My Verizon store signal strength test - HTC Rezound

My Verizon store signal strength test.
1st pic blue S3(106 dBm) vs white S3(106 dBm)......I'm holding the S3
2nd pic blue S3(112 dBm) vs white S3(104 dBm)..... blue S3 laying on desk notice drop in signal
3rd pic store rezound(82 dBm) vs white S3(106 dBm)
4th pic RAZR(105 dBm) vs rezound(83 dBm)
5th pic Galaxy nexus(101 dBm)
6th pic screen capture of my rezound(88 dBm)

Damasterjj said:
My Verizon store signal strength test.
1st pic blue S3(106 dBm) vs white S3(106 dBm)......I'm holding the S3
2nd pic blue S3(112 dBm) vs white S3(104 dBm)..... blue S3 laying on desk notice drop in signal
3rd pic store rezound(82 dBm) vs white S3(106 dBm)
4th pic RAZR(105 dBm) vs rezound(83 dBm)
5th pic Galaxy nexus(101 dBm)
6th pic screen capture of my rezound(88 dBm)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice comparison.
Glad I have this phone.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app

Ya I just came from the rezound ad well.. This s3 has horrible reception in comparison.
Numbers aside. I drop about half my calls on the s3 in the same places I have never had issues with on my resound.
My wife still has her rezound, and standing in the same place at the same time, she will have several bars if 4g and be able to place calls and browse the Web, while my s3 has a circle with a line through it... (no signal)
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Guy here at work has an S3 - I get 4 bars consistently here, he was 2-3. I was pretty surprised.

ssoares01 said:
Guy here at work has an S3 - I get 4 bars consistently here, he was 2-3. I was pretty surprised.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't be. Samsung isn't ready to step their antenna game up yet.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium

THis is why I am glad I got the Rezound, sure the S3 might out spec it, but the Rezound has some amazing things going for it, I have only dropped a call once in 4 months of owning it. I just get irritated with dust collecting in the headset.

Samsung phones are notorious for having poor radios. I had a Droid Charge, my dad picked up the S3 as a replacement for his nexus and they all three had no signal where my Rezound has full bars. Pathetic!
Sent from my Rezound using XDA-developers app...

Very good test. Thanks for sharing your findings and confirming what we all know to be true.
Sent from my Rezound using Tapatalk 2

Very nice test. This is the exact reason I'm sticking with my Rezound and why my Nexus is a paperweight now.

I was at a friend's a few months back, pulled 30mbs while his charge could barely get 4g, I was pleasantly surprised
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

Go rezound
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

I don't believe it is wise to jump to conclusions, I suggest checking out this article:
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/25921-this-is-why-your-verizon-nexus-signal-sucks/
I think it takes some real-use testing over an extended period of time to really come to a conclusion about radio quality. Cellular conditions are very dynamic due to many factors. Signal quality is also very difficult to quantify, especially when basing it off just dBm (and of course, bars are just ridiculous.) The electromagnetic environment is very complex, and changes drastically in time and space. In my limited experience with wireless communications, I found that RSSI and SNR only tell part of the story. I often measure latencies while performing bandwidth tests (say to dial in a dish), but I find myself perplexed in many cases. Sometimes I get more consistent throughput when the SNR is worse.
Interestingly, I probably drop more calls with my Rezound than I did with my Droid Charge. I also had more reliable throughput on my Droid Charge than my Rezound on EVDO. Admittedly, the old radio firmware on the Charge was pretty crummy, but the later releases definitely stabilized it. It is difficult to come to conclusions due to many factors and it is possible a device may have a defect.
I'm not complaining about the Rezound too much, I'd say its roughly the same experience in regards to radios as my Droid Charge.
Just sayin'.

Damasterjj said:
My Verizon store signal strength test.
1st pic blue S3(106 dBm) vs white S3(106 dBm)......I'm holding the S3
2nd pic blue S3(112 dBm) vs white S3(104 dBm)..... blue S3 laying on desk notice drop in signal
3rd pic store rezound(82 dBm) vs white S3(106 dBm)
4th pic RAZR(105 dBm) vs rezound(83 dBm)
5th pic Galaxy nexus(101 dBm)
6th pic screen capture of my rezound(88 dBm)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that I'm defending Samsung in the least here, I sincerely dislike most of their devices, but you might want to take a look at the fact that Samsung's devices show the LTE RSRP and NOT the RSSI like the Rezound does. There's a big difference between the measurements but to simplify it -80dbm RSSI is roughly equal to -100dbm RSRP, you just add -20dbm to the RSSI number to get the applicable RSRP number. So the signal NUMBER that you see might be seriously misleading you into thinking the signal is really poor if you're not doing the conversion before comparing. However, I much prefer my Rezound to the S3 without question, I gladly returned the S3
EDIT -RSSI vs RSRP Information: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-308-rssi-vs-rsrp-a-brief-lte-signal-strength-primer/

I went to the store this morning, I swear there was 70+ peple in the store
Sent from my ADR6425LVW

Edit:NVM another nerd posted the same link.

Regardless of the terminology, it's weird as hell that people get better reception on the rezounds than the Samsung produced phones myself to included. I'll be damned if someone tries to convince me we're suffering from the placebo effect. Especially with people using them in real world.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium

I'll vouch for the fact that (in a non-scientific, purely anecdotal test) the G-Nex has less signal strength compared to the Rezound. My wife received one for her job... the first one wouldn't hold signal long enough to download an app, or make a phone call, all the while my Rezound had 3-4 bars of signal. Her replacement phone is better, but if I hold both phones in my hands, the G-Nex shows only 1-2 bars of signal, while my Rezound has 3-4 (her battery life is PATHETIC, as well). Her co-worker was given a SGSIII, and she's already complaining of poor signal and dropped calls. We're in a large metropolitan area (Seattle-Tacoma) and have excellent 4G coverage here.
I'll keep my Rezound, thanks!

I can't speak much on signal strength other than I haven't had any problems and I think it is a bit better than my Droid Incredible

Samsung has worse radios for whatever reason and always have... Any real world use would show that. Can't get 4G here in a 4G area... oh look the rezzy has 4G w/20megs down. As far as 3G goes the difference has been much less noticeable. I guess there 3G radios are ok. I've seen and experienced 4G issues a lot more frequently with Samsung than HTC.

platinumrims said:
Samsung has worse radios for whatever reason and always have... Any real world use would show that. Can't get 4G here in a 4G area... oh look the rezzy has 4G w/20megs down. As far as 3G goes the difference has been much less noticeable. I guess there 3G radios are ok. I've seen and experienced 4G issues a lot more frequently with Samsung than HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's one of the reasons I chose the Rezound over the Nexus when I decided to dump my Charge. The radios were ticking me off something fierce and I wasn't going to go right to another product with virtually the same radios. The Rez will be in my hands about 5:00 this afternoon. Can't wait to be rid of Samsung.

Related

[Q]Hows the reception on the Atrix? death grip?

hows the reception on the atrix? im thinking of getting this phone but i need one with good reception. im currently have the Captivate, how is the signal strength on the atrix compare?
neotekz said:
hows the reception on the atrix? im thinking of getting this phone but i need one with good reception. im currently have the Captivate, how is the signal strength on the atrix compare?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just went from captivate to atrix about 3 days ago. Its alot better and louder. I noticed that the captivate was not very loud in the earpiece. the speaker is much louder also. definitely better.
I had a captivate as well and I'd say reception is better and the voice of the person on the other side is WAY more full sounding. On the cappy voices sounded kinda hollow to me at least on JK4 modem. So far coming from Paragon 6 to The Atrix rooted with DG's rom I'm regretting nothing. The GPS actually works, it plays calls through my car stereo when plugged on (Cappy just got that), Better pixle density (lower contrast vs SAMOLED though) but an acceptable trade off. Build is kinda plasticy vs the metal backed cappy, but I'm not worried about it. LED flash, FF camera (Don't think I know anyone who's used one).
So yea I'm happy with cappy to Atrix upgrade, I feel like I have a fully functional phone where as on the Cappy everything almost needed to be hacked to make it work like it was suppose to. Oh and as far as speed 1.4 OC vs stock atrix, atrix destroys the cappy hands down.....unless you do a bandwidth test then obviously the hacked cappy isn't limited on upload.
Hope that helps ya!
Coming from aa iphone 4 its a pretty good improvement. In a spot that normally got 0 signal I get 1-2 bars and completely fine voice/4G
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I'm also coming from an iPhone 4 and in a spot at my school where my iPhone had 0 bar's, this grabs a consistent 2-3 (more on the 3 side than 2). Great reception but I expect nothing less from Motorola.
So far I find it quite better, coming from a N1. I can definately hear the other side a lot clearer, and have been told I sound better
and is there any issues with the death grip?
Few... so Motorola is still making phones with good reception and call quality. Like nokia's. The minimum a phone should do, what most phone makers seem to forget these days.
The problem with using the number of bars to compare signal strength between different phones is the algorithm used to determine the number of bars is not universal across phones. You really need another measure such as signal to noise or something like that. The bars are a logrithmic scale but not universal across phones. There was a great article on this when apple changed the way IOS determined the number of bars for strength. I will try and find the article and post it here.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
Signal is great! Much better than iPhonelol.

Yet another traded my Nexus for a Rezound post (novel)

I had been watching the Nexus for some time before it's launch. My Droid X in all honesty was probably fine - it was overclocked, undervolted and running the latest MIUI built on ICS - but I had my mind set on the GN as the next big thing. I was travelling for work on launch day, but was able to swing by a Verizon store and pick one up late in the afternoon.
First impressions after getting a chance to check it out in my hotel room were extremely positive. The 4.65" display is immediately eye-catching. Colors just pop off the screen, and some of the more colorful icons against a black app drawer background were really great looking. This was my first 4g phone, and the speeds were pretty amazing too. Driving back from our meetings, I was playing with the phone (I wasn't the one driving!) and downloading apps off the market. I lost 4g a couple times, but I was in a mid sized city with lots of surrounding rural area. I live in DFW, so I wasn't too worried about the ability to hold a 4g connection there.
Now, I had seen the Rezound prior to the GN coming out. I can remember reading about it before it's release and thinking 'Oh great, another HTC phone that looks like every other HTC phone, but slightly faster'. I wasn't interested at all. But after going to see it in person, I really liked the phone. Comparing it to the then newly released RAZR, it was much nicer to hold. Phone felt solid, not as chunky as I had thought, and overall impressed me. But I was set on the GN!
Preamble out of the way, the GN had some flaws that I soon noticed. Nothing huge at first, but they became more apparent as time went on. Ultimately the reception or signal strength killed it for me, and I made the switch to the Rezound. I'll break it down into a comparison below to give you guys my take:
Form factor and physical
There has been a lot of talk about the GN's cheap build quality. I would disagree. The phone was plastic, yes, and it was really light, but to me it felt solid enough. There is also a lot of talk about the battery door, but again while it is flimsy on it's own, it snaps into the phone well. The door has 10+ points it snaps into, and once it's in it feels like a smooth, seamless part of the back of the phone. Especially with the extended battery. The downside is this is a pretty slick surface to hold a phone. Add in the width of the phone, which was slightly too big for me to hold one handed comfortably, and I was constantly worried I'd drop it.
The Rezound does feel a little more solid. It has a nice heft to it. With the extended battery, it has a significant heft to it. To me, the Rezound is easier to hold with either battery. The buttons are more flush with the phone and mounted in the traditional places, which I think I prefer. You don't accidentally hit them, but they're not hard to hit either. The downside, the big downside, is the creaking! Both my battery doors creak. For all the crap I've seen people give the GN for the battery door, at least it didn't creak every time I hit the left side of my keyboard.
The final decision here really comes up to screen size imo. The physical dimensions look close on paper, but the extra width and height are extremely noticeable when actually using the phone.
Screen
I talked about how the GN has that 'wow' factor. And it does. Some people call it over saturation, but man it looks good. Well, it looks good until you play with a Rezound for 10 minutes. When I was at the VZW store thinking about switching my GN for a Rezound, I was not as impressed by the screen on the Rezound at first. And I think the reason why is Sense or Gingerbread. The UI, wallpapers, notification bar, font, etc. all are much more professional and attractive on the GN. The Rezound looked terrible in stock form IMO. Giant ugly fonts, widgets with cartoonish graphics, nothing took advantage of or looked good on the Rezound screen. But comparing the same websites and applications side by side, and the Rezound quickly became the clear winner. Colors are much more clear and natural looking. On a forum app I use often, I could not tell the difference in alternating dark blues used on alternating posts. On the Rezound it was clear as day. And after getting the Rezound setup by removing Sense and getting Go Launcher, it eliminates a lot of my initial distaste. I have the Rezound as the clear winner here. However, the difference between 4.65" and 4.3" is big. If you don't mind the AMOLED tech, the bigger screen might win you over. I did find it funny though that with the on screen buttons, I could see a good bit more vertically of every web page on the Rezound.
One last thought, I read on my phone a lot. Kindle app using white text on a black background. The blacks of the AMOLED are amazing, but text is not as crisp as on the LCD.
Software
I'll be brief here. ICS has some bugs or kinks to work out. This should be expected with it's first release. It's got a lot of good things going for it too though. If it were an option on the Rezound, I'd take it. Sense it's too invasive for me, and part of me buying the Rezound was due to my research here knowing that I could easily remove Sense (thanks Scott's Roms!). The Rezound does have some nice touches though. I like the lock screen more. The camera software is great and the shutter lag is close to the GN's. Dismissing or going into calendar reminders from the lockscreen is really good too. Overall the GN wins, but the Rezound with a little tweaking beats the GN in some areas while falling short in others. This was closer than I would have first guessed.
Battery
I didn't test either phone extensively with the stock batteries. With my short use on the Rezound's stock battery, I was impressed it was able to seemingly last a good amount of time with only 1650 mah. That battery size is too small for a LTE phone IMO, and with the physical size of the battery I think HTC could have given us something better.
The GN with the 2100 mah extended battery lasts all day. At 24 hours off the charger, I would typically be between 10 and 20% battery life left. Not too bad for an LTE phone, but I think software hurts it here. Looking at my battery usage graph, there is a lot of 'awake' time where my screen is off. This seems to be somewhat common with the GN, so there may be some process keeping the phone awake. Lots of people suggests disabling some sound options (sound on keypress and something else I think), which I did, but did not notice an impact.
The Rezound, with the 2750 mah extended battery kicks the crap out of the GN. Not really apples to apples due to the larger size, but I unplugged 31 hours ago and have 58% battery left. The awake time and screen time match up almost perfectly, which is also probably giving the Rezound a healthy edge here.
Camera
I'm not much of a camera person, just not that good at it and I don't know how to adjust ISO and other camera settings to make the shot better. With everything set to auto, the Rezound takes better looking pictures, at least in the situations I was snapping photos in. Pretty much 100% in doors. With a pro behind the lense, I'm not sure how that would change.
Reception
This is the big one for me, the one that made me spending several days reading about these phones and ultimately trading the GN in. Once I got the GN home to DFW, I was a little surprised at the reception. Just going by the bars at first, it seemed low at my house and 'okay' at work. While at my house, I booted up my Droid X and did some side by side testing. The DX was hitting -88 to -93 on average, while the GN was above -100 everywhere, at times hitting -113!
Now, after some reading online, I discovered that the GN was giving me the LTE signal, while the DX was giving me the CDMA signal. But by setting the GN to CDMA only, it would report the CDMA signal to me, giving me a better comparison. After doing this, the GN range dropped down to -93 to -103. Not great at all, but enough to hold a signal in 3g. The problem though was how slow the phone switched radios. Going from 4g to 3g would take up to a minute. Further testing lead to some cases of dropping a 3g signal, altough surprisingly it did hold onto the 4g signal despite the worse signal strength. I ran the SpeedTest app multiple times every night for 10 day, and the highest speed I saw was 8,200 kbps down, 4,400 up.
An even bigger shocker though was the wifi performance. I have a weight bench in my garage, and like to listen to Pandora on my phone while working out. The GN had zero bars of wifi (but would stay connected...mostly) and would take 10 seconds between tracks to buffer. My DX had 3 bars of wifi (I know, bars are not apples to apples and sucks as a measurement) and would play Pandora seamlessly. My house is small, the router is pretty high end and not that far away. Bad 3g, bad 4g and bad wifi had me feeling pretty bummed about the phone. To be fair, I never had a great signal on the DX at my house either, but as the above numbers show, it was better than the GN.
To sum up the GN, I travelled for Christmas and visited some areas with marginal service and some areas that should have had good service, according the VZW's coverage map. I had my brother's cheap-o Samsung Android Sprint phone to test side by side. The GN lost or tied every time. The kicker was when we were in downtown Bryan, TX, which is right next door to College Station and should have had great coverage. I had no signal at all the entire time we were in Bryan. This was not during VZW's 4g outage. My brother had a signal in the -80's on his Samsung.
That was what sent me to the VZW store Christmas eve to check out the Rezound. They had it right next to a display GN. I tested all three phones in terms of signal. They would fluctuat slightly, but the high/low for both my GN and the display model were the same. -78 to -83. The Rezound was -66 to -72. Both GNs were set to CDMA only. At this point I'm thinking 'Okay, the Rezound is better. It's only 10 or 12 db, but that would put me in a much better spot with the numbers I was getting at my house.' Then I decided to run the SpeedTest app. I used both display models for this, and made sure they were hitting the same server. The results were consistent between runs. The Rezound hit 24,000 down and 11,000 up. The GN hit 14,000 down and 6,000 up. I repeated this again and again. Obviously both phones were switched to 4g for this test. I then repeated the GN results with my phone, and walked over to the VZW rep and said 'Hi I'd like to return my GN for a Rezound please'.
I haven't done extensive testing on the Rezound since being back home (unpacking, catching up with friends... you understand). But I ran SpeedTest right when I got home. 30,600 down and 9,900 up. After that I just smiled and felt fine about doing more testing later. What I can't make out though, is why so many online reviews and articles seem to thing there isn't a problem with the GN. Maybe it's a problem with only some GNs? Anandtech articles I respect very highly. They know their stuff, and always have a great technical analysis. Their article on GN signal issues just confused me, because it seemed to say there was no problem. I don't know, I did a lot of testing with the GN. I wanted to keep it! I won't bore you with all the details, but I lost signal five miles from DFW airport in a busy shopping center. I did many, many side by side SpeedTest runs with my buddy and his Bionic. I feel like I gave the GN every chance to perform. I will say that at work my GN was -93 to -100 on 4g signal, and at times I'd hit 24,00 down, which was very close to what the Bionic was pulling.
My take-away was that with a great signal, the GN will perform. With a poor signal, the GN does a good job of holding on to that signal. But the GN radio just can't get a signal as well as some other phones, and the Rezound gets a great signal in comparison.
Miscellaneous
The GN is quick. Transitions are seamless, apps open fast and market downloads install in no time. The Rezound is also quick. As quick? Not really. There's still some slight hesitation here or there. I'd say it's more software than hardware. If you put any stock into benchmarks, the GN did 5,850 in Antutu and the Rezound did 5,640.
The Rezound is chunky with the extended battery. But I like it better than the GN in terms of feel in the hand.
Um...if you made it this far, anything else you want to know?
Cliff Notes:GN and Rezound are both good devices. The GN had signal issues that prevented it from being something I'd want to own and use. The Rezound is better than it looks on paper and as a whole package works really well.
Wow, you really put a lot into this. Good read.
Sent from my R800x using Tapatalk
I noticed the same thing about the graphics and text in the status bar and other areas of the OS. When you view something that really takes advantage of the screen it's quite impressive, yet HTC didn't put much thought into really exploiting one of the phone's main selling points. It seems like an odd oversight. The colors don't even look subdued to me when you view something that actually has bright colors in it, and that's after using a Droid Charge for awhile which is heavily over-saturated. Most of the included wallpapers are pretty dull with the exception of one or two, and a few of them aren't even sharp.
jasoncd said:
I didn't test either phone extensively with the stock batteries. With my short use on the Rezound's stock battery, I was impressed it was able to seemingly last a good amount of time with only 1650 mah. That battery size is too small for a LTE phone IMO, and with the physical size of the battery I think HTC could have given us something better.
...
That was what sent me to the VZW store Christmas eve to check out the Rezound. They had it right next to a display GN. I tested all three phones in terms of signal. They would fluctuat slightly, but the high/low for both my GN and the display model were the same. -78 to -83. The Rezound was -66 to -72. Both GNs were set to CDMA only. At this point I'm thinking 'Okay, the Rezound is better. It's only 10 or 12 db, but that would put me in a much better spot with the numbers I was getting at my house.'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic review, thanks Jason!
So the dB numbers and speedtests above were all captured w/the Rezound's extended battery? Were you able to perceive any change in behavior (esp. w/3G) when you replaced the stock battery?
jasoncd said:
Miscellaneous
The GN is quick. Transitions are seamless, apps open fast and market downloads install in no time. The Rezound is also quick. As quick? Not really. There's still some slight hesitation here or there. I'd say it's more software than hardware. If you put any stock into benchmarks, the GN did 5,850 in Antutu and the Rezound did 5,640.
The Rezound is chunky with the extended battery. But I like it better than the GN in terms of feel in the hand.
Um...if you made it this far, anything else you want to know?
Cliff Notes:GN and Rezound are both good devices. The GN had signal issues that prevented it from being something I'd want to own and use. The Rezound is better than it looks on paper and as a whole package works really well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were using the Rezound stock there are two well three factors here that would make it hesitate/lag. #1.) Sense - I'm not sure if it's just this release but yeah it's nowhere near as smooth as it should be for the hardware on this device. #2.) GB - The device is still on Gingerbread and I think the transitions/animations do not properly utilize the GPU, that and there's the lack of overall HW acceleration. #3.) Store demos are always laggy due to all the crap it probably goes through at the store. Yes it is just the software in this case and I can attest to that. I put ICS on my old Droid 3 and that sucker flew. No transitional/animation lag thanks to the proper GPU utilization + HW acceleration. I've gotten 6k on my Rezound on Antutu before, so I really wouldn't use a benchmark to gauge performance here.
Thanks for the feedback guys. This was a big purchase for me, so I did a ton a research. I really went from GN all the way, to loving the Rezound and respecting the GN for what it is. It's just too flawed to be the game changer I thought it would be.
kgbeezr1 said:
I noticed the same thing about the graphics and text in the status bar and other areas of the OS. When you view something that really takes advantage of the screen it's quite impressive, yet HTC didn't put much thought into really exploiting one of the phone's main selling points. It seems like an odd oversight. The colors don't even look subdued to me when you view something that actually has bright colors in it, and that's after using a Droid Charge for awhile which is heavily over-saturated. Most of the included wallpapers are pretty dull with the exception of one or two, and a few of them aren't even sharp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You hit it with the status bar comment. The blue icons of ICS might not be for everyone, but they're a damn sight better than what HTC/GB gives us. They're just...overblown? Comical? Meh, I don't know, it's fine just a little more attention to detail here could have helped push the Rezound up in reviewers minds imo.
Blue Biker said:
Fantastic review, thanks Jason!
So the dB numbers and speedtests above were all captured w/the Rezound's extended battery? Were you able to perceive any change in behavior (esp. w/3G) when you replaced the stock battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man! You are correct, all of the numbers I posted were with the Rezounds extended battery. I almost thought your question could be answered with 'No way, they perform the same!'. Which is what I've been reading.
But I decided to take a slow walk around the house with both the extended and standard batteries in. This included going in bathrooms, closets, the garage, etc. Basically every part of my house.
The extended battery was between -85 and -95 db. The living room was the worst at -95. I changed out for the standard battery, and right off the numbers were a little better. It was -81 to -90. What's funny is with the extended battery the garage was a solid -90. Every part of it. With the standard, it was the same solid number but -85 instead of -90.
I will note that when I put the standard cover back on, there was very very little creak to it. It fit very flush. My extended battery cover have a fairly large creak on one side. Maybe it's not making the best contact? Or maybe it's just not as good?
I might order a new extended cover from HTCpedia and see if that fits any better, and if it has an impact compared to the one I have now.
Sigh, I was afraid you were going to come up with results like that. I've been chasing this down here in XDA (and also in AF) with several people claiming plenty of antenna material on the extended cover, just that it's covered up instead of visibly copper on the standard cover. They probably are correct, but it also seems to be true that there is some level of signal sacrificed by the extended cover.
So will I accept a 5dB signal loss to achieve 70% more battery? Going from an excellent connection to very good? It feels dumb to admit, but my answer's probably yes.
Thanks again for all of your legwork and analysis. I was also obsessively following the GNex for many months and only hopped on the Rez at the last minute. Hope I can share what I've learned as well.
BTW, creaking covers seems to be common w/Rezounds (although not mine), so others may have suggestions for how to reduce it.
Blue Biker said:
Sigh, I was afraid you were going to come up with results like that. I've been chasing this down here in XDA (and also in AF) with several people claiming plenty of antenna material on the extended cover, just that it's covered up instead of visibly copper on the standard cover. They probably are correct, but it also seems to be true that there is some level of signal sacrificed by the extended cover.
So will I accept a 5dB signal loss to achieve 70% more battery? Going from an excellent connection to very good? It feels dumb to admit, but my answer's probably yes.
Thanks again for all of your legwork and analysis. I was also obsessively following the GNex for many months and only hopped on the Rez at the last minute. Hope I can share what I've learned as well.
BTW, creaking covers seems to be common w/Rezounds (although not mine), so others may have suggestions for how to reduce it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both my original and extended battery cover creaks pretty bad. HTC sent me a new back cover and it didn't change a thing. The only way I found to reduce it was fold a piece of paper a couple of times and lay in on the battery before you put the cover on it. It does not completely get rid of it but it did reduce it.
yeah, the creaky battery door definitely sucks. mine just started creeking more on the left side from taking the back cover off a lot, but with a TPU, i don't notice it that much. oh well; i should try to complain to get another door out of them lol
Thanks for this GREAT review. It really solidifies my decision on whether to let my Rezound go for Gnex.

Less than 2 bars?

Has anyone seen less than 2 bars of signal? The recent phonedog.com video makes a reference to this phenomenon as well.
I have pretty poor reception in one part of my house, but my Note never dips below 2 bars whereas my infuse and ip4 both showed 1 or even no bars.
Marketing ploy or bad antenna gain values? Haha
"The Note, so large it comes with its own signal bar. "
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA App
i just saw that too and yes t will go down ive seen it as low as 1 bar on mine

Anyone else having signal issues

Im getting low signal and grey bars a lot.
Its not my sim cos its new and get good signl on my HTC one x and iphone but with the s3 its poor.
Any suggestions?
viniturb0 said:
Im getting low signal and grey bars a lot.
Its not my sim cos its new and get good signl on my HTC one x and iphone but with the s3 its poor.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are holding it wrong!
Sorry i couldn't resist
Maybe your antenna is faulty i would take it in and have it looked at.
Sent from my GT-i9000 using XDA
viniturb0 said:
Im getting low signal and grey bars a lot.
Its not my sim cos its new and get good signl on my HTC one x and iphone but with the s3 its poor.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having the same issue. I used to get full bars with my sgs 1. But now in the sam areas, im getting like 2 to 3 bars. But i have yet to experience a dropped call nor data disconnection. And the cell standby in battery usage is really high. I wonder if its a software bug.
+1
Same issue here. My HOX and 4s have much better reception.. I'm gettting around -100 dBm which from memory was same as the iphone 4 death grip territory. I'm hoping its just a faulty handset and not the S3 in general. Doesnt seem to be a wide spread issue though, I've read plenty of people saying their reception and call quality is the nest they've ever had. This is encouraging. I've created a thread about it here. Feel free to post your dBm results. Anything around -100dBm and above is not good (in areas where you've had better reception on other handsets in the past). I held a HOX side by side on the same network and it's reception was around 20dBm stronger.
Yep. See: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1690297
I'm dropping signal when I hold the phone and cover the right side, from fu to none .

US Axon 7: Initial Thoughts

Received today and packaging is excellent which includes earphones and clear case.
Display is quite nice and sound is loud though maybe not as full as earlier HTC models.
Not crazy about their skin so I switched to Nova.
Connects to VZW LTE. Radio appears weaker than Nexus6p and s7edge and appears to struggle in weaker reception areas.
Decent camera.
Speedy though not all of my apps are installed.
Connects to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth instantly.
Fingerprint scanner exceedingly fast.
Keep getting system update screen status though there aren't any.
Still putting it through its paces.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
If you don't mind answering a quick question for me, I heard the capacitive buttons don't light up? So there's always a circle and two dots even when the display is off? I really like devices that have clean faces, it's actually one of the reasons, crazy as it sounds, I want to change my OnePlus 3. I hate the fingerprint scanner being on the front. I was excited when I first saw the Axon 7 with a nice minimalist face, but they changed it for the U.S. release. =/
Correct about buttons; don't light up which doesn't bother me.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hey Mark
Can you do a speed test on VZW?
When I get home: I work in a notoriously weak VZW reception area hence I noticed this phone struggles more than the others. I do have a TMO sim I could try add well since TMO is far better in my area.
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Hey I just received mine.... Has anyone had a issue with the GPS... I can't seem to be able to lock on any location... Not with Pokemon go or Google Maps
GPS locks, it just takes a little longer than usual at times.
I like this phone better than my HTC 10. I can actually see the screen while wearing sunglasses now. Reception does seem a little weaker than the HTC 10, but bluetooth and wifi are better/quicker seeking/longer distance on the 7.
TMO average speed: 25/5
I'll test vzw in about a half hour when in better reception area and then Wi-Fi when home.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
bhazard451 said:
GPS locks, it just takes a little longer than usual at times.
I like this phone better than my HTC 10. I can actually see the screen while wearing sunglasses now. Reception does seem a little weaker than the HTC 10, but bluetooth and wifi are better/quicker seeking/longer distance on the 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say see the screen with sunglasses are you referring to wearing polarized sunglasses and having the phone in landscape? That would be an improvement over my Find 7a right there.
markwebb said:
TMO average speed: 25/5
I'll test vzw in about a half hour when in better reception area and then Wi-Fi when home.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, Thanks
markwebb said:
TMO average speed: 25/5
I'll test vzw in about a half hour when in better reception area and then Wi-Fi when home.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey bud. You said the Verizon coverage struggles in compared to other VZW devices. I know that reception bars can be highly inconsistent between other phones. Perhaps you should check the dBm measurements that are available under About Phone > Status to check the dBm. The full bands are there for VZW so I'm curious to see. Thanks.
Wow vzw is all over the place but fair warning my area is not really good:
20/35
7-10/4-6
10-20/5-10
Very unpredictable in my area.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
markwebb said:
Wow vzw is all over the place but fair warning my area is not really good:
20/35
7-10/4-6
10-20/5-10
Very unpredictable in my area.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May you report the dBm in comparison to other VZW phones? :good:
MoopusMaximus said:
Hey bud. You said the Verizon coverage struggles in compared to other VZW devices. I know that reception bars can be highly inconsistent between other phones. Perhaps you should check the dBm measurements that are available under About Phone > Status to check the dBm. The full bands are there for VZW so I'm curious to see. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I said I live and work in an area with typically weak reception and that it's struggles more so than other phones that I own. however all of my phones struggle with VZW here. I did check -102 dbm
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
markwebb said:
I said I live and work in an area with typically weak reception and that it's struggles more so than other phones that I own. however all of my phones struggle with VZW here. I did check -102 dbm
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, thanks a lot man. I didn't mean to sound annoying. I am wondering how this fares to your other VZW phones. I have Verizon myself and I hope I don't lose some reception if I buy this phone.
On At&t
Pros & cons (all mixed in here)
No GPS issues, works fine and fast for me
Sound is on par with, and maybe a little better than my Moto X Pure. Slightly fuller and it can get louder without any crackling/distortion
Signal on At&t appears weaker, but my speedtest LTE readings are as good or better than my Nexus 6P with 24 - 25mb down, 12-15mb up.
Charging on a computer is really slow! My Moto X Pure and even Nexus 6p both charged faster.
Don't like the fact you have to tap the lockscreen after you double tap it to swipe to open it
Don't like the notification thingy on the lockscreen you have to touch to see your notifications either...Hopefully that'll go away in an update, or the option to turn it off.
Someone told me there was a dark theme, but I don't see it? Not a deal breaker for me though.
Hate the squishy "stock" Android emoji's.... But once again, not a deal breaker for me.
**On a side note, I ruined 2 screen protectors and the Skinomi was too big, so it's going back. With the slightly curved screen, you have to get it dead center or it won't attach to the edges too well. - The two ruined ones are partially my fault, but these are the exact same issues I had with the Moto X Pure and it's slightly curved screen.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this phone!
OK better Vzw area seated:
49/29
Go figure!
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
Okay, here is an oddity. If I am on Verizon and then switch to Wi-Fi and back to Verizon there is no connection. I have to reboot the phone in order for it to recognize Verizon. I tried airplane mode and shutting off data but always had to reboot.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
tele_jas said:
On At&t
Pros & cons (all mixed in here)
No GPS issues, works fine and fast for me
Sound is on par with, and maybe a little better than my Moto X Pure. Slightly fuller and it can get louder without any crackling/distortion
Signal on At&t appears weaker, but my speedtest LTE readings are as good or better than my Nexus 6P with 24 - 25mb down, 12-15mb up.
Charging on a computer is really slow! My Moto X Pure and even Nexus 6p both charged faster.
Don't like the fact you have to tap the lockscreen after you double tap it to swipe to open it
Don't like the notification thingy on the lockscreen you have to touch to see your notifications either...Hopefully that'll go away in an update, or the option to turn it off.
Someone told me there was a dark theme, but I don't see it? Not a deal breaker for me though.
Hate the squishy "stock" Android emoji's.... But once again, not a deal breaker for me.
**On a side note, I ruined 2 screen protectors and the Skinomi was too big, so it's going back. With the slightly curved screen, you have to get it dead center or it won't attach to the edges too well. - The two ruined ones are partially my fault, but these are the exact same issues I had with the Moto X Pure and it's slightly curved screen.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah we gotta find the dark theme, too much white on this great amoled screen! I need root for layers too! I really like this phone but it's going back if bootloader isn't unlocked soon.
I did a speed test this morning and got 75/15 down/up on at&t. Phone has been nice and snappy. I totally agree about your issues, why didn't they do ambient display and ditch that icon you have to push to peek at notifications?
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
Hey everyone, congratulations with your purchase!!!
this phone really brings the upgrade urge back (i have Note 4 now).
does it have a netmonitor (like 0011 in samsung) to see signal state, available bandwidth in mhz, and if there's any carrier aggregation?
can you limit the phone to use only specific bands, like:
2G no bands (prohibited)
3G 2100 for calls
4G 2600/1800 for internet (prohibiting power-hungry and low-speed band 800)
this easily doubles, or triples, the uptime on a single charge (for N910F).
samsung's example of such menu is here:
i'm not sure for Axon 7 the savings will be as notable as for Note 4 (as new snapdragon and modem are more power efficient), but why not try?
another question is:
is Axon 7 Cat.6 (300mbit 2CA), or Cat.9 (450mbit 3CA)?
the new snapdragon has a cat.9 modem, right?

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