Just got in the new Samsung Nexus S from Sprint and I've noticed some major issues in reception versus the HTC Evo from Sprint as well. I'm seeing a 2+ bar difference in the exact location sitting next to the Evo on the same Sprint network.
Is anybody having this issue? Or does anybody know of a fix.
I have the latest firmware (suggested fix by Sprint) and have seen several complaints about it on other less developer friendly forums.
If I can't come up with a solution soon, I think I'll have to get an Evo. But if you guys can understand, I'd prefer to keep the phone that will get timely updates.
Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions!
You can't compare signal across different devices based on "bars". Check the actual signal strength in Menu > Settings > About Phone.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I know you need dB... As soon as I can get the Evo next to me again for a comparison, I will post.
I'm a tech savvy guy, run a computer building company and build websites. I even develop some entry-level apps for a few clients (yes entry-level).
If one googles "spring nexus s reception," they'll find that this issue is quite common. I'm just curious as to whether it's hopeless or not.
I know I can petition for the Airave with Sprint and can at least get decent service at home.
It just seems peculiar to me that Google would endorse an inferior product. I live in a major Metropolitan area (DMA has it as a top 25 market - for those who aren't in the media business, that means it's one of the top 25 sized cities in the country). And this phone gets dismal reception.
Fact is, Evo does great in my house, Nexus S does not. I've heard some pretty bad reviews with the Galaxy S line of hardware so I'm figuring it's worth moving to the Evo.
To be honest, this phone is far superior (at the moment) with responsiveness and usability but if a phone can't operate well at being a phone, it's a waste of money. Especially if the hardware is inferior (phone-wise) to most of what HTC released a year ago. I love having a mini-computer in my pocket but I did aim at having a working phone.
Thoughts? Suggestions? School me? I will post the exact numbers when they again are available, until then, please only offer up friendly advice or questions. I am willing to try anything before taking this thing back.
You have not really described your issue. Do you have dropped calls or what?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I'm having issues with the Sprint Nexus S reception as well. Although my home location on Sprint's coverage map lists my area from medium to strong with 4G available right around the corner from my house I have dismal reception with the Nexus S. I had a trial EVO for a few weeks and reception was much better in the same area. If I try to call the Nexus S I often go right to voicemail, I'm told calls out (when I can) are choppy, data signal is often listed as 1x as opposed to 3g. Is it just this particular phone? Should I go to a Sprint store to have it tested?
There is atl least one thread over at the Sprint Message boards about bad reception on the Nexus S.
At work we have a repeater and the signal still only shows at one or two bars most of the time but data speeds seemed fine to me and I had no problem with making and getting calls.
No one else is having this issue?
This isn't the first post about this subject. I understand and agree. I'm not 100% sure about this when it comes to cell phones but different companies with different radios will give you different signals. If this is the same as two way radios, there's no standard on say how much signal equals one bar on the meter. Even the programs that give the signal strength in numbers, aren't universally accurate. When it comes to received signal, its how you can hear it, not really what the meter says. That number can easily be manipulated. A receiver sensitivity can be adjusted too but there are things that are thrown out too. Crank up the receive and you get more noise than distinguishing signal and adjacent frequency rejection goes to crap. You can work the receiver to have good rejection and sensitivity but you are making it more deaf too.
What I'm getting at is don't always go by what the signal meter says and take it as 100% truth. It is a good indicator of signal but not absolutely 100% accurate.
I am sitting about twenty feet from my router and yet the meter is telling me 50% signal which I know is bull****.
are you up to date?
Yobye, are you on 2.3.4? I have heard the update fixes some people's signal/radio issues.
yobyeknom said:
I'm having issues with the Sprint Nexus S reception as well. Although my home location on Sprint's coverage map lists my area from medium to strong with 4G available right around the corner from my house I have dismal reception with the Nexus S. I had a trial EVO for a few weeks and reception was much better in the same area. If I try to call the Nexus S I often go right to voicemail, I'm told calls out (when I can) are choppy, data signal is often listed as 1x as opposed to 3g. Is it just this particular phone? Should I go to a Sprint store to have it tested?
There is atl least one thread over at the Sprint Message boards about bad reception on the Nexus S.
At work we have a repeater and the signal still only shows at one or two bars most of the time but data speeds seemed fine to me and I had no problem with making and getting calls.
No one else is having this issue?
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Ditto on this. Have all the latest updates. Think it may be time to trade in for the Evo.
I am on 2.3.4. I brought home another Sprint phone from work - a Sanyo Taho and got about the same terrible reception despite the fact I'm in a Sprint Best Coverage area on their map. I miss and drop calls and can't get voice or data connection - send mms, etc from my home. I've contacted Sprint about the tower strength in my neighborhood.
I gotta vent. It's driving me nuts! My girl has my Droid DNA - and just like me when I had it, she gets at least 3 bars of LTE at home. I'm lucky to get ONE BAR of 1X on my M8!!! It's ridiculous! I can barely send text messages from home. They sit there for several minutes with the 'sending' icon. It's so choppy, people are even receiving double or triple text messages. How can one HTC phone have such incredible signal and a newer one have such terrible signal!?
When I get a chance, I'll take a look at the actual signal dB numbers. Regardless of the numbers, though, this phone's service sucks. Other than that, I absolutely love this phone.
aol8mydog said:
I gotta vent. It's driving me nuts! My girl has my Droid DNA - and just like me when I had it, she gets at least 3 bars of LTE at home. I'm lucky to get ONE BAR of 1X on my M8!!! It's ridiculous! I can barely send text messages from home. They sit there for several minutes with the 'sending' icon. It's so choppy, people are even receiving double or triple text messages. How can one HTC phone have such incredible signal and a newer one have such terrible signal!?
When I get a chance, I'll take a look at the actual signal dB numbers. Regardless of the numbers, though, this phone's service sucks. Other than that, I absolutely love this phone.
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It's much better than my GNex, but that's not saying much (it had notoriously bad reception). I've only noticed going down to 3G once, which is great for me.
aol8mydog said:
I gotta vent. It's driving me nuts! My girl has my Droid DNA - and just like me when I had it, she gets at least 3 bars of LTE at home. I'm lucky to get ONE BAR of 1X on my M8!!! It's ridiculous! I can barely send text messages from home. They sit there for several minutes with the 'sending' icon. It's so choppy, people are even receiving double or triple text messages. How can one HTC phone have such incredible signal and a newer one have such terrible signal!?
When I get a chance, I'll take a look at the actual signal dB numbers. Regardless of the numbers, though, this phone's service sucks. Other than that, I absolutely love this phone.
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I think the signal on M8 is much worse than on the DNA (I have access to both), but only at certain angles of the M8.
M8 has a complete solid metal back, which is completely opaque to microwave and radio waves. When you turn the M8 correctly, it gets a better signal. Not by very much but better.
I get the same service I've always had. Full LTE and AWS. Something is wrong with either something that you may have flashed or your phone is defective. Send it back.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using xda app-developers app
You may want to exchange your device, my reception is on par or even better than the Note 3 that I just sold.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Coming from a sgs3... The reception is awesome.
Sent from my HTCM8
My service seems the same if not slightly better in some areas as my old razr HD and razr that my girlfriend has.
sfreemanoh said:
It's much better than my GNex, but that's not saying much (it had notoriously bad reception). I've only noticed going down to 3G once, which is great for me.
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Im with you man. I also came from a GNex, and it seems like a lot of other have too.
Its crazy how much better the reception has been with the M8. I had trouble getting any 3G or 4G in my new house with my GNex, even outside. With my m8, I get an average of 3 bars of 4G. And the difference is like that everywhere I go including work. I don't know how I lasted that long on the GNex. I guess I just got used to the crazy bad reception.
That being said, I have always heard that most Motorola phones have some of the best reception. And this was always the case with my older motorola flip phones (E815) also. But I stopped buying motorola phones after the original Droid X bootloader was locked down like Fort Knox, and they said all their newer phones were gonna be like that.
EDIT:
To the person that just sold the NOTE 3. That phone is just like the GNex was. Awful reception. My dad had the phone for two days and returned it. We looked up reviews and saw tons of people complaining about the reception. Which is funny because the Note 2 had a solid reception. My brother uses it and gets great service, as well as all the reviews. Samsung must have dropped the ball on the Note 3 antenna.
I agree with the OP. This handset has noticeably lower signal strength than my old HTC Rezound, and the one my wife currently uses as her personal phone. My M8 is only slightly better than the GNEX she has as a company-provided work phone. Disappointing, actually, as the M8 is a phenomenal device in most other regards.
To be honest though, I've not experienced a single dropped call, as of yet. But, I see data switching to 3G quite regularly. I'm still on the stock ROM, only S-OFF and rooted.
Just to add that coming from the DNA to the M8, I have been extremely happy with reception.
My DNA would consistently drop out at certain points in the city (minneapolis) but my M8 has been solid.
To be honest, I really don't pay a lot of attention to bars, so I couldn't say if I have the same, more or less bars with the M8, but I haven't had any issues with connectivity.
Freedom First said:
I agree with the OP. This handset has noticeably lower signal strength than my old HTC Rezound, and the one my wife currently uses as her personal phone. My M8 is only slightly better than the GNEX she has as a company-provided work phone. Disappointing, actually, as the M8 is a phenomenal device in most other regards.
To be honest though, I've not experienced a single dropped call, as of yet. But, I see data switching to 3G quite regularly. I'm still on the stock ROM, only S-OFF and rooted.
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If your M8 is only slightly better than a gnex, you have a defective M8. G-nex has the worst reception of any phone I've ever owned, by FAR.
For me in New Jersey, where LTE practically covers the entire state, the M8 gets good reception but my DNA definitely got better reception.
At work in Newark..And I work in a glass building...DNA would be between 96-98 dBm and my M8 is between 102-105.
I'm assuming that's the aluminum casing. Don't get me wrong, reception is great but in marginal signal areas like at home in my basement, dna would hold LTE where M8 will drop to 3g and sometimes 1x
hxdrummerxc said:
Im with you man. I also came from a GNex, and it seems like a lot of other have too.
Its crazy how much better the reception has been with the M8. I had trouble getting any 3G or 4G in my new house with my GNex, even outside. With my m8, I get an average of 3 bars of 4G. And the difference is like that everywhere I go including work. I don't know how I lasted that long on the GNex. I guess I just got used to the crazy bad reception.
That being said, I have always heard that most Motorola phones have some of the best reception. And this was always the case with my older motorola flip phones (E815) also. But I stopped buying motorola phones after the original Droid X bootloader was locked down like Fort Knox, and they said all their newer phones were gonna be like that.
EDIT:
To the person that just sold the NOTE 3. That phone is just like the GNex was. Awful reception. My dad had the phone for two days and returned it. We looked up reviews and saw tons of people complaining about the reception. Which is funny because the Note 2 had a solid reception. My brother uses it and gets great service, as well as all the reviews. Samsung must have dropped the ball on the Note 3 antenna.
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Yeah, my mom's GS3 had similarly crappy reception to my GNex, and Samsung's radios have never had the best reputation, but I heard they've gotten somewhat better. But I guess maybe they reverted back to their old ways with the Note 3...
Don't forget though, while the DX had a locked bootloader (I had a DX as well, it was actually my Android gateway device), it also had a great development community. So with some awesome dev's, even a locked bootloader doesn't mean the device won't be awesome.
Coming from multiple devices such as the Gnex, DNA, Note 3 and now the M8, I think there's more to it than just moving from one phone to another. Yes, HTC is known for better radios than Samsung and having the Note 3 before the M8 I personally witnessed the M8 produce better reception. But I think the issue also stems from the added LTE frequencies that have been added to newer handsets. For example my Note 3 before the AWS roll out performed very good, but once the roll out hit NYC and I started to check if I was connected to band 4 in my handset I began to notice my service between LTE, 3G and 1X fluctuate a lot. At work where I was constantly connected to LTE band 13 before and don't ever remember having 3G, the phone began to connect only to 3G.
Purchasing a new phone such as the M8 that has support for AWS but is weaker may be the result. The Droid DNA only supported Verizon LTE Band 13.
When I'm at work where my DNA had great LTE reception, my M8 seems to be OK - only slightly less signal. I think the problem is worse when the LTE signal is marginal like at my home. It seems that's when the difference is very noticeable. At home, I'd be lucky to get LTE on my older phones (Thunderbolt and Rezound) but the DNA was awesome. LTE all the time at home. I think I was spoiled.
You probably got a defective device, because mine gets signal everywhere I couldn't before.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
Signal
I went from a GNex to an X, and noticed a great signal reception different. I thought the X had great reception, and held with Motorola's reputation for good radios. My M8 has a lot better reception than the X did, far none. Spots where I would have ~1 to 2 bars of 3G, I now have at least 3 at all times. The 4G radio boundary seems to be a lot better than the X had as well. I would agree with what was previously stated, and say you have a defective unit.
Coming from a g2 I consistantly see -5 db better with this device in the same locations.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
The M8 appears to have similar signal reception to the S4. My son loves the M8, so no chance of an objective view there. The new device pixie dust is too strong
I find the following based on comparing:
DNA > i5s > M8/S4 Both the DNA and iPhone 4s have better reception than than the equal M8 & S4. Still not tested the S5 and will not unless they get a 32gb model. That would be my phone.
The worst phone recpetion device I ever owned was the Nokie N600. It was AWFUL and made the GNEX seem like a DNA on steroids. I grew to really "hate" Nokia after that device. Their Windows Phone love solidifies the "hate".
Something quite a few people here are not taking into account is that the M8 is utilizing Verizon's AWS band, whereas the Rezound/DNA are not. Your M8's signal bars are more than likely displaying AWS signal(assuming your area has AWS this will be the case). On a Rezound, your signal bars reflect your 1X signal...which will always be extremely high in most areas. On a DNA you will be seeing the normal LTE band.
If you're trying to compare to older devices like the Rezound, you need to launch a voice call on your M8 before even giving a second thought to the signal bars. To address the DNA...you won't really be able to compare the two devices since the DNA doesn't support the AWS band at all...unless you live in a non-AWS area.
If you do the appropriate comparisons, the M8's signal is great. I hope this helps clear up a lot of the misunderstanding going on in this thread. :good:
So does the factory unlocked oneplus one work good with tmobiles 4G lte bands, I currently have the att note 4 and has terrible connectivity and signal strength with tmobiles network never had issues with tmobiles phones them selves had great signal till I bought a factory unlocked att note 4 it works but the signal is bad, I want the one plus one but anyone use it with tmobile and how is the signal compared to a tmobile phone?
It does work well. Not as well as the TMO S5, it doesn't have all the bands. That being said, my LTE speeds have dropped to around 20mbs in certian places were they once might have been 35mbs., you'll have to do a speed test to even notice. I live in middle of nowhere AL, this is a rest i just ran. tl/dr OPO works great on TMO
Cool seems good, another thing is the signal strength I use my phone a lot and this att note 4 hardly ever gets signal at the border I work by the Otay border. my other tmobile phones had excellent signal.
So signal wise is it almost the same as tmo s5 ? Let's say in certain areas where you used to get very low signal with the s5 does the oneplus one still get signal? I almost never get full bars unless I'm outside with my tmobile phones I would literally almost have full bars or close to full bars anywhere and that's what I'm looking for.
Cr1z619 said:
Cool seems good, another thing is the signal strength I use my phone a lot and this att note 4 hardly ever gets signal at the border I work by the Otay border. my other tmobile phones had excellent signal.
So signal wise is it almost the same as tmo s5 ? Let's say in certain areas where you used to get very low signal with the s5 does the oneplus one still get signal? I almost never get full bars unless I'm outside with my tmobile phones I would literally almost have full bars or close to full bars anywhere and that's what I'm looking for.
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I travel for work a LOT and what i have found is where i got poor LTE on my S5 i now get HSPA+ on thr OPO . basicly same speed though. Again im in the US. I have no idea what border you taking about and being New Years, I'm not looking it up . I still get signal where I always have.