I have a galaxy S3 but the signal strength is awful compared to other phones I have tried side by side. Its fine if there is a strong signal, but cannot cope if the signal drops a bit, so poor reception and dropped calls. Its not hardware as I've had replacements. I've compared to HTC desire and One X. One X had 14-16 asu where this had dropped to about 3-4. At home it hovers around 0-2 asu so it is no good for me.
This isn't just me - a google of galaxy S3 signal problem brings up a few results.
So .. is there anyone on here who knows how the radio ROM is designed on these phones. Does the reciever work low power at the moment and can it be increased in a new ROM, or is this likely to be an inherrent design issue? I want to keep this phone but my 7 days are nearly up and I can't be stuck with a phone that doesn't work as a phone for 24 months.
Both network (vodafone) and Samsung are burying their head in the sand.
Thanks
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are there any tweaks to make it better or that's how the Thunderbolt is? I have the Droid X and Thunderbolt side by side, all day today and the difference is like day and night. While the Droid X is always full bars 3G the Thunderbolt has barely 2 bars, mostly just one and even loses 3g.
HTC prob uses a different range for their signal bars. I'd compare actual dBm as the true thing to see your signal strength. In settings, about, status, etc.
So is the reception worse on the TB than comparable phones? Have heard sporadic reports of reception concerns.
GermanGuy said:
So is the reception worse on the TB than comparable phones? Have heard sporadic reports of reception concerns.
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The dB readings with my inc and tb..are the same side by side
...htc is notorious for having lower signal bars...but the reception is on par with other phones
Upon setting up both my wifes and my own Razr Maxx I noticed a few things:
My home WiFi signal is quite weak... My thungerbolt and wifes Droid X have great WiFi signal, but the Maxx is so bad it regularly drops the connection. A co-worker has noticed the same thing with his Maxx...
The Celular signal is roughly 6 to 10 dmb worse than the Razr... tested a few Maxxs and regular Razrs right next to each other at various places. Always the same difference (ICS ROM will drop your signal even more... not sure why yet).
This really sucks if you're in a low signal area to begin with (which I am). I tried the Galaxy Nexus and it was even worse !!!
Went to a Verizon store and checked out there phones just sitting there... what do you know... all show the same signal issues I've noted with my own phone... Razr is good, Maxx not so good, Nexus blows.
Could this be due to the extended battery in the back of our phones causing some shielding issues? Am I just going nutz here
My GSM razr has the worst wifi reception of any device I have ever used. It's the one great hardware flaw, I doubt it is fixable.
Same here, my Razr has the weakest Wi-Fi signal of all the phones I owned and own. I did noticed one thing, if I flip it into landscape, signal strenght improves greatly.
br Zola
The antenna is at the bottom right, become left handed and voila!
I find that the 3G reception is much better than anything I ever had though, and usually faster anyway..
So I just got a giant data plan. =)
Just realized that that thing I had to climb up to get to my front door is actually a Verizon Cell phone tower!
So, just noticed this condition today and thought I'd share. I have a Smart Action set up to enable my Home Wi-Fi based on location - Trigger is my location; Actions are to turn on Wi-Fi, turn off Data and Max Ringer.
While home this afternoon I just happened to look at my phone and noticed that my battery seemed to be dropping a little quicker than normal and my cell signal strength was max bars which NEVER NEVER happens at home - kind of on the fringe in my house and I'm lucky to get 3 on a good day. I checked network strength and my 4G was 2147483647 db. Gotta be a world record, right? oh wait . . . is more db bad?
Just got me wondering if, while on the fringe, the radio actively looks for a signal (like it does between 1X, 3G and 4G) and maybe gets stuck in some type of high output state. Would explain some of the intermittent hi-temp, unusual battery drain I experience occaisionally/intermittently. Just so we're clear - I'm not complaining at all about my Maxx battery.
Running stock .211 rooted.
jeff_roey said:
Just realized that that thing I had to climb up to get to my front door is actually a Verizon Cell phone tower!
So, just noticed this condition today and thought I'd share. I have a Smart Action set up to enable my Home Wi-Fi based on location - Trigger is my location; Actions are to turn on Wi-Fi, turn off Data and Max Ringer.
While home this afternoon I just happened to look at my phone and noticed that my battery seemed to be dropping a little quicker than normal and my cell signal strength was max bars which NEVER NEVER happens at home - kind of on the fringe in my house and I'm lucky to get 3 on a good day. I checked network strength and my 4G was 2147483647 db. Gotta be a world record, right? oh wait . . . is more db bad?
Just got me wondering if, while on the fringe, the radio actively looks for a signal (like it does between 1X, 3G and 4G) and maybe gets stuck in some type of high output state. Would explain some of the intermittent hi-temp, unusual battery drain I experience occaisionally/intermittently. Just so we're clear - I'm not complaining at all about my Maxx battery.
Running stock .211 rooted.
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I thought after 120 db it actually means you've lost signal.....optimal is between 80 to 120....
I could be wrong
I saw that exact same thing on my Maxx the other day. I also noticed battery declining due to it. Not sure what it means though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
squiggie said:
I saw that exact same thing on my Maxx the other day. I also noticed battery declining due to it. Not sure what it means though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
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It means your have no signal, and your battery is dying from your LTE radio trying to find signal. dbm between -80 and -120 is not optimal, that is the range where verizon techs will tell you that you may experience data connectivity issues. The lower the dbm the better signal you have, however most extended 4g service areas are at this quality. I have seen some locations, closer to the towers, where I have gotten signal around -60dbm, which gave about 38mbps down and around 16mbps up.
I ordered a sleek 4g signal booster from wilson electronics, which will get here tomorrow, and will let you guys know how much improvement I get in areas with different signal strengths.
i've seen it countless times on my razr. I think it's just a bug
No signal but my signal bars show as full? That makes no sense whatsoever. I think I have to agree that it is just a weird bug.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
I'll tell the truth. Wilson electronics sleek 4g-v is not going to improve SINR signal strength (that's what you need for better LTE speed), however it will improve RSSI signal, but this is not going to help for LTE. If you want a good LTE amplifier, you are looking to spend about $500 that includes outdoor, indoor antenna and SINR amplifier. SINR is more important then RSSI or DBM for LTE
Hello all .
I have a standard non rooted S3 on I9300XXEMG4 in the UK.
Everything on the phone is standard .
I have now started using the ZeroLemon 7000mh extended battery.
Now since the last over the air update to the above rom I noticed the signal strength wasn't as good ... then I started using the extended battery and now my signal drops out every now and then .
I have even noticed a difference in the wifi strength received since using the big battery .
Is this solely because the bigger battery covers the antenna's in the phone or am I imagining things ????
I have checked mobile masts and works in my area and all are fine but im definatly experiencing worse signal strength since using the big battery ... is this the norm or known about or experienced by anyone else so I know its not just me or my phone.
My signal in the area isn't the best and never has been .... I can only get "G" as the best data but now its worse .....
Use original battery and test .
Most of the time Wi-Fi is at 1-2 bars along with LTE.
Noticed this problem in Hong Kong,China and Taiwan. Various dim cards and various Wi-Fi routers.
poor LTE speed
desiregeek said:
Most of the time Wi-Fi is at 1-2 bars along with LTE.
Noticed this problem in Hong Kong,China and Taiwan. Various dim cards and various Wi-Fi routers.
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i m facing the same problem i have note 4 that is quite well than s6 edge in 3g and 4g
This could be the cause of some people's battery drain as their phones keep switching from LTE down to 3g. If this phone was better tuned for LTE it would be more battery efficient.
Not sure a software fix can do much about this. Its probably the antenna design, but we can live in hope!
My Wifi is fine.
However, I've been having poor 4G since day 1. I keep having 1-2 bars of 4G consistently at my workplace where my G3 did 3 or more bars.
The thing is, it does stick to 4G pretty well and not loose that 1-2 bars easily to downshift to 3G, so I am not too concerned. Voice calls and data speeds are also not affected. It's just that vidual indicator...
my wifi and data signals are excellent. haven't been to a spot where there's good lte signal
Always use device status to read signal in dBm.
Many phones' "signal strength meters" are far from accurate often showing much higher perceived signal than reality.
My S5 was like that.
This may just be corrected now in as much one bar for -112dBm (instead of three) is more accurate, relatively speaking.
A device should only show five bars if the signal level is very strong, say -65dBm.
Problem is most of the time people would never see five bars. Carriers don't like that.
Perhaps we need to change to an advanced "tech" mode where the signal strength readout is in "S" units with 9 being the reference and stronger signals show in "dB over nine". Like HF transceivers and CB radios (anyone remember those? )
I would be happy with -dBm on the status bar instead of a series of bars. iOS allows for it and it's accurate. Can't believe it's not baked into Android being it's the choice OS for techies.
Compared my Wifi download speeds to my iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 was faster. These 2 pictures are wifi download screenshots from iPhone 6
Here is the same location using my Galaxy S6 Edge
Hello, compared to Note 4 S6 really hurt my Edge captures the mobile network.