Related
Just got in the new Samsung Nexus S from Sprint and I've noticed some major issues in reception versus the HTC Evo from Sprint as well. I'm seeing a 2+ bar difference in the exact location sitting next to the Evo on the same Sprint network.
Is anybody having this issue? Or does anybody know of a fix.
I have the latest firmware (suggested fix by Sprint) and have seen several complaints about it on other less developer friendly forums.
If I can't come up with a solution soon, I think I'll have to get an Evo. But if you guys can understand, I'd prefer to keep the phone that will get timely updates.
Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions!
You can't compare signal across different devices based on "bars". Check the actual signal strength in Menu > Settings > About Phone.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I know you need dB... As soon as I can get the Evo next to me again for a comparison, I will post.
I'm a tech savvy guy, run a computer building company and build websites. I even develop some entry-level apps for a few clients (yes entry-level).
If one googles "spring nexus s reception," they'll find that this issue is quite common. I'm just curious as to whether it's hopeless or not.
I know I can petition for the Airave with Sprint and can at least get decent service at home.
It just seems peculiar to me that Google would endorse an inferior product. I live in a major Metropolitan area (DMA has it as a top 25 market - for those who aren't in the media business, that means it's one of the top 25 sized cities in the country). And this phone gets dismal reception.
Fact is, Evo does great in my house, Nexus S does not. I've heard some pretty bad reviews with the Galaxy S line of hardware so I'm figuring it's worth moving to the Evo.
To be honest, this phone is far superior (at the moment) with responsiveness and usability but if a phone can't operate well at being a phone, it's a waste of money. Especially if the hardware is inferior (phone-wise) to most of what HTC released a year ago. I love having a mini-computer in my pocket but I did aim at having a working phone.
Thoughts? Suggestions? School me? I will post the exact numbers when they again are available, until then, please only offer up friendly advice or questions. I am willing to try anything before taking this thing back.
You have not really described your issue. Do you have dropped calls or what?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I'm having issues with the Sprint Nexus S reception as well. Although my home location on Sprint's coverage map lists my area from medium to strong with 4G available right around the corner from my house I have dismal reception with the Nexus S. I had a trial EVO for a few weeks and reception was much better in the same area. If I try to call the Nexus S I often go right to voicemail, I'm told calls out (when I can) are choppy, data signal is often listed as 1x as opposed to 3g. Is it just this particular phone? Should I go to a Sprint store to have it tested?
There is atl least one thread over at the Sprint Message boards about bad reception on the Nexus S.
At work we have a repeater and the signal still only shows at one or two bars most of the time but data speeds seemed fine to me and I had no problem with making and getting calls.
No one else is having this issue?
This isn't the first post about this subject. I understand and agree. I'm not 100% sure about this when it comes to cell phones but different companies with different radios will give you different signals. If this is the same as two way radios, there's no standard on say how much signal equals one bar on the meter. Even the programs that give the signal strength in numbers, aren't universally accurate. When it comes to received signal, its how you can hear it, not really what the meter says. That number can easily be manipulated. A receiver sensitivity can be adjusted too but there are things that are thrown out too. Crank up the receive and you get more noise than distinguishing signal and adjacent frequency rejection goes to crap. You can work the receiver to have good rejection and sensitivity but you are making it more deaf too.
What I'm getting at is don't always go by what the signal meter says and take it as 100% truth. It is a good indicator of signal but not absolutely 100% accurate.
I am sitting about twenty feet from my router and yet the meter is telling me 50% signal which I know is bull****.
are you up to date?
Yobye, are you on 2.3.4? I have heard the update fixes some people's signal/radio issues.
yobyeknom said:
I'm having issues with the Sprint Nexus S reception as well. Although my home location on Sprint's coverage map lists my area from medium to strong with 4G available right around the corner from my house I have dismal reception with the Nexus S. I had a trial EVO for a few weeks and reception was much better in the same area. If I try to call the Nexus S I often go right to voicemail, I'm told calls out (when I can) are choppy, data signal is often listed as 1x as opposed to 3g. Is it just this particular phone? Should I go to a Sprint store to have it tested?
There is atl least one thread over at the Sprint Message boards about bad reception on the Nexus S.
At work we have a repeater and the signal still only shows at one or two bars most of the time but data speeds seemed fine to me and I had no problem with making and getting calls.
No one else is having this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto on this. Have all the latest updates. Think it may be time to trade in for the Evo.
I am on 2.3.4. I brought home another Sprint phone from work - a Sanyo Taho and got about the same terrible reception despite the fact I'm in a Sprint Best Coverage area on their map. I miss and drop calls and can't get voice or data connection - send mms, etc from my home. I've contacted Sprint about the tower strength in my neighborhood.
I've searched all over the place for an actual comparison of cell phones and the antenna strength they have. Not how much reception they have, or if they lose signal depending on how you hold them, but how strong their internal antenna is.
Example, the Motorola Milestone, from what I understand has two antennas. Blackberry Torch has two as well. At least that is what I've picked up from bits and pieces around the internet. Not sure if accurate.
But, I know for a fact that the Motorola Milestone will have superior coverage compared to my Galaxy S Fascinate. At least -10dbm, and 5asu better. Which equals almost 2 bars. The Blackberry Torch as well. 3 bars better consistently. So, in this day and age of buying unlocked phones, surely there has to be a comparison somewhere to show which phones have stronger antennas, which ones have the two antennas, etc, etc.
And I just can't find it anywhere. Anyone have ideas?
Bravo!
That's a good wake up call
it's true a lot of people are forgetting the phone main function should be "to be a phone"
yet now in days when people talk or compare a phone, is more into competing power, and how entertaining it's
from personal experience i can say as a PHONE, the Moto Milestone XT720 has absolutely the best reception, vs Nexus S, I9000 and SGS2 i9100, HTC devices, etc
on 2nd place i'll put SGS2 T989 as good reception
3rd place goes for all the others phones
Any other response to this, on the spot, question?
Cheers !
K.
AllGamer said:
Bravo!
That's a good wake up call
it's true a lot of people are forgetting the phone main function should be "to be a phone"
yet now in days when people talk or compare a phone, is more into competing power, and how entertaining it's
from personal experience i can say as a PHONE, the Moto Milestone XT720 has absolutely the best reception, vs Nexus S, I9000 and SGS2 i9100, HTC devices, etc
on 2nd place i'll put SGS2 T989 as good reception
3rd place goes for all the others phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Few months later, and I still say the Motorola Milestone has the best reception I've ever seen.
Still looking for an answer to the original question though. Seems like no one has done any research on it and put together some information.
Virtually the same....
Mobile customers planning to do a cell comparison of phone reception strength are pretty much wasting their time.
The majority of cell phones today are so well designed and competitive that they virtually all deliver the same level of service. Users may notice a difference between carriers due to cell site positioning compared to their homes or offices. The closer the cell site is, the better your phone reception is going to be regardless of which cell phone you utilize. Doing a cell comparison phone reception strength of carriers can be a good idea...
AllGamer said:
Bravo!
That's a good wake up call
it's true a lot of people are forgetting the phone main function should be "to be a phone"
yet now in days when people talk or compare a phone, is more into competing power, and how entertaining it's
from personal experience i can say as a PHONE, the Moto Milestone XT720 has absolutely the best reception, vs Nexus S, I9000 and SGS2 i9100, HTC devices, etc
on 2nd place i'll put SGS2 T989 as good reception
3rd place goes for all the others phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cause everyone just uses texts now-a-days rather than calling
cpumaster said:
Mobile customers planning to do a cell comparison of phone reception strength are pretty much wasting their time.
The majority of cell phones today are so well designed and competitive that they virtually all deliver the same level of service. Users may notice a difference between carriers due to cell site positioning compared to their homes or offices. The closer the cell site is, the better your phone reception is going to be regardless of which cell phone you utilize. Doing a cell comparison phone reception strength of carriers can be a good idea...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, MOST cell phones are more or less the same within a general 'bar' or two. But there are a few that stand out, like the Motorola Milestone and the Blackberry Torch. I was just wondering if there are others that have similar exceptional antenna strength and reception.
I'd like a list like this to, The Nexus S is terrible.
I've noticed that out of all the phones I have had, Nokia's have the best reception. I still like Symbian over Android, but eh
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda premium
Nokia and Motorola seem to have the best signal strength based on my experience regardless of the "antenna strength " indicator.
+1 for Nokia phones on sym.
the best signal phone are those with antenna in exterior, and those are safer for healthy.
The original Motorola Droid and my current Droid Razr Maxx have the best signal out of all the phones I've ever had. And I'm talking measuring the signal strength with programs not just by bars, as I found them to be inaccurate.
My HTC phones would have to be held a certain way or the signal strength would drop.
Motorola is best for me .
In my experience most Motorola phones have great antenna/signal strength.
For me Nokia always had best signal but nowdays what to do with their usless phones.
If I remember right when the Galaxy Nexus came out people were showing horrible signal strength across the board. So Samsung issued a 'fix' that changed what was previously 2 bars or something to show as 4-5 bars.
To bump this old thread again.
Consistently getting 2 bars would be fine. Probably good enough to call, and for sure good enough to text.
My problem is I get 1 bar maybe inside my home with the Galaxy S, while the Motorola Milestone gets 4 bars.
Is the Galaxy S2 better in terms of reception than the original Galaxy S? I want to upgrade phones anyways. It is a bigger phone than the original Galaxy S, so perhaps it has better reception.
Azure1203 said:
To bump this old thread again.
Consistently getting 2 bars would be fine. Probably good enough to call, and for sure good enough to text.
My problem is I get 1 bar maybe inside my home with the Galaxy S, while the Motorola Milestone gets 4 bars.
Is the Galaxy S2 better in terms of reception than the original Galaxy S? I want to upgrade phones anyways. It is a bigger phone than the original Galaxy S, so perhaps it has better reception.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try switching modems for galaxy S, I get 1-2 bars using JVU modem and 2-4 bars using JW4.
Mostly all Hi-End Motorola phones have the best antennas but if your a modder, stay away
K...
Well I had an Infuse (HSPA+) and as a lot of people have said, it has a weak antenna and I just sold it. I have a Nokia phone from T-Mobile (dumb phone; unlocked) and it pulls in such great signal. It's a 3g phone(?) though, but we all want/have 4g phones nowadays, right? (I know HSPA+ isn't real 4g, but I my point still stands) The Nokia was a Nokia N... something (can't remember... too lazy to look. ) and in some spots of my house, it easily pulls in five bars consistently and usually constantly stays on 3g while my Infuse was almost always on EDGE and even in some cases, GPRS. That's how bad it was. I'd get lucky to get three bars anywhere in my house with the Infuse, but with the Nokia, I can easily pull 3-5 bars. I know bars don't always mean everything, but with this phone, texts DO go through all the time (and quickly) and call quality is almost always perfect whereas the Infuse constantly dropped signal. The Nokia's kind of a 3g phone (I say that and there was a question mark early on in this post), but occasionally gets "3.5g" (which is most likely HSPA+). Normal 3g is HSUPA while enhanced (HSPA+) 3g is HSDPA. My question is can HSPA+ phones connect to AT&T's HSUPA towers? Or are the 3g towers all one tower? This sounds so basic even to me, but I'm just checking because I'm supposed to be getting a Galaxy S2 soon and I'm hoping its signal is almost (if not, the same) as good as the Nokia phone I'm using. And will I know if it's on HSUPA? The Nokia was usually on 3g, but occasionally said 3.5g and that must mean I don't have a lot of HSPA+ coverage in my area, right? AT&T's maps SAY I'm supposed to have a lot of HSPA+ coverage here though. I trust that the Galaxy S2 will have stronger signal strength?
Tl;dr: If I were to get a SGS2 or even a LG Thrill or Nitro (Definitely not getting them... they're just examples. No one has ever really said these LG phones have weak antennas along with the SGS2 save for wifi, but I don't really care about that.), would they get good HSPA+ signal like how the Nokia N- something gets good 3g signal or what? Not sure if this makes any sense still...
Other unimportant crap and thoughts to self: I used to think AT&T had horrible coverage (because I'd get lucky to get a decent signal with the Infuse), but after using this Nokia, it's the only reason I've convinced myself to get a different phone instead of switching to Verizon, which I KNOW is reliable. I was very impressed with the signal I was getting in the Nokia phone and was quick to decide to sell the Infuse and use the nokia as a temp until I get a SGS2. I saw some SGS2 vs Infuse vids and the SGS2 always had better signal. A lot of people have also said the Infuse had a weak antenna and the SGS2 was only weak on wifi, which I really don't care about at all. Definitely can't wait to get the SGS2 though.
I thought it might be nice to have not just LTE results but also overall quality per area listed. Ie. If you get good coverage, call quality etc. Their map for LTE coverage is not real accurate. I'd love more real world tests given this phone is entirely new for the network with its radio.
Surprisingly to me, my wife's iPhone dies better in our apt. But the One X is amazing down the street.
In the San Francisco area I think Sprint is overall better but no LTE of course. I get fast speeds (25Mbps) on the One X but so far my call clarity is not so hot.
I thought this phone had noise canceling? I know it could be signal.
Coverage seems decent but I will test more throughout the bay area to provide a more thorough review.
What about other cities? I'm curious about Austin, New York, and Philly...
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Hi guys,
How strong is the cell signal on the z3? Is it strong indoors and outdoors? Also is it good at locking onto signal once you leave an area with no coverage? How is LTE signal strength? If anyone also has any comparison to phones with strong reception like the M8 and iPhone that would be great thanks
sav_uk said:
Hi guys,
How strong is the cell signal on the z3? Is it strong indoors and outdoors? Also is it good at locking onto signal once you leave an area with no coverage? How is LTE signal strength? If anyone also has any comparison to phones with strong reception like the M8 and iPhone that would be great thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3g signal is ok, i have not understand why my nokia 925 in 4g get best speedtest over Z3 ....
any other one have compared 4g speedtest vs other phone?
imsims said:
3g signal is ok, i have not understand why my nokia 925 in 4g get best speedtest over Z3 ....
any other one have compared 4g speedtest vs other phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok 4g is good ! i have a bad apn ...
Cool? Are people finding the signal to be strong and reliable for data and calls/texts?
Maybe the radio for Canada isn't optimized, but my lte signal is a bit worse than on the nexus 5, which was disappointing. The z3 loves bouncing between 3g and lte which is killing my battery
raegae2000 said:
Maybe the radio for Canada isn't optimized, but my lte signal is a bit worse than on the nexus 5, which was disappointing. The z3 loves bouncing between 3g and lte which is killing my battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed quite an improvement compared to my former HTC Sensation on Wind network, however, everyone will have a different experience depending on the phone they use for comparison.
Better than my S4 in my house by a hair. I even get LTE in the basement
I am going to be a bad example because this is my first phone on t-mobile.
compared to the Note 2, Nexus 5 and Galaxy s5 on spint, my Z3 on T-mobile has a WAY BETTER connection in my city. whether im in or out of my house or another building 4G LTE with dang good bars. for me.. speeds like in my signature is normal for me around here. well more like 25mbps. VoLTE is awesome here as well and call quality is amazing compared to sprint :S why did i wait 2 years to switch?
Thanks for your input guys
Better than the Z2, a tiny hair worse than the iPhone 6. IMO, very good reception
Pretty good at maintaining connection for me.
I live in an area with average to bad signal -90dBm to -110dBm on LTE
Xperia Z3
Ookla Speed Test: Run 1 and 2
42 / 49 ms Ping
36.87 /39.68 Mbps Down
4.92 / 8.10 Mbps Up
Mother's iPhone 6
47ms Ping
41.23 Mbps Up
4.38 Mbps Down
sav_uk said:
Cool? Are people finding the signal to be strong and reliable for data and calls/texts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never used 4g before but my one (6603, on EE in the UK) has peaked at 59megs down, 29 up, which is mental!
Thanks again for all of your help guys
sav_uk said:
Hi guys,
How strong is the cell signal on the z3? Is it strong indoors and outdoors? Also is it good at locking onto signal once you leave an area with no coverage? How is LTE signal strength? If anyone also has any comparison to phones with strong reception like the M8 and iPhone that would be great thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in the US and have Z3 D6616 from T-Mobile. The signal is very strong to be hones! I had Xperia Z1 Compact, iPhone 6, HTC One M7 - all on LTE network and they had 2-3 bars at my place. This Z3 has from 4 to 5 bars, but no less than 4! Had been great at holding onto the signal. Although my Blackberry Z10 had the same 4-5 bars of signal.
There are some issues with VoLTE calls sometimes, don't know if UK version of Z3 has that feature enabled.
Much better reception on my z3 than on my previous LG g2.
I'm using Z3 6653 since a week now in Mumbai, India with vodafone network. Network signal strength is quite weak and signal losses have become frequent especially when i go indoors. I never had this issue with my nokia lumia 920. Even my wife's moto g had better reception at few places.
I'm on stock rom at present, havent rooted on this phone as i want to give few months on stock .
But, signal issue.. looks to be a dampener on this otherwise great looking snappy phone..
Southeast Europe here. Biggest provider, but no lte yet...
-73dBm atm inside a house ment for bunker
My old HTC 1s barely stayed connected here...
Sent from my D6603 using XDA Free mobile app
The m8 of someone I know looses signal while the signal of z3 is still 2g.
Compared to my old s4 mini it's also better most of the time.
se1000 said:
Better than the Z2, a tiny hair worse than the iPhone 6. IMO, very good reception
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen any significant difference between any device I've used (and I've used quite a few) in years.
Nexus 4, 5, Oppo Find5, Oppo N1, Oppo Find7, Z3, Z Ultra GPE (Only the F7, ZU GPE, and Nexus5 were LTE) - all provide nearly identical reception performance (losing and regaining signal) at my desk where reception is extremely weak. If there were any appreciable differences between any of these devices, some would've simply never had signal at my desk, while others would've had consistently weak but usable signal.
6603 on AT&T Florida
4 G
HTC One+ = -85 dBm
Z3 = -95 dBm
Z3 with Devilcase bumber = -99 dBm
Data speeds of H+ and LTE almost the same down. Up, LTE much better.
Still can't receive calls or SMS with LTE turned on. If I make or receive a call it will work for several minutes but then send calls directly to voice mail. 15 minutes later I get a voice mail notice but no missed call.