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People with G2X signal problems...

Hi all, Just wanted to contribute to this wonderful community as it has given me so much. I was having signal issues, very weak 4g...Constant switching from 4g to E. I read about people who didnt have the right 4g service applied to their contract from T-Mobile.
Mine was a $25 a month data service which did not benefit my phone like it should. The guy who helped from t-mobile showed me that indeed my phone should have been running the $30 4g service which replaces the one I had. Once I had the switch done my service went from E - four bars to 4g - three bars instantly.
Go check your contract and make sure you make the switch if you have a 4g phone. Good luck. I'm running the eagleblood 1.02 and its perfect, Never had any freezes, Reboots etc...A little screen bleeding but overall best phone I have had.
I have also removed the blue tape behind the cover for the heck of it. NOt sure if it has had any effect but definitely check your services.

I have the 4G Data on my plan, and I still have the same issue. Thanks Anyway

This is NOT true. My very good friend works in the tech support side for T-Mobile and he told me the only difference between the 4G plan and my plan is 5$. The 4G plan is only a computer code for pricing and does nothing for your service. I should know because I had it on my phone and after he took it off for me, guess what.....I still got the same service and download speeds.

The problem with this phone is low signal strength. It seems to have problems with low signals, 1-2 bars and then loses connection intermittantly. If your 4G keeps going down to 2G do a hard reset to clear the settings. It should keep the 4G regardless of the signal after. For me I lose the signal at home especially if I hold the phone from the bottom with my palm to the back, I can watch the bars go away then when I remove my hand it raises up. Antenna is in a bad place I think. LG messed up!

I'm still on the MT3G $24.99 a month unlimited data + 400 texts plan, my phone gets great 4G speeds, (at least as great as T-Mo's "4G" is capable of) definitely faster than the same plan on my N1.
ETA: I'm in Seattle, T-Mobiles U.S. base of operations. I dunno for sure, but it makes sense that the data coverage here would be a little better than in a lot of other areas.

ashton4life said:
The problem with this phone is low signal strength. It seems to have problems with low signals, 1-2 bars and then loses connection intermittantly. If your 4G keeps going down to 2G do a hard reset to clear the settings. It should keep the 4G regardless of the signal after. For me I lose the signal at home especially if I hold the phone from the bottom with my palm to the back, I can watch the bars go away then when I remove my hand it raises up. Antenna is in a bad place I think. LG messed up!
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I'm suddenly having IPhone 4 flash-backs!!! Sheesh.. For what its worth I was having the same issues with low to no signal, but I recently (last night) installed the 2.3.3 GB Rom and I must confess that I have all the bars and no WIFI sleeping issues.. YMMV..
They didn't change the radio firmware but apparently my phone likes the GB ROM better I guess.....
Good Luck

dlammons said:
I'm suddenly having IPhone 4 flash-backs!!! Sheesh.. For what its worth I was having the same issues with low to no signal, but I recently (last night) installed the 2.3.3 GB Rom and I must confess that I have all the bars and no WIFI sleeping issues.. YMMV..
They didn't change the radio firmware but apparently my phone likes the GB ROM better I guess.....
Good Luck
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Click to collapse
So do you think the Gingerbread update may help the low signal issues? I returned my phone today and now I have to wait for them to send me my deposit back. I may just wait a month or so and buy it again if others see a difference also. The Tmobile 2.3 update is suppose to happen some time this month.

I got my unlimited 4g with 5gb cap for $20/month,u got ripped off
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

bobthq said:
I got my unlimited 4g with 5gb cap for $20/month,u got ripped off
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
It doesn't matter if you have the 4g plan or the regular plan. The speeds stay exactly the same. Anyone who thinks the 4G data plan has anything to do with your data speeds needs to delete there screen name and stop fallowing this website.

The plan doesn't affect the speed or the fluctuation issues of 4G/2G/EDGE. It basically just comes down to your coverage area.
I was having absolutely no issues with 4G signals since I bought the phone, but when I went to Dallas last weekend I was having weak signals, slow downloads, etc. Went back to Austin and signal was fine like before.
I'm still on the old G1 unlimited data plan and speeds are faster than when I was on my G1.

g2x signal weaker then g1 signal
My G2x gets a weaker signal then my G1 does in the exact same spots. My G1 can be 3g when my G2x is EDGE in the exact same spot. Walking from an EDGE spot to 3g/4g coverage area my G1 bumps up 100-500 feet sooner the the G2x. Nobody at LG or t-mobile would do anything about it. Returned the g2x on day 14 but they had to pry it out of my hands because other then having a sucky signal I loooooved the phone.

I was told by a customer service rep that works for sprint that 4G for Tmobile only works if you switch to Sprint and put the sim card in the Sprint phone. Then you will have to get some foil and wrap your phone in it and hold it 91 degree from the angle of the sun.

I got my G2x a few days ago and was having some serious signal issues. Half of the time it was on emergency calls only. T-mobile suggested I swap my SIM that I had for 3 years, saying they had reports of older sims not working with the upgraded HSPA+ 42 towers. It immediately fixed the issues everywhere except at home where they are having problems upgrading that tower.
If you have signal issues, try swapping out that old sim. Also check if you are in a market that is getting upgraded

lokibtm said:
I got my G2x a few days ago and was having some serious signal issues. Half of the time it was on emergency calls only. T-mobile suggested I swap my SIM that I had for 3 years, saying they had reports of older sims not working with the upgraded HSPA+ 42 towers. It immediately fixed the issues everywhere except at home where they are having problems upgrading that tower.
If you have signal issues, try swapping out that old sim. Also check if you are in a market that is getting upgraded
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. Apparently my old SIM card was only good for Edge whereas I got a free 3G (works with 4G) sim card replacement at a T-Mobile store.

My observations....
When i was using my Nexus One as my main phone... i could tell the day hey turned on HDSPA+ in my area...i was getting about 5mb down and 1.5 - 2 MB up almost consistently for about a few weeks ...then it dropped down to regularly 2-3 down and about 1.5 up. Which is about what i was getting up until i ot my G2x. Now my top speeds are about 7MB down and if i am lucky i hit 1mb up otherwise it is almost always a hair below 1mb up. Yes i know the Nexus one was not 4g HSDPA+...but like i said i could tell they day they turned it on. When i got the Nexus One i switched from Blackberry and I never switched my actual plan until i got the G2x. So to me it seems there is some type of throttling involved somehow. Just think about it... if you go over your 5GB limit with the so called unlimited plan.... they throttle your speed right? hit has to be done automatically.... so why can't some type of computer coding error be wrong on someones phone/account an only giving them 3g or less speeds?
Also is anyone getting terrible upload speeds like me? Before you say upload speeds do not matter unless you are uploading... consider that even when you download...a data packet has to be sent back (Uploaded) to say give me the next set of data packets for download... and the faster your upload is...you would see increased/faster downloads also. Think T1 vs aDSL at the same speed. It seems that our data is not "unlimited" and it is aDSL as well. Sorry i am rambling LOL anyway i would much rather get steady 3MB down and 1.5 up if it got better battery life. I did notice when i had my nexus one it would only kick in the high data when you went online like opening a web browser etc.. otherwise it throttled it down. (yes i saw it change by quickly going back to the settings are for status and watched it change back and forth) which was done in a fix that helped battery life... by increasing the idle time.
As far as switching 2g (edge) to 4G and never showing 3g..i read a few posts that said that LG was aware of this and would be fixed in the next patch update or/ Gingerbread update. So perhaps this is also effecting people phones as well.
Sorry if i strayed from topic... i just tried to paint a bigger picture about throttling speeds based on plan or phone type. Maybe it does not happen to everyone...but it could happen to some.

In my home I get very weak signals with any phone, whether its GSM or CDMA but when I tried the G2x it continuesly disconnected and lost signal. This happened more on the G2x then any of my previus 5 phones. I was forced to return it. I would have kept it but this was a big problem. I believe that this phone does definetly have reception problems plus it loses the signal just holding the phone from the bottom with my palm to the back, basically just holding it normally. If I raised my hand to the top it got better.... I really liked it. I'm back with my old LG envy2 and it never loses signal any where in my home. I may just try the Sensation when it comes out and pass on the G2x getting fixed.

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
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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.

Data dropping

My phone has dropped data randomly two times this morning. I could only get it back by doing a switch to airplane mode. Anyone else with this problem? Is this a phone issue that I need to get a new one?
Sent from my HTC One X

Mine has dropped several times. when coming to and from work. It seems to always happen when it connects to wifi. when i leave work and its wifi, i lose all signal entirely.

I don't use wifi though that's the thing. I called ATT and they said it may need a new simcard......which this was. So I swung by and got one and the lady at the store said that my phone may be going bad! LOL wow I love how they train their people.

YES. Most definitely, this is the same problem I'm experiencing. I had another thread posted about how the 4G icon was lit but there was no signal. The icon now seems to be a little more accurate...But still.
At home I switch on WiFi so I don't run up my data but if I look at the settings for mobile network the status underneath in gray text keeps showing that it connects and disconnects. Endlessly. The phone isn't moving. My wife has signal on her iPad and iPhone (I know those are 3G).
I have to turn on airplane mode and then off...Then mobile network on and it seems to help a little. However it's still super spotty.
This is pretty much only indoors but I don't know. I'm going to go around town and try it out. On their coverage map I'm in a big zone of LTE coverage. Outside I have seen 30Mbps on LTE using speedtest.net app. So I don't know. I thought it was very odd given the houses here in CA don't exactly have super thick insulation and every other cell phone (Sprint, my wife's on AT&T, etc.) seem to be AOK. It's just this new One X that just can't stay connected to the 4G.
Going under settings > about > network ...
I see my signal strength....some readings are...
-109 dBm 4 asu
-101 dBm 6 asu
-107 dBm 2 asu
I have no idea what values I should be seeing - what is considered good?
Mobile network type says HSPA. Service state says in service. Icon up top is 4G with one bar. If I turn off WiFi I could not load a web page or anything. That's what annoys me. I usually see like 2 bars and that's fine...But if I see the damn bars and the 4G icon....I sure as hell expect the data to work, even if a little slower.
It's just SUPER flaky. Again outside seems to help but to be honest I haven't sat and watched it. For all I know it could be connecting and disconnecting over and over outside as well but just have a stronger connection when it is actually "on."
I'm annoyed and speechless. I'm not in the boonies. I've never experienced anything like this before. I'm actually at my desk in front of a window. Uh...WTF?

Just picked up lunch and watched the data while on the trip.
This phone is unusable. It's gotta go back. Well, I guess it's welcome back Sprint. Sooooo disappointed.
All I got was HSPA. The only time I get LTE and those fast 30Mbps down is at night time. AT&T is such a joke and their network is NOT ready for this phone.
I'm in Palo Alto, CA. It's not the middle of no where. This is embarrassing. Either that or somehow I have a defective phone or SIM card or something I have no clue here...It's really really bad and I'm obviously not the only one.
3 days and it's been horrible, the only reason why I didn't notice sooner is because I've been using the phone on WiFi most the time.

tom_m said:
Just picked up lunch and watched the data while on the trip.
This phone is unusable. It's gotta go back. Well, I guess it's welcome back Sprint. Sooooo disappointed.
All I got was HSPA. The only time I get LTE and those fast 30Mbps down is at night time. AT&T is such a joke and their network is NOT ready for this phone.
I'm in Palo Alto, CA. It's not the middle of no where. This is embarrassing. Either that or somehow I have a defective phone or SIM card or something I have no clue here...It's really really bad and I'm obviously not the only one.
3 days and it's been horrible, the only reason why I didn't notice sooner is because I've been using the phone on WiFi most the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how fast is the HSPA you're getting?

1-3.56Mbps down and 0.04-1.03Mbps up.
Out on the street downtown.
Best I've ever had was at night on LTE 30Mbps down and like 17Mbps up.
All to the same test server. Trying servers several states away it varied, sometimes I'd even see 20Mbps down to a far away server.
Again this is all WHEN I'm actually connected to the data network.
The thing just can't hold a connection. Constantly dropped.
edit-- ok so right now same time of day, servers, etc. Sprint's 3G is a little slower, but at least I'm not getting dropped.
and on a side note, i got a REALLY helpful lvl1 tech support lady on the phone. much better experience than i thought. there was an issue in the area before. but basically i'm going to give it another shot. if no good tomorrow, swap for a new phone. they'll call me back friday and we'll see... crossing my fingers.

Any update on this? I've got a new One X and work night shifts twice a week. I've notived tonight that the data drops when the phone is idle and obviously nothing pushes.
There's got to be a way of turning this off. I can see why HTC would call it a feature, but there has to be a flag or a switch somewhere....

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

How much can different phones affect signal strength?

So we've been testing a Verizon and T Mobile phone (currently have Sprint) as Sprint has been pretty poor in our area as of late. The T Mobile phone is a Galaxy Blaze, and with it we get amazing 4G signal in the street outside our house. However, we can move literally 3 feet closer to the house, and the signal will drop to absolutely nothing. Inside the house it just frequently switches between very low 4G and very low Edge signal. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Is there any chance that a different phone (we want Nexus 4's) would have stronger reception and not have this problem, or is our house pretty much screwed?

Different internal radios will be different, yes.
However, I get absolutely no signal in my house with my T-Mobile S3. I don't find this to be a problem since T-Mobile has native calling over WIFI. Whole house is covered by strong WIFI signal and the call quality has been pretty great when used that way. I don't know if you can get WIFI calling onto the Nexus 4, I would guess probably not but who knows (maybe someone has found a way) - I'd have to research that.
I don't know how well a signal repeater would work, but it seems like it could since you could place it outside the home where it would have access to a great signal and repeat it inside.
If your Sprint phone can roam on Verizon, I'd question how much of a difference it would make to switch to Verizon itself. I have had both and the signal in my home was basically the same - the Sprint phone was connected to the same Verizon towers the Verizon phone was. I'm sure there might be some technical reasons there would be differences at some point (radios, how roaming is dictated), but I never noticed them in practical use.
Depends on the plans you're looking at and where you're willing to compromise.

For whatever reason, roaming doesn't seem to fix the problem on Sprint here. Verizon gets great signal, but 4 days in the 2gb plan is clearly not going to work. This pretty much leaves T-Mobile our only choice. T-Mobile also seems to just get better and faster service everywhere we go, so it would still be better than Sprint, as we're used to not having service at home anyway. It would just be unfortunate to have to continue like that.