802L Reports About GPS Reliability - Huawei MediaPad M2

Hi All,
I'm planning to get this tablet for the car which i'm also hoping to use for navigation, i'm seeking reports from direct experience regarding the GPS reliability, iv'e seen reports on some Huawei models (not necessarily the M2) about weak GPS signals and the location not being accurate, any input is much appreciated
The model i'm eyeing is the 802L but I assume the GPS chip would be the same across all M2 LTE models

Related

Cellular version vs Wi-Fi w/ 3G Dongle

Hey guys, couldn't find anything on google.
Could any of you give me some information regarding this?
I'm wondering whether to buy the LTE version or just get the non-LTE and use a 3g Dongle. Which one would have a better signal reception? ( I would most likely buy a huawei 3g dongle)
By the way, I am installing this in my car so having a good signal is paramount. Also, we don't have to worry about the 3g dongle being an obstructive addon as everything will be hidden behind the middle compartment.
I have a Nexus 7 2012 installed atm and GPS loses it's signal when I enter the city with buildings everywhere.
So hence I don't want to experience the same thing with my new nexus upgrade.
Any ideas or suggestions to my new upgrade would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jim.
You'll lose gps no matter what. Buildings are always an issue. Happens all the time. Better to plan your route turn by turn and look at the list as you go.
Now what you could do is possibly try an external bluetooth gps puck and see if that has any impact?
As far as reception goes it depends on where you're at and what your coverage is like. You'll always have better luck with a mifi and an external antenna. The nexus non lte is much cheaper too. But either choice won't change your GPS troubles.
Sent from my LG-VS985 adorned w/ Illusion ROM

Cellular strength and throughput

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.

Galileo in Canada

Now that the price is dropping, I'm looking at switching to a s9 (G960W) from a lg g6. I'm noticing reports online in conflict with the specs; that people are not seeing the new Galileo satellites with the resulting higher GPS accuracy, and even some reports saying that their s8 worked but the s9 does not.
Is anyone here (in Canada with an s9 G960W) able to see the Galileo satellites in an app like GPS Satellites Viewer?
Short answer - no.
Not seeing any galileo satellites in canada on my phone.
Thanks guys. Hopefully that feature will become useable in the future.
I'm a little baffled why it's not working. ESA lists the Galaxy S9 as supported along with the Snapdragon 845. Samsung's product description page lists Galileo along with GPS and glonass. Are the mobile carriers disabling it in each of their firmwares?

Question A52S signal strenght?

I'm seriously considering replacing my moto G8 power with the A52s 5g.
I sometimes work in areas with low signal strength so I want a phone with decent antenna. Samsung traditional did pretty well in this area but I have seen some reports about poor signal with the A52 (none s version).
Most reviews claim that a52 and a52s is identical except for the updated soc. But a52s have lower sar values indicating better antenna.
So I would basically like to know how people experience the signal strength with the A52s?
I know user experience isn't scientific but I think experience compared to other phones could provide usable information, so any info would be highly appreciated...
It's not very good for me, not better than my old S4 and both haven't great signal strength (at my locations). Sometimes I haven't any signal in buildings that are high and have glass walls.
gvamp said:
It's not very good for me, not better than my old S4 and both haven't great signal strength (at my locations). Sometimes I haven't any signal in buildings that are high and have glass walls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for replying. So your experience signal strength about equal to S4?
Allan_Hun said:
Thank you for replying. So your experience signal strength about equal to S4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I would say it. But I can only promise this for my location and provider.
Allan_Hun said:
I'm seriously considering replacing my moto G8 power with the A52s 5g.
I sometimes work in areas with low signal strength so I want a phone with decent antenna. Samsung traditional did pretty well in this area but I have seen some reports about poor signal with the A52 (none s version).
Most reviews claim that a52 and a52s is identical except for the updated soc. But a52s have lower sar values indicating better antenna.
So I would basically like to know how people experience the signal strength with the A52s?
I know user experience isn't scientific but I think experience compared to other phones could provide usable information, so any info would be highly appreciated...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, I got an A52s 5G, also come from an S4 I9505 and I'm amazed by this very fluid A52s, the signal capture is excellent, even in extreme conditions it keeps the signal stable, but it all depends on the operator and location, I'm in Portugal the coverage of operators here is good.
In the rest, the A52s doesn't disappoint for the range where it is inserted, very good screen, automony even in extreme use lasts more than a day, the gps is quick to detect, wifi, bluetooth, it works perfectly, in normal calls, video calls , social networks, and numerous other applications that I use so far 5 stars, the cameras are very good for those who are not very picky they draw pretty good spells, video is not something I use regularly, but it is within acceptable limits for this model, better just going to other more expensive ranges.
in the end it turns out to be an excellent phone for the price it costs in the mid-range.
samsungblower said:
Hello, I got an A52s 5G, also come from an S4 I9505 and I'm amazed by this very fluid A52s, the signal capture is excellent, even in extreme conditions it keeps the signal stable, but it all depends on the operator and location, I'm in Portugal the coverage of operators here is good.
In the rest, the A52s doesn't disappoint for the range where it is inserted, very good screen, automony even in extreme use lasts more than a day, the gps is quick to detect, wifi, bluetooth, it works perfectly, in normal calls, video calls , social networks, and numerous other applications that I use so far 5 stars, the cameras are very good for those who are not very picky they draw pretty good spells, video is not something I use regularly, but it is within acceptable limits for this model, better just going to other more expensive ranges.
in the end it turns out to be an excellent phone for the price it costs in the mid-range.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is nice to hear. It seems Portugal use same LTE frequencies as my country so antenna efficiency should be identical.
Thank you.
I have been using my a52s for 2 weeks and find the antenna quality average -just about equal to my previous phone a moto g8 power.
But the moto g8 had problems reconnecting when I moved from an area without signal back to a location with fine signal, requiring toggling airplane mode to regain a signal.
The A52s doesn't have this problem. So that is good.
Allan_Hun said:
I have been using my a52s for 2 weeks and find the antenna quality average -just about equal to my previous phone a moto g8 power.
But the moto g8 had problems reconnecting when I moved from an area without signal back to a location with fine signal, requiring toggling airplane mode to regain a signal.
The A52s doesn't have this problem. So that is good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it worth to buy this phone? It would be my first premium phone. Right now using 5 year old LeEco Le 2
I like it a lot!
It is pretty fast, battery easily last a day with 8 hours screen on time. (I'm a power user -on a normal day I stream tidal hifi and run google maps while driving 3 hours). 120hz screen is very smooth -my first high refresh screen so didn't really know what to expect. Compared to my previous phones from Motorola and Xiaomi everything just seems to work out of the box on this Samsung. And because of the physical similarity with regular A52 accessories like screen protector and cases are very easy to purchase.
Only slightly negative is Samsung's apps -I'm used to google contacts, calendar and calc. Samsungs browser is kind of nice but the other Samsung apps seems pretty redundant to googles stock apps.
I wanted an affordable and snappy phone with dual sim (it serves double purpose as work and private phone), flat screen, 5g and plastic back. For me Snapdragon soc and water/dust protection was also "nice to have" features. So the A52S is pretty perfect for my usage.
That said I got this phone cheap (with a 6 month contract). If I had to pay full retail I probably would have kept using my (painfully slow) moto g8 power. I honestly don't know any cheaper phones that would meet all my demands...
Signal reception is good where I live, Sweden, Europe, for the A52s. I have tested it with some of the major networks and it does well on par with most other current models. I can't really detect any substantial, real-world difference between the newer phones. They all perform the same under the same circumstances.
I have the A52 5G (none s) version.. I'm with T-Mobile, and have absolutely no issues with signal strength.
Allan_Hun said:
I'm seriously considering replacing my moto G8 power with the A52s 5g.
I sometimes work in areas with low signal strength so I want a phone with decent antenna. Samsung traditional did pretty well in this area but I have seen some reports about poor signal with the A52 (none s version).
Most reviews claim that a52 and a52s is identical except for the updated soc. But a52s have lower sar values indicating better antenna.
So I would basically like to know how people experience the signal strength with the A52s?
I know user experience isn't scientific but I think experience compared to other phones could provide usable information, so any info would be highly appreciated...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my A52s, GPS signal is little weaker than previous J5 2017 and wifi much weaker than J5 2017. And USB OTG don't recognized by phone. (That is check in Samsung Service).
gvamp said:
It's not very good for me, not better than my old S4 and both haven't great signal strength (at my locations). Sometimes I haven't any signal in buildings that are high and have glass walls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes sense considering wave reflections on mirrors and attenuation because of the wall thickness/height.

Question Samsung Galaxy A54 - mysterious issue with LTE signal strength

Hello team,
I have a question regarding the Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone. I've noticed that the LTE 4G signal is weaker on SIM 2 compared to SIM 1. SIM 1 and SIM 2 have different operators, and it's not surprising that SIM 1, usually having a better network, shows a stronger signal. The problem lies in the fact that I previously had the Samsung Galaxy A52S, and in the same location, it showed a signal strength of -96 dBm and 42 asu, while the A54 shows -106 dBm and 36 asu, one bar less than the A52S. So, it's the same SIM card (which is essentially new, received it about 30 days ago), and I've had the A54 for about 15 days now.
To sum up, the phone is new, the SIM card is new, the phone works perfectly fine (except for the issue with Bluetooth disconnection in the car, which is likely due to the car's 2012 Bluetooth system being only for hands-free calls), there are no damages (it's a new phone, there's nothing to discuss in that regard). I'm just curious about this LTE signal strength issue.
Now, I don't know if there's a possibility that the algorithm displaying LTE signal strength is more accurate on the A54, showing a more precise strength compared to the A52S? Is it possible that there's a firmware bug that could be fixed in the future? Could it be that the A54 has a different manufacturer for the LTE modem compared to the A52S, resulting in different signal strengths and so on? I don't know any of this, so I thought I'd ask here if there's anyone with a deeper understanding of the architecture and hardware of the A54? Official specification lists don't provide this information, and since my phone is new, I would really like to solve this "mystery."
Regarding other differences between these two phones related to this issue:
On the A54, both SIM cards can connect to 5G, while on the A52S, only the SIM card with mobile data enabled could do so.
The A54 uses the Exynos SoC, while the A52S uses the Snapdragon SoC.
Could anyone know what the issue might be?
Thank you very much

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