this little test shows it to be at least as good as the Note2.

 

[majorpayne]

Sorry I did not do this earlier. Here are my results. My wife's note 2 was 96 my s4 was 98

Posted via Android Central App

 

[tx_tuff]

In the Verizon store this past weekend (I still have my GN) I compared it to two different S4s side by side.

My GN had -85 dBm
First S4 had -71 dBm
2nd S4 had -83 dBm

I forgot what the asu was on them. I was very surprised one S4 was so off from the other S4.

 

[pappy53]

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...

Yeah, but the DNA is by HTC. not Motorola.

 

[Jennifer Stough]

Yeah, but the DNA is by HTC. not Motorola.

It's a common misconception, really. When I first got my phone I remember being awed that droid's weren't actually all Motorola's

 

[pappy53]

It's a common misconception, really. When I first got my phone I remember being awed that droid's weren't actually all Motorola's

I know, that's why the smiley.

 

[StuartV]

First of all, I would put no stock in the numbers. ASU stands for Arbitrary Strength Unit and I think that's just what it is. Arbitrary. And the dBm numbers are useless unless you know that the phone components that are measuring signal strength have been calibrated against a known (or at least the same) standard. Besides which, if you don't know what tower you're connected to, the numbers REALLY don't matter. If two identical phones are side by side and getting 12 dB difference, it's probably because, for whatever reason, they are connected to different towers.

The only REAL test is whether you can get a signal. And for that, my brother and I are both not having good luck with our S4s.

Reception for voice calls seems fine. Our problem is 4G LTE reception.

I have an S4.
My brother has an S4 (personal) and a Note 2 (work).
Our dad has a RAZR Maxx and a MiFi hotspot.

All 5 devices are on Verizon.

At our dad's house, the RAZR and the Note 2 and the MiFi all get 4G signal (but only 1 - 2 bars) and stay steady on 4G, never switching over to 3G.

But, my and my brother's S4s both occasionally switch to 4G and then usually switch back to 3G within a minute or so.

I spent almost an hour on the phone with Verizon Tech Support on last Saturday. We shut down both S4s, pulled the SIMs, and the guy manually pushed a new PRL to both phones. He said the 4G phones are supposed to auto update the PRL every time they power up, but sometimes they don't actually do it. We powered our phones back up and they were no better.

I went to a Verizon store yesterday and got my SIM replaced (even though the one I had was already one of the new NFC ones and only a week old). Then back to my dad's. The 4G reception was no better. My brother's SIM in his S4 was one of the older non-NFC ones, so that's not the problem.

I'm seriously thinking of trading my S4 for a Note 2 now.

 

[mtpandroid]

Horrible in Mt. Pleasant, SC. 2 bars in home with Verizon extender. My Thunderbolt got a better signal and it was a bad phone. Very disappointed.

 

[rockhopperGS3]

Mine is an improvement over my s3 as well I pick up better lte signal and in places I only had 3g before. But its not a huge improvement, knowing Samsung is known for weaker radios I inquired and they said improved radio over s3. But if you need a strong radio and live in rural area of are always in shielded structures I would consider something known to have a stronger radio.