Cellular strength and throughput

Cellular strength and throughput - Note 7 Real Life Review

We know how much you like to stream, ahem, "videos", and so cellular data is mega-important. Rate this thread to express how you think the Samsung Galaxy Note 7's LTE performs. A higher rating indicates that it's fantastic: throughput is excellent and signal strength is top-notch.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add.

So far so good here, no issues what so ever!

I gave 4 stars. It far better than my note 4 was. I did a speed test, in an area I have done numerous speedtests with the 4, and with the 4 I averaged 12mbps(being generous here) down, and 1mbps (after a few seconds at 0) up. With this 7, I got a 38mbps down, and 12 mbps up.... showed the same amount of bars as the 4 usually did, but obviously performed much better.
Keep in mind, I live in the middle of nowhere in Maine... speed tests were performed with about 2-3 bars (fluctuating).

For me its been much worse than my Note 5. Not really sure what's going on. Carrier is Virgin Mobile (Bell Canada)

Is there anybody who can compare Note 3 (n9005) with Note 7?

It's about 70% as good as my 6P but I can deal. I would have LTE and 3 bars in my office building .. Note 7 fluxuates between LTE 1 bar and HSPA+ or nothing at all. Thank God for TMO wifi calling, eh?

Hmm, it doesn't sound promising at all. :/ Signal reception is a big weakness of my Note 3 so I expected little bit more from a new device (and after few years of development) - I see that there are still some issues on Samsung side in compare to other brands and models especially at high-end market.
WiFi calling (and VoLTE) isn't supported by O2 Czech network yet because they are... kind of slow and "specific".
What about Note 7 and iPhone 6S/6S+ or LG G4? My colleagues have these devices so I can test and compare it little bit in real life with my Carrier.
Btw. Thanks man!

I'd rank it about equal to my note 4, which is disappointed but most things are as I get older...

BableMan said:
I'd rank it about equal to my note 4, which is disappointed but most things are as I get older...
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Click to collapse
Its a little better than my note 4. Little louder and clearer. Not crazy better, but better.

Corbitt74 said:
Its a little better than my note 4. Little louder and clearer. Not crazy better, but better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then we have different builds, mine suffers from worse speaker quality. I've assumed that's the trade off we get for being able to drop it in a toilet.

BableMan said:
Then we have different builds, mine suffers from worse speaker quality. I've assumed that's the trade off we get for being able to drop it in a toilet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hard to say really, we do have quite a bit of HD coverage here, also havent talked a lot on this yet, but from what I have its been good.

I had questionable service with my GS5 down in my basement, and now there's no question at all about the service on my Note 7 - it's non-existent. I cannot make or receive calls down in my basement anymore; have to go upstairs. This was rarely the case with my GS5, both on Sprint. Just my experience.

Perhaps it is the fault of AT&T and not the phone itself, but I get a shoddy signal at my house. I do live in a rural area, however, but it could be better nonetheless. Note: In town and in cities, I get perfect cellular strength.

Sattero said:
Is there anybody who can compare Note 3 (n9005) with Note 7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the Note 7 to replace my Note 3. I am on Verizon. The Note 7 has been leaps and bounds better than the Note 3 as far as cell reception. I could not use my Note 3 at home without a Network extender and now my Note 7 works everywhere, even the basement, without a hiccup. I originally, before purchase, thought I would need to use the WiFi calling feature here at my home, but there is no need. On my daily route, I used to have 2 dead spots, where I always dropped calls on my Note 3, but I have had no issues with the Note 7. I believe that may be in part due to the VOLTE capabilities that the Note 7 has over the Note 3. The Note 7 would be the perfect phone if they would have built it with a flat screen. I don't see any real use for the edge panels and I have already turned them off. No need for insurance or screen protector on the Note 3 and it still looks perfect. I am seriously contemplating getting insurance for the first time as I am extremely paranoid about breaking this thing. If it weren't for how much I use the S-Pen, I would have probably waited to see what the other manufactures come out with. Hopefully, the paranoia will wear off.

Is not compatible with sprint signal booster air rave, but i also havent seen it reach high network speed on lte. so far not impressed.

I'm coming from an LG V10 and it's definitely a bit worse in the signal strength but the actual speeds seem to be about the same. I tether my phone for home internet and I always sit it in the exact same spot in my window because I found where the best signal is. With my V10 I'd have about -105 to -109db and with the Note 7 I'm getting about -114. I might need to move it around a bit and see if I can get any better. When you have a strong signal it flies though. Today in the city while I had a full signal (not sure the db's but 5 bars were full) I got 99.8Mb down and almost 17Mb up Verizon just upgraded a lot of the network in my area.

Related

True cause of "signal" issues

Has anyone read this article? Very informative.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5254/investigating-the-galaxy-nexus-lte-signal-issue
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

interesting read.
For a long time people have blamed their handsets for problems when the truth is there are always a lot of network issues out there at any given time.
Simply blaming your handset and assuming the network is 'great' because it has full bars or a good db is not the way to go.
Bars or db ultimately mean nothing, they do not mean you will get good speeds or in some cases to be able to make a call, in my experience its rare that the handset is to blame

True.
I had the RAZR before my phone. I would bet that the RAZR wasn't showing the correct signal strength and this is what a lot of people are comparing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

aye it would be interesting if someone ran some speed tests on the two devices side by side to what what the speeds v coverage were like

edit

jimdurt said:
They still have some issues to work on. My OG Droid gave me a better signal at my house on 3g. At least measuring the db strength. I dont have 4g here so the measurement in db strength should be sufficient to accurately see which phone has better reception.
Give Google time. They have the right hardware. Just need to get the software tweaked a bit more.
My wifes DroidX consistantly shows -93dBm with 3 bars of 3g service, while my GNex bounces a little more between -120dBm(most of the time) to -93dBm(rarely)
Even with no bars and @-120dBm, i get 600kbps download. Thankfully i have 18mbps download service through ATT Uverse wifi.
I do have to mention, my service improved ALOT from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At -120 on 3g your lucky to anysort of dl

My 3g/4g signal has never been better. This phone is twice as good as my incredible.
WiFi signal strength does seem to be a little less strong but nothing horrible. Now I wish they would figure out why the OS won't go to sleep.

Well, Verizon resolved all my Nexus, CDMA, and LTE issues for me in one fell swoop. They called me yesterday and told me that they couldn't provide me service at my house and recommended I switch to a different carrier.
I was with them for less than three days. Brought my Galaxy Nexus and wife's temp phone back to the store, then went to the Apple Store to get my wife an iPhone 4S on AT&T with the plan to stop at an AT&T store to get myself a Skyrocket. While standing there playing with the 4S waiting for a sales associate, I got the warm fuzzies from back when I used the iPhone and decided to get one for myself as well.
It was a fun year with Android, but looking back at how I spent yesterday debating if I was going to keep the GN with all its issues, I think I made the right call for me.
I also forgot how much better GSM is than CDMA. I have full bars in my office, whereas on Sprint and Verizon the phones were struggling to hold onto a 3G connection. Amazing difference.
Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread for a moment. I truly hope that this is an issue that can be fixed with software; it seems like poor reception has become a hallmark of Samsung phones and I haven't seen a software update yet that makes a notable difference. We'll see what Sammy and Verizon come up with.

i can understand the signal strength display not being accurate but explain this...
for one, the signal strength on this Nexus is always 1/2(or more) then what i had on my Thunderbolt or Rezound at any given time/place.... which apparently is explained above.
what isntvexplained is this... my Thunderbolt was able to download fast, but not nearly as fast as my Rezound. on the R, i was able to download 1GB in roughly 5 minutes. ive tried downloading the same file(s) from same location various times(test) on this Nexus and it always takes 30 - 40 minutes.
so if the signal strength isnt being reported accurately i can accept that.... but what about the significant difference in data speed?
i also want to note that on my Reound, whenever i played a track in Google Music it started up right away and could jump/skip forward in a track without delay...
now on this Nexus, theres always a delay before the track starts & when you jump/skip to. buffering b.s.

Your Rezound probably already had the music cached.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

You guys also have to keep in mind that the LTE network slows down the more people that use it. When it was first intro a year ago, it was STUPID fast. Like 50mb DOWN. I remember my Droid Charge hitting low 40's in May. Now that there is a plethora of phones that have LTE and a lot of people using it, the network will be slowed. It still beats the hell out of any other network.

I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp

Grannypotts said:
I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There needs to be some kind of way to trick the OS into thinking it actually has the real signal so it will stop switching between 3G and 4G.

One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have -86dB with 3 4G bars as I write this. I know that's not much of a difference from the -85dB, but I thought I would just mention it. Also, I've had -93dB with 4 4G bars (no picture of that though).

Syn Ack said:
There needs to be some kind of way to trick the OS into thinking it actually has the real signal so it will stop switching between 3G and 4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 30,000 foot uneducated view is simply that the calibrations for the Nexus require a stronger signal to both acquire and then maintain an LTE data connection. These calibrations probably could be tweaked, but at what cost? I suppose (assuming my theory is correct) the decision came down to a flaky 4G or a solid 3G... and Verizon chose the stronger connection over the faster one. Do you blame them?
However, when I do get a solid 4G connection... the speeds are stupid fast.
On my lunch break today:
30.6M down
15.7 up

Better reception with the Note 4?

I currently have the Note 2, with some reception and call sound quality issues. I was wondering if anyone has made a jump from the 2 to 4, and if they found that the above issues were improved.
I don't want to waste the time testing the device out, not to mention the hassle with dealing with Sprint support in trying to get a refund and renew my upgrade option.
As a short example of my current issues. My reception varies greatly, but in general I see a lot of 3G. Especially in any indoor areas, reception is pretty weak. Usually at the 2mb/s and under range. Call audio is also a huge issue since day one, and people often can't hear me, and they usually sound garbled, etc.
Any thoughts are much appreciated.

Hey! I jumped from the s3 a couple weeks ago and yeah I have seen a serious improvement! The new LTE spark for sprint is actually really good. I mean speed wise it's average like normal LTE but reception wise its alot better. I get it even in my basement. I would suggest making the jump. Totally worth it. (PS 3g speeds are also a lot more consistent for me, it could be tower improvements or something but the new phone has helped a lot) and if you have spark in your local area I would highly recommend the leap!

Thanks for the response.
I really don't want to renew with Sprint if it's going to be the "same ol' experience, different device". They keep telling me I have multiple towers in the immediate area of my home that are fully upgraded, yet I've seen no improvement in service.

I had the Galaxy S III and got the Note 4 - not the comparison you were looking for but I'll share my experience. I live in Seattle, where Sprint is expanding LTE coverage. But my S III reception was never great. Driving around today, I was in one area where my Speedtest result was 48Mbps download, almost twice what I see on my home Comcast network. Measurements in the 10-20Mbps were more the usual case. But compared to my S III, both reception and download speeds are significantly improved - this alone made the upgrade worth it to me. I couldn't be happier with this device at the moment.

We know how much you like to stream, ahem, "videos", and so cellular data is mega-important. Rate this thread to express how you think the ZTE Axon 7's LTE performs. A higher rating indicates that it's fantastic: throughput is excellent and signal strength is top-notch.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add.

I was on my way up northern Michigan and my wife drove for a bit and I compared the axon to her Moto G (2016) and it they both had to about the same signal. Both had issues shedding weaker towers. Now that we are up at the cabin both phones have very similar signal. So I think the axon is at least as good as a Moto G (2016).

runderekrun said:
I was on my way up northern Michigan and my wife drove for a bit and I compared the axon to her Moto G (2016) and it they both had to about the same signal. Both had issues shedding weaker towers. Now that we are up at the cabin both phones have very similar signal. So I think the axon is at least as good as a Moto G (2016).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On what network?

murkwell said:
On what network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cricket (att)

Now that I am back at a keyboard I can expand a bit. I was testing via running speed tests. When I first started the Moto G was destroying the Axon. I started getting a sunken feeling, but then I noticed the Axon shifted off a tower only getting HSPA ("4G") to one using LTE so I reran a few speed tests and the Axon trounced the Moto G, as it was still stuck on the under performing tower. So that's when I thought maybe a rural roadtrip, with an iffy signal to begin with, wasn't the best way to test this. Once we arrived at the cabin we both had between 1 and 2 bars of HSPA connection that would only work in specific corners of the cabin effectively. Seemingly the same.
I know this isn't an empirical test. I wasn't comparing the actual db numbers or anything. But to my eyes, Axon is about on the same level as the Moto G (2016). I don't know how good the Moto G actually is but I remember reading it had good signal when I was originally reading reviews for it.
Once again this was all tested on the Cricket (via AT&T) network.

Up in Canada on Rogers and am having severely low signal rate. Cannot find service in any basement ive been in throughout the city. Signal of around -120dBm inside buildings. The signal seems very erratic and jumps from 96-143dBm extremely quick. I seem to think there may be a modem problem with this network. If anyone else is on Rogers please chime in on your findings.

The signal strength is worse than my s4, I checked the db and it is 5-10db worse, but occasionally will jump to being on par to the s4. Tested on tmo lte, neither phone was being held. Not sure how the rating is 4.5/5 as a reddit post agrees that there is some issue.

The signal quality is definitely not stable, had a few minor call drops if I am not in certain parts of my house and inside stores which can be tough on signals but it's nowhere near as strong as my other test phones such as the S5, Note 4, and S6 Edge+. I was dropping calls earlier this week and switched back to Note 4 and I was able to talk everywhere w/o dropped calls. This is on Tmobile and signal is decent in my area. Then on WIFI strength, the Note 4 beats it by 20-30% throughput. That's a 2014 device.
My problem with all these Chinese brand phones is they have great specs but software is lacking. Looks like I maybe back to my workhorse Note 4.

So I used this phone to drive Uber in Los Angeles all last night and had some pretty major problems.
GPS Signal would randomly shift positions so Google Maps would keep rerouting during trips. This didn't always happen, but happened enough to be annoying.
I'm pretty sure I lost a bunch of trip requests because they just never got through to my phone.
This is either because the OS wasn't allowing the notifications to come through correctly, or because of the network performance.
Interestingly I was streaming podcasts the entire time which came through fine for the most part, but they would cut out every once in a while if I ended up in areas with 1bar (which happened often last night).
This is a pretty major problem for me, I don't know if something like Cyanogenmod will fix me not receiving requests, but the cellular and GPS performance are very clearly performing poorly.
Edit:
Cellular performance is now much better after the update.
I would say it's on par with average smartphones (I still lose reception where most people do), and it no longer just drops and stays of signal for no good reason.
GPS performance is OK, it tends to shift around while I'm driving a bit (thinking I'm on the street next to me).

Antenna Strength
Has anyone been able to confirm that this is due to a bad physical design of the antenna and not a software issue?
I was ready to buy this device until I saw these reports of bad signal strength

Hi guys,
Can any European users comment on radio signal performance? Could the issue be limited to the US version?

joaste said:
Hi guys,
Can any European users comment on radio signal performance? Could the issue be limited to the US version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To asnwer my own post, it seems some amazon.de customers are returning the phone due to very poor reception.
I was soooo looking forward to buying this phone and am shocked that ZTE would put it on the market with such a problem. Time will tell if it is hardware related (which it probably is), but most likely my money will go to another brand. I sooo wanted good sound :crying:
EDIT: please, any feedback from European customers?

There are some reviews about the cellular strength on a german forum (android-hilfe.de/thema/empfang-des-axon.792336/) but without any comparison to other phones.

Radio Performance
The Pocket Now review of the Axon 7 mentions potential radio issues and compares it to other phones.
Axon 7 Signal Strength
It doesn't look good.
I wonder if the new "Mini" version of the phone has the same issue and if not, perhaps they corrected a hardware flaw.
There is a new software update for the Axon 7 coming soon. I hope it addresses the signal strength issue, but I wouldn't hold my breath. We may have to just wait for the Axon 8.

when new software coming.
((RayDar)) said:
The Pocket Now review of the Axon 7 mentions potential radio issues and compares it to other phones.
Axon 7 Signal Strength
It doesn't look good.
I wonder if the new "Mini" version of the phone has the same issue and if not, perhaps they corrected a hardware flaw.
There is a new software update for the Axon 7 coming soon. I hope it addresses the signal strength issue, but I wouldn't hold my breath. We may have to just wait for the Axon 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When new Axon 7 update coming? any link for that please

Note 3
Cellular: -93 dBm
Wifi 5ghz: - 46 dBm
Axon 7
Cellular: -118 dBm
Wifi 5ghz: -59 dBm
Can't perform an LTE speedtest on the Axon 7. It won't hold a connection long enough. Web pages constantly fail to load.
Signal strength is significantly worse than my 3 year old Note 3. So much so the phone is unusable at home.

I commented elsewhere on this as I'm mainly sending the phone back because of the very poor camera and the disappointing audio.
The radio however is the worst I've had since 3G was launched. I've been all over Brussels today and barely seen a 4G signal. I'd forgotten 3G existed until today. I managed to get the Axon to connect to 4G by toggling the mobile data on and off but it quickly went back to 3G.
My bedroom is in the basement but thanks to a nearby base station I get four bars 4G on my Honor 7. The Axon get one-two bars on 3G.
I'm bailing out now. I'm not waiting for a software update to fix the radio and I'm not sure the camera *can* be fixed, it's that bad.
The lovely screen apart, the A7 is a downgrade from the much cheaper Honor. Shame.
Grey Axon 7 purchased from Amazon Germany.

LTE: Nexus 5X: -105 dB, Axon 7: -113 dB
Forcing 3G on both phones: Both about -95 dB.

European version
Indoors in a café. Both of our phones are on the same network using the same base station. The Nexus 5x shows -106dBm on LTE while the Axon 7 shows -111 dBm on HSPA and is unable to load a page.
A bad camera, broken audio and a weak radio now seem a heavy price to pay for a nice screen and a top of the line chip.... it was too good to be true.

When I was walking home from campus today, I had 4G with a maximum of 2 bars missing (one missing most of the time, sometimes full bars) 90% of the 3km trip. Don't have any other LTE phones to compare it to, so take that with a grain of salt.

Bands and LTE Coverage

I got the phone 3 days ago ....
I love the design, the Concept .... Hardware seems solid ... very fast and responsive .... faster than my Note 7.
However I have a big issue ....... *(
Even though on the official ASUS webpage it says the phone supports LTE Band 12, 700MHz for T mobile, the phone refuses to see and connect to anything else except Band 4, 2100MHz.
I live in an area where Band 4 LTE sucks ..... I dont live in the City ...
LTE Coverage seems to suck for me at the moment ....
On top of the LTE issues ..... It seems that this phone does not get very good cell signal for making phone calls ....*(
All metal design ??
Any thoughts on the LTE issues ??

You may need to bring this up to support and find out what is going on with it (otherwise t-mobile). I have metor pcs, and i know that goes with t-mobile, just might be certain bands not connecting to it.

Update:
OK .... so after further testing and use of the phone, I have verified that the phone does connect to ALL of the T-mobile LTE bands ...... both 4 & 12.
But the phone it self seems to have Terrible signal / reception ....... *(
I have been carting around with me 2 phones ...... this phone and the Note 5.
it seems that this phone is just having a very hard time holding a good solid LTE connection.
Not even good enough for a Messenger call or Whatssapp call ...... *(
when the Note 5 had great LTE, this phone couldn't even hold a connection long enough for a 30 second Whatssapp call.
its very frustrating ........
I think it has to do with the all metal body of the phone.....
Any input ??

Are their tmobile APN settings the same?
Do you have a case on it?

xda_geekman said:
Update:
OK .... so after further testing and use of the phone, I have verified that the phone does connect to ALL of the T-mobile LTE bands ...... both 4 & 12.
But the phone it self seems to have Terrible signal / reception ....... *(
I have been carting around with me 2 phones ...... this phone and the Note 5.
it seems that this phone is just having a very hard time holding a good solid LTE connection.
Not even good enough for a Messenger call or Whatssapp call ...... *(
when the Note 5 had great LTE, this phone couldn't even hold a connection long enough for a 30 second Whatssapp call.
its very frustrating ........
I think it has to do with the all metal body of the phone.....
Any input ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I believe you are right. I don't own this phone, but thought I'd give my two cents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsg7EyYKFM
Yes, this is not your phone, it's the ZTE Axon 7. Watch from around the 4 minute mark. Much loike the Zenfone Deluxe 3, the mostly all-aluminum body without much field testing is always going to be a drawback for wifi strength and certain radio frequencies on LTE.
The Axon 7 is arguably more plastic than the Zenfone 3 Deluxe (at the top and bottom at least) meaning there should actually be incremental differences for the ability to hold a frequency with good strength in the favour of the Axon 7, however it's receiving a few poor real-world reviews for those who have bothered to test. From that assumption, the more 'sleek' all-aluminum body of the ZD3 is going to have the same problems, so its no surprise that you are reporting it.
I'm considering getting this phone up against the LG v20 H990DS dual sim. But Wifi strength and reliability on 4G LTE is a huge considersation, as it's really a basic expectation of any flasgship - dont bother making a phone of all-alluminum if the drawback is poor performance. This is why the design of the v20 is 10x better, for instance.
RoOSTA

roosta said:
Yes, I believe you are right. I don't own this phone, but thought I'd give my two cents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsg7EyYKFM
Yes, this is not your phone, it's the ZTE Axon 7. Watch from around the 4 minute mark. Much loike the Zenfone Deluxe 3, the mostly all-aluminum body without much field testing is always going to be a drawback for wifi strength and certain radio frequencies on LTE.
The Axon 7 is arguably more plastic than the Zenfone 3 Deluxe (at the top and bottom at least) meaning there should actually be incremental differences for the ability to hold a frequency with good strength in the favour of the Axon 7, however it's receiving a few poor real-world reviews for those who have bothered to test. From that assumption, the more 'sleek' all-aluminum body of the ZD3 is going to have the same problems, so its no surprise that you are reporting it.
I'm considering getting this phone up against the LG v20 H990DS dual sim. But Wifi strength and reliability on 4G LTE is a huge considersation, as it's really a basic expectation of any flasgship - dont bother making a phone of all-alluminum if the drawback is poor performance. This is why the design of the v20 is 10x better, for instance.
RoOSTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can assure you all just based on the quality of the display compared to the V20 this phone is a thousand times better. The blues are very apparent on the V20 and side by side it doesn't even come close. The V20 just looks awful. If you're browsing webpages and playing games I'd much rather do it on the Zenfone. I wonder what it's like up against one of the newer Samsung's. Maybe I'll test it out, but the sales people in most stores are so pushy to help and get in your way. Some people really need to learn the best way to a sale isn't by being pushy but feeling out your customer.
I think people's mileage is going to vary on signal strength. I noticed identical WiFi strength between this phone and the Moto G4 I have. I often get poor signal at work and this phone drops signal way less. I haven't really tested out LTE other than to check that it works and I get the same number of bars as the G4 in my house.

pacattack81 said:
I can assure you all just based on the quality of the display compared to the V20 this phone is a thousand times better. The blues are very apparent on the V20 and side by side it doesn't even come close. The V20 just looks awful. If you're browsing webpages and playing games I'd much rather do it on the Zenfone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AmOled wins every day over IPS, however limiting the display to 1080p on a flagship is... so 2014. You can get the V20 with same screen size and bigger battery. On top of that, it's removable. The best feature is repairability. Take off the back cover, 20 small screws and it's easy to lift out the plastic cover, motherboard cameras and screen with ease. Even the 3.5mm jack pops off easily. It's one of the last flasgships yo keep the FM radio and have a more than useful IR blaster.
Zenfone doesn't even advertise Nfc despite some deluxe owners saying their phone had it, but in a very awkward position. I can see you have a preference but I find it hard for there to be any comparison. Comes down to your requirements in the end.
RoOSTA

roosta said:
AmOled wins every day over IPS, however limiting the display to 1080p on a flagship is... so 2014.
RoOSTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same can be said with putting an IPS display in a flagship phone. They chose 1080p vs 1440p because it's a well known fact 1080p gets better battery life. Put the phone side by side and pull up the same webpage and the text has the same clarity as the V20. Many will say the eyes can't tell the difference. Resolution aside, I can't express how much better the screen is than the V20. The phone is also lighter and smaller because it doesn't have the secondary display. At the end of the day, the Verizon's store rep owned the V20 and we both laughed at how awful the display on V20 looked compared to this phone.
Bottom line it's nice to have a removable battery, but it's the screen you look at most. I'd rather have a phone with the better display.

There's tonnes of IPS still used in non-amoled flagships. 1080 p does in fact get a better battery life, probably why LG increased the battery capacity. 2nd display is also very handy. A few grams/ounches weight isn't going to bother me when comparing both of these phones. Anyway, getting off topic. I think the design of this phone is the reason why you may be experiencing issues, or your radio could be faulty if it's happening everywhere, even in places you'd normally get good reception. See how the resulrs vary at inner city, more outer-suburban locations and compare to what you were getting previously (on this phoine or another 4G LTE).
RoOSTA

I got the phone to finally to replace my SG Note II N7100 version (I don't like newer Notes. I was hoping for same features past Note 4. Finally gave up replaceable battery feature for Asus ZF3D 64GB) Also I could finally use Tmobiles 4G LTE and add Freedompop H+ networks as secondary. I notice something with Tmobile LTE. At first Tmobile's 4G LTE had 1/4 bars and data speeds seem to fail a lot and if it pass it would read it as 0 kbps. But I kept using it for few days more. I'm starting to get 2 or higher on signal and data speeds hit around download 8/upload 1 mbps at 38 ms ping and this is at the same area. Not sure what happen in those first few days. Signal got boosted good if you disable secondary SIM. I get about 3 or 4 bars.
If I did get into good place I would hit around 10/25 speeds still better than Tmobile's H+ with Note 2.

^as long as lte signal gets better instead of few bars! What part of the USA?

snkchaos said:
I got the phone to finally to replace my SG Note II N7100 version (I don't like newer Notes. I was hoping for same features past Note 4. Finally gave up no replaceable battery feature for Asus ZF3D 64GB) Also I could finally use Tmobiles 4G LTE and add Freedompop H+ networks as secondary. I notice something with Tmobile LTE. At first Tmobile's 4G LTE had 1/4 bars and data speeds seem to fail a lot and if it pass it would read it as 0 kbps. But I kept using it for few days more. I'm starting to get 2 or higher on signal and data speeds hit around download 8/upload 1 mbps at 38 ms ping and this is at the same area. Not sure what happen in those first few days. Signal got boosted good if you disable secondary SIM. I get about 3 or 4 bars.
If I did get into good place I would hit around 10/25 speeds still better than Tmobile's H+ with Note 2.
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I had the same exact problem on my phone. It cleared up after a few days as well. My Sim2 slot is still enabled, so I don't know how mine fixed itself. Maybe something with the cell towers, not sure

galaxys said:
^as long as lte signal gets better instead of few bars! What part of the USA?
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I live in Tracy, CA.

snkchaos said:
I live in Tracy, CA.
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You should usually have a good signal there. I'm in Vegas and have full bars with T-Mobile...

Hi all, I posted part of this message in another forum as it was part of a bigger posting. Here I am only posting issues with the Bands & LTE Coverage.
So I also upgraded my wife's phone (S5) to the Zen 3 deluxe (ZS570KL / 256gb hd / 6gb ram / 821 chip) and she hates it... calls keep dropping signal is low and it does not even say LTE. I did a speedtest comparison between her Zen 3 and my Zen 2 (rooted and running CM13) and mine is way faster. Hers is also disconnecting from cellular (AT&T) data and does not show 4G anymore along with no push notifications of emails. I get strong bars and the phone displays LTE, hers only shows 4G+.
Anyone else having these issues? Oh and she does have a plastic / silicon clear case.