Long time lurker, first time poster. Seeing how much value I've received from this group over the past while, I thought I would finally share something that some of you will hopefully find useful.
I performed a semi-scientific experiment for this .14 recent update (upgraded from .11) to check for any WiFi improvement. Before the update, I sat in a notoriously difficult spot away from our router and ran SpeedTest several times in succession and got these results:
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Downloads consistently under 3 Mbps (our ISP caps us at 25Mbps, by the way).
Without moving or changing my position/posture, I patiently requested, downloaded, and applied the .14 update. It took about 10 minutes while I stared out the window and it was smooth update, with no issues. Then, I ran SpeedTest again several times, and got these results:
Notice the overall improvement, in some cases quite a dramatic lift in both down and up speeds. Pings seemed roughly within the same range as before, for the most part.
Now, it's possible that several things could have influenced these results: maybe the SpeedTest provider was experience heavy traffic when I first ran the test, but that traffic had cleared 10 minutes later? Or maybe there was some WiFi interference the first time that had passed by the time I had updated the firmware? But taken as a single data point (without testing it for statistical significance), this lends some credibility to ASUS's claim that this .14 update has improved the WiFi performance.
On a related note though, I find it somewhat curious (and perhaps troubling) that even the .14 results have a very high degree of variability from one moment to the next. eg. within a 3 minute span, my d/l speed ranged from 2.32 Mbps to 7.75 Mbps (while 10 minutes earlier, they were all quite consistently in the 2.3-2.9 Mbps range).
Oh, and as for GPS? No birds before, no birds after. Though, I'm in a well-constructed building and it's an overcast day.
[EDIT: FYI, my Prime is a C1 model]
Not sure why buy on .13 my wifi signal kept dropping (it was worse than when I was on .12) but on .14 signals seems to be more stable and comparable to my other devices.
We need to stop doing WiFi tests using SpeedTest. It's good of you to post your results here, but unfortunately, there's nothing "scientific" about testing wifi bandwidth with SpeedTest.
NeoteriX said:
We need to stop doing WiFi tests using SpeedTest. It's good of you to post your results here, but unfortunately, there's nothing "scientific" about testing wifi bandwidth with SpeedTest.
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Ditto
Speedtest does not test router throughput.
In a perfect world, a wireless g router will transfer at 54 Mbps so the bottleneck would be your internet connection not the wifi connection. To test your router throughput, the easiest way is just transfer a big file 500 MB there and back.
nattylite said:
Ditto
Speedtest does not test router throughput.
In a perfect world, a wireless g router will transfer at 54 Mbps so the bottleneck would be your internet connection not the wifi connection. To test your router throughput, the easiest way is just transfer a big file 500 MB there and back.
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We're not building rockets, buddy. Speedtest will do fine. Noticed a huge improvement in wifi after update though.
Sent from my tablet thing with XDA Premium.
I also tested the new update's influence on WiFi signal. I used WiFi analyzer. Before the update I consistently got -65 on my throne.. After the update I am consistently getting around -70. So actually the signal has deteriorated. I do however find the browser to work better, with fewer lockups. Overally, nothing drastic came with the update.
Just applied the ww .14 update. Made zero difference to my wifi
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Related
I have been reading around and most people have said that GPS hasn't been affected by the .14 update, however is that really true?
I updated yesterday as most of you also did, and restarted the Prime and played around with WiFi and other setting to see what Asus actually fixed. Then I loaded up GPS Status and got this after a minute or so:
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I thought it might be a fluke. But I was able to get consistent results like this last night, even after restarting the tablet and moving around (I was inside during the screenshot above).
I tried it again this morning and after a minute was able to get 7/7 satellite locks.
With the .12 update I was able to get maybe 1 or 2/3 satellites at best. With .13 I got 0/X consistently.
Has anyone else noticed any measurable improvement with .14?
I have an older BBOKA tablet with good WiFi performance and two slight lightbleeds.
But have you been able to do navigation..? I to have the.14,, i to can see the birds in the sky. But when I go to use Google navigation,, after 15min still no GPS lock
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
I lost GPS after .13. I typically would get around 8 or so Sats since December. After I took .13 I got 0. .14 didn't change anything (at least for GPS)
The OP is onto something here
almightywhacko said:
I have been reading around and most people have said that GPS hasn't been affected by the .14 update, however is that really true?
I updated yesterday as most of you also did, and restarted the Prime and played around with WiFi and other setting to see what Asus actually fixed. Then I loaded up GPS Status and got this after a minute or so:
I thought it might be a fluke. But I was able to get consistent results like this last night, even after restarting the tablet and moving around (I was inside during the screenshot above).
I tried it again this morning and after a minute was able to get 7/7 satellite locks.
With the .12 update I was able to get maybe 1 or 2/3 satellites at best. With .13 I got 0/X consistently.
Has anyone else noticed any measurable improvement with .14?
I have an older BBOKA tablet with good WiFi performance and two slight lightbleeds.
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Strange, I check my GPS after every update, and swore that I was getting nothing significantly new of better after .14 install. Just for kicks I tried GPS Test and GPS Status when I saw this and HOLY CRAP. I had better GPS inside than I have seen on this, my second Prime. Even more amazing GPS TEST showed 13 locks outside! Thats record, but true to fashion it did not last. Within a minute I lost them all. It is good to see some progress, it encourages me that someday we might have acceptably poor, but workable GPS. I know, I'm a dreamer. Can't help it. 13 LOCKS!!
Alright, so I performed a speedtest to see how my Wifi is doing.
2 bars; in my bedroom. I get from 8 to 3 Mbps.
4 bars; standing directly beside the Wifi router. I get 15-33 Mbps.
I had 8 Mbps at 2 bars when I had Balanced mode on, and 3 Mpbs 2 bars when I turned on Performance mode. However, I got 15 Mbps 4 bars on Balanced mode and 33 Mbps 4 bars on Performance mode. What...? That makes no sense. So I get a better signal far away when I'm on Balanced mode, and a worse signal far away when in Performance. Hm. I got high MS response times whenever I was in Performance mode, no matter where I was, 2 bars or 4 bars.
I am on the latest .14 update.
I even made a nice little picture for everyone to describe this visually.
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Also note: I ran speedtest.net on my desktop, which is in my bedroom (where my Prime gets 2 bars), and it gets 37 Mbps.
The power mode should have no real impact on WiFi performance. Looking at your numbers they are kinda all over the place regardless of power mode or distance. Since you only posted 2 speeds on high performance mode and one of them is high and the other is low, I would assume something was holding your networks attention during the test where you got lower speeds.
Realistically you need to run a speed test a dozen times or so with a given distance and setting and then average the results in order to get any kind of meaningful numbers for comparison.
However in very basic terms, the closer you are to your WiFi source and the stronger your signal is, the faster your speeds will be. Having said that there are an thousand factors not visible to you that can affect a simple speed test.
Alright, so I did some more speed tests. The performance mode does not effect the Wifi, I was just being a bit paranoid.
However, in my room, I'll get anywhere from 4 Mbps up to 15 Mbps. Usually I get 6-8. (Again, this is at two bars.)
It's really annoying that even when the tablet is sitting literally right next to the router, I'm getting 33 Mbps, yet my desktop is getting 37 and up to 45 when I'm in the bedroom.
No, I don't expect Desktop-level Wifi performance, but this is just strange.
EDIT: If anyone's wondering, I have a 50 Mbps internet. (However, like most ISPs, it's never truly going to be at their advertised speeds.)
The wifi performance on this Prime is making it really hard to keep it. My laptop can stream a1080p movie over my wireless router, but sitting right next to the laptop the prime can barely even load a web page. The router is all of 30ft away.
Wifi performs the same on my desktop and tp but I have a pos wireless card in my ancient pc. I can't tell if I have wifi issues or not. I have always had a bad connection.
airwake said:
The wifi performance on this Prime is making it really hard to keep it. My laptop can stream a1080p movie over my wireless router, but sitting right next to the laptop the prime can barely even load a web page. The router is all of 30ft away.
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If you are getting wifi performance that makes the device unusable bring it back or swap it for another one. Wifi performance is a known issue so you should be able to get an RMA either from the location you bought the tab or from Asus.
I got lucky with my Prime as my wifi speeds are basically the same on my Prime as they are on my phone, both of which are just slightly slower than my Windows laptop. Wifi performance really seems to be luck of the draw among the earlier TF Prime units.
Okay, wow, I really shouldn't be so paranoid.
I put my Tablet and phone side-by-side and ran at least 6 speed tests on each one. Also, I went in and manually changed the host server, which made the speeds higher.
My phone got around 10 Mbps while my tablet consistently got 16 Mbps.
Have to say that relying on real-life usage is probably more important than speed tests.
airwake said:
The wifi performance on this Prime is making it really hard to keep it. My laptop can stream a1080p movie over my wireless router, but sitting right next to the laptop the prime can barely even load a web page. The router is all of 30ft away.
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What kind of a router is it, wireless G? lol.
I have occasional issues, but on my prime its more dependent on what router im connected to.
my wrt54gl with dd-wrt works well i turned up the power on it, i tested the asus rt-n12 thats good i can stream 720p. basically anything with 2 antennas has worked well with my prime but single antenna ones are only good within like 5 metres
For me, I am getting better speed on my Prime than on my phone (Galaxy Nexus) but when compared to a laptop it seems to be dependent on the network. On my home network, I get really slow speed from my prime compared to my laptop but if I try on the college network I would get about the same speed. I highly suspect it is a problem with the Wifi driver on the Prime. My laptop was also getting bad speed on my home network until I updated the driver.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
So today was the first time I found LTE at the mall. I just decided to check on my EVO LTE by using the airplane toggle. All of a sudden 4G lights up (using MeanRom) and I decide to test with Speedtest. I get about 5 Mbps DL and 6 Mbps UL. I am happy because I usuall get aroung 300 kbps where I live.
So my wife comes back from trying on clothes and I ask to see her iPhone 5. I turn on LTE and see the LTE symbol come on. This only happens after I did airplane mode trick on her phone also. I run speedtest app. I am consistently getting 15MBps DL and 10 Mbps UL.
I am kind of bummed but know that 5 Mbps is more than fast enough for Web browsing. However I wish I could get the iPhone speeds.
My area isn't getting LTE till November but this maybe just a test area. Both of our phones didn't find 4G on it's on. It's only after a Airplane Mode trick does it find it.
You guys think it's the LTE connection issue or just the iPhone has a better radio?
yazyazoo said:
So today was the first time I found LTE at the mall. I just decided to check on my EVO LTE by using the airplane toggle. All of a sudden 4G lights up (using MeanRom) and I decide to test with Speedtest. I get about 5 Mbps DL and 6 Mbps UL. I am happy because I usuall get aroung 300 kbps where I live.
So my wife comes back from trying on clothes and I ask to see her iPhone 5. I turn on LTE and see the LTE symbol come on. This only happens after I did airplane mode trick on her phone also. I run speedtest app. I am consistently getting 15MBps DL and 10 Mbps UL.
I am kind of bummed but know that 5 Mbps is more than fast enough for Web browsing. However I wish I could get the iPhone speeds.
My area isn't getting LTE till November but this maybe just a test area. Both of our phones didn't find 4G on it's on. It's only after a Airplane Mode trick does it find it.
You guys think it's the LTE connection issue or just the iPhone has a better radio?
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From what everyone has been saying it appears to be a software issue. I haven't had another phone to test the speeds but when I do get it its roughly 6down
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
I'd love to know what iPhones are getting if i'm getting this then.....
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I bought a fairly new unlocked, rooted (but stock) i717 just under a week ago. I'd been looking for the T879 so I'd have something similar to swap back and forth with my S2 but couldn't find one.
Initially, I figured battery life would be fine based on my internet research but I might have issues with speed and coverage. What actually happened is my battery life stinks and I get pretty good speeds in refarmed Chicago with higher upload than the S2 ever got.
Here's where I am for battery life-
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I have the same settings on the S2 and get much better battery life with the same use. Any thoughts?
Here's my speed results, fwiw-
Your pic shows that you rebooted your phone 1 hour 47 minutes ago and that will reset all battery stats.
That's when it was fully charged. I don't have a lot of "evidence" as after the first day or two of such behavior I was sticking the sim back in the S2 for work.
Maybe this will help. I've been using it sim-less on wifi only lately but today I tried using it as a regular phone. Stated at 95% and took these at 15%. Ugh. I just ordered a 2700mah Anker; hopefully my battery's the problem...-
Have you tried without LTE yet? - that is known to be hungry.
I've only had it on TMobile; no LTE yet in Chicago and I'm not sure it will work on TMobile LTE anyways.
I came from an S2X and have noticed the same. The screen always hogs battery and I sometimes don't get a day from the charge. I tried playing with a different governor and that helped a bit, but frankly the battery on this isn't as good as my Hercules. Mind you, the old S2X maybe had an extra hour or hour and a half so at least they aren't grossly different.
I might play around with underclocking or other governors, but I don't know how much more one could do. Oh well, I just accept it as it is. I still like this phone, but battery could be a bit better in my opinion. Oh well, just me.
Carry on all
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
bob60626 said:
I've only had it on TMobile; no LTE yet in Chicago and I'm not sure it will work on TMobile LTE anyways.
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I believe that if in Settings/Wireless&Networks/Mobile Networks/Network Mode you allow it look for LTE then it will energize 2|4 antennas rather than one. I don't know if that is accounted for in "Cell Standby" or not. Turn it off when you don't need the LTE service.
Your stats show what I would expect - your beautiful screen is consuming your battery. Some ROMS are better than others at battery conservation.
So far I am quite happy with "Vanilla". Today I'm at 7 hours, mostly idle with 80% battery left using 35% screen and 30% Cell standby on LTE with Auto brightness and 1 min to display sleep.
Thanks Dan, when I get off the train I'll swap my sim back in and have a look.
Fwiw, I have a good data widget on my home screen and use that when the sim's in it.
When I got to mobile networks all I saw were 2 TMobile's and three AT&T's with no option for LTE or to even view the above.
bob60626 said:
When I got to mobile networks all I saw were 2 TMobile's and three AT&T's with no option for LTE or to even view the above.
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I don't know for sure and do not have the same ROM as you but there is some way in one of those Mobile Network menus (Not in APN section) to specify 2G only, CDMA, GSM, GSM+HSPA, GSM+HSPA+LTE.
What in the WHAT!!! My battery life has been up and down since I've had this phone. I sotpped using the GMAIL email app and am using Type mail for all my accounts. That seemed to help out with a small bit of the battery life, I didn't do any specific tests so it could actually have not changed anything at all. I'm having a very strange issue yesterday and today. I'm at my new office, signal strength is very low, but there's still 4G and a tiny bar of service. Additionally, I have WiFi available to connect to so the data shouldn't be straining to use the cell radio. I have my phone plugged into the wall (it's not the fast charger, just the regular Samsung plug) and the battery IS DRAINING!!! How is this even possible, what is chewing up my battery life? I've also seen the phone slow in it's responsiveness lately? I am considering a soft reset to factory, but I don't do anything really crazy with my phone. I email, facebook, text, and have Nova Prime and a weather widget. What is going on with this thing?
-NV
Take a look at your battery status. Post a screen shot when you experienced a bad drain again.
Try not to use wifi at all
Did you install one drive during setup. Check the camera upload setting which is turned on by default. So all ur pics upload to cloud on wifi. See if this setting helps
FluffyR said:
Take a look at your battery status. Post a screen shot when you experienced a bad drain again.
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I looked at it yesterday before I posted...and I should have taken a screenshot...but the top two were Cell Standby @ 14% and Android System @ 13%. I will have the opportunity to grab a screenshot later today. In contrast though, this morning in the last 10 minutes since I've left my house I've gone from 95% to 90% and this reply and an uber was the only thing I've done on it since taking it off the charger.
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-NV
anonymousss said:
Try not to use wifi at all
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That's not an option. I have a low data plan, 3GB, because it is SIGNIFIGANTLY cheaper and I live in DC where I have free Wi-Fi almost throughout every inch of the city. Plus when at home I have my phone on my network to take advantage of Wi-Fi and corporate resources.
-NV
srikanth.k39 said:
Did you install one drive during setup. Check the camera upload setting which is turned on by default. So all ur pics upload to cloud on wifi. See if this setting helps
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It wasn't installed during setup, I have AT&T, but during the install after I made sure to disable all those features and verified it was still disabled. All the cloud apps I have disabled any upload features.
-NV
I wrote a post over at reddit about this topic:
w w w .reddit.com/r/GalaxyS6/comments/345tt9/galaxy_s6_and_s6_edge_lag_and_battery_improvement/
I can't post it on XDA yet due to the external link limitation since I am new to the forum. Just copy and paste the URL removing spaces in the URL beginning.
I am regularly seeing Lag free performance with five hour screen on time. I started with less than 2 hours SOT and constant lag.