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[Q] Signal:Iphone 4 vs Inspire

Ok so I love the inspire, big screen is awesome compares to the iphone 4. I'm just wonder if anyone here have both phone and find that the iphone 4 get better reception than the inspire? Where I live for some reason, I get a low signal with att but on the iphone 4, at least it will hold a constant signal where I can make and receive calls and text ect, with the inspire, the signal would go in and out, i would get like miss call alert and stuff when the phone doesnt even ring. Now I've try flashing a couple of different radio but they all dont really improve anything. Anyone can suggest a radio firmware that get good signal? I dont care about battery life. Btw im on leedroid rom and tried the suggested radio, no good either.

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Yeah I am having the same issue. I have an iphone 3g and 4 as well as many other htc,samsung,palm smartphones. Of them all the inspire has the weakest signal all things being equal. Kinda disappointing. I honestly think it has something to do with the crap ass cover on the bottom,aka one of the antenna's. I plan to experiment this weekend and see if something cant be done. I am on the stock radio but have tried many different roms and tons of playing in the build.prop to no avail,except exponentially increased data speeds.
maybe there are just some bunk inspires out there. I dont get too many dropped calls and my data is ok, but compared to every other phone I have its sub par.

It could be the 4g reception is not as strong I also came from iPhone 4 and I noticed the reception in some spots on the inspire is not as good but I am happy over all
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

No experience with an iphone 4, but I can definitely say it's not quite as strong as the captivate I came from, but not to the point that it's worth switching back.
That's not really my problem though, the audio quality on it is pretty bad, talking on the phone itself it's not too bad, but while talking on my bluetooth headset the "gsm hiss" is extremely pronounced at all times.

I came from a craptivate, and here in Los Angeles County, USA, my signal with the Inspire 4g is way better than my craptivate... and it spends less time scanning for a signal too than the samsung!

You should compare dBm of each phone because HTC uses a different range with their bars. At -89dBm HTC will switch to 3 bars, -109dBm will be near zero bars, etc. But apple uses completely different range. So the only way to know for sure is compare dBm numbers.

Newer radios give approximately a 10 db increase over stock.
Bars mean nothing. If you are not comparing db you're doing it wrong and inaccurately.

I used the phono app on the inspire and the reading on it is always worst than the iPhone, I really think it's the antenna design on the inspire. Newer radio works better? Is it the new one that leak from the gingerbread rom? I might have to try that, if I can get 10db more and lose a bit of battery life then I'll gladly do it, I really like this phone but at the end of the day if I can't use it as a phone, it's no good to me

Radio thread.
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877295

I am not having any speed issues at all with the Inspire.
It does seem to switch between GSM and WCDMA a little more frequently but speed is the fastest I have ever had on a mobile device without WIFI on.

I just did a quick test again because I am getting very annoyed at the poor signal of this phone. I have an aria here next to me. The aria is at -91db and the inspire in the same spot is at -103-105db, obviously the higher the worse it is. Also the aria is more stable in that it goes right to -91 and stays there while the inspire takes some time to settle, and never really settles completely like the aria. I did experiment with the antenna but could never get the signal any better than the cover despite my best efforts.
I have not given up yet. I will try a different radio as I have only used the stocker since the beginning. 10+db's is a hell of a difference in my opinion, and in real wold experience the difference is painfully obvious. I dont even want to get into how much better the signal is on my dumbphone.

Try radio 12.41.60.19_26.06.04.14_M, I was having a ton of dropped calls on the stock radio, that fixed it.

I have a weaker signal but I drop significantly fewer calls then I did when I had an iphone 4.
Sent from someplace using something to send it.

romeo0119 said:
Ok so I love the inspire, big screen is awesome compares to the iphone 4. I'm just wonder if anyone here have both phone and find that the iphone 4 get better reception than the inspire? Where I live for some reason, I get a low signal with att but on the iphone 4, at least it will hold a constant signal where I can make and receive calls and text ect, with the inspire, the signal would go in and out, i would get like miss call alert and stuff when the phone doesnt even ring. Now I've try flashing a couple of different radio but they all dont really improve anything. Anyone can suggest a radio firmware that get good signal? I dont care about battery life. Btw im on leedroid rom and tried the suggested radio, no good either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both and just compared them. I held them side by side and observed the signal bars and both were identical with two bars showing. I moved them apart about 10 inches...still holding them in hand.. and the signal is 1 bar each. I laid them down side by side and saw that the Inspire had 3 bars, the iPhone 4 had 2 bars. I moved them about 3 inches and now the iPhone has 3 bars and the Inspire has 1 to 2 bars. I moved them to a different spot about 1 foot away and separated them by about 5 inches and they both show 2 bars consistently.
From what I'm seeing, I would say they both have identical signal strength quality. At one point I did see 4 bars on the iPhone 4. So I moved the Inspire to where the iPhone 4 had 4 bars...exact same position and place...but it stuck with 3 bars and never showed the 4.

stickbo said:
I just did a quick test again because I am getting very annoyed at the poor signal of this phone. I have an aria here next to me. The aria is at -91db and the inspire in the same spot is at -103-105db, obviously the higher the worse it is. Also the aria is more stable in that it goes right to -91 and stays there while the inspire takes some time to settle, and never really settles completely like the aria. I did experiment with the antenna but could never get the signal any better than the cover despite my best efforts.
I have not given up yet. I will try a different radio as I have only used the stocker since the beginning. 10+db's is a hell of a difference in my opinion, and in real wold experience the difference is painfully obvious. I dont even want to get into how much better the signal is on my dumbphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is pretty weak. Have you laid both on a table so that your hand is away from the antenna not causing attenuation? Just as a baseline test.

That's exactly how I did it. Layed it on a my wooden dining room table in the middle of an empty room. I even moved away so as to keep my body from being a shield/conductor. Same sim card to by the way.
as for the iphone 4, they calculate their bars differently than htc does. Apple is notorious for giving more bars per db than other makers, they took some heat over it a while back, remember antenna gate.
I am gonna try to switch to the radio listed above and see what happens. I love this phone too much to give up that easy.

Yeah dBm is the best thing to look at. All I can say is keep doing more tests and see if you can find any more info. Maybe different locations. It is possible for the phone to use 2 different cell sites in same exact spot. So install the app antennas and record which towers on the map your phone is using.

My inspire gets probably between 2-3 bars in my area. Compared to my Cappy before i rooted would get 2bars at the most and i would lose a signal in alot of places.

Stop quoting how many bars you get. It is a meaningless comparison.
If you aren't comparing db you are doing it wrong.

[Q] Signal Strength Issues

Hello everybody. I have a small question for all Nexus S owners.
Does anyone else's signal strength bars fluctuate all the time? For instance mine goes from 3/4 bars to 1/4 to 0 bars and then back to 2/4 bars all within a couple of minutes in the same location.
I plugged my SIM into my BB Bold 9700 and it stays consistent at 4/5 bars. My signal db is like -103 dBM 5 asu as I type, on UMTS at the moment. EDIT: Now -111 dBM 1 asu in the very exact same spot. Wait. Now it is -97 dBm.
Does anyone else experience this or could it be my sole device? Or possibly my SIM card?
If it is a Nexus S thing, what other phone is recommended from Rogers?
Thanks for your time.

If it helps, I'm running stock Android 2.3.3.
Also is the Galaxy S Captivate from Rogers the other best phone they got on Android?

I had an evo, and it had much better signal strength and had far less dropped calls and connected much quicker to the internet. Maybe theres something in the PRL we can change or its just a hardware issue. but the nexus s 4g isn't on the same level as the evo 4g when it comes to signal strength

as stated before it's a radio issue. hopefully we will get a software update soon.

fixxxer2008 said:
as stated before it's a radio issue. hopefully we will get a software update soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And where exactly was this stated? If you could post a link to a thread or something, I'd appreciate it.

fadentales said:
I had an evo, and it had much better signal strength and had far less dropped calls and connected much quicker to the internet. Maybe theres something in the PRL we can change or its just a hardware issue. but the nexus s 4g isn't on the same level as the evo 4g when it comes to signal strength
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your experience. So it seems that it is a widely experienced issue. How do people live with having their phone have poor reception?

Nook000 said:
And where exactly was this stated? If you could post a link to a thread or something, I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HERE and HERE. And I guarantee an Internet search will reveal more.
good day.

chopper the dog said:
HERE and HERE. And I guarantee an Internet search will reveal more.
good day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the links.
It seems like the situation is not nearly as bad in Toronto, Canada (I was in Windsor for a while). But even in Windsor, if I set my phone to 2G, it gets 4/4 bars all the time. Note that the phone's reception is worse than my iPhone or BB Bold in Toronto too.
So is it only the 3G portion that is broken? And is it FOR SURE a software issue?

chopper the dog said:
HERE and HERE. And I guarantee an Internet search will reveal more.
good day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, but those are Sprint users. People keep comparing against the EVO, but how do know if the EVO just flat out has better antennas/reception. I've compared my Nexus S i9020a to my 2 other phones, the Motorola Milestone and the iPhone 3GS (oh let's not forget my ancient Nokia N82). The Nexus S is crap and is worse than the iPhone 3GS in terms of SNR. In fact it's about as bad as the iPhone 4 with death grip issues. The death grip isn't really an issue for the NS, but damn the reception to begin with SUCKS.
My question is how can you say it's a radio issue for sure? This means you know that for certain it's a software fix.
Perhaps the antenna for the Nexus S isn't good to begin with. Another benchmark I did was GPS Status on my Motorola Milestone and my former Nexus S. Both of those phones locked quickly WITHOUT SIM, meaning they use GPS only and no aGPS. The signal was strong even indoors. While sitting at my desk my Nexus S is absolutely horrendous and takes forever to lock. Even when I scoot to the window it gets barely enough signal to lock. My N1 locked anywhere in the house with great signal without SIM. This perhaps says that the Nexus S has weaker antennas overall compared to similar phones. Maybe it's a radio issue like you say, but honestly, how can you be certain it's software and NOT hardware?
Anandtech's review mentioned the Nexus S drops HSDPA down to 3G UMTS a lot, and sometimes EDGE. Why is this? Could be radio, but I notice the H and 3G switching a lot during low signal. There's more than enough people saying the signal is bad. I almost want to say everyone attributes this to radio because they're optimistic there's a fix. Sometimes you have to admit certain features of the phone just aren't strong
i.e. the N1 earpiece. no matter how much you boost it, you'll just get tinny sound, and in no way does it compare with the SGS or Motorola Droid phones.
- the iphone speaker. people say each iOS revision boosts it, but at the end of the day, the Motorola Droid phones are like boomboxes compared to the iPhone
- The NS just has bad reception. Maybe we should just admit that and move on. There's only so much radio updates can do at this point unless you're saying Samsung totally screwed it up as badly as the Captivate/Fascinate/Vibrant GPS issues.

[Q] Weak Wifi anyone?

Getting weak Wifi-signal on a friends One S, attached are screenshots from Wifi Analyzer comparing reception with ye olde Desire running Sandvolds ICS. The One S consistently is quite a bit worse off by ~20 dBm and sees far fewer networks at any given location. Another old Desire running stock gingerbread also outperforms the One S.
Thoughts anyone who upgraded to the One S? How is your Wifi compared to old phone?

My One S gets 5-10 dBm worse than my Xperia X10 on CM7

frdd said:
Thoughts anyone who upgraded to the One S? How is your Wifi compared to old phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Comparing my old Desire (AMOLED, CM7) to my One S the signal strengths are about the same.
But whereas they are stable on the One S they oscillate on the Desire, and the One S is more sensitive, means it shows more different signals in shorter time. The Desire doesn't show them at all or at least less signals, maybe due to the oscillation.

Oh good gosh.
The sensation had the grip of death.
The amaze has a WiFi problem now so does the HTC One S.
The hell HTC? Fix the WiFi issue.

Had my one s for a day now. Been at the same locations around my home as my old desire. It shows far better WiFi reception than the desire both when it was running runnymede and leedroid gb with different kernels.
No WiFi trouble at all.

My sensation was appalling for signal (wifi, 2g/3g) i complained to my provider and thats why i now have the One S.
I must admit, Its not perfect but its a whole lot better. Only had it working a few days so cant be 100% sure, But im getting signals is places i couldnt with the Sensation..
Im happy i can use it as a phone, I would have like it to be alot better but thats life i guess.
It works so i cant complain.

No issues for me... WiFi reception is just as good as the old Desire had. Didn't test it with any apps, but I can get reception everywhere in the house and even outside the front door, which I think the Desire couldn't.

Good thing its not a very common problem so far, maybe HTC spilled some of the micro arc oxidation stuff on the antennas of this One S then It has problems connecting and speeds are bad where multiple other devices work fine. Please keep the anecdotes coming!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA

No wifi issues here. At least as much signal as my old Desire

i can't complain about my wifi. Even though i get 5-10 dBm worse signal compared to my Xperia X10 i can still connect everywhere inside of the house as well as on the street ~15 meters away from my house. I also get much better speeds with my One S. We have a 30/30 mb/s connection but my Xperia could only use 10-15. The One S on the other hand gets 30/30 every time

The phone in first post is on its way to HTC to be fixed or replaced. Attached screenshots of firmware and radio versions in case someone needs it

My One S wifi signal is around 10 to 12 dBm weaker than my Motorola Defy+ but it still works very well so no issue. Mobile data signal is a good 16dBm and more, weaker (as mentioned elsewhere on this forum) than the Defy+ which is somewhat of a problem. Contacted HTC but awaiting a response.

I have weaker WiFi only when the router is in distance. My incredible s could get one or two bars so does one s, but it can not connect to anything.
When near the router, they all work very well mo problem.
From WiFi analyser the signal strength are similar.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA

When in my room, i always loose wifi connection when a finger is over the thing you can take off to insert sim. i noticed it because i always loose wifi connection when holding it in landscape
can only compare to iphone 3G which was a little better in keeping connection and had no specific grip of death.

I came here to ask this same question. I don't get a full wifi signal when I'm literally right next to my router. You can forget about it just 20 feet down the hall. really poor. Much worse than on my G2. And I only get edge speeds at my house. Really, I get edge speeds in my den where the tv is but i get 4g in other parts of the house.

This is soooooooo upsetting!!!! Am having wifi issues too. My phone randomly jumps on and off my Wifi while I'm in my room. Mean time my laptop's @ 90% to 100% signal.

I am actually getting much better wifi (using rooted stock) than I did with my HTC glacier running CM7.
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using xda premium

frdd said:
Getting weak Wifi-signal on a friends One S, attached are screenshots from Wifi Analyzer comparing reception with ye olde Desire running Sandvolds ICS. The One S consistently is quite a bit worse off by ~20 dBm and sees far fewer networks at any given location. Another old Desire running stock gingerbread also outperforms the One S.
Thoughts anyone who upgraded to the One S? How is your Wifi compared to old phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure that your SIM access cover is snapped in place.
It happened to me with the WiFi signal - The phone was losing signal, and had low signal 1 foot away from the router.
I 'pinched' the top-right corner of the access cover (thumb on the glass, index finger on the back cover) - I heard a 'click' and suddenly my WiFi was at full strength. I believe that the WiFi antenna is not connected unless it snaps together.

I haven't had any WiFi issues other than low signal at moderate distances from the access point. Once I turned on Best WiFi Performance in the phone's settings though, even that minor issue went away. Couldn't be happier with the WiFi performance, especially after all the WiFi issues the NS4G had.

Check to see that best wifi performance is checked in advanced settings. Not knowing any better, I turned this ON when I first got my phone. A few days later I decided to turn it off to see if it helped battery life. With it off, I got the constant signal drop that someone else mentioned. My son got a One S at the same time I did. He was complaining about occasional reboots. There was a thread on the T-Mobile support site that pointed to a wifi issue. I had him turn best wifi performance ON, and his reboots went away.
Sent from my HTC VLE_U

4G lit up but no internet?

So inside my apartment I can make calls, but no internet. There's definitely some static and the person on a land line on the other end said every now and then the call wasn't clear. Literally outside my apartment I get 25Mbps 4G LTE speeds. Weird. I guess my apartment is super insulated? LOL no, it's California the walls are paper thin. What gives?
My wife's iPhone on AT&T works fine inside apparently. My EVO on Sprint works really well.
I don't know if there's any special setting or number to dial to acquire different radio towers...I don't know. But here's the most troubling of all. Why does my 4G (and sometimes 4G LTE) icon light up when I don't have internet?
It tries to connect and all but it's spotty and just fails. I literally can't use internet inside my apartment unless it's on WiFi of course...Yet my wife's iPhone on AT&T can and so can my EVO on Sprint.
I will be testing all around my neighborhood and the San Francisco area...But I keep on Sprint for not having LTE...But if I can't even use the damn phone on AT&T consistently I guess slower speed is better than no speed.
Anyone else with this issue? I'm curious since it's a new phone, new radio, etc. Is it known to have issues indoors?

this sounds similar to some of the problems others are pointing out in all those threads complaining about wi-fi. various fixes being offered. also at least one person had said htc is aware of the problem and claiming there will be a fix by the end of may. you may want to check the other threads.

Mobile data on in settings??
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Yes it's on. It's just really bad inside my apartment and even on my porch (bad as in doesn't work and I have to use WiFi)...I thought maybe some sort of dead zone but again my wife gets signal with her iPhone. I hope it is something that gets fixed. If I can get this amazing 4G in my apt as well as down the block, I'll be a very happy camper.
If I can't use my phone in my apt ill be uh well I might be going back to sprint
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

tom_m said:
Yes it's on. It's just really bad inside my apartment and even on my porch (bad as in doesn't work and I have to use WiFi)...I thought maybe some sort of dead zone but again my wife gets signal with her iPhone. I hope it is something that gets fixed. If I can get this amazing 4G in my apt as well as down the block, I'll be a very happy camper.
If I can't use my phone in my apt ill be uh well I might be going back to sprint
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
call att and see whats up. Something isnt right.
I was with sprint, good thing i left. I have used more data in 2-3 days than i did with sprint in a month. Lol

Yea I would call AT&T. I think your phone may have a bad 4G chip. I had to send a phone back for every 4G issue in the book.
I just wish AT&T LTE was 25+mbs were I live.

I'm on 4G now inside. I didn't move the phone at all. It was on WiFi and after turning it off on then off a few times the 4G picked up. I see it now as HSPA+ and sometimes it bounces to LTE. But it seems to be working...at least long enough to post this message which is an improvement...
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

Walked around ny apt. Into the room I had no signal in before for sure... Seems ok. Bars dropped to one but now back in bed I have 3.
Also tested GPS directions today for fun and every few blocks it would lose GPS signal.
Never had such issues on Sprint and I'm not in the boonies...I'm in silicon valley of all places lol.
I don't know...how can you test for bad 4G chip? How can you test signal strength and what do I tell AT&T and what can they do for me? Or will they just say I'm unfortunately in a bad area?
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

just a comment. i have not had your problem, but i've been following these threads wondering if the problem will eventually turn up for me. i've placed the widgets for mobile and wifi on one of my screens so i can access these easily. turning on mobile while wifi is on does not appear to overrride wifi, but turning wifi on while mobile is on appears to override mobile, as the 3g/h signal for at&t disappears. i'm doing this from home, so i don't know if it works the same way upon leaving home, but maybe... i should also add that i'm on an int'l one x using at&t prepaid.

Played with it some more. Here's how it works. When on WiFi it uses WiFi like it should and doesn't use 4G/mobile network.
The icon for 4G is lit. However, I looked under settings this time more carefully. It says disconnected underneath. If I turn off WiFi it attempts to connect to mobile network but fails. Endless loop.
I turned off everything. Turned on airplane mode. Turned off airplane mode (black box notification pops up with "preparing SIM card" and goes away). The mobile network connects now.
Right now my signal icon seems to switch back and forth from no bars with an X to 2 with 4G and LTE lit. I can't post this message when there are zero bars, so the icon I guess is now accurate. I'm not moving, I don't know why reception would be bad or off/on....can any other electronics cause well known interference?
But at least I could connect. I'm not sure if it was luck or if turning on airplane mode made it easier to reset itself.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

I know my speekers at home seem to cause some interference, but the phone win's so then all you hear is a crap load of buzzing.
How I would test for this is to go to a AT&T store and do a "vs" on # bars/holding bars and the DBM rating under "about phone">"status".
If they are both the same then you may need to call AT&T about this. (I hope you don't have to call them 10 times like I did with the big red.)

Tried turning off my speakers here...Still bad. I mean the speedtest won't even complete. I'm stuck on the upload, the download was .74Mbps... 185ms ping. The signal isn't consistent. It says LTE then it goes away. I'm just bouncing around between HSPA, LTE, and nothing at all. Despite the phone not moving...This thing just can't stop hunting for a network.
Under the battery use, clicking on the graph expands it and shows the "mobile network signal" and the bar is 90% or more all yellow and some gaps of nothing even. Some slivers of red.
EVERYTHING else about the phone is amazing...It's just behaving as if I was in the middle of no where or something, but I'm in a small city.
I now know why my friend is ditching AT&T for Sprint I guess...But I'm screwed there too, no LTE and ugly phone design. It's like the HTC One is just some giant tease. A mythical Unicorn. Magic dragon. I just keep chasing it, but I don't think I'm ever gonna catch it

sprint is going to have its version of the one x - the updated evo, i believe, due out this month.
but you should just take your phone back to at&t. others have done so and gotten replacements.

So does it act like this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDxJoGv3FLA&feature=channel&list=UL
If so, you likely have a bad phone.

so it's a thing? like i can just roll in and be like "i think this phone is broken..." and i'll get a new one? and it's common?
okie dokie. i'll go do it tomorrow.
my internet is kinda like that video. slow and connection is lost.
BUT i have seen it really fast on the speedtest.net app.
on a side note, i did a factory reset and since (just about an hour now) i have not yet seen the constant connect/disconnect issues that i did before.
so it's pretty slow inside my apartment but it's at least consistent. outside it was fast on the LTE. 15Mbps down on the speedtest.net app. again the connection did not drop.
so i can deal with a little slow inside... in the bathroom the densest part of my apartment it was down to 1 bar but still, the mobile network was connected and despite it taking foooooreever to download an app, the play store at least did not fail on the download.
so better, but not perfect.
trying the speed test right now, it failed. thing says 4g lte up top too...why it would fail when the thing says it has signal, i just don't know.
can a phone be broken in this manner? intermittently work? i would say then at that rate its the area. bad signal in the area. ...and if i went into the store and said i want a new phone, i feel as if though they would just say it's the area you're in and the phone is fine... but how is it bad signal when it says LTE on there? and when every other device (a phone on Sprint and my wife's iPad and iPhone on AT&T) work fine? i can't imagine it's a bad area or apt. insulation. but how can the phone be bad if it works "some" of the time?
anyway. i guess i'll go see if i can trade it in.

Mobile network turning on and disconnected with 3 bars 4G LTE
I experienced the same problem after using HTC One X for the first day. I was able to get almost 30 M download and 26 M upload in my house on May 6th but lost the connection to mobile network on May 7th at the same location. When I turn off Wi-Fi, phone tried to connect to mobile network but went into the loop of turning on,disconnect while mobile network button is on. I went through 3 AT&T tech service even got a new sim and did factory reset but the problem just won't go away. The last AT&T tech service told me it is a defected device which I really don't agree. I think it is more an issue with HTC One X working with AT&T 4G LTE. I hope HTC & AT&T can solve this problem soon.

Is the radio in this device really that bad?

so long story short I am looking at ditching sprint where I have an EVO LTE. Trust me when I say I am used to crap reception and data speeds. I was reading the thread full of other people who have came from sprint and most seem happy but... I read a lot of comments from long time Verizon users saying things like " I have to contort like a monkey to get a message to go through". Are these just spoiled Verizon users that don't know how good they've got it? Or is coming from sprint a waste of my time? Thanks for any and all input.
PS: Verizon has LTE all over my area, sprint has not announced any LTE anywhere near me. Is the LTE utilized for voice and text? Will this help?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium

Im sure others have problems, but mine has been great. Not a single issue to speak of. Been running CM10 for 2 months now.

Gordon Ramsay said:
so long story short I am looking at ditching sprint where I have an EVO LTE. Trust me when I say I am used to crap reception and data speeds. I was reading the thread full of other people who have came from sprint and most seem happy but... I read a lot of comments from long time Verizon users saying things like " I have to contort like a monkey to get a message to go through". Are these just spoiled Verizon users that don't know how good they've got it? Or is coming from sprint a waste of my time? Thanks for any and all input.
PS: Verizon has LTE all over my area, sprint has not announced any LTE anywhere near me. Is the LTE utilized for voice and text? Will this help?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO radio problems here.... I think a lot of people with problems may be on the border of having coverage where they are...? I have FULL bars no matter where I go in Michigan (except in Walmart) LOL I have LTE coverage too and it's been a solid performer and I may drop a call here and there but nothing out of the norm... Just my personal experiences...:good:

My .02
Go to a verizon store, put a rezound side by side to a samsung galaxy s3 and compare the dbm and asu and u will see how terrible the signal is . My phone is constantly at least 20 dbm less than the rezound .
It feels like i am back to sprint or tmobile since i got my device, constant data drops, phone call break ups and 4g/3g handing off is terrible .
Btw this is my 4th sim and second samsung galaxy s3 trial now , still reception in comparison to any htc phone is horrible.
Htc put their 4g antennas on the back cover which i think makes them practically immune to low signal issues.
Its a pretty phone , but if u want a device that actually communicates with satellites and cell towers, then get a real phone . not this one .
waiting for htc dlx

Mine has been completely fine.
Currently not being productive on my S3.

I came from Sprint at the beginning of the month. On Sprint it had gotten so bad that I was on 1 bar 90% of the time in the middle of the New Orleans area. I gave up waiting for it to get better and installed Roam Control so I could force it to roam on Verizon. Forced roaming only gets you 1x data, but it gave me full signal which prevented dropouts and draining the battery.
Now I'm on Verizon with the S3 and have no signal issues. I don't think I've ever seen less than 3 bars. The signal starts might be lower than other phones based on other people's experience but I wouldn't know because I haven't had any problems to make it worth checking. I think it really depends on your area. If your current phone is rooted, you could try Roam Control to get an idea of what the signal strength will be like, although you'll be stuck on 1x data.

I too was scared by the reports in various threads that these devices have horrible radios. We switched to Verizon from ATT because ATT doesn't work at all at my office (searching for reception).
I haven't been looking at dBM or anything but from a functional standpoint I haven't had any issues. There are some areas where before I was getting 4-5 3G bars on my ATT iPhone4 where the SGS3 bounces between 1-3 bars 4G LTE. It's always disturbing when you see 1 bar of reception, but the phone operates well even getting 4-5Mbps in speedtest. If you look at bars (I know not really accurate) and whether or not I can browse, call, etc. the SGS3 compares favorable to the wife's iPhone5. In fact there were a couple places where I was getting 1-2 bars 4G and the iPhone5 dropped to 3G.

Her are some screen shots of my signals after an update last night. These are the best I've gotten on both and better than anything I saw on my Rezound.
Currently not being productive on my S3.

Never had an issue with signal on my S3. You also need to realize that the most vocal people are those that have an issue. For every 1 person posting about an issue there a dozens that have no problem at all.

Signal on my s3 is great its 100 times better then gnex was and about on par with my old droid RAZR.

dwyw42 said:
I came from Sprint at the beginning of the month. On Sprint it had gotten so bad that I was on 1 bar 90% of the time in the middle of the New Orleans area. I gave up waiting for it to get better and installed Roam Control so I could force it to roam on Verizon. Forced roaming only gets you 1x data, but it gave me full signal which prevented dropouts and draining the battery.
Now I'm on Verizon with the S3 and have no signal issues. I don't think I've ever seen less than 3 bars. The signal starts might be lower than other phones based on other people's experience but I wouldn't know because I haven't had any problems to make it worth checking. I think it really depends on your area. If your current phone is rooted, you could try Roam Control to get an idea of what the signal strength will be like, although you'll be stuck on 1x data.
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This doesn't work, each manufacturer measures it slightly differently. You have to use a third party app to compare phones that are not the same model.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Yes, it is. My GS3 consistently drops in places where my Rezound and iPhone work without a hiccup.

I actually just switched from Sprint to Verizon last week and love it. My gs3 has great reception and the network is very fast. I get a consistent 30 mbps down all over my area. With Sprint I was lucky to get 500 kbps
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

The Nexus was the worst for reception. The S3 is a close second. It seems to be people in some parts of the country don't notice the issue - possibly because they don't use their phone much or because they have towers that use different technology than the towers in the areas I travel. I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles, Vegas and Dallas. I can be at 4 bars one second and no bars (drop the call) and go back to 4 bars the next.
I was on Sprint and the HTC EVO 3D had that same issue even though the EVO didn't. I did always get crap data speeds on Sprint though. Some phones get great signal like the Motorola - so the question is - which is more imporant to you - the PDA or the phone. I use about 3000 minutes per month so I notice quickly when there are issues with a phones reception. My data speeds on the S3 are much better than I had on Sprint.

No the radios are not bad.
Excellent service, all the time here. In fact, I've never seen my phone with less than 3 bars, anywhere I go. And I travel a lot.

Yes the radios are very bad.....although improving. With the HE radio I finally have seem -99 dbm at my house although most of the time it is around -105. This is much improved compared to the original radio where I saw on average -110. I still drop calls in areas where I never have before. The poster that stated that HTC's have better signal are definitely correct. My wifes old rezound normally saw -80 to -85 at my house and never dropped calls anywhere. My old Thunderbolt was the same. Funny thing is that no matter what direction I go from my house, once I am a minute away I get full reception.....no matter what way I go. The radios don't do a good job of reaching out for the signal. The range is bad. Those stating that they are happy with their radios are probably in areas that don't have any weak spots. I'm holding out for newer radios cause every release seems to be a small step in the right direction.

ercDROID said:
Yes the radios are very bad.....although improving. With the HE radio I finally have seem -99 dbm at my house although most of the time it is around -105. This is much improved compared to the original radio where I saw on average -110. I still drop calls in areas where I never have before. The poster that stated that HTC's have better signal are definitely correct. My wifes old rezound normally saw -80 to -85 at my house and never dropped calls anywhere. My old Thunderbolt was the same. Funny thing is that no matter what direction I go from my house, once I am a minute away I get full reception.....no matter what way I go. The radios don't do a good job of reaching out for the signal. The range is bad. Those stating that they are happy with their radios are probably in areas that don't have any weak spots. I'm holding out for newer radios cause every release seems to be a small step in the right direction.
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Same exact thing here! You took the words directly out of my mouth.
Sent by one of my many Anthromorphic Personifications

Here are the results of a real world test that I just did with a co-workers HTC Thunderbolt compared to my SG3:
Both phones on 4g and side by side
HTC dBM -66
SG3 dBM -92
I think the results are pretty clear. Nothing else really needs to be said about the quality of the SG3 radio......it is not as good as the competition. If it was close by a few dBM then it would not be of concern to me. A 26 dBM difference is huge!
Because of this difference in signal strength he was able to have much faster download speeds. I was 17 down compared to his 27 down.