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

[roxysrfr617]

I noticed when I have a case on my s4, the signal goes from 4g to 3g. As soon as the case comes off, the signal goes back up. Anybody know anything I can do besides leaving the case off?

 

[Ascalonian]

I went from a Droid 3 to an S4. The reception is horrible on my phone. My calls drop a lot and where I had full bars on my Droid 3, I get 1 or none now. It really makes me sad because I absolutely love this phone but might lose it due to the reception issue. Might switch to the HTC One if I can't figure out how to resolve this.

 

[StuartV]

My S4 seems to get better voice reception than my Rezound did. It's just the 4G LTE reception that seems weaker. I am frequently dropping out of 4G to 3G in places where I am 99% certain my Rezound would maintain solid 4G service.

 

[shaytoon21]

i came from a gnex which worked perfectly fine and i never dealt with the signal issues a lot of people encountered. after getting the s4, i notice faster 4g speeds, more bars in the places i travel to (i knw its not "faster 4g", its the phone itself thats faster) very much satisfied. and im on verizon.

 

[StuartV]

i came from a gnex which worked perfectly fine and i never dealt with the signal issues a lot of people encountered. after getting the s4, i notice faster 4g speeds, more bars in the places i travel to (i knw its not "faster 4g", its the phone itself thats faster) very much satisfied. and im on verizon.

I thought the GNex was not 4G LTE. Was it even on Verizon?

 

[Jaycemiskel]

I thought the GNex was not 4G LTE. Was it even on Verizon?

Lol have you been living under a rock? Yes it was on Verizon. There was a huge uproar when they slowed down the release of updates not to mention most people got terrible signal with it. It was all over the net.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[shaytoon21]

I thought the GNex was not 4G LTE. Was it even on Verizon?

yes it was on verizon and yes i was running 4g where ever available (which was 90% of my locations) and had zero signal issues like most did.

 

[jrnyer]

yes it was on verizon and yes i was running 4g where ever available (which was 90% of my locations) and had zero signal issues like most did.

Same here.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[StuartV]

Doh! LOL! I remember that phone now. I had no interest in one (I need swappable battery and microSD), so I have never paid it much attention.

 

[shaytoon21]

Doh! LOL! I remember that phone now. I had no interest in one (I need swappable battery and microSD), so I have never paid it much attention.

the battery on gnex can be swapped. just no extra slot for sd which i didnt care about since the phone was 32gb. more than i needed.

 

[StuartV]

Right. So, anyway, my S4 (and my brother's) still seem like they don't pick up LTE signal as well as other Verizon phones....

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Definitely worse than my Thunderbolt.

 

[howeird]

To confuse things a little, the dBm is a negative number, so technically the -95 is higher, not lower, than -111. The closer to 0 the stronger the signal. ;-)

 

[Mark_Venture]

Definitely worse than my Thunderbolt.

without getting specific RSSI values for my Thunderbolt (since its been in the box and needs to be charged), at least walking around it sure seems the Galaxy S4 is worse than my Thunderbolt too.

I posted this on XDA (under my other name)....
----
I don't have a Verizon S3 to compare to, so S4 vs Bionic..

Pre CDMA Field test app with both devices on table next to each other at home...

S4
Lte RSRP: -99 dBm
Lte RSRQ: 10 dB
Lte RSSNR: 80
Lte SS: 20

Bionic
Lte RSRP: -92 dBm
Lte RSRQ: -9 dB
Lte RSSNR: 88
Lte SS: 15


Note the RSRQ *IS* a negative number on the bionic, but not on the S4.
-----

My S4 is on my work line. My Bionic is my personal. There are places I had the S4 reporting 4GLTE with bars, yet could not do data (web pages, etc) at the same time my Bionic worked great and loaded pages quickly.

 

[StuartV]

I've been meaning to bust out my Rezound and see if it will give me 4G signal strength without actually being activated on an account. If it does, I'm going to do something similar.

 

[Premium1]

It's a shame Samsung makes great phones but their radios have always been their Achilles heel.

- - - Updated - - -

It's a shame Samsung makes great phones but their radios have always been their Achilles heel.

 

[snookasnoo]

Call quality is average at best.

 

[jebb]

I spend a good deal of time in an office where I have very little or no service at all. I have previously used the iPhone 5, Droid Razr Maxx HD, iPhone 4s, and Bionic in this location. I judge them according to whether or not I am getting emails and texts (and/or how delayed they are). From my experience so far, the S4 is probably one of the worst of the bunch. The Motorola phones are the best performers, holding at least a weak signal most of the time. The S4 doesn't seem to lock on to weak 4G areas quite as easily either. I think this is the best way to put signal strength to the test - in a fringe area.

 

[droidlouise]

Comparing to old Motorolas ( I know, not fair), and to my previous Samsung Droid Charge. I live in a very difficult signal area and was very nervous when I first got the phone because it was showing 2 bars and sometimes even 1, which was worse than the Charge. Well, they tell you the bars aren't to be used for comparison and it turned out to be true in this case. I can have only one bar, but I can still hear the caller clearly and no one has complained about how I sound. It seems that once the S4 gets a signal, it can hold onto it very well.

Strange thing is that I can have 1 or 2 bars in my house, and still receive 4G. I find the 4G very strong and it almost never drops to 3G. Same with connecting to my wireless routers at home - good connections and quickly accomplished.

But yes, the actual talk signal seems weak and I really wish they'd done a better job.

 

[Ranger093]

This is AWESOME! You're having the EXACT same issues as me. It seems like it worked fine when I first got the phone but started getting worse every day after. I however had a DNA before and that thing got STELLAR signal! Even my iPhone 5 maintained the signal better. The best part is the phone doesn't even attempt go back to LTE it just hangs out on 3g for a long time or until reset.