Help Signal strength/call quality of Evo 3D

[bigzeto]

I got my 4G in February and can honestly say I have never dropped a call on it. I live in a pretty fringe area so I should be a good test subject for the signal quality of the 3D. Just by looking at the signal levels in ##DEBUG#, the 4G and 3D are pretty similar in db levels.

 

[novox77]

Thanks novox! This is what the "pro" reviews should've done in the first place to test signal.

One question, what are we looking at in the last picture? Maybe it's too early, but I stared at that picture and couldn't see any results on either phone??

the two numbers near the bottom, which are the downstream and upstream speeds of a speed test.

Evo 3D: down: 20Mbps, up: 12Mbps
Evo 4G: down: 13Mbps, up: 11Mbps

Good catch; it's not very clear. I'll edit the OP.

 

[EarlyMon]

I got my 4G in February and can honestly say I have never dropped a call on it. I live in a pretty fringe area so I should be a good test subject for the signal quality of the 3D. Just by looking at the signal levels in ##DEBUG#, the 4G and 3D are pretty similar in db levels.

I tried that key sequence yesterday - it doesn't work on my Evo - hence the app above.

 

[novox77]

I tried that key sequence yesterday - it doesn't work on my Evo - hence the app above.

I just tried it and it worked on the 3D. on a conference call with the Evo 4G atm, so I can't test it there.

##33284#

 

[NSXLA]

Test 3: phones 10 feet apart
Phones are now placed approximately 10 feet apart from each other in an open space (different room in the house from test 1&2), where obstruction from furniture is negligible or equally biased. Phones performed comparably within the minute of observation:

Evo 3D: -73dBm to -78dBm
Evo 4G: -73dBm to -73dBm


Test 4: phones 10 feet apart + position swap
This is the same test case as test 3 but phone positions are swapped to eliminate any positional advantage. Again, phones performed comparably:

Evo 3D: -73dBm to -73dBm
Evo 4G: -73dBm to -78dBm

That is a really strong signal! do you live next to a tower?! or own a airwave?

Basically your findings contradicts majority of the reviews done by tech sites, interesting nonetheless.

 

[Kurakka]

Thanks for doing this test novox, but I do have one thing that I am interested in. We can see that for a connection that has been established already that the 3d does seem to be a little better than the 4g. My question is how much faster if at all is the 3d at acquiring a signal (3g, or 4g) from either a shutdown status or from a airplane mode status? What I am trying to get at is, if the 3d takes longer to get a solid signal as it moves from tower to tower in day to day operation that could be an issue in the long run.

Just a thought, as I dont even have a clue on how I would test this out.

thanks again.

 

[blingeorkl]

That is a really strong signal! do you live next to a tower?! or own a airwave?

Basically your findings contradicts majority of the reviews done by tech sites, interesting nonetheless.

In another thread he mentions having an Airave.

 

[novox77]

That is a really strong signal! do you live next to a tower?! or own a airwave?

Basically your findings contradicts majority of the reviews done by tech sites, interesting nonetheless.

I will test the phones in the same manner from a completely different location (at work) today and see if I can duplicate the results. Regardless of absolute signal strength, the idea is to compare the radio to a known standard (the Evo 4G) to see if there's a deficiency. But there could be a difference in performance between a strong signal and a weak one. I'll try to find an area of weak signal (a basement-level room at work) and see how it does compared with Evo 4G.

Thanks for doing this test novox, but I do have one thing that I am interested in. We can see that for a connection that has been established already that the 3d does seem to be a little better than the 4g. My question is how much faster if at all is the 3d at acquiring a signal (3g, or 4g) from either a shutdown status or from a airplane mode status? What I am trying to get at is, if the 3d takes longer to get a solid signal as it moves from tower to tower in day to day operation that could be an issue in the long run.

Just a thought, as I dont even have a clue on how I would test this out.

thanks again.

I just turned on airplane mode, and the app came up empty for tower lock. I waited 1 minute and turned on airplane mode, and in the time it took for me to switch back to the OpenSignal app (about 2 seconds), it was reporting signal strength and tower location already.

So... it seems pretty instantaneous to me. I'll try this at other locations later today.

 

[Jceinc]

Thanks for this super analysis Novox!!! I'm really stoked now

 

[legacy]

Soooooo glad to be losing the purple tint!

 

[Jceinc]

I just tried it and it worked on the 3D. on a conference call with the Evo 4G atm, so I can't test it there.

##33284#

That works on my Evo

 

[momoceio]

Congrads on your new EVO!. I really do hope the radio issue with these devices will be improved upon with updates. I just can't imagine why HTC would start using substandard gear. Sounds like you really love your phone... I'm looking forward to it myself...

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-3d/360306-signal-strength-analysis-evo-3d-evo-4g.html

 

[NeoteriX]

yup, you can have solid signal but small pipe due to overloaded network (think AT&T and iPhone hoards). That's why I stuck with wifi in my test; controlled environment in my home.

I would assume that network congestion would be similar in any given location though, allowing for a side-by-side comparison of two phones' 3G bandwidth. I think it would be useful to conduct speedtest runs over 3G for the two phones -- particularly because the speedtests were raised as an issue in one of the video reviews (phonedog I believe)

 

[EarlyMon]

I think TheHoodedClaw noted good 3G performance in his review above, unless I read that wrong.

 

[Rose4uKy]

So there is an OTA update when you get your phone? So I need to do that before installing any of my apps and then do a prl and profile update?

Forgot to mention, before I did any testing with the 3D, I installed the OTA patch, factory reset, and updated PRL and profile.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

I think TheHoodedClaw noted good 3G performance in his review above, unless I read that wrong.

I am using 3g and did tests using speednet as described above. My impression so far is that the 3d is similar to the 4g, maybe very slightly slower. Since I didn't test them side by side, it's hard to be definitive.

BUT, I am comfortable saying that stories that the 3d is sluggish are just not true, at least for my 3d on the network in my town.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

So there is an OTA update when you get your phone? So I need to do that before installing any of my apps and then do a prl and profile update?

For my EVO I checked for updates as normal and it showed one available. I hard reset afterwards because that's what I try to do every time I do a firmware update. There's little cost in doing it in this case since you won't have put work into installing apps when the phone is fresh out of the box.

I recommend updating prl and profile just on principle when you take the phone to a new area/town. Might be overkill, but doesn't take anything but a little time.

 

[EarlyMon]

I've found from basement-days Evo rooting advice to always update PRL and Profile when updating your rom - Mr. Ed makes this a key point in ensuring good 3G speed in the Evo forum sticky thread devoted to 3G performance.

 

[novox77]

Thanks. I'm not activated on the E3D yet, so I can't do any 3G tests at the moment. Give me a few days when work settles down, and I can swap out phones with minimal risk and finally test some voice/data stuff.

 

[Sketchr]

I've been lurking here for about a week as it's the best source of info on the 3VO whick I will own on Friday.
I found this link and like this guy's reviews and wanted to make sure you all saw it.

It was my understanding that currently all calls are done in 3G even if you are using the phone in 4G and in that coverage area. Is this not correct? Or is this only currently on Verizon?

 

[EarlyMon]

That's correct - the CDMA radio is used for voice and 3G, the 4G (WiMAX) radio is simply like adding a wifi connection on top of that.

 

[Jackietreehorn]

Thanks. I'm not activated on the E3D yet, so I can't do any 3G tests at the moment. Give me a few days when work settles down, and I can swap out phones with minimal risk and finally test some voice/data stuff.

Send one over to me (on your dime of course), I'll test out whatever you want!

Just another thanks for this test. Certainly eases my mind a little bit that it seems to at the very least be on par with the Evo (and should be leaps and bounds ahead of this Nexus sitting next to me).

 

[cobalt]

Compared my old Samsung Moment, the EVO 3D showed fewer bars in the same spot, but got better speeds. This was in a weak signal area, 1-3 bars. Plus, my Moment generally failed to complete the upload test, and the EVO3D never did. This was using speedtest.net mobile. The variation was wild, so it's hard to draw strong conclusions (and let's be honest, I'm comparing against a Samsung Moment) but I got higher, and generally more consistent peak speeds with the EVO 3D and lower ping times. I'm still running tests, but so far, the EVO 3D seems fine.

 

[novox77]

I was confused by the reviewer commenting that his call quality changed depending whether he was in 3G or 4G mode. I thought that wouldn't make a difference at all because the calls revert to 3G regardless...

3G or 4G has no impact on voice calls. you can disable both radios and still make calls. voice doesn't use those radios, ever.

the reviewer might be implying that those other radios are interfering with voice radio. highly unlikely. There's no reason why that would be a problem only with one phone. If it were a real problem, it would be so fundamental that all CDMA phones would suffer from it.

 

[EarlyMon]

I'll assume you misread EarlyMon, since your statement is correct other than "That's correct" (or there have been massive changes that I missed). Currently all calls are NOT done over 3G (or 4G for that matter), but are done over their slower 1x network. 3G and 4G are used exclusively for data. As EarlyMon said, the CDMA radio is used for Voice and 3G, and the 4G radio is separate.

I'm not sure about Verizon doing calls over 3G or not, but their LTE radios are separate as well, just like the WiMax ones in Sprint units.

Digital calling is a 2G function but - 1x is 3G.

1xRTT is a data transmission system used on CDMA networks that allows for connetion speeds of up to a theoretical limit of 144kbps in most implementations. Real world usage is typically much slower, though, coming in at somewhere around 80kbps. 1xRTT is often referred to as a 2.5G technology like GPRS, though it is officially a 3G technology according to the ITU's IMT-2000 spec.

What is 1xRTT? - Definition

As it's all CDMA, I simply refer to it as voice and 3G for data, trying to avoid confusion. Sorry that I caused some instead.

Does that clarify?