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Deathgrip

If I hold my phone normally (near the bottom) my signal plummets, is this normal or do I have a lemon?? It is really worrying me, if I grab it near the bottom I go from 3 to 0 but still have service but I am still without bays and my data slows. I don't know if this is normal and I should just accept it or if I should go exchange it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I haven't been able to produce the "death grip" effect even when I have tried to.

Mine does the same in my house with a pretty weak signal. However, unlike my iPhone 4 (I am a happy convert to android now) which dropped calls and data went to 0, the Captivate seems to keep the connection. Even with zero bars, I get decent data speeds and people say I am loud and clear on the phone.
I wouldn't stress over it. The antenna has to be located somewhere in these phones, and yeah, covering it completely will cause a signal drop. Just be happy the antenna is on the inside and you can't short it with your skin

I get the same thing, but I think where I work is a dead zone, because my old phone had problems holding a signal also. I'll do some more testing when I'm out of here

OK, I will do more testing and make a final decision next week since I am going out of state to a place I know has good coverage and if I get bad signal there it is probably my phone and not coverage area.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I have to completely cover the metal back to drop a couple of bars. Even then, it still performs about the same in speedtests.

It is not the metal back you need to cover on my phone but instead the plastic below the back...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

cropythy said:
It is not the metal back you need to cover on my phone but instead the plastic below the back...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it this way as well and the results were even closer together.

It's the way Samsung is programming the bars. They underestimate signal strength believe it or not.. it's not like the iPhone where it gives you this crazy readout (before 4.0.1).. it's still wrong, but in the best way possible.

Dropping calls like crazy with Captivate
I was just on a very important call about a new job and my captivate dropped the call 4 times within 15 minutes. I was holding the phone only on the outside. I was not touching the bottom or the back of the phone. How frustrating. It even drops calls when I am using my headset. Just dropping all the time. Any suggestions?

I can get the bars to drop one or two when I hold the phone at the bottom, however (and this is a BIG however!) even with 0 bars, I was just able to make a phone call, and while the signal bounced from 2 to 1 to 0 to 1 bars, the call didn't drop or even so much as hiccup.
As heygrl said, it seems however Samsung calculates their bars, the phones are displaying a lot less signal strength than they actually have, which is a good thing in my book. It's a nice surprise to look at your screen, see 0 bars, desperately try to make a call anyway, and have it go through!

Mantooth said:
I was just on a very important call about a new job and my captivate dropped the call 4 times within 15 minutes. I was holding the phone only on the outside. I was not touching the bottom or the back of the phone. How frustrating. It even drops calls when I am using my headset. Just dropping all the time. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like the AT&T network to me.
Yeah you can see how Samsung reinterprets the phones recieved signal strength under the Service Menu. I also suspected that the reason why we only see -81dBm max and not -51dBm like the Captivate is because Samsung didn't completely readjust the scaling and just cut off one visible bar. Under the Service Menu (Antenna/ADC or something of the sort) you can see where it says "Antenna bar: 5" when we clearly only have 4. The same goes for actual signal strength, you can see a very usable 10 RSSI but Samsung designed the bars to show that as "0" instead of 1.

I do notice that when I'm in areas that are 1-2 bars, giving the phone the deathgrip does kill the signal totally. But when I'm out in full service I can hold it any way and no problem.

Possible deathgrip issue?

Ive noticed that 4g signal strength drops drastically when holding the phone normally in portrait mode.
Are u guys experiencing the same issue?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

xdmds said:
Ive noticed that 4g signal strength drops drastically when holding the phone normally in portrait mode.
Are u guys experiencing the same issue?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
If I hold the phone by the top half with my hand cupped over the top, I can get it to lose reception. I doubt that will ever be an issue though.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

If my hand covers the bottom of the phone (which is always when I hold it in portrait mode), then my signal drops significantly. Is this normal for this phone or is it an isolated defect?

I don't have any issues with that myself

I think you're on your own on this one OP.

xdmds said:
If my hand covers the bottom of the phone (which is always when I hold it in portrait mode), then my signal drops significantly. Is this normal for this phone or is it an isolated defect?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I reported this a while back. I also noticed that my Speck case which tightly holds the phone case seemed to cause signal problems...I've since removed the Speck.

xdmds said:
Ive noticed that 4g signal strength drops drastically when holding the phone normally in portrait mode.
Are u guys experiencing the same issue?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i notice it sometimes. ive experienced that with some of my other devices. it only occurs here and there. havent had a dropped call one*knock on wood* and im expecting a case in the mail so that will solve the issue anyway.

This happens on many small phones where antennas are near the housing , depending where you hold it you'll affect the antenna's reception. For xeample, On the EVO if you hold the top half the 4G reception decreases, and the bottom half the wifi and cdma decreases

All of you, please research antenna attenuation.
This will happen in all phones where the antenna is near the surface. Signal does not travel through your hand as easy as it does air.
The iphone issue was more pronounced because the exterior antenna. Also, one could ground out the antenna completely by bridging the sections.
That is a deathgrip issue. Just a decrease in signal strength is an attenuation norm.

Although signal does seem to drops data speeds on this phone are faster than my mt4g even when my g2x shows lower signal so i guess its not rly a problem
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

xdmds said:
If my hand covers the bottom of the phone (which is always when I hold it in portrait mode), then my signal drops significantly. Is this normal for this phone or is it an isolated defect?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happens to me too. Especially in poor signal area. I would drop 3G/4G signal all together, and go to 2G.

+1 to this, I've noticed when I stick my phone in my boxer briefs that the reception does indeed drop down to nil
thank god for wifi calling though

For my phone I have 4G icon on screen and no bars, I can get call in my house finally.

It never ceases to amaze me how no matter what, there seems to always be some people that go out of their way to find something wrong with their phone. I really don't get it. Some people are probably better of with a Razr....

mysterioustko said:
It never ceases to amaze me how no matter what, there seems to always be some people that go out of their way to find something wrong with their phone. I really don't get it. Some people are probably better of with a Razr....
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Click to collapse
Was just thinking, **** add another thing to the issues list even though its not a problem... If theres a thread others will believe it.... So now everyone trolling this thread thinks theres a death grip issue when there is not..

mysterioustko said:
It never ceases to amaze me how no matter what, there seems to always be some people that go out of their way to find something wrong with their phone. I really don't get it. Some people are probably better of with a Razr....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL !!!

update: I went to exchange my phone yesterday and it turns out that phone was just defective.
this new phone I have (although we went through like 3 and they all had backlight bleed) does not have signal drop when I hold it.

I believe the antenna is indeed on the bottom of the device. If you remove the back plate you'll see a sticker on the bottom of the phone. Try covering that sticker completely and you'll see your signal drop.
According to some people, after removing that sticker, they attained a slightly better and consistent signal.

Since removing it, I've noticed a much faster, better amd consistent connection, WAY better now. Hard to believe a silly sticker could cause so much trouble hahahaha
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

I had removed the sticker last night and I got 1 more bar and my dl/up speeds improved. Was getting Max 1.5 - 2 dl and 500 up now I get up to 10 megs down and 3 up in my house.
Sent from my G2X using XDA Premium App

ODD! No deathgrip while on a call!?! test please

HI
Been playing around with my Sensation.
What i noticed while sitting in my front room. GRound floor, i have 2-4 bars with the phone on the table.
0-1 bars when deathgripped even 2 bars if im lucky bars BUT WHEN IM ON A CALL. i rang the normal o2 top up line
DEATHGRIPPED IN MY LAP. from 1 bar it jumped to 4 bars and idling between 3-4 bars, no matter how i deathgrip it, it wont go lower than 2 while on a call if i deathgrip it really HARD????
so normal 3-4 bars,
deathgripped 0-2 bars
ring a number deathgripped 3-4 bars or possibly 2
could this be a software issue?
anyone else confirm this asap please

ikhzter said:
HI
Been playing around with my Sensation.
What i noticed while sitting in my front room. GRound floor, i have 2-4 bars with the phone on the table.
0-1 bars when deathgripped even 2 bars if im lucky bars BUT WHEN IM ON A CALL. i rang the normal o2 top up line
DEATHGRIPPED IN MY LAP. from 1 bar it jumped to 4 bars and idling between 3-4 bars, no matter how i deathgrip it, it wont go lower than 2 while on a call if i deathgrip it really HARD????
so normal 3-4 bars,
deathgripped 0-2 bars
ring a number deathgripped 3-4 bars or possibly 2
could this be a software issue?
anyone else confirm this asap please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's w.e.i.r.d.
The call doesn't drop I suppose? Maybe it's because it's emitting a more powerfull signal while on a call and the deathgrip doesn't affect it. It's very confusing though...

giorgisp said:
That's w.e.i.r.d.
The call doesn't drop I suppose? Maybe it's because it's emitting a more powerfull signal while on a call and the deathgrip doesn't affect it. It's very confusing though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TRY THIS. THIS NEEDS TO BE VERIFIED WITH MORE SENSATIONS.
IF WE CAN THEN WE KNOW ITS SOFTWARE ISSUE, im thinking of even posting a video of it.
Deathgrip it hard and i lose al my bars even or down to 1 while not on a call,
but while on a call its 3-4 bars, deathgripped hard its 2 otherwise 3-4

NO WAY, DEATHGRIPPED AT 1 bar. PRESSED CALL, after 15 seconds it jumped to 4 bar in the same position

Simple. On standby it doesn't use as much power to keep signal up as it does when you talk. Why do you think mA usage increases when you talk on the phone?
This is normal. In sby, phone doesn't need perfect signal, it just needs some signal to receive incoming calls, sms, data, then it wakes up and upps the power used for connection with mast/s, so you have good quality connection.

tinky1 said:
Simple. On standby it doesn't use as much power to keep signal up as it does when you talk. Why do you think mA usage increases when you talk on the phone?
This is normal. In sby, phone doesn't need perfect signal, it just needs some signal to receive incoming calls, sms, data, then it wakes up and upps the power used for connection with mast/s, so you have good quality connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh lol i thought i made an astounding discovery, never mind. lol
still getting ri of it and going back to my DHD

ikhzter said:
oh lol i thought i made an astounding discovery, never mind. lol
still getting ri of it and going back to my DHD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you wanna do that? Isn't Sensation better than DHD?

Figure_desire said:
Why do you wanna do that? Isn't Sensation better than DHD?
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Click to collapse
Im in two minds at the moment, i have no idea what to do. sensation is better, dhd is similiar in signal, also hold it flat landscape it too drops wifi. now that i have noticed, but sensation signal is pretty noticable as it is easily deathgripped due to its shape, so im not sure whether to keep it or not with these deathgrip issues
i absolutely love it but the deathgrip is letting it down
dont like sgs2, its ugly and also quite a few issues on it too.

ikhzter said:
Im in two minds at the moment, i have no idea what to do. sensation is better, dhd is similiar in signal, also hold it flat landscape it too drops wifi. now that i have noticed, but sensation signal is pretty noticable as it is easily deathgripped due to its shape, so im not sure whether to keep it or not with these deathgrip issues
i absolutely love it but the deathgrip is letting it down
dont like sgs2, its ugly and also quite a few issues on it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen any phone with no issue. If that makes a problem of course you should give it back or think about replace. Because there are people saying that there is no issue at all.

Figure_desire said:
I haven't seen any phone with no issue. If that makes a problem of course you should give it back or think about replace. Because there are people saying that there is no issue at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have. My Desire once it had motherboard replaced. BEST phone i ever had, better than sensation, even stock.
But i'm a geek, i want/need new, and sensations dual core is fair bit more future proof than Desire. Can't wait to see what can be done with it once bootloader is unlocked.

Figure_desire said:
I haven't seen any phone with no issue. If that makes a problem of course you should give it back or think about replace. Because there are people saying that there is no issue at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC offered to take it in under warranty, repair or refurbish it for me ?
should i let them?

ikhzter said:
HTC offered to take it in under warranty, repair or refurbish it for me ?
should i let them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have NO other problems, i wouldn't. It's design issue, so repair, another phone won't fix it. But it's up to you if you want to give it a go.

tinky1 said:
I have. My Desire once it had motherboard replaced. BEST phone i ever had, better than sensation, even stock.
But i'm a geek, i want/need new, and sensations dual core is fair bit more future proof than Desire. Can't wait to see what can be done with it once bootloader is unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had Desire too. I loved it. But it has problems too. Its display couldn't see even a bit under sunlight. It had dual touch not real multitouch. etc. That's the way how they sell newe phones.
ikhzter said:
HTC offered to take it in under warranty, repair or refurbish it for me ?
should i let them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you think you can't live wthout Sensation you should try it. But keep in mind that might not help either.

Figure_desire said:
I had Desire too. I loved it. But it has problems too. Its display couldn't see under sunlight. It had dual touch not real multitouch. etc. That's the way how they sell newe phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see these as shortcomings, not a fault tbh. There is always better technology out there, no matter how new your device is.

tinky1 said:
I see these as shortcomings, not a fault tbh. There is always better technology out there, no matter how new your device is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree and in addition to that I see this deathgrip issue as shortcoming too. Better or worse all phones have that.

This is a simple powersaving issue. The amplifier for the phone antenna does not to run at full tilt when it's idling in passive mode. Think of it like CPU scaling.

Figure_desire said:
That might be a good explanation.
Also we all know that phones consume more power when there isn't enough signal from base station. So we can say phones are able to set this according to situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol i feel sheepish now, so basically there is no software issue at all , we just have to live with this,
the dhd fared better though because it was bulkier it spread out in our hands, so itwasnt deathgripped often

The term death grip is incorrect not mstter how youbhold it the signal does not die it just loses power so atcually it is more a choke grip then death
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App

But on certain position it drops wifi and bluetooth?
mt4g royal ginger v2.1

Gregory.u317 said:
But on certain position it drops wifi and bluetooth?
mt4g royal ginger v2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no. If you only have one bar for wifi, and then grip it tight, then yes, signal will drop, if you have a few bars, signal will just become worse, but you won't lose it completely.

WiFi performance

My inspire doesn't get the best wifi, my brother's captivate works much better as done any apple product I have tried.
Are there any Roms that offer stronger WiFi connection? I'm running rumrunner, I've tried miui leedroid gingerbeast and inspired ace.... I know I get a little stronger WiFi when I take the case off my phone but I still imagine one of the Roms would be able to help me.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App

Nope, wifi on this phone does suck and you cannot change it.

Gah! I started a thread exactly like this. Stupid forum search didn't alert me this one was here.
My wifi sucks too. I wonder if a replacement Inspire will help.

Warranty replacement is on its way.
Oh and since nobody ever says anything nice about AT&T I have this little nugget:
The reason I got so concerned about my wifi is because I got a txt saying I was at 90% of my 2GB limit. I am home and on wifi probably 90% of my day. My Wifi has obviously been dropping out without me noticing. AT&T has given me a $15 credit because I have 10 days left in my billing cycle and will go over my 2GB. This way it won't cost me anything.
I thought that was nice of them.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk

in for info

I'm on my second Inspire. I took the first one back because of wifi. According to the book, the antenna is located in the bottom where the sim and sd card are. What's weird is if I cover the the top of the phone with my hand, I loose wifi. There's seems to be a slight "grip of death" thing going on. This seems to occur only with wifi and not the 3g. My second Inspire seems a little better. Also this seems to only happen in weak signal areas. YMMV.

jjthenovice said:
I'm on my second Inspire. I took the first one back because of wifi. According to the book, the antenna is located in the bottom where the sim and sd card are. What's weird is if I cover the the top of the phone with my hand, I loose wifi. There's seems to be a slight "grip of death" thing going on. This seems to occur only with wifi and not the 3g. My second Inspire seems a little better. Also this seems to only happen in weak signal areas. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The wifi antenna is in the battery cover, not the sd/sim cover. So that explains your top of phone grip attenuation.

henrybravo said:
The wifi antenna is in the battery cover, not the sd/sim cover. So that explains your top of phone grip attenuation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right you are! I went back and re-read manual and there it was. Thank you for clearing that up.

jjthenovice said:
Right you are! I went back and re-read manual and there it was. Thank you for clearing that up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
smh.....read the manual. Your man card has been revoked.

As bad as this Wifi is, nothing was worse than the Atrix.
Also, if you grab the latest Radio firmware (I forget which) it improves Wifi strength and performance a Tad.
Sent from my microwave

wifi only working when bluetooth is on.
I also have the htc inspire.. I am wondering why my wifi only works if the blue tooth is enabled? I have tried a factory reset and all does anyone else have this issue?

danir2010 said:
I also have the htc inspire.. I am wondering why my wifi only works if the blue tooth is enabled? I have tried a factory reset and all does anyone else have this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you need to flash a new radio
Sent from my microwave

how do you do that?

forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1106324
Sent from my microwave

I got my replacement inspire today and can now use wifi from my back porch. Hurray
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

[Verizon] Did I get a bad S3?

I got a my phone at best buy today and I have 2 complaints, speakerphone call quality is very bad, I can hear like if there is a fan blowing air into the microphone while I'm in a quite room. The other thing I noticed was the signal strength, my wife Samsung Stratosphere has 3-4 bars and my S3 has 1-2 bars. Did I get a bad phone or that's the way the phone works?
TIA!

Vertig0 said:
I got a my phone at best buy today and I have 2 complaints, speakerphone call quality is very bad, I can hear like if there is a fan blowing air into the microphone while I'm in a quite room. The other thing I noticed was the signal strength, my wife Samsung Stratosphere has 3-4 bars and my S3 has 1-2 bars. Did I get a bad phone or that's the way the phone works?
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you elaborate a little on your user experience? Sounds like a faulty phone but please give more info
Sent from the current Heavy Weight champ GALAXY SIII

Vertig0 said:
I got a my phone at best buy today and I have 2 complaints, speakerphone call quality is very bad, I can hear like if there is a fan blowing air into the microphone while I'm in a quite room. The other thing I noticed was the signal strength, my wife Samsung Stratosphere has 3-4 bars and my S3 has 1-2 bars. Did I get a bad phone or that's the way the phone works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The number of bars displayed is not directly comparable. Phones can be configured to display a certain number of bars at a certain signal strength. Both phones could have the exact same single strength and be calibrated to visually display entirely differently.

Bars mean nothing. Apple once changes the bars to "better reflect network connections" or something... signal strength is important its in the settings menu...
Sent from my AT&T Galaxy SIII (SGH-i747)

ingenious247 said:
Can you elaborate a little on your user experience? Sounds like a faulty phone but please give more info
Sent from the current Heavy Weight champ GALAXY SIII
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For example, I called my wife omw home and she was complaining that she could not understand me because it was too loud and she could hear everything around me but me. When I got home I tested the phone having her calling my from my phone and when she switched to speakerphone I was able to listen the A/C louder than her.
The signal strength is just that, her phone gets 3-4 bar and mine gets 1-2 bars 1bar must of the time.

Vertig0 said:
For example, I called my wife omw home and she was complaining that she could not understand me because it was too loud and she could hear everything around me but me. When I got home I tested the phone having her calling my from my phone and when she switched to speakerphone I was able to listen the A/C louder than her.
The signal strength is just that, her phone gets 3-4 bar and mine gets 1-2 bars 1bar must of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my experience the phone is really good at canceling out background noise. My sister was driving her loud car while talking to me on her S3 and I couldn't even hear it, I used to be able to. I'd see if you could get it replaced.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

No Probs
I have not had any of the problems you are talking about. I would try to find another one and do a side by side.

ainen said:
From my experience the phone is really good at canceling out background noise. My sister was driving her loud car while talking to me on her S3 and I couldn't even hear it, I used to be able to. I'd see if you could get it replaced.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was that using the speakerphone?

If you're not pleased, return it. The signal bars on the 2 devices shouldn't be compared, however, as ICS has a different algorithm of calculating LTE signal bars than versions of Android before it. This was covered at great length when the Verizon Galaxy Nexus first came out.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

my speakerphone sounds pretty crappy too

Mean Bro Greene said:
If you're not pleased, return it. The signal bars on the 2 devices shouldn't be compared, however, as ICS has a different algorithm of calculating LTE signal bars than versions of Android before it. This was covered at great length when the Verizon Galaxy Nexus first came out.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see... so it might be an ics bug? I just drove to my closest tower and that was the only time my phone was full bars as soon I drove away like two blocks away I was already down to 3 bars. Also I did a test side by side with my wife's phone and her phone performed on LTE waaay better than my S3...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Vertig0 said:
I see... so it might be an ics bug? I just drove to my closest tower and that was the only time my phone was full bars as soon I drove away like two blocks away I was already down to 3 bars. Also I did a test side by side with my wife's phone and her phone performed on LTE waaay better than my S3...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
She's connected to WiFi....

culpin said:
She's connected to WiFi....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
she's not.. I noticed that... even if I disconnect from wifi still show the icon letting me know there is wifi available...

Speakerphone and Headphone quality is horrible, on both ends of the call
Having similar problems here!!!!
Having major problems with speakerphone and headphone use while in a car.
The speakerphone in general doesn't sound very clear. Both ends sound like wind or a fan is blowing right into the microphone. It sounds garbled on both the sending and receiving end of the call. Same issue with headphones.
Basically everyone says it sounds like the windows are down and a wind storm is blowing. Windows are up, and no A/C fan is blowing onto the phone.
Second phone with same problem. Bad batch? Basically impossible to use it in a car. Even when not in a car, the speakerphone quality is not that great.
Any suggestions? Maybe there is a setting that needs to be turned on/off?

anyone else with sound issues?

Wish I could be of help. My GS3's voice/sound quality is easily the best I've had on any smartphone I've owned. You might want to take that in and have the reps compare it against another GS3 or if you know someone else who has the same phone, you could test their device against yours.

Alright know this is unrelated to the OP, but I was wondering about mine too. I just got my second S3 from verizon. My first one had some loose housing on the back and creaked like a loose floorboard every time it was touched. Now the new one they sent me today has a dark spot on the screen. It's not noticeable when there are light colors in that area, but when it's dark it's definitely visible. I remember seeing threads about this a while back but didn't take much time reading them. Is this something I should return it for? Thanks for any help

seems you're not alone in the cell reception issue. There's 2 other threads going about this very issue. One in this sub forum, the other is : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29166050#post29166050 . Call and get a tech support ticket opened. The more people opening tickets the faster we get this issue resolved...lol it'll still be slow as ****, but what can you do?
---------- Post added at 10:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 AM ----------
Vertig0 said:
she's not.. I noticed that... even if I disconnect from wifi still show the icon letting me know there is wifi available...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a "feature" lol. God I can't wait for the bootloader thing to get cracked so we can get some real ROMs going for this thing. The carriers want you off their network, like 5 minutes ago, and they're willing to do ANYTHING even if it's make your phone automatically connect to random networks against your wishes to get you off their network and on to someone else's. It wouldn't shock me to find out they lower the output on their towers artificially to keep folks in the sticks from getting a signal to force them to provide their own bandwidth the way they try to force us to us WIFI when we pay perfectly good money for our wireless connections.
You can shut off some of the annoying reminders in the auto-connect area...but never all. It's always gonna try to dump you onto WIFI. The carriers hate you using their precious bandwidths you paid for..
---------- Post added at 10:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 AM ----------
Vertig0 said:
I see... so it might be an ics bug? I just drove to my closest tower and that was the only time my phone was full bars as soon I drove away like two blocks away I was already down to 3 bars. Also I did a test side by side with my wife's phone and her phone performed on LTE waaay better than my S3...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you're not imagining it, you can see one of the antennas molded into the plastic under the back cover, at the base of the handset...you know right where the fat of your palm rests when actually using the device in portrait mode. There appears to be another at the top right hand side. Dunno which antenna is what...but I did notice if you keep your hand off the bottom area, my signal goes up some. But when the signal changes so much by moving it a few feet one way or another who can really tell what effects what. Also, my flimsy plastic/silicon type case from verizon appears to knock 5-10 dbm off my signal strength too...great stuff that.

I have noticed this exact same thing.
My mom and sister say that it sounds like there is a lot of wind on the phone when I call them. Particularly on speaker phone but even when not. This is when I am inside or in my relatively quiet car.
I hope VZ doesn't try to f** around with me in the store. I have had nothing but horrendous customer service with this POS company before. I bought an expensive product and I expect it to work as a PHONE.

Hey at least you didn't get the crap shoot I got. I would get little dots all over my letters on the screen pretty often (but not all the time). Couldn't get rid of em no matter what I flashed or reset. Had to bring it back to Verizon and practically shove the thing in the old guy's face to get him to see the dots. He basically refused to return it. I complained to their corporate offices and hopefully that guy got a spanking. Another guy graciously exchanged it for me. I thanked him profusely.