Verizon GS3 signal reception thread

[rushmore]

My background is science and economics, so everything to me is in the margins of change Having numbers with same OS and radio type provides some sense of trend and then the absolute way is fringe area testing- if the device works at all. That is how I will test, since already know how the Incredible, DX, DX2, Droid 2, Droid 3 and Razr perform. GS3 needs to get er' done in those areas, or I will just hold out for the Razr HD.

Added: Hoping the results are good

 

[DROID_SCOTSMAN]

First and foremost the phone needs to be, well.... a phone. If I have signal issues, I'll be ticked and return it. I was actually hoping to hold out until the new nexus was made (still have my pre-order Droid incredible). I pre-ordered to spare my unlimited data plan, I would suggest if you are in that boat, I would not cancel your pre-order, but rather return the phone within 14 days of receiving and get something else. (sucks but for most unless you started with a 4g phone, this will be the only way to keep the unlimited data plan).

Anyways, what's the point of unlimited data, if you can never use the phone? I was concerned sammy's phone would have connection issues, but held out hope the qualcomm radios would improve. Either way, I will check it out and see how it works for me and then go from there. Hopefully some folks will do preliminary testing and improve hope for myself...

 

[SamMax]

My background is science and economics, so everything to me is in the margins of change Having numbers with same OS and radio type provides some sense of trend and then the absolute way is fringe area testing- if the device works at all. That is how I will test, since already know how the Incredible, DX, DX2, Droid 2, Droid 3 and Razr perform. GS3 needs to get er' done in those areas, or I will just hold out for the Razr HD.

Added: Hoping the results are good

Funny thing about this just released article is it list's top complaints with the latest smartphone's
The Galaxy Nexus top issues don't mention reception but the Galaxy S3 does.



iPhone 4S, Galaxy S III study reveals biggest smartphone problems

 

[bennybbc]

this is the only way to test for this everything else is just speculation
NUMBERS MEAN SQUAT

Go to the areas that your last good phone barely got a signal and see what you get with this phone PLEASE (if it holds onto the calls, if it can even make a call)

AGAIN NUMBERS MEAN NOTHING actual performance is where it is at
Ive seen phones with no bars work perfectly and others with 1 bar that could not make calls in weak areas.

Yeah, the "Numbers" don't mean much to me either...But mostly because I don't really understand what they mean or how to interpret them. How about someone VERY briefly explaining what the higher and lower dBm numbers mean with relation to phone reception. I don't need to know all of the science behind it. I'm sure I'm not the only person who is ignorant in this subject. Thanks.

Benny

 

[dmanindfw]

Don't have my S3 yet but wanted to test my Droid X using OpenSignal app and use this as a placeholder with the DX's results. Keep in mind this is a 3G phone only. Conditions - at work at desk. Indoors at a building with historically subpar Verizon signal

MOTOROLA DROID X:

Cellular Mode -
Showing 3 out of 4 bars
Signal Strength 1 minute range - 57-87%
Verizon Wireless EVDO A - -83dBm 15asu
Average Signal 79% -80dBm
Speed test (averaged across 3 tests): ping 468ms (yuck), download 717kbps, upload 629 kbps

Quadrant Standard Benchmark (not signal related):
Total: 1644
CPU: 1434
Mem: 1854
I/O: 2883
2D: 556
3D: 1491

SAMSUNG GALAXY S3:

TBD

 

[SamMax]

This review makes the phone appear to have excellent reception. Almost too good as if a network extender is in the house. There is no signal fluctuation at all...strange.

YouTube - Verizon Samsung Galaxy SIII review

 

[Eryl Flynn]

I get mine on Monday, have a couple co workers with Razrs. I will run the signal app on my DX, run it on the S3 and do some side by side DBM comparison and report back by Tuesday.

Sorry would get some data sooner but something about NOT HAVING MY PHONE YET VERIZON!

 

[Skeeter125]

This review makes the phone appear to have excellent reception. Almost too good as if a network extender is in the house. There is no signal fluctuation at all...strange.

YouTube - Verizon Samsung Galaxy SIII review

maybe he is just in a really strong signal area. Although the signal bars appear grey which usually means no internet connection so maybe that isn't the case with the sgs3?

 

[SamMax]

maybe he is just in a really strong signal area.

Nope if you watch the review he says he's in a rural area with low reception.

 

[Skeeter125]

I think really people can't judge anything by what others are getting. It is going to be one of those things that if it works for you it works sort of how the nexus was. Many had issues and many did not.

 

[SamMax]

I really want it...so I think i'll have to try it out for myself. I remember the the 1st Moto Droid came out I had excellent reception at home always had full signal which is uncanny where I live.
I ended up going to another phone but eventually bought another Droid and it never had the signal strength as the first one.

Considering Samsung is selling these things like hotcakes I expect some quality control issues.

So yeah I guess your right, I think in some instances reception will vary handset to handset.

 

[2horses]

That can mean about a ten dB misread. Does the reception for data work just as good as the TB? Hi def video is a good test

The GB value for 4G on the Thunder would probably be about 99 dBm if ICS. With ICS, 4G tends to show a lower rating than 3G, but GB usually makes the 4G number look better than really is.

I feel so smart (or sad, not sure which one) that I completely comprehend this series of abbreviations and acronyms.....

 

[2horses]

maybe he is just in a really strong signal area. Although the signal bars appear grey which usually means no internet connection so maybe that isn't the case with the sgs3?

I think grey is Samsung's default color for the signal strength indicator - dark gray if no signal, then they lighten up when available. No color change, per se.

 

[rushmore]

Nope if you watch the review he says he's in a rural area with low reception.

But he also came from another carrier and not had LTE before, so probably had nowhere to go but up

 

[treb1797]

No problems here folks. Reception is the same as my DROID Charge & even better in places. Bars in my home office 2 to 3. Bars in my bedroom 3 to 4. Went out this afternoon to Best Buy & in areas of town where I would totallying loose data ( no 1x or 3G )w/ my DROID Charge I had 1 to 2 bars w/ the S3. Regarding phone calls, people say I sound clearer & no problems there. So it's all good on my end regarding this topic. Let me know if you boys need anything else on this issue.

 

[rushmore]

treb, be a bud and flip Best Buy off for me


Keep the practical comparisons commin' folks

BTW, a lot of ticked off BB customers, apparently. Me +1 to that.

 

[treb1797]

treb, be a bud and flip Best Buy off for me


Keep the practical comparisons commin' folks

BTW, a lot of ticked off BB customers, apparently. Me +1 to that.

All they said was it would be in stock next week & that they would have both the 16 & 32 GB's

 

[SamMax]

No problems here folks. Reception is the same as my DROID Charge & even better in places. Bars in my home office 2 to 3. Bars in my bedroom 3 to 4. Went out this afternoon to Best Buy & in areas of town where I would totallying loose data ( no 1x or 3G )w/ my DROID Charge I had 1 to 2 bars w/ the S3. Regarding phone calls, people say I sound clearer & no problems there. So it's all good on my end regarding this topic. Let me know if you boys need anything else on this issue.

Thanks so much for the update! I Wasn't sure how to respond to this...but the Charge when I briefly had it had pretty poor reception. I only had it for 2 days so I didn't give it a long trial...BUT I had heard that they updated the Charge and it helped quite a bit with reception.

Once again thanks for the reply...I can imagine how tough it is to pull yourself away and address our concerns and stop discovering more features with the S3 Looking forward to Tuesday...that's if Best Buy's word holds true.

 

[treb1797]

Anything I can do to help. We spend too much $ on these devices to not be happy.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Don't have my S3 yet but wanted to test my Droid X using OpenSignal app and use this as a placeholder with the DX's results. Keep in mind this is a 3G phone only. Conditions - at work at desk. Indoors at a building with historically subpar Verizon signal

MOTOROLA DROID X:

Cellular Mode -
Showing 3 out of 4 bars
Signal Strength 1 minute range - 57-87%
Verizon Wireless EVDO A - -83dBm 15asu
Average Signal 79% -80dBm
Speed test (averaged across 3 tests): ping 468ms (yuck), download 717kbps, upload 629 kbps

Quadrant Standard Benchmark (not signal related):
Total: 1644
CPU: 1434
Mem: 1854
I/O: 2883
2D: 556
3D: 1491

Like pointed out by some of us, you can't directly compare dbm of 3G GB phone to 4G ICS phone as OS reads signal differently and kind of signal is different. I think it only makes sense to compare SIII on verizon to Gnex, Razr (with ICS) and Dinc 4G just released.

 

[kboss375]

Back at my apartment with 4 bars of Ltd
-87dBm 53asu

 

[Ches111]

By the way nearly all have caved in for new devices and gone with the same radios. So that Razr HD is rumored to now have the same radio as the S3. CPU Testing numbers sent also show this. On the LTE side of the house there are a limited number of players in the multi core world. So many if not all have gone to Qualcomm.

Motorola DROID RAZR HD specs leaked on NenaMark site

Why Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 has the competition on the defensive | ExtremeTech

So it seems the only possibility for improvement is the antenna quality which is a pretty standard formula (although Apple found out the hard way how to wrongly do an antenna).

If Moto has gone by the S4 route then I would think they would have very similar performance.

Just Sayin...

 

[Skeeter125]

I think grey is Samsung's default color for the signal strength indicator - dark gray if no signal, then they lighten up when available. No color change, per se.

gotcha because I know previous devices I used had blue when it had good signal and grey if no signal.

 

[Skeeter125]

I am beginning to think all these "signal issues" Is more with verizon's network and how it deals with sim cards more than the phones per say. Before lte I used various phones from various manufacturers and none had issues with reception, where as it seems every lte phone that comes out has some sort of reception at first( that 99% of the time gets fixed via an update) Just seems strange all the sudden these phones that had no issues before start all having reception/data issues.

 

[SamMax]

I am beginning to think all these "signal issues" Is more with verizon's network and how it deals with sim cards more than the phones per say. Before lte I used various phones from various manufacturers and none had issues with reception, where as it seems every lte phone that comes out has some sort of reception at first( that 99% of the time gets fixed via an update) Just seems strange all the sudden these phones that had no issues before start all having reception/data issues.

Interesting you say that...I wondered that myself. Something just doesn't feel natural about not being able to hit *228 and update prl or anything. :hmmmm2: