Note 3 Cell Signal Observations / Issues - Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Purchased release day from BB.
Latest MJ4 seems to for the most part fix the call audio.
The one issue that may stiull force me to go to a different phone is the actual cell signal strength. Not the bars. Actual dbm.
At work, my work coworkers S4 on Sprint sitting next to my Note 3 shows -88dbm. My note 3 is at -110 and constantly drops calls, switched to roaming with the same low signal strength.
At home in a strong LTE area, my wife's S3 pulls -78 dbm and my Note 3 sits merrily at -102. Still makes and receives calls but at times it is garbled and tough to understand folks.
Have factory reset. Update PRL and profile numerous times. Re-provisioned with Sprint.
Is anyone else seeing a low cell signal issue with their note 3?

jfenton57 said:
Purchased release day from BB.
Latest MJ4 seems to for the most part fix the call audio.
The one issue that may stiull force me to go to a different phone is the actual cell signal strength. Not the bars. Actual dbm.
At work, my work coworkers S4 on Sprint sitting next to my Note 3 shows -88dbm. My note 4 is at -110 and constantly drops calls, switched to roaming with the same low signal strength.
At home in a strong LTE area, my wife's S3 pulls -78 dbm and my Note 3 sits merrily at -102. Still makes and receives calls but at times it is garbled and tough to understand folks.
Have factory reset. Update PRL and profile numerous times. Re-provisioned with Sprint.
Is anyone else seeing a low cell signal issue with their note 3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure that you can necessarily use other model phones for comparisons. The method used to determine the db may be different. I recall that when the iphone 4 came out there was a big scandal about how the software was reporting higher signal strength that there actually was. This was corrected in a software update.
What really matters is performance. I would try making a call to your wife or coworker's phone that is showing better db's and see if there are any issues during the call. Switch phones and see if there is a difference.

I compared 2 S3s , 2 Note 3s and a S4 all sitting together at a Sprint store. Both S3s showed about -58dbm to -61dbm, the S4 was around -55dbm (it was a bit farther away from the others) and both Note 3s were around -83dbm. My own S3 (with unfortunately a weak battery) was around -61dbm. I moved the phones around to see if the signal changed, but they stayed fairly consistent. I then went to a Best Buy across the street and compared my S3 at -82dbm to their Sprint Note 3 at around -79dbm. All Note 3s had 4.3. I cycled the phones on airplane mode to see if there was any difference and also made sure the Wifi and Bluetooth was off. These inconsistencies are puzzling. Could there be better batches than others? I'm going to try some other stores.

pdaod said:
I compared 2 S3s , 2 Note 3s and a S4 all sitting together at a Sprint store. Both S3s showed about -58dbm to -61dbm, the S4 was around -55dbm (it was a bit farther away from the others) and both Note 3s were around -83dbm. My own S3 (with unfortunately a weak battery) was around -61dbm. I moved the phones around to see if the signal changed, but they stayed fairly consistent. I then went to a Best Buy across the street and compared my S3 at -82dbm to their Sprint Note 3 at around -79dbm. All Note 3s had 4.3. I cycled the phones on airplane mode to see if there was any difference and also made sure the Wifi and Bluetooth was off. These inconsistencies are puzzling. Could there be better batches than others? I'm going to try some other stores.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey I was wondering what you found out?

I been happy with my note 3 over the htc one and evo lte. Both htc would drop calls if I went down stairs in my house so would the daughters iphone 4 but the note 3 holds calls just fine even get lte all be it slow. Also noticed my daughter's new 5c can keep a call into the basement and lte. Make me think even more metal phones are a bad idea. Can't compare other phones as we where on t mobile with just Wifi coverage in the house. My house only gets one bar gsm out side and that's at&t tower.

Related

[Q] Signal strength :(

Question for people who switched from Evo 4G to Evo 3D.
Is anyone else noticing markedly weaker phone/3G signal strength as compared to their old 4G?
Mine is showing next to no signal in placed that my 4G showed full bars, and it pops in and out of roaming in places where I previously had decent Sprint signal.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1137769
I am having horrible reception problems. I have to sit on a window sill to get reception at my apartment where my Evo 4g got atleast one bar. Driving on a major highway here in Rochester NY, l watched my phone have one or no bars all the way into downtown. Roaming has been turning on and off.
Went to Sprint Store and the Rf tested my phone and said everything was fine, but my phone still seems to bounce around signal strength wise and usually ends up with one bar or less in areas where I have never had reception problems before.
As for 3G, it was running really, really slow until I called sprint and did a factory reset which has seemed to fix the problem. I'll know later if it fixed the signal strenth problem as well.
Sprint store and RF test just dont sound like they go togehter.
Definately sounds like your device is having some issues with CDMA.

WiFi reception seems weak

Was utilizing my home wifi signal to connect to a web site, but it would time out and not connect. Check and saw the wifi signal strength indicator with only the bottom dot illuminated. My laptop, right beside me, had all five bars illuminated. Switched the phone from wifi to data and it connected right away.
I ha e the same issue! But I am rooted. Is there any kind of a fix out there?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
Same. It's weaker than the Infuse i have
The international SGS2 doesn't like D-Link routers. I don't know if the AT&T version's the same. There's less range with a D-Link for some reason and it wreaks havoc on the battery. It likes Netgear routers.
Wifi is weaker than my captivate was, but the GPS is really good. I got a solid lock in some pretty dense woods while on a hike. Whereas my captivate got awesome wifi but crap gps. I wonder if its a trade off with the antennas.
How's the signal on a 2Wire router from ATT for DSL service?
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA app
Same issue here. My captivate had a much better reception. I checked at home and at school. Both places it had only one bar in the signal while being only 35 feet away from the router with only one wall in the way. It looses signal when further away while my laptop still has it. I'm connected on 802.11n in both places so maybe its something with that?
I also see lower wifi signals compared to iPhone 3gs.the difference isn't huge but definitely noticeable.
I noticed that too. It is weaker than my ex 3GS iPhone as well.
Weaker? Indicator?
Has there been any test on SIGNAL STRENGTH versus the number of bars? I don't mean to take a page out of ANTENNA GATE, but just having a fewer number on the display, doesn't actually indicate poorer reception.
For the guy with the 3gs, can you measure with something like speedtest.net? Since transfer speed descrease respective to signal strength, this seems like a good test.
I just bought a SGS II and would really like to know if the indicator is accurate and comparable to other devices and it does have a weaker antenna.
Thanks.
I didn't wanna make a new thread but same here. Wifi is pretty weak on this phone . Fairly disappointed at that.
To beat a dead horse, I am always at 1 or 2 wireless bars versus my IP4 being at full wifi bars. Not sure how its effecting the actual browsing though.
I will say that my GS2 consistently shows less bars than my iPad and previous iPhone 4(1 or 2 compared to full).... BUT I have yet to have a single issue browsing or accessing anything and speed is still excellent. So it could just be a display issue.
My only problem with that is that if I do really have a bad signal and have a crappy connection I'll never really know - because I'll aways asume the connection is good even though it's reporting low strength.
I've sometimes had my GS2 show extremely weak wifi signal even when sitting right next to my router - but the wifi still works just fine, inconsistently with the displayed signal strength.
So if it's showing weak but working fine, don't worry.
Entropy512 said:
I've sometimes had my GS2 show extremely weak wifi signal even when sitting right next to my router - but the wifi still works just fine, inconsistently with the displayed signal strength.
So if it's showing weak but working fine, don't worry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can agree with this. My router is located very close to my phone and sometimes my phone shows only 1 bar of signal but the overall performance is still snappy and quick. no worries
I'm coming from a iPhone 3G. While the SGSII displays less bars it also seems to pick up wireless signals that my iPhone never detected (free wireless downtown).
Also at home in some rooms it shows less than full while my iPhone always showed full but I never noticed it being slow. I think it just displays differently.
From AnandTech
Referring to Cellular connectivity:
"In addition, Samsung makes the mistake of going with a signal bar visualization with very compressed dynamic range. Since the whole iPhone 4 debacle, I’ve seen something of a trend towards a strict linear scale (which makes more sense), but SGS2 definitely doesn’t go that route. It’s not a huge deal however, just something to be aware of. I’m willing to overlook that issue considering that getting the real story on connectivity is no harder than dialing *#0011# and looking at the real number."
Referring to Wifi:
"As with every other radio, we have to do the receive sensitivity dance and make sure nothing is broken. I tested the SGS2 alongside an SGS 4G at my house with both an Airport Extreme (5th Gen) and WRT54G-TM boosted to 184 mW. SGS2 WiFi reception on 2.4 GHz is darn near identical to the previous generation.
There’s something deceptive about this however, and it’s that although Samsung has chosen to go the usual compressed-dynamic-range route with cellular bars, the WLAN bars seem to be more linearized. Thus where I’m used to seeing every other smartphone show max (until you’re right about to fall off), the SGS2 actually doesn’t lie to me and shows fewer bars. Until I ran around and looked at RSSI in dBm, I suspected SGS2 had WLAN sensitivity issues where there don’t appear to be any. One small thing I did notice is that SGS2 (and BCM4330) seems to only connect at long guard interval (eg 65 Mbps maximum for single stream, 20 MHz channels), where SGS1 and BCM4329 connected at 72 Mbps short guard interval."

Spotty, Erratic WiFi Signal Problem - Anyone Else?

Had my One X+ for about 6 days now. Noticed that in parts of my home, had network connection issues where I never had them with any other devices. Dowloaded Wi-Fi Analyzer and SpeedTest. Downloaded SpeedTest on my old iPhone 4. And I confirmed that my phone has many more issues connecting in parts of the home than the iPhone. It's VERY erratic. You can put it on the counter 6 inches below where you were holding it with your hand, and wala, better signal. Pick it up and signal goes to crap. It's mainly with the 5.6ghz signal but 2.4 is effected to. Enabling / Disabling the Wi-Fi Performance Enhancement setting in Setting > Wi-Fi > Settings makes no difference that I can see and I compared it on and off several times using Wi-Fi Analyzer. This may be a dealbreaker for me on this phone. Maybe have to exchange it for an S3.
At times it loses connection briefly, then when it re-connects, signal is much better but it's not consistent. When running Speedtest on iPhone gauge usually goes up fairly smoothly and stays there (not always). On One X+ gauge gets "stuck" a lot more often and/or goes down.
I run an ASUS RT-56U router with latest firmware. Works excellent. It has my same network SSID bound to both 2.4 and 5.6Ghz channels. It's almost as if the One X+ has trouble dealing with a drop in the 5.6 and seamlessly moving everything to only 2.4? I actually tried to lock the phone to 2.4 or 5.6 in settings, frequency. It went crazy, both settings, it can't connecting and disconnecting.
Wondering if it is a hardware fault that was found in original One X that may have not been fixed?
http://www.google.com/search?q=htc+...c+one+x++wifi+signal&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
jazee said:
Had my One X+ for about 6 days now. Noticed that in parts of my home, had network connection issues where I never had them with any other devices. Dowloaded Wi-Fi Analyzer and SpeedTest. Downloaded SpeedTest on my old iPhone 4. And I confirmed that my phone has many more issues connecting in parts of the home than the iPhone. It's VERY erratic. You can put it on the counter 6 inches below where you were holding it with your hand, and wala, better signal. Pick it up and signal goes to crap. It's mainly with the 5.6ghz signal but 2.4 is effected to. Enabling / Disabling the Wi-Fi Performance Enhancement setting in Setting > Wi-Fi > Settings makes no difference that I can see and I compared it on and off several times using Wi-Fi Analyzer. This may be a dealbreaker for me on this phone. Maybe have to exchange it for an S3.
At times it loses connection briefly, then when it re-connects, signal is much better but it's not consistent. When running Speedtest on iPhone gauge usually goes up fairly smoothly and stays there (not always). On One X+ gauge gets "stuck" a lot more often and/or goes down.
I run an ASUS RT-56U router with latest firmware. Works excellent. It has my same network SSID bound to both 2.4 and 5.6Ghz channels. It's almost as if the One X+ has trouble dealing with a drop in the 5.6 and seamlessly moving everything to only 2.4? I actually tried to lock the phone to 2.4 or 5.6 in settings, frequency. It went crazy, both settings, it can't connecting and disconnecting.
Wondering if it is a hardware fault that was found in original One X that may have not been fixed?
http://www.google.com/search?q=htc+...c+one+x++wifi+signal&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u got a problem with WiFi in certain areas of Your HOME i dont think its hardware problem. If u have a hardware problem Your WiFi couldnt recive more than "dot" signal even near router. Its because hardware issue was about antennas of WiFi (they were f****) To test hardware issue on HTC ONE X after squeze certain area of phone (antennas connected) signal growed up after release signal went down...
Looks like my hunch may be correct in that it has something to do with the phone switching between the 2.4Ghz and 5.6Ghz bands. 2.4Ghz has much better range. But in the wi-fi settings it is set to Auto frequency. What appears to be happening is that the phone prefers 5.6 but when it loses it, it switched to 2.4. I have a "dual band" N router so the same SSID is bound to both frequencies. I think this improves bandwidth for devices that communicate on both at same time (or is that not possible?) But I can't seem to get it to work if I change the frequency setting to anything but Auto. It won't authenticate when not on Auto! Bug?
Related One X Thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1730383
I've been struggling with WiFi issues on my phone as well. Whether the phone is set to 2.4GHz, 5GHz or Auto, the connectivity is spotty at best.
With other devices in the house including my old Inspire 4g, a Kindle Fire and an iPhone I can get full reception but only 1 bar on the One X+ in spots. I have noticed that holding the phone upright in poor reception areas brings the connectivity up a bar or two usually but that's not optimal for usage... Same thing happened at the girlfriend's family's house yesterday and my connectivity was also progressively more spotty at work in the past week since getting the phone.
The screwy thing is it seems completely intermittent. It'll be fine for a few hours then suddenly the connectivity goes to crap. I'm pondering exchanging the phone for another just to see if the issues persist.
I spent much of Thanksgiving (sadly) testing the WiFi on this phone using WiFi Analyzer and speedtest at locations all over my house. I compared results with an iPhone 3GS Iphone 4 and Samsung Series 6 notebook. The One X (+) was terrible. At times it performed well but in the exact same location, the next time it would perform dismally. Very unpredictable and erratic and I found out why!
** THERE IS A 20+ dbm DROP IN SIGNAL WHEN HOLDING THE PHONE IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND! **
Now this may be common with a lot of phones, I don't know. But, the signal strength on this phone is already not what I would describe as "Best in Class" so this drop in many areas where the signal is moderately low to very low, holding the phone in the palm usually makes a difference as to if you have a usable connection or not!
I have a highly respected ASUS RT-56U router and made sure I had the latest firmware installed, but as I said, even the iPhone 3GS had more consistent, better, even results compared to this phone in many low signal areas when I held the One X in my hand. So it's not the router, it's the device.
Next step is to try to determine if it is this one phone, the One X+ AT&T model, and the One X AT&T model, or all One X models, including International? I will head to the store to see if they will let me run the test on another phone. I'm praying it is this particular phone but my gut tells me it is probably an issue in the design of the phone. I really like this phone but may have to go for the Samsung Galaxy SIII instead as this wifi issue is BAD, and unacceptable. Would get a Nexus 4 but I need more than 16GB of memory!!!!!
I shot a video about this showing the Wifi Analyzer running:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IUkbnj5pY0
Well, this morning I did similar testing and am seeing a 20-25 dBm drop whenever I pick the phone up...
Have you had a chance to check with your local AT&T store about testing other One X+ phones?
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda app-developers app
tier~ said:
Well, this morning I did similar testing and am seeing a 20-25 dBm drop whenever I pick the phone up...
Have you had a chance to check with your local AT&T store about testing other One X+ phones?
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would seem pointless now, since you are having the same issue, it seems to be an issue with the any One X+ (and I would bet also any One X). Maybe there's always a drop on any phone (iPhone there's no analyzer to show you signal). But this large 20-25 dBm drop make a difference between fast/normal browsing and slow/no browsing on the Net when sitting in many areas of my house. I would expect using it at other locations (on trips, etc.) it will drive me nuts. I do A LOT of browsing, use the phone like a mini tablet. So fast WiFi connectivity is paramount! I get better 4G LTE range/speeds than wifi in those areas of my house, but don't have unlimited data!
Sounds pretty simple, either u need a better router or u have a bunk phone. I have WiFi all over my house, my parents house, my work, all with zero issues and all obviously different routers. I'd maybe try another device. You have 14 days in the state's no questions asked for a new phone exchange.
It's not router. I went to AT&T store. Rep had S3. He loaded Wifi analyzer. We monitored same wifi network next shop down. HTC, signal dropped almost 20 dBM when you put it in your palm. S3, not change or 5 dBm at most. Loaded WiFi analyzer on X+ on display, but palm around it best I could around the display mount, big signal drop.
I have a large home. The thing is, no other devices have issues. What I suspect is with my home, certain areas push the HTC One X+ to its limit as far as wifi range. Most users don't notice "issues" as they don't lose a connection. And I didn't lose connection either, or rarely, just got really slow. You have to walk all around and look at WiFi Analyzer and compare holding fold to setting phone on table. Then also compare Speedtest.net app results. With S3 and notebook computer I'm getting 20mbit speeds in most areas, difficult areas, still has a consistent 6-8mbit speed. HTC One X+ those problem areas, 1mbit speeds if lucky or loss of connection.
Since nothing is changing in the test environment besides the device, the HTC clearly has poor wifi reception *RELATIVE* to other devices when held in palm of your hand. I found though you can get around this if you hold lower half of phone no issues and if you turn phone on its side, not as bad of a drop either.
I made it up to the AT&T store yesterday afternoon just to compare to another HOX+. Same thing was happening with the floor model of the phone. The manager went ahead and replaced my phone with a new one regardless just to cover our bases but like you said jazee, it does appear to be the radio location in the phone causing the issue. Just have to be conscientious of how I hold the phone.
To compensate I cranked up the TX power on my router a little bit which has helped. I run dd-wrt on it though so I have that option. Not sure what your firmware gives you access to in your Asus router. I have heard Padavan's custom firmware is a good option if you want to do more than what the stock firmware gives you access to.
jazee said:
I spent much of Thanksgiving (sadly) testing the WiFi on this phone using WiFi Analyzer and speedtest at locations all over my house. I compared results with an iPhone 3GS Iphone 4 and Samsung Series 6 notebook. The One X (+) was terrible. At times it performed well but in the exact same location, the next time it would perform dismally. Very unpredictable and erratic and I found out why!
** THERE IS A 20+ dbm DROP IN SIGNAL WHEN HOLDING THE PHONE IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND! **
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get a similar drop, but more along the lines of 10 dbm.
Try keepalive from playstore
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Same WiFi issue
I'm having the same issue as jazee (OP). I browse on my WiFi and then when I click on a link, I just hold the phone in my fingertips (not palm) and the signal jumps up and page loads.
Assuming olorolo's on to something here and there is an app to fix it... I'm heading to the play store to see what I can find like "Keepalive" as recommended. This is my first foray into Android though, so I can't help but wonder if you guys are already ahead of me. Any luck yet fellas?
Yes if you hold phone below volume rocker, or sideways, or even in palm with right instead of left hand, you can mostly mitigate the signal drop.
I'm happier on S3 except having to go back to ICS 4.0.4 and wait for JB 4.1. No wifi issues, much better battery usage, and no could pegged at times by Beats trying to scan my 2800 mp3 files in the background for some reason. Could tell as HTC gets HOT and then battery plummets. Brand new phone. Maybe some issues to work out?
Oh and I love having 2GB Ram for multitasking better. Would have hot S3 initially if I realized US ver had 2GB ram like new Nexus 4.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Looks like a case helps
jazee said:
Yes if you hold phone below volume rocker, or sideways, or even in palm with right instead of left hand, you can mostly mitigate the signal drop.
I'm happier on S3 except having to go back to ICS 4.0.4 and wait for JB 4.1. No wifi issues, much better battery usage, and no could pegged at times by Beats trying to scan my 2800 mp3 files in the background for some reason. Could tell as HTC gets HOT and then battery plummets. Brand new phone. Maybe some issues to work out?
Oh and I love having 2GB Ram for multitasking better. Would have hot S3 initially if I realized US ver had 2GB ram like new Nexus 4.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just so happened to have got my case in the mail today -- Ballistic SG -- and with it the WiFi drop is much less (more like 10dBm). I kept scanning with WiFi Analytics and no matter how I held it in my hands, I could never reproduce the -80dBm I was getting, no case, in the palm of my hand in the exact same spot.
For what it's worth anyway, it seems like the half centimeter of case is helping. I never would have noticed if I bought the case on day 1.

Poor signal

My i9205 have generally poor signal compared to my note1. It doesn't seem to make any difference to turn of LTD. I have not experienced any call dropping, only referring to the displayed signal. My note shows full signal while i9205 shows minimum signal. And in battery usage the "Cell Standby" is quite high and normally with 10-20% "Time without signal" even if I have not noticed any time without signal.
Anyone have similar issue ?
I have the Mega GT-I9200 and experience spotty signal as I drive around. I am on T-mobile in New York. Within a 15 mile radius in New York City my signal will fluctuate between HSPA+, Edge, G (1st generstion GPRS), and sometimes complete loss of both data and cellphone signal. I think the issue is I might need a modem to be ported from a t-mobile device to give me a consistent signal. Not sure if anyone could do that or if there's even a t-mobile device whose modem would be compatible at this point.
Sent from my GT-I9200 using xda app-developers app
Yep! I'm definitely getting this too. The phone very rarely shows the full 4 bars of reception, and in low signal areas (1 bar or less) the phone starts flipping between GSM/WCDMA (UMTS) constantly, giving very poor reception. Also, signal strength in general isn't as good as my nexus 4 was. I sometimes am unable to reliably maintain a signal at all in areas that I know my N4 could reliably hold 1 bar of strength, with the phone disconnecting from the network completely and then reconnecting all the time.
As I'm in the UK and without LTE anyway, I've switched the phone to WCDMA mode only, which has helped though the phone now just flips between HSPA and HSPA+ when in poor signal. Its certainly much more usable this way at least.
On the upside, yesterday night with 3 bars reception I was consistently able to get over 15Mbps download, with my best result of nearly 19Mbps! So it doesn't look to be a hardware issue.
I'm speculating wildly here but to me this looks like a SW issue in one of two areas: signal strength isn't being reported correctly (too low), causing the phone to take action to try and obtain a better signal (by flipping to a lower bandwidth protocol or disconnecting and trying to detect a better macro, for instance) when it isn't really necessary OR maybe the phone is just too aggressive in switching from HSPA+ down to GSM to save battery.
Is there some way to take control of the mechanism, and try to force the phone to stay in hspa+, or to spoof a higher signal strength?
EDIT: This phone is packaged with very thin plastic wrapping over the metal band that runs around the circumference of the device. I accidentally left a lot of this wrapping on for the first few days. It may be complete crap, but I think my signal might have improved since I removed it all! I certainly seem to be able to maintain a connection in places that I wasn't able to last week, and maintain a constant (4-5Mbps) HSPA+ link in areas that I couldn't before...
Time will tell...
I have the same encounter, I have two sim cards belong to the same number one for phone and one for tablet. The one in Mega 6.3 give me three bar signal but the one in Galaxy tab plus 7" give me four bar signal :crying:
I am also having reception issues with my mega 6.3 I get worst reception than any of my other phones sitting in the exact same spot. I am on ATT in the US. I removed all the plastic around the phone. I am wondering if it is my APN settings. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this or there is something eles going on.
The Mega has an issue with the radio. I bought two of these an i9200 and i9250. Both Mega's would lose signal completely. I don't have the greatest signal here at my home, but it has never been an issue with any other phone such as Note 1 and Note 2 and many others. If you are in a weak signal area more than not, you may wamt to hold off until the radio issue is resolved with software or whatever. They were unusable for me and I re-sold them.
Sent from my GT-N5100 using xda premium
I have an i9205 and it's fine with the signal. I'm in the UK though
The big problem about this is that the phone uses much more battery when signal is low and using 3G. I can get 6-7 hours screen on time on one charge while wifi is on. But when using 3G with low signal I get 3-4 hours.
I hope this is a radio firmware thing, and not a hardware thing, so that it could be improved with updates.
so any updates?
Same problem here with my new Mega 6.3! My phone have only 1 or 2 bars signals while my brother's Samsung Grand has full antenna easily. It's very annoying. What should we do?!
Same ****ty reception going on with mine. I returned it.
I changed it too. New one is working fine.
hi. ah really? changnig phone u noticed a consistent improvement in reception?
but... i can say that i and my girlfriend, using a DIFFERENT SELLER...... we have the same problem of cell standby
I found that all phone models are inconsistent in radio reception, not sure why...
Sometimes the updates can do a little better, but I believe the hardware is the most limiting factor.
Maybe Mega isn't for you where you live, just return it then get another phone
i have poor signal Too
Any news or solution ?

[Q] Weak WiFi Reception

Just picked up the HTC One Max from Verizon yesterday. I have not rooted it or done anything other than set up email. As soon as I brought it home I noticed that it was having trouble with my home's WiFi that my Gnex didn't have. I placed my Kindle, my Gnex, and the HTC One on the table next to each other. The router shows the signal from the Kindle as -35 dbm, the Gnex as -37 dbm and the HTC One Max as -60 dbm. Considering that it's 12 feet from the router with no walls in between, that's an awful signal. It causes the Max to be limited to about 11 Mbps. When I take the Max into another room it just drops the WiFi altogether.
Is there some setting I might be overlooking? I tried turning off WiFi optimization, but that didn't change anything.
Here's a picture of WiFi Analyzer running on the Gnex and the Max side by side to illustrate.
Nexus = cheap plastic frame while One Max = metal frame and dual stereo speakers (aka stereo interference that affects reception).
I still choose the Max.
GNRDuncan said:
Here's a picture of WiFi Analyzer running on the Gnex and the Max side by side to illustrate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What router ?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Jiggity Janx said:
Nexus = cheap plastic frame while One Max = metal frame and dual stereo speakers (aka stereo interference that affects reception).
I still choose the Max.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with your assessment of the build quality of Samsungs (I went from a Gnex to a Max for a reason), but working WiFi is a must. I can't get 4G or even 3G most of the time at home and I don't have unlimited data anyway. The Max won't even connect to the WiFi in the next room. I can't believe this is how all Maxs are, so I'll exchange it tomorrow and check it out.
dottat said:
What router ?
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Click to collapse
Mine is a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 running Tomato, but I don't know what's running on the other routers the Gnex is picking up. The router model won't matter in a side-by-side comparison of signal strength anyway - the router only broadcasts one signal and each phone receives that signal. As long as they're in the same place, the power of the signal reaching them will be the same. You can see that in this example where the Gnex is picking up three other routers that are presumably different models than my own, and that don't even register on the Max. If WiFi analyzer is anything close to correct, the Gnex is 1,000 times more sensitive than the Max. The Gnex registers about the same as my Kindle and the wife's Droid X2, so I don't think Samsung has anything special going on. I can see having some difference between designs and WiFi chips, etc., but I really don't believe Samsung's WiFi circuit is 1,000X more powerful than HTC's. That's about what I'd expect to see if the antenna weren't connected or some such.
On the other hand, my cellular reception is phemomenal compared to the Gnex. I just hope it's this particular Max with a problem so I can just exchange it and use WiFi.
I don't have any issues with wifi connectivity on my Max. I haven't run any analyzers because I haven't had the need to. I would take it in.
GNRDuncan said:
Mine is a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 running Tomato, but I don't know what's running on the other routers the Gnex is picking up. The router model won't matter in a side-by-side comparison of signal strength anyway - the router only broadcasts one signal and each phone receives that signal. As long as they're in the same place, the power of the signal reaching them will be the same. You can see that in this example where the Gnex is picking up three other routers that are presumably different models than my own, and that don't even register on the Max. If WiFi analyzer is anything close to correct, the Gnex is 1,000 times more sensitive than the Max. The Gnex registers about the same as my Kindle and the wife's Droid X2, so I don't think Samsung has anything special going on. I can see having some difference between designs and WiFi chips, etc., but I really don't believe Samsung's WiFi circuit is 1,000X more powerful than HTC's. That's about what I'd expect to see if the antenna weren't connected or some such.
On the other hand, my cellular reception is phemomenal compared to the Gnex. I just hope it's this particular Max with a problem so I can just exchange it and use WiFi.
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Only reason I ask is there had been a couple model routers that have had issues with HTC ones. What you describe has not been my experience. Exchange it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
GNRDuncan said:
I agree with your assessment of the build quality of Samsungs (I went from a Gnex to a Max for a reason), but working WiFi is a must. I can't get 4G or even 3G most of the time at home and I don't have unlimited data anyway. The Max won't even connect to the WiFi in the next room. I can't believe this is how all Maxs are, so I'll exchange it tomorrow and check it out.
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I am pretty sure you have an hardware issue on your phone. Please go and exchange it. i speak from my experience of my One MAX dis-assembly. i used to get stable/ Full WiFi signals when it was stock, but when i re-assembled it i noticed a drop in WiFi signal and it was also not stable. i opened it up again to tweak the WiFi antennas a bit and tightened the screws properly and then it was good again.
I would suggest you to slightly tap / press on the top left of the phone(the speaker area the light sensor & top LCD bezel) a little and see if you WiFi improves and that would help to confirm the issue. You could place the phone on a firm table and press the area with your thumb and look at the WiFi bar's to check if you notice a difference.
Either way, you need to get the phone exchanged.
pradeepvizz said:
Either way, you need to get the phone exchanged.
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Thanks to everyone. I exchanged today and the WiFi reception is better than the Kindle and the Gnex. I hope that was an isolated issue and won't be something we see a lot of with the Max.
GNRDuncan said:
Thanks to everyone. I exchanged today and the WiFi reception is better than the Kindle and the Gnex. I hope that was an isolated issue and won't be something we see a lot of with the Max.
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Good to know! :good::good:

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