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Picked up my Infuse up at BestBuy on May 15th, the release date. After 1 week, I've had these problems:
Main problem is that GPS sucks. I had specifically tried to get a smart phone to ditch my GPS navigator. This phone isn't it. Long times to fix, sometimes *never* producing a fix. If there is no network (away from civilization, no wifi or cell), there's often no fix, ever. This problem alone is probably enough for me to take it back. Does anyone know what the GPS implementation is in the Infuse? If it is a Broadcom chipset, that would explain it!
Wifi signal strength seems weak. In places where my laptop gets full bars, it gets half that. In places where my laptop gets two bars, it sometimes can't connect or it intermittently drops. This is very annoying.
Cell signal strength seems a bit weak, too. My old phone gets consistently one or two bars more. Cell data seemed not as strong, too.
I tried the HDMI adapter. It showed video fine, but failed to send audio to my TV. I know the TV is capable of HDMI audio from other sources. Oh well.
While driving with the device on sunny day, the screen was dim and hard to read. Found out the display brightness was low in auto mode. So I put it on manual, but it refused to allow full brightness, saying "Display brightness limited due to temperature" or something to that effect. So, you can't have full brightness in sunlight when you need it most? I suspect anybody who tries to use the car dash mount is going to run into thermal limiting problems, making that use impractical. Maybe if you get a white skin to keep the solar gain down. The thermal design isn't apparently good enough to get the heat out.
Otherwise, the phone seems pretty good, but my issues are high enough to have me contemplating a return.
I'll note that the Galaxy S II is reported to have a new GPS chipset, SirfStarIV, which sounds like a significant upgrade to the GPS system. But, not yet released in the US. Sigh.
How does one determine the GPS chipset in a phone?
Thanks for any help.
I've had a few issues with the phone also but you don't really expect your cell phone to get the same wifi signal as a full blown laptop do you?
Wow, seems as the Infuse does not meet your expectations. Question, If not the Infuse then what would be your next line up of devices?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
These are also my big issues, its definently the best ATT handset minus the antenna, I keep missing calls if its in my pocket and the wifi is really buggy.
DarkH2O said:
I've had a few issues with the phone also but you don't really expect your cell phone to get the same wifi signal as a full blown laptop do you?
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I make no apologies for having high expectations.
The wifi circuitry inside a phone should be as good as any that is inside a laptop. That leaves only the antenna as the prime issue for wifi performance. I can understand losing 3 dB, maybe 6 dB over a well designed laptop, but not 20 dB. That's severe incompetence in antenna design.
I've seen other smart phones do significantly better than the Infuse with regards to wifi.
pixelkore said:
Wow, seems as the Infuse does not meet your expectations.
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In those areas it isn't. I am particularly sensitive to GPS performance for my needs.
Question, If not the Infuse then what would be your next line up of devices?
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The Atrix is noted to have good GPS performance. I've been advised that Motorola is less friendly to things like rooting and ROMs than Samsung, though.
The HTC Inspire seems to have similar weak GPS problems.
The Samsung Galaxy II S (Attain on ATT?) is said to have a new GPS engine so that is what I hold out hope for. I may just return the Infuse and wait for that to come out and hope the GPS is improved.
I have had similar issues as well. Having a normal temp around 105° is high for any phone. It causes my screen to flicker constantly during game play. I expected something like an oversized captivate, which I got. I will switch to the gs 2 when it is released.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
mciholas said:
I make no apologies for having high expectations.
The wifi circuitry inside a phone should be as good as any that is inside a laptop. That leaves only the antenna as the prime issue for wifi performance. I can understand losing 3 dB, maybe 6 dB over a well designed laptop, but not 20 dB. That's severe incompetence in antenna design.
I've seen other smart phones do significantly better than the Infuse with regards to wifi.
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Click to collapse
I get great speeds with my router. It's set to only n and I pay for 30 /5 and get that on land line and with phone I get 16-20 down and 4-5 on up...
sent from Infuse but miss my captivate on cont. 5.5.... One day this can be as good...
chvybeatsford said:
I get great speeds with my router.
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Speed is not the issue, I get great speeds when close to my access point. The issue is lack of range and an unstable link.
I have to be in the same room as the access point, or maybe one room next to it, to get a reliable wifi connection on the Infuse. Other wifi devices work fine throughout the house.
My GPS units will get a lock in any room of the house. The Infuse GPS will not get a lock in any room of the house and takes a long time even outdoors.
I also get good range. May be my house but I can get great speeds in the garage. And the router is 3 walls and about 35ft. Also get good rec. Out side across my yard. (60ft.).
Not the best signal but 2bars.about 6mb.This is. Brand New house with the router about in center of floor plan.
sent from Infuse but miss my captivate on cont. 5.5.... One day this can be as good...
my captivate got better reception and didnt get as hot with heavy wifi usage. but you cant have everything.
i wouldn't get it because of the bad gps. i guess samsung forgot to put a gps antenna in it like they did with the rest of the galaxy s phones.
I love my infuse, my only issue is that 2 or 3 times so far, the phone starts playing music from my library without a music player opened. I've checked all my notifications and they are all set to what I want. Only thing i can think of, it's playing music to let me know my battery is full. My captivate used to beep, if its not the battery then i have no clue. no alarms are set, calenders have alerts turned off, sms is set to what I want, I don't know lol
Rldowney said:
I have had similar issues as well. Having a normal temp around 105° is high for any phone. It causes my screen to flicker constantly during game play. I expected something like an oversized captivate, which I got. I will switch to the gs 2 when it is released.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
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How are you going to upgrade? Just off contract purchase?
I don't have any issues with my GPS. I have been using the phone and testing it our for almost 2 weeks now and have not had any issues with it using Google Maps or Google Navigator. I would put it on par with my Atrix where the GPS is phenomenal on it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
Wifi issues
mciholas said:
I make no apologies for having high expectations.
The wifi circuitry inside a phone should be as good as any that is inside a laptop. That leaves only the antenna as the prime issue for wifi performance. I can understand losing 3 dB, maybe 6 dB over a well designed laptop, but not 20 dB. That's severe incompetence in antenna design.
I've seen other smart phones do significantly better than the Infuse with regards to wifi.
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Click to collapse
I had to return my Infuse due to the poor wifi reception. I had it side by side with my old iPhone 3G a couple rooms away from the router. The Infuse dropped wifi completely and I lost internet connectivity while the iPhone was happily chugging along.
It's a gorgeous phone and I was sorry to send it back, but not being able to keep wifi connectivity when compared with a 3 year old iPhone was a dealbreaker.
gPS
I rooted My infuse and installed faster fix and north america and my gps works perfect now it lock way faster then my htc inspire does i have noticed the phone gets warmer than others but i have only had it about four hours now so we will see
My gps using maps and navigation work perfectly, the only time i've noticed it getting hot is when I have it on the car dock, but, the thing is black and my car is old so everything is hot in it... i'm grandfathered into unlimited so I can't speak on the wifi cause I dont use it
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
jdonnell said:
I had to return my Infuse due to the poor wifi reception. I had it side by side with my old iPhone 3G a couple rooms away from the router. The Infuse dropped wifi completely and I lost internet connectivity while the iPhone was happily chugging along.
It's a gorgeous phone and I was sorry to send it back, but not being able to keep wifi connectivity when compared with a 3 year old iPhone was a dealbreaker.
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I think I'm gonna follow suit , this phone is an attrocity in every single way
1 - Touch the phone frame with two fingers , wifi and phone signals drop by 3/4ths which is RIDICULOUS ... there is no 4g and the hspa+ system should go and suck an Elephant's left NUT
2- Gps lockon takes more than 10 minutes ... again I'm screwed if I'm in a rush + no TomTom
3 - No gingerbread ?? . . . F^K you samsung seriously ... Ice cream is up next within the next 2 months and not even one dev on the internet was able to come up with custom firmware (No offense to any devs , I know you guys are awesome and work your @$$es off... so props to you for devotion and work always but patience is not my virtue)
4 - Single core is kinda painful to bear when you know quad core & 3d phones are being released very soon
5 - No apps that can use the front face camera (AS FAR AS I KNOW) so again why bother even giving this to us ?, Samsung you guys might as well have given us a dual core with one of the cores shut off.
6 - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT ... call quality / microphone is ATROCIOUS ... In my quiet bedroom at night with no audio disturbances my gf is telling me every 5 seconds that she can't hear me and that pisses me off so badly. I've tried with at least 10 other people all giving me same bs. So I have to yell at my phone like a walky talky .... so sad
If you bought this phone from costco you can do 2 things guys.
Either return the phone and stick with w/e u had b4 until the good stuff comes out or wait 90 days and pray something decent comes out by mid august.
I'm returning mine and returning to my Iphone 3g ( as old as it may be and dinged up it still is dam reliable )
sonkameja said:
3 - No gingerbread ?? . . . F^K you samsung seriously ... Ice cream is up next within the next 2 months and not even one dev on the internet was able to come up with custom firmware (No offense to any devs , I know you guys are awesome and work your @$$es off... so props to you for devotion and work always but patience is not
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Okay. I hate getting worked up by people....but seriously? The phone has now been out for FOURTEEN DAYS!! Dont use "lack of dev work" as an excuse to take your phone back. I understand your frustrations, but just take it back and stop feeding this thread.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Hi all, please welcome me whom had bought the Optimus 3d just 2 days ago. I love this phone. Please do let me welcome you all to talk about a flaw, which I've found out right away with the new phone since 2 days ago! I've been with some others Android phones, so, I should say I've had good experience with Androids.
I realized that Optimus 3D has some kinda hardware Radio receiver flaw (I really don't know what should I really call it) similar to the famous iPhone 4 dilemma in the beginning. I found out that the "Radio receiver" is located somewhere at the bottom of the phone, where our hands most often holding the phone with. The hand will block out the signals and the signal bar will be reduced by a lot as much as to zero (if the signal strength itself is not strong in the 1st place!) Try find this yourself, have some experience by holding the phone at the bottom and let go and holding the phone and again let go, keep trying this you should see the signal strength that will drop and rise and drop and rise again. Or is this only my phone? But I've never experience this phenomenal with other Android phones!
Also, I don't know this has the directly link to the downloading issue or whenever browsing nets, the network data will drop very very often. I hardly got successful downloads from the market without few retries. Thank god at least at the moment I can temporarily fix it by turning off and on again with the data enabling shortcut in the pull down menu.
Please help me here and advice! Very much appreciated!
Since the famous iPhone 4 drama for a lot of phones these stories pop up once in a while. I know lots of people furiously believed the Samsung Galaxy S had the exact same problem but after a week or so nobody ever talked about it anymore.
I myself have absolutely no problem whatsoever with the signal, not even when I completely cover the entire phone with my hands leaving just a small spot to read the signal it never drops, not by one bar. I've never had a single download dropped with either 3G or wifi and I've downloaded my share of stuff from the market and other places.
I've tested this with my T-Mobile simcard (which has pretty horrible coverage here) and with my Vodafone simcard (which has great reception) and with both simcards the signal strength stays exactly the same according to the bars. Even when I go to the settings the dBm and asu values stay exactly the same, no matter how long and how bad I cover the phone.
So far you're the first and only person I've read about having these issues so I think it just could be an isolated incident, although that would be bad for you as that would mean you could have a defective phone
This problem is not something new and is not related with O3D.
All the phones have the same issue.
It is normal that if put your hand on the antenna the reception will drop.
The radio waves just work like this.
However the atenuation from your hand is most accentuated on higher frequencies like 2100Mhz.
On every phone even on the oldest phone with external antenna you will meet this phenomenon.
The difference between 4 bars and 1 bar is only around 10dBm which really isnt that massive a drop at all. Now that you've pointed this out i do see that the signal strength varies a little depending on how you hold the phone but its not enough to panic about i don't think. The iphone 4 problem was significantly greater in that the iss was that a user's hand would electeically short the mobile network antenna to the bluetooth and wifi antenna causing a total loss of signal. While 10dBm or so is a definite dip in signal strength, it's an acceptable level of attenuation and i dont see it causing any real world day to day network problems that you wouldn't experience with any other high end smartphone.
My workplace is in a giant tin hut of an industrial unit (read: faraday cage) and today while i had this phone there for the first time i saw no noticeable network coverage problems. The behaviour was as far as i can tell exactly tue same as my motorola milestone from which i upgraded.
Sent from my LG-P920 using XDA Premium App
As stated all phones can lose a bit of the reception when it's in your hand depending on how you hold it, the reason Iphone4 was such a big deal was that it was extremly sensitive when it came to left-handed people and they had a real problem with their antenna being totally blocked when holding the phone normally when speaking in it.
Later on media and uninformed people started fueling the flames as soon as they saw a bar drop when picking up the phone, radio waves are not magical rays or tachyons that can move though matter without interacting with it.
thanks for all the replies. Believe me or not, this is the 1st phone I realize this issue and it is so obvious, the bad news is, it is really bad for me that the antenna is located at the bottom, probably most others phones I've owned were at the top as a result i didn't got any problem before.
And another issue, I'm pretty stucked with the shipped rom now, really hope to see custom roms soon. I'm at the moment totally freak out with the inconsistent of data and the wifi, it keeps failing me, this really freak me off, what the hell is happening to me with this phone! I've never ever got any dropped data or wifi connections before. Arggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no signal drop out no matter what hand positioning i use..
I'm in a very poor reception area. I do notice hand over phone a drop from 1 bar to none. Still not a red cross to indicate no signal but a drop of 1 bar all the same.
Just tested it.
Signal drops from 4 bars to 3 (1-2 in awkward positions) when hand-held. Not an real-life-usage impact though...
Thanks for all the test replies to support my findings. OK, now, I've realized that the hand holding issue has no direct impact to data drops. And the data drop is entirely due to the time issue which it does not lock down the data connection when swithcing data modes. And at the moment it can beasily over come to turn off with the data button in the pull down menu. I'm not sure though when in the situation when the signal strenght was so low, by holding with hands will give an direct effect of data drop or not. Will observe that
Was just wondering if any could give me some feedback on their experiences with this phone vs other carriers or VM phone models. In the little over a week I've owned it, it's horrible compared to my current AT&T phone service.
I wanted to know if it was a quality issue on the phone, or VM's network.
I've notice in Los Angeles area I almost always have 1-2 bars, often have x1 instead of 3G. I also can be stopped at a major intersection in my car and the bar goes from full 3G to no bars and 1x, then spikes back up to full, then says no service. Even when I have a full bar and 3G I get like 150kpbs using speedtest.net sometimes.
Youtube video even in low quality stutters often, in HQ it's pointless.
I've also noticed the GPS lock times are sporadic but yet a utility shows the phone has a lock on 7+ satellites, but reports only about 100ft accuracy.
Sometimes when the screen comes on it flickers for a split second.
I was also told that the phone's radio only uses the 1900Mhz bands, does anyone know if we could get 800Mhz support once we get ROM development for it?
Has anyone noticed similar issues?
Best Buy just got 8 more in stock I'm going to swap it, but wanted to have some reference before the 30 days are up. No stores have a activated VM phone that I can compare service to.
I really want to update my phone and if I can save my money from AT&T. But need something at least somewhat reliable and consistent.
Thanks,
-Lich
Hey man, I'm in southern Indiana, so I can't really say much about your service area, but mine is great. usually 3/4 bars, with 3g speeds faster than my wifi. If your device is wonky like that, where it keeps jumping from no bars to full bars, then maybe its something with the phone itself. as far as 1x data, that's the network. I'm using an optimus v, rooted running cyanogenmod7, and I have excellent battery life and performance, so if you are going to switch to a different VM phone, I recommend that.
I have had absolutely no problems with this phone that aren't software related. There are quite a few Lemons out there and it seems only people on these forums are getting lemons!
I have software version 039 (Not sure that matters)
My signal strength sitting right here in my house is -64dBm with no tower in sight, full bars. I traveled from Upstate NY to Tucson, AZ on multiple flights with multiple layovers last week with this phone and I had absolutely no problems including getting in flight WiFi.
My Triumph is everything I could've hoped for after selling my iPhone 3GS to get the Triumph.
The screen is large and beautiful with absolutely amazing colors. The screen is responsive (after taking the thick 2nd screen protector off) and nearly as good as the iPhone's screen responsiveness. Phone feels good in my hand with a nice coating on the outside. The camera is absolutely amazing. I have taken beginner SLR quality photos with it, and when focusing you can even get quite a bit of bokeh added. The 720p camera is great, though it's jumpy in low light and I really don't like that it doesn't have video focusing. Battery life will take me through an entire day of normal use.
Any problems I have had, are software related and should be able to be easily fixed. GPS Locks beautifully to 3ft accuracy in under 30 seconds with the GPS Test app, but this cannot be said for Google Maps or Navigation. I think Google has a driver problem in their software which should be easily fixed with a new update to the Maps application. The Triumph does become unresponsive for a few seconds at times, but it's no big deal to me, again that should just be a software problem.
One other major problem I have that I KNOW is software related is that the headphone volume is WAY too low. If you make a phone call while listening to music, the volume will jump up to a normal level. Without making a phone call I have to turn my cars radio up to about 8/10 just to be at a normal level, if I make a phone call I can leave it on about 3/10.
For $300 and $25/month, you cannot beat this phone in any way.
On mt phone I can see little horizontal lines.does any one else see them?
My experience:
WiFi takes a while to turn on when I wake the phone. Streaming video is a bit choppy, and downloading the videos only reduces the choppiness by a little bit. I dont have the flickering issue, and to the best of my knowledge, gps works well. Keeps up with games like my bro's Droid X. Snappier than my friends Samsung Galaxy S. Sometimes the soft buttons require a second press to initiate. Overall I'm happy with it, but will be better when CM is installed.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
My experience is that gps works just fine the phone is fast, the signal in seattle area is only good downtown anywhere els and it sucks. I searched for towers in my area and sprint has very few towers I get 1 maybe 2 bars max signal at home mostly 0 bars but can still make calls.
wifi works great and when I have a good signal 3g works great but the lack of signal in most places is what sucks my battery down.
Sprint just needs to improve its coverage
bugs i've come across :
widgets resize after holding your phone in landscape mode
wifi can't connect to a router and will keep re-trying, causing the phone to reboot
random reboots
back button will stop working, while other buttons work
light leakage between soft buttons and case
i went from 038 to 039 software and haven't noticed anything yet. i always had a good gps lock on 038 but had horrible reception, 039 doesn't seem to improve that
Faster then my daughters galaxy s , 038,sometimes the back button takes a few times to act like a back button, but over all I'm very happy with it.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT
I came from the Intercept, and so far the Triumph is heads and shoulders above that even though it has a few minor bugs. Most of the stuff works great, my gps is fine, my signal is actually better than my Intercept, and I don't have any screen flickering.
I do have a small amount of light leakage (not a big deal to me) and sometimes my widgets resize, but all in all it's been great for me.
I came from using the Droid X and let me tell you that this phone reminds me of it so much. The only thing that i dobt like is that the battery is a little lacking compared to the X. An im just waiting for a custom rom to come out for this. I was running liberty 2.0.1 on the x and i would love to see something similar.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
Other than the atrocious performance of the battery.......Horrible gps performance which much like my wife works whenever it feels like it. The 3g speeds are an absolute joke also. So far i'm not all that impressed with this phone. I hope that it can be solved via software and that these are not hardware issues. It's my second one....the first one had power issues.
No problems either with _38, had it since 7/14.
Signal is about 5dB weaker v. an OV in the same location, however I have seen several people report making/receiving calls fine w/no bars as well as SMS. The areas that I usually frequent, I have 1-2 "bars"(no a good sig str indicator), 3G no problem.
...and I second the app problem causing thing to f'up. I read an article the other month that the VAST majority of Android phone problems usually end up being some app interfereing with functionality. e.g. I had sudden batt drain problems, so I checked batt useage and found Star Chart(FAOD that day) was using 80% of batt, so I killed it problem solved(in that case).
[EDIT]
3G speeds: VMUSA problem, mine are as craptacular on the MT as they were on the OV, i.e. usually about 56k dialup rates.
[/EDIT]
Well here's an update.
I just got back from BB and exchanged the 1st Triumph with another. It's funny the manufacture date on this one is newer but it has the 38 firmware and my old one had 39 go figure that out. Anyway so far the performance seem just as bad, but the screen doesn't flicker on power on.
Maybe I just have the worst luck and need to try a 3rd one. I really love this phone and want to use it and VM it's so cheap. I'm going to try this one for a few days and cross my fingers my house just has extra crappy reception.
I also bought a Optimus V just to compare the signal network speed as a reference, I haven't swapped to that one. I turned it on non activated and it shows 1 bar signal also. I'll be curious if it goes up once it's offically on the network. I really would like the bigger screen and flash support though from the Triumph.
Maybe I like in the wrong state and should move where you guys live..lol
Thanks for the feedback.
-Lich
Common issues for me now are connectivity, battery drain, and light leaking from the bottom right corner. I'm going to swap mine out before the 30 days are up
mr2011 said:
Common issues for me now are connectivity, battery drain, and light leaking from the bottom right corner. I'm going to swap mine out before the 30 days are up
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yea i think everyone pretty much has all those problems. if you exchange it you will probably get the same problems or worse. hopefully a new batch will have been released by then
I own both the Triumph and the Optimus V. Reception seems a touch better with this one in known trouble spots around town here. Where the Optimus might lose connection, the Triumph retains it, if barely.
I am having issues with a greenish yellow blob in the middle of the camera. It is reducible within some combination of the setting, but in some instances it is still there. Is this a common issue, or are there MTs which do not exhibit this? The reason I ask, is that I am weighing wether to swap my MT out for another.
I also have intermittent lock screen 'flicker', but from what I have read, it seems to be fairly common. I dont see it often within normal use, but if I repeatedly hit the power button, it becomes visible.
Connectivity does however seem to be stable when I have been using it (both wifi and cdma). Even in cases where there are low bars, I seem to have a decent connection for text/voice.
Has anyone else's battery life gotten more and more horrible by the day? It seems like mine is getting worse as each day passes. The first day I got my Triumph I had some heavy use on it getting all my apps installed and configured and it lasted almost a day and a half for some time on a single charge, now 2 weeks later im having to plug it in maybe twice daily for quick charges.
So the flickering screen issue... Major defect? Or can we count on a solution when custom ROMs become available?
I'm on my 4th Triumph now, and at this point, Best Buy is probably going to ban me from making returns if I go back very much more with this crap..
mr2011 said:
Has anyone else's battery life gotten more and more horrible by the day? It seems like mine is getting worse as each day passes. The first day I got my Triumph I had some heavy use on it getting all my apps installed and configured and it lasted almost a day and a half for some time on a single charge, now 2 weeks later im having to plug it in maybe twice daily for quick charges.
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Click to collapse
Try calibrating the battery with charge cycles. Might help. Or maybe it is an app you installed?
Sent from my LG Optimus V running Sense 3.0
Hi guys. I've got a saga to describe for those of you who are interested, but I'll try to keep it brief. I think it really boils down to one or two simple issues.
I've had Verizon phones for a long time, in Central Illinois. Probably about 10 years now. Rarely had problems with dropped calls. My previous phone was a Droid 1 ... worked great, very rarely (as I recall) had dropped calls.
Then in January 2012, as the Droid was killing me with general Android lag and unresponsiveness (but voice was still fine), I upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus. Loved it for Android performance. For the first 3 or 4 months I had it, I don't recall it giving me any undue trouble .. dropped calls were minimal if any, I think.
Then sometime around April or May, started getting a ridiculous number of dropped calls. Mostly at my home, throughout the day, but not just there, I've also experienced them a mile or two away from my house. The neighbor hood is fairly wooded, but that's never been a problem before.
Additionally, my wife has a "feature phone" (non-smartphone) also with Verizon and very rarely if ever has dropped call problems.
The topography at my house is along a river, we're right near a high bluff overlooking the river, with line of sight (besides the trees, of which there are not a ton, really) for at least a mile or so across the river. I think we're possibly within range of several cell towers.
I notice at most points when I'm in my house, using some apps that help you track signal strength and show you the cell tower ids, that I'm mostly one just two different ones, both of which seem to be maybe about 1 mile away. Also, if I'm walking up one flight of stairs, I pretty reliably see that same app showing the phone switching among possibly as many as 4 or 5 towers, in the space of about 5 or 10 seconds!
I suspect this may be caused by the topography in my area.
I also suspect that most of my dropped calls *may* have something to do with being in range of so many towers, or with the phone switching too frequently (or unnecessarily, really) among the towers, while I'm on the call, if this is possible (I have very little technical knowledge of cell phone radio technology -- hence this post).
Now, I've done a fair amount of research and talked to Verizon customer support about this at length. They've actually been very patient and good with me, but we still haven't arrived at the solution.
I originally thought the problem my be the Galaxy Nexus, but after getting a warranty replacement on that one, and even getting to try a Droid RAZR and then finally the GS3, I'm seeing virtually the exact same behavior on all of the phones. The symptoms do *not* seem to be directly related to signal strength exactly. I get usually about 50 - 60% of the total bars (maybe 3/5 or 4/5) in most parts of the house, yet *still* get these persistent drops.
Verizon's final best solution for me, basically, was to use a Network Extender. Despite my misgivings towards this, I have acquired one and it does seem to solve the problem for me, when I'm home, and when I'm in range of the device (its range seems pretty good in my house). One big problem with it though, ridiculously, is it seems that whenever it's on, my wife's Verizon phone starts dropping calls (and it never does otherwise). So there's a Catch-22 there, added to the fact that I'd rather not have to be running a Net Extender *and* the fact that I still see other drops when taking a walk or driving at least a mile or two from my house.
So, for those of you still with me, I'm wondering if
a) my theory about excessive switching, etc., is plausible, or if you have another one based on the facts I've outlined
b) if doing something like flashing an alternate radio ROM (I barely even knew there were separate ROMs for the radio -- I've done some rooting before of Android, but not the radio) might give me some more control or better performance. It'd be great if there were a setting somewhere where I could tell the phone to be less willing to switch towers or to give a higher preference to one tower, at least while in a certain GPS area (I know, I'm sure it's a reach).
Anyway, looking for a little education into why your opinions are of what may be causing this and if I have any remedies available that are feasible and may actually help.
Thank you for your attention and expertise.
Any apparent issues with these phone? I have the recent Samsung galaxy nexus, and I have the 3g-4g issue with mine and it was a PITA. Any issues with these phones, as in common issues?
This phone started getting really poor signal when the Note 2 came out. It got so bad a lot of people needed to get it replaced! Apparently, the Note 2 didn't have these issues.
Just kidding.
In some areas this phone can have signal issues. At home, work and most other places nearby I get perfectly fine signal. However when I visited some of my friends in Detroit we went to a bar that caused my phone to really heat up in my pocket. I noticed it was on 1x and my battery had been drained pretty good. Its hit or miss, but I'd say 90% of the people have no issues.
Out of the box the phone does not handle Bluetooth calling with an aux cable plugged in. You won't be able to hear the person on the other end until you unplug the cable from the phone. Fortunately, one hobbyist was able to fix what a multi-billion dollar corporation couldn't and released SoundAbout onto the play store. You'll have to buy it to get the Bluetooth correction ability, but it's worth it if this is a function that you use.
Samsung is playing coy about the availability of an extended battery. Only murmers of it exist though some people have managed to get their hands on it overseas. We're hoping this doesn't become vaporware because it's a 3000mah battery that doesn't add too much extra bulk. The stock battery provides average battery life. Better than your GNex but worse than battery titans like the maxx phones and Note 2.
There are issues with the real time clock that causes recovery backups to have an incorrect date. All of my backups were performed in 1970 apparently.
AOSP is very functional on this phone but it's still a WIP. Notable issues include staticy A2DP Bluetooth music playback (mastamoon builds unofficials that fix this at the expense of call echo), massive fps lag upon exiting games (fixed by turning screen off/on) and weaker signal strength in some areas. There may be other issues I'm forgetting about, but that's most of it.
There is a small chance you can lose your IMEI number when you flash custom ROMs or kernels. This is bad as it causes your phone to lose its ability to make calls, send texts or receive data. Luckily there are easy methods to back this up and restore if needed. I've backed mine up and thankfully have never needed to restore it. Look for the thread titled Comprehensive IMEI Backup for more details.
That's most of the issues with this phone.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
No comparison to the GNEX. The GNEX was just terrible when it came to signal. The S3 might not be the best signal phone, but it is leaps and bounds above the GNEX.
[email protected] said:
No comparison to the GNEX. The GNEX was just terrible when it came to signal. The S3 might not be the best signal phone, but it is leaps and bounds above the GNEX.
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VERY true story!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I've been having trouble with signal reception at home, but that's the only place I have an issue. My house seems to be in a deadzone with a radius of no more than 200m. My iPhone4 didn't have a problem with calls there, but hte GS3 does. That said, I don't really have a problem anywhere else. A network extender remedied that issue. I also get a quick A2DP audio skip once every couple of minutes, but that doesn't bother me much.
Aside from that, it's been an awesome phone. Lot's of support, and lots of roms to try out.
You have 14 days to return, give it a run. I have zero signal issues.
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I have the 32G blue on Verizon and although I don't always have a strong signal I have never had a dropped call. I travel a lot and watch the 4G and cell signal, most of the time I have 4G about 80 % the rest is 3G. Did notice that when the phone is switching between the two occasionally it will go to 1x not all the time. I did flash like a dozen ROMs not loosing my IMEI, however I did back it up b4 I started flashing just in case. Recommend you do a lot of reading b4 you start flashing n you shouldn't have any problems. Love the phone n the ROMs
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Thanks guys especially the 2nd poster!
This phone is awesome and one of the best I've owned so.
Came from the flagship thunderbolt on the verizon network.
Oh the thunderbolt my wife has had 6 of them none worked right
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
I've had mine a couple of week now. I came from a Motorola Bionic. I would much rather the Bionic's radio, I find I have reception issue in places the Bionic was fine in. I got my wife a S3 also, it seems like her reception is better than mine.
Other than that, the phone is amazing. I would and have recommended it.