Just moved from EVO 4G to Epic Touch few days ago and started getting wi-fi problems in places where EVO didn't had any so I decided to compare them side to side using "wifi analyzer" from the market. There are 3 near by network that my laptop can pick up and connect - 1 my own and 2 neighbors. Evo sees only 2 of them and can connect to both. Epic touch only sees 1 (my) 90 percent of the time. Wifi analyzer also shows consistently lower db signal levels there. I will try to attach some snapshots of both running side by side. Is there a way to see signal strength of 4g in dbs?
For 3G/cell signal (pull up the menu, scroll down and select About Phone, then select Status. On this screen you will be able to see your signal displayed in dBm) Epic Touch consistently gives a signal strength lower by about 5-7dbm comapred with EVO - That kind of sucks - when you get a newer phone you'd expect a better signal. The difference is marginal for the phone signal, but could mean reception vs no reception in some situations.
I get only one bar on wifi but when I do speedtest it shows me whole 20mbps down and 2 mbpsfrom my time Warner internet.my evo only used to show me 8mbps tops.so it doesn't matter how many bar?
Agreed. I haven't played much into this whole bad wifi signal reception on this phone because even though it only shows half the bars. Transfer speeds are right where the evo 3d was even tho it showed full wifi reception
sent from my DAMN phone!
bars are graphical representation of the signal strength, however each manufacturer decides what signal strength in dbm each bar represents, so there is no point to compare bars unless you are looking at two identical devices. for HTC all bars may mean 60dbm and for samsung it could be 65dbm. It is much more precise to access the actual numerical signal strength. comparing dbm to dbm is like comparing apples to apples
data transfer speed is also not a criteria for comparing signal strength, both phones have different wifi chipsets - newer chipset can achieve some times faster speeds even when signal level is lower then the one on the older chipset.
This is like comparing 802.11G vs 802.11N - the later will be faster even if the signal level is lower, however once you reach the marginal point of where it does not see the other party at all, the quality of the chipset will not matter, you will simply be unable to connect. and the older one with better reception will still work fine.
I've just tested the wifi throughput at the same spot as I was measuring wifi signal strength in the first post, the difference is huge - EVO is 1.7Mb on the down link and EPIC Touch is 0.384Mb consistently.
I am on att wireless
I have noticed that in a low service area i get none at all.
However my wife on her iphone has 1/2 bars and my bro on his atrix also has 1/2 bars.
Anyone else having similar issues?
12/7 Update - More information on what I have attempted
Setting APNS for 4g on ATT
getting correct 4g data plan on account
New Sim cards
Replacement Galaxy Nexus
Different Roms
Stock Restore Rom
restore to default and install nothing
different radio
update to 4.0.1
Once the signal drops to almost unusable levels , the only way to get it back is either reboot the phone or toggle airplane mode. After that the signal returns to a solid 89-93 DBM. After roughly 30-60min it will then drop and I have to toggle it again. All other phones in my location have no problem including my iphone 4s with the exact same sim card.
I am in a decent location for signal. On the nexus reboot its at -89 dbm , my iphone 4s is at -87. The iphone stays that way and the galaxy nexus over time drops to -105 to -111.
Still no conclusion.
I only have problem with Wi-Fi where the reception is considerably weaker than any other device just around it.
aimetti said:
I am on att wireless
I have noticed that in a low service area i get none at all.
However my wife on her iphone has 1/2 bars and my bro on his atrix also has 1/2 bars.
Anyone else having similar issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bars mean very little, as devices have their indicators calibrated differently. You should be comparing signals, in dBm for a meaningful comparison.
The acid test, of course, is whether you can make and hold a call, and or send/receive data.
aimetti said:
I am on att wireless
I have noticed that in a low service area i get none at all.
However my wife on her iphone has 1/2 bars and my bro on his atrix also has 1/2 bars.
Anyone else having similar issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah kind of hard to gauge from bars. Nokia and motorola are known for excellent reception. Samsung not so much. They do seem to be improving on all fronts though, including wifi and gps.
Sent from my samsung gt i9250 which is in the wrong country.
I havent got too in depth with testing but its simple to see there is an issue. Everyone around me can make calls and i cant. Cell standbye taking up battery life as well and has been out of signal for a while
I'm seeing a similar issue.
When I have 2g only selected, I get 2 bars -98 asu 7. When I have it deselected I have no bars and signal is -111 asu 1.
Well ive had similar issues
Today I wiped phone and came back to initially 4/5 bars and download speeds of 4 down 1 up.
Then after about 10 min , right back down to 1/0 bars and 800 kbps down 200 up.
popped off back cover and then pulled sim , reset sim and then reboot. Again it initially came back with 4/5 bars with hsdpa. Again about 10 min later back down to 1/0 bars and a -113 dbm reading,
Then oddly enough i was in the status screen just watching it hover around -113 to -105 , it clicked to edge full 5 bars , then came back to 3G 4 bars and now at -93 dbm.
Does this sound at all normal? I havent changed location more than a few feet through all this. My wifes Iphone seems to be having 0 issues right next to me.
just watched it do it again.
Was at 1 bar went to 0 , got stuck on -113 dbm for about a minute or 2 clicked over to edge-2 -87 dbm then back to hsdpa -93 dbm
:/ i got no clue at this point
there is a video showing some of the issue
http://youtu.be/dbSAEHVcosI
aimetti said:
just watched it do it again.
Was at 1 bar went to 0 , got stuck on -113 dbm for about a minute or 2 clicked over to edge-2 -87 dbm then back to hsdpa -93 dbm
:/ i got no clue at this point
there is a video showing some of the issue
http://youtu.be/dbSAEHVcosI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this at home or a place where you frequently are? If so, I would do one of two things (provided you want to keep the device):
Write an NFC tag that you can tap on your way in (and presumably on on the way out as well) that would switch you over to "2G only" (which it seems gives you a better signal), and back to 3G/3.5G on your way out the door. or...
Either write yourself, or wait for one to be written, a kernel that will throw more power to the radio (at the expense of battery life however- but if you are constantly searching for signal your phone is probably wasting a ton of battery right now anyways)...
ya i am at home.
My wife consistently gets 3 down 1 up on her 4s.
No one else seems to be having issues , perhaps mine is just defective?
this is what happens when i lightly grip phone
http://youtu.be/-eqlMUoeq_I
aimetti said:
ya i am at home.
My wife consistently gets 3 down 1 up on her 4s.
No one else seems to be having issues , perhaps mine is just defective?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, but I can't think of a way to reliably test whether it is defective or not. My Samsung phones have always had lightly weaker radios than my HTC and Moto phones, and my sister's iPhone, so I will wager that it is just that in the name of battery life the radio is under-powered, which can be changed in the kernel. I was in a similar boat back when I was on T-mobile (right on the edge of service), and luckily someone had posted a custom ROM for the G1 that routed more power to the radios, and gave me just enough to hold a signal and use my wifi for data. Whatever that kernel in that ROM did, it gave me about 10 dbm difference. You might want to throw a request in the development section.
you can also try exchanging the device (if ever unhappy at all you should try to), but I am wondering if it will actually make a difference. Do you know someone with a recent Samsung phone like a SG2 (not LTE/Skyrocket) or maybe one of their Windows phones (I don't know what radios/speeds they use), to see if it gives similar results?
s.m.knipe said:
Maybe, but I can't think of a way to reliably test whether it is defective or not. My Samsung phones have always had lightly weaker radios than my HTC and Moto phones, and my sister's iPhone, so I will wager that it is just that in the name of battery life the radio is under-powered, which can be changed in the kernel. I was in a similar boat back when I was on T-mobile (right on the edge of service), and luckily someone had posted a custom ROM for the G1 that routed more power to the radios, and gave me just enough to hold a signal and use my wifi for data. Whatever that kernel in that ROM did, it gave me about 10 dbm difference. You might want to throw a request in the development section.
you can also try exchanging the device (if ever unhappy at all you should try to), but I am wondering if it will actually make a difference. Do you know someone with a recent Samsung phone like a SG2 (not LTE/Skyrocket) or maybe one of their Windows phones (I don't know what radios/speeds they use), to see if it gives similar results?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya , i was at my brothers house yesterday with no service at all.
My bro had an atrix with 1/2 bars and service.
my wife had an iphone 4 with 1/2 bars and service
and my sister in law had a galaxy s2 with 1/2 bars and service as well.
I had 0 at all.
The odd thing is , every time I reboot my phone it holds on to 4/5 bars at the location im at right now for a good 10 minutes , then flatlines.
aimetti said:
Ya , i was at my brothers house yesterday with no service at all.
My bro had an atrix with 1/2 bars and service.
my wife had an iphone 4 with 1/2 bars and service
and my sister in law had a galaxy s2 with 1/2 bars and service as well.
I had 0 at all.
The odd thing is , every time I reboot my phone it holds on to 4/5 bars at the location im at right now for a good 10 minutes , then flatlines.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what APN are you using? Use the same APN settings as your Sis-in-law's GS2- when my Nexus first came I noticed the APN did not match my Atrix and it would not hold an HSPA+ signal for long; I changed it to match the Atrix and speeds/holding towers has been much better. Try the APN thing.
The GN and GS2 would have the same radio chip (I would imagine), and be set to draw the same amount of power by the kernel. If the APN thing doesn't work then you might want to consider an exchange I guess, maybe it is defective
The fact that it flatlines AFTER 10 minutes (presumably after all the syncing is finished for the various apps and services) is suggestive of a sort of "demand" model- like maybe the device amps up the radio when it knows there will be a lot of need, then scales back when demand is less- or over compensates at first, then under compensates later after some sort of calibration? The ten minute thing sounds odd, but sounds like something software/firmware/kernel-based...
[Keep in mind that there is much speculation contained in that advice, the true test for defective or not would simply be another GN at the same location- as that is unreasonable we'll have to speculate. Also, if your sis-in-law comes back over, check her phone status for her signal strength (not bars but dbm and asu) and see if it matches yours. The bars that you see are a software representation of those two numbers, and can be modified to under represent the actual signal.]
I am using the default cingular 410 apn
ive been reading that if support put a 4g data plan on my phone that it could potentially cause data loss. Is that correct?
also changed to 2g only for now and have 5bars -81 dbm constant.
aimetti said:
I am using the default cingular 410 apn
ive been reading that if support put a 4g data plan on my phone that it could potentially cause data loss. Is that correct?
also changed to 2g only for now and have 5bars -81 dbm constant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure I follow, if AT&T made your data plan a 4G data plan, it would interrupt your service?
I think you are asking if changing these APN settings will trigger something at AT&T, and they will "bump" you to a 4G plan- in which case I don't really know, I had to jump onto a "4G" plan when I got my Atrix. I think it would never reach that point though, when you set up the new APNs, that step where you touch the dot to select the HSDPA APN, it would default back to your cingular 410 apn if it were not able to connect (via SIM provisioning or whatever). If unavailable it wouldn't be connected at that rate to begin with.
How old is the data plan you are on (is it prior to the tiered plans)? If you are worried about the connection (APN) not matching the SIM, you could request a new (4G) SIM. Maybe stop in your local store, or call customer service and tell them you are thinking about buying a 4G phone, your friend's brother's uncle' pizza delivery boy's nephew has an unlocked phone you could test speeds with, could they switch out your old SIM for a newer 4G one to see if it will be worth your while at your house, then just pop in that new SIM, change the APN and away you go? (Or to be even less complicated take your old phone in with your old SIM, and just ask for a new SIM card, that yours isn't working right, and it should be a new 4G (not LTE) card...
Well, at least the phone is usable on the 2G band for you, and will save a lot of battery. Meanwhile we'll try to get you connected to an HSPA+ tower.
s.m.knipe said:
Not sure I follow, if AT&T made your data plan a 4G data plan, it would interrupt your service?
I think you are asking if changing these APN settings will trigger something at AT&T, and they will "bump" you to a 4G plan- in which case I don't really know, I had to jump onto a "4G" plan when I got my Atrix. I think it would never reach that point though, when you set up the new APNs, that step where you touch the dot to select the HSDPA APN, it would default back to your cingular 410 apn if it were not able to connect (via SIM provisioning or whatever). If unavailable it wouldn't be connected at that rate to begin with.
How old is the data plan you are on (is it prior to the tiered plans)? If you are worried about the connection (APN) not matching the SIM, you could request a new (4G) SIM. Maybe stop in your local store, or call customer service and tell them you are thinking about buying a 4G phone, your friend's brother's uncle' pizza delivery boy's nephew has an unlocked phone you could test speeds with, could they switch out your old SIM for a newer 4G one to see if it will be worth your while at your house, then just pop in that new SIM, change the APN and away you go? (Or to be even less complicated take your old phone in with your old SIM, and just ask for a new SIM card, that yours isn't working right, and it should be a new 4G (not LTE) card...
Well, at least the phone is usable on the 2G band for you, and will save a lot of battery. Meanwhile we'll try to get you connected to an HSPA+ tower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for all the help really appreciate it.
Anyways a few things have happened since I last posted.
I had an iphone for the last 3 years. I went into ATT last week and got a normal 4g sim card in advance. Today I called my buddy who is a manager at a corporate store and he checked my account. Found that the lady had the wrong data on it. He ended up setting the sim to the 4g plan etc (which is unlimited)
I was able to add the ATT HSDPA apn and successfully connected to it. Prior to this I actually installed modaco's rom and restored everything.
At this point I am getting consistently 3 bars in my house (which is more than my wifes iphone 4s) on 4g.
Seems to be working much better now. The only other issue that remains is when I turn on WIFI. If i turn it on the cell reception goes to 1 bar or sometimes 0. I dont have the exact dbm values right now unfortunately. Calls and text still seem to go through however. Is it possible the wifi is drawing power designated for the radio?
Thanks again !
aimetti said:
thanks for all the help really appreciate it.
Anyways a few things have happened since I last posted.
I had an iphone for the last 3 years. I went into ATT last week and got a normal 4g sim card in advance. Today I called my buddy who is a manager at a corporate store and he checked my account. Found that the lady had the wrong data on it. He ended up setting the sim to the 4g plan etc (which is unlimited)
I was able to add the ATT HSDPA apn and successfully connected to it. Prior to this I actually installed modaco's rom and restored everything.
At this point I am getting consistently 3 bars in my house (which is more than my wifes iphone 4s) on 4g.
Seems to be working much better now. The only other issue that remains is when I turn on WIFI. If i turn it on the cell reception goes to 1 bar or sometimes 0. I dont have the exact dbm values right now unfortunately. Calls and text still seem to go through however. Is it possible the wifi is drawing power designated for the radio?
Thanks again !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, glad it worked out.
And possibly yes, depending on how the kernel relegates power wifi could "commandeer" a little from the cell radio, and reduce the dbm just enough to reflect in the "bars" algorithm.
perhaps a new radio will eventually come out that I can test.
either way seems to be at least in service now , signal definitely drops when i hold the phone but as long as I can make calls it should be fine.
aimetti said:
perhaps a new radio will eventually come out that I can test.
either way seems to be at least in service now , signal definitely drops when i hold the phone but as long as I can make calls it should be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in the meantime i'll suggest using the open signal widget https://market.android.com/details?id=com.staircase3.opensignal&hl=en
which will tell you the real reception in the phone, and see what you are getting behind those bars
don't expect to make a good call when the signal drops to -90 dbm and above
and if you have multiple phones like i do, then you can compare if other phone in the same spot, connected to the same tower, is having higher or lower dbm than SGN
for example my Nexus S had worse reception than my Milestone XT720.... go figure
AllGamer said:
in the meantime i'll suggest using the open signal widget https://market.android.com/details?id=com.staircase3.opensignal&hl=en
which will tell you the real reception in the phone, and see what you are getting behind those bars
don't expect to make a good call when the signal drops to -90 dbm and above
and if you have multiple phones like i do, then you can compare if other phone in the same spot, connected to the same tower, is having higher or lower dbm than SGN
for example my Nexus S had worse reception than my Milestone XT720.... go figure
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I will try it out,
Overall i dont think the issue is fixed at all now. Went to bad and signal dropped all the way again. Stuck at -111 dbm. I held the phone i saw it switch to edge 5 bars and then click over to H 4 bars.
I really believe its some kind of software thing. If I cycle airplane mode on / off I get 4 bars (unknown dbm but its working) of 4g service. I know the service is here and working as my wifes iphone is fine but something is causing it to not hold the signal and eventually drop and not recover.
Makes no sense
Downloaded the app ,
Was at 42% signal strengh, I noticed when I picked up phone and lightly held it , it dropped right on down to 5% and got stuck there. This wasnt death gripping it either , barely holding it. Does anyone else have this issue or is it just mine? I know all cell phones have this issue but this seems excessive , worse than my iphone 4 ever was. I then cycled airplane mode again and signal strength went right up to 65% again -89 dbm
Hi i just came form S2 to S3 and my signal is real bad
i use to get 4 bars in my house now i get 2 bars at work i use to get 3 bars now i get 1 bar with S3
I have Blazer rom rooted LG8 modem ?
i still have the s2 and i get 5 bars with S2 and i get 3 bars with S3
Can someone advise me or help me how to get a better signal cause this is killing me
Thanks
My signal is better/stronger with the GS3 than the GS2 was. Maybe it's just capacity grew when the S3 came out and made your area more congested?
Ascertion said:
My signal is better/stronger with the GS3 than the GS2 was. Maybe it's just capacity grew when the S3 came out and made your area more congested?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks but i have my S2 and it pulls 5 bars easy good signal
S3 is half of what S2 is pulling don't know what to think ?? I hope there is no defect in MODEM or ANTENNA in S3
Signal bars on custom ROMs are meaningless. I've only got one bar and I'm still pulling in 1.2 Mb per second. In other words there just as strong as the s2 just not display properly.
saj070 said:
thanks but i have my S2 and it pulls 5 bars easy good signal
S3 is half of what S2 is pulling don't know what to think ?? I hope there is no defect in MODEM or ANTENNA in S3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look in settings > About Phone > Status and tell me if the -dBm signal strength is the same on both devices. The lower it is, the better connection to the tower. Both phones may be programmed to display different bars when it reaches a certain dBm level.
Ascertion said:
The lower it is, the better connection to the tower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The higher it is (closer to 0), the better.
Really. I question this because my s2 never did this good and if you remember was plagued with los as well as just plain bad radio, GPS was mediocre,and Wi-Fi was bad. Honestly a barn door or a flip phone do better for reception. Hell even after the los got fixed it was typical to see 3%t. W. S.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Ascertion said:
Look in settings > About Phone > Status and tell me if the -dBm signal strength is the same on both devices. The lower it is, the better connection to the tower. Both phones may be programmed to display different bars when it reaches a certain dBm level.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thankyou all for the reply
here the signal info
S3 - -87 dBm 4 asu
S2 - 78 dbM 8 asu
Don't know what it really means
saj070 said:
Thankyou all for the reply
here the signal info
S3 - -87 dBm 4 asu
S2 - 78 dbM 8 asu
Don't know what it really means
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-75 is decent connection. Its what I get which is half bars for me
Sent from a Galaxy SIII presented by Sprint.
Thanks all i think signal strength is the same now but S3 is not showing the bars correctly
2 bars on S3 is the same as 4 bars ob S2 cause my download and upload speed are very close.
SO conclusion is signal strength on S3 is not showing the correct reception bars highlighted.
OH well thanks for all your help
saj070 said:
Thanks all i think signal strength is the same now but S3 is not showing the bars correctly
2 bars on S3 is the same as 4 bars ob S2 cause my download and upload speed are very close.
SO conclusion is signal strength on S3 is not showing the correct reception bars highlighted.
OH well thanks for all your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no such thing as "correctly" displaying bars. Bars are undefined. They just show whatever the OEM marketers and designers want them to show. We might as well call them unicorns. It is never valid to compare "bars" across different devices, or sometimes even across different firmware on the same device. About all you can be reasonably sure of is that on any given device with a given firmware, more "bars" should represent a stronger signal than fewer "bars."
The dBm signal strength readings are standard units and useful insofar as you understand what they are measuring.
Be aware that on the current GS3, both the bars and the dBm display for RSSI under Settings -> About device -> Status are based on the received signal strength (RSSI) for the 1x CDMA voice/text connection, not the data connection, although that should be similar. And if you ever want to measure signal strength for an LTE data connection, the only place to find that is in hidden DEBUG menus.
Try a different modem. I found the LG8 modem to not be very good.
MadFlava said:
Try a different modem. I found the LG8 modem to not be very good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you ever want to get a decent LTE connection, for which LG8 is basically a requirement.
boomerbubba said:
Unless you ever want to get a decent LTE connection, for which LG8 is basically a requirement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of us dont have LTE yet. I didnt see the OP note that he was in an LTE area.
LTE is supposed to be coming here. I hate to flash back to that sorry modem but I guess I should.
"
S3 - -87 dBm 4 asu
S2 - 78 dbM 8 asu"
Forget the bars. The above means that your GS2 is indeed getting better signal than the GS3.
As others have suggested, try different radios (there are currently 4 to choose from). I tried earlier versions, but my phone works best with LG8.
Seems that my Radios on my Verizon GNex are getting worse. I can set the phone down on the table in my house and watch the signal go from 2 bars 4g to 1 bar 3g to no signal then to 1 bar 4g. My wife's Motorola RAZR has 3 bars 4g solid. I am really getting tired of this. The luster has faded. Don't really want to go to a RAZR and wondering if a S4 is any better.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Wasn't there a big debate on this before and signal bars mean nothing.
If you compare actual -db, you might find they aren't that different. Motorola has strong radios though I've heard.
This was a big ordeal back in the day where Verizon and At&t actually increase the bars display and also display 4G all the time, even when not.
So basically your phone may be accurate and your wife's is lying. Check -db and play with upgrading your radios.
Also you are supposed to update your roaming profiles on Verizon occasionally. I think its like **2424 or something. It downloads all the most recent tower information. Could be a new tower that your phone doesn't know about.
Lots to think about.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
^^^ Excellent reply!
Agreed, the only way to find the best radio for YOU is to play with them. Not everyone has the same experience with a particular one. It depends on the market you are in.
When we say play, we mean test it for a couple of days in routine situations not a 30 minute test to see if both your phone and your wife's phone retain the same amount of "bars". But even then, as player911 stated, bars are just a graphical representation of signal quality. Different phones have different thresholds for different representations. Inspect the Signal strength in About Phone -> Status. The lower the "dBm" the better your signal quality.
Hi,
So I got my wife a Note 4 last night. She loves it and the one thing that we've noticed about it is the amazing signal strength. It easily holds 4g in places that her old S3 would get stuck in 3g. I was also interested in the note 4 (as well as the Nexus 6 and the Droid Turbo), but wanted to wait for the black one to show up in our Best Buy. Unfortunately, today was the last chance to trade in my old Evo 4G for $200, so I had to buy today. When I got out of BB, I was playing with the phone a bit and answering a few texts that were waiting for me. My phone had 4 bars of 4g, and 91dbm/47asu. After a few minutes, it dropped to one bar, and 113dbm. I rebooted it and ended up back at 4 bars.
When I got home, I noticed that my wife's phone was consistently at 3 bars, while mine was at 2. I compared the two phones, and they had the exact same signal strength - 93dbm/46asu. How is it possible that my phone is on two bars while her's is at 3? I expected that if the phones were the same signal, they'd have the same number of bars.
I've tried restarting twice. I made sure that both phones were out of Global mode.
Thanks
usmaak said:
Hi,
So I got my wife a Note 4 last night. She loves it and the one thing that we've noticed about it is the amazing signal strength. It easily holds 4g in places that her old S3 would get stuck in 3g. I was also interested in the note 4 (as well as the Nexus 6 and the Droid Turbo), but wanted to wait for the black one to show up in our Best Buy. Unfortunately, today was the last chance to trade in my old Evo 4G for $200, so I had to buy today. When I got out of BB, I was playing with the phone a bit and answering a few texts that were waiting for me. My phone had 4 bars of 4g, and 91dbm/47asu. After a few minutes, it dropped to one bar, and 113dbm. I rebooted it and ended up back at 4 bars.
When I got home, I noticed that my wife's phone was consistently at 3 bars, while mine was at 2. I compared the two phones, and they had the exact same signal strength - 93dbm/46asu. How is it possible that my phone is on two bars while her's is at 3? I expected that if the phones were the same signal, they'd have the same number of bars.
I've tried restarting twice. I made sure that both phones were out of Global mode.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm you I would swap for another one. I had a brand new one on Oct 23 and it acting weird, I swap out for another new one and everything is good. I doesn't matter how minor the issue is, it could become major later. In your case your radio/signal is not normal. It's possible some issue with the radio. Just tell them that it randomly drops calls. Signal some time good and suddenly drop to no signal.
Unfortunate, because everything else about the phone seems good. It has a nice, even screen, and that's something that I never take for granted with devices that have screen. It does have some gap along the screen, but I don't really care about that. I've had to exchange every cell phone that I've ever had at least once, usually for screen issues.
Maybe I'll just return it, get my eligibility reset, and then wait it out. The only reason I jumped on it tonight was because it was the last day for Best Buy's 200 dollar phone exchange deal. I am content to wait and see how the Nexus 6 and Droid Turbo look.
I spent some more time with both devices. I noticed that both of them will show the bars jumping around while the signal strength stays pretty much stable. Sometimes I had four bars with a signal of 93dbm, and sometimes 3 bars, and occasionally it would drop down to 2 bars. Both phones do this. My old S3 always had stable bars. If 93dbm was 3 bars, it was always 3 bars. I used to work in a cube on the second floor of a building in the middle of a corn field. I always had 93dbm in my cube, and it always showed three bars.
So given that the exact same thing is happening on two phones, I wonder if Samsung just has to tweak their software a bit. In the case of what's happening to me, either the status is not correctly updating, or the bars are incorrectly fluctuating. Unless there's something that I don't understand about how all of this is supposed to work.
You might find a utility that puts the signal strength in the Status Bar instead of showing bars.