Help Galaxy Note 2 Antenna Power?

[raiderleaf]

Hell All,

I'm currently a CrackBerry user awaiting the new Galaxy Note 2 to come out for Verizon. I'm using a Storm 2 (9550) with 3G and in my office suite I have TERRIBLE service (it's constantly on SOS mode) and it drains my battery to no end (I know I could turn it off, but I leave my suite every once in a while and I don't want to deal with that).

In short, does the Galaxy Note 2 have a strong antenna, as in have there been significant improvements in antenna technology in the past 3 years? Will 4G help me? I'm in a 4G area for what it's worth.

Thanks! - Raiderleaf

 

[Digital Controller]

Hell All,

I'm currently a CrackBerry user awaiting the new Galaxy Note 2 to come out for Verizon. I'm using a Storm 2 (9550) with 3G and in my office suite I have TERRIBLE service (it's constantly on SOS mode) and it drains my battery to no end (I know I could turn it off, but I leave my suite every once in a while and I don't want to deal with that).

In short, does the Galaxy Note 2 have a strong antenna, as in have there been significant improvements in antenna technology in the past 3 years? Will 4G help me? I'm in a 4G area for what it's worth.

Thanks! - Raiderleaf

I do not own a Galaxy Note 2, but from prior experience with Samsung, i can tell you there radios are not the best.

Usually their devices have mediocre antennas that work okay.

If you are looking for a device with the best antenna I would go with anything Motorola has made, their radios/antennas are the best i have ever seen on a device.

Hope this helps!

 

[raiderleaf]

Hey Digital Controller - thanks for the comment. I would never pass up on the GN2 for something made by Motorola, as the antenna isn't really a selling point per se. I just wanted to ask if its better than what I have now due to technological improvements in the industry overall in the last 3+ year for antenna technology.

 

[dan330]

maybe the 4G antenna might help you...

but i would suggest you look into the carriers!
i am guessing you are at the end of your contract and can look at other options.

seeing that you have bad coverage in your location.. you might ask others in your office what they use and how are their services doing.

The Note2 should be coming to the USA in 5 major carriers... so you should be covered.

I do agree that MOTO and HTC radios in past phones have been better than Samsung. But the rumor is that samsung has used better radios in these new devices.

 

[raiderleaf]

maybe the 4G antenna might help you...

but i would suggest you look into the carriers!
i am guessing you are at the end of your contract and can look at other options.

seeing that you have bad coverage in your location.. you might ask others in your office what they use and how are their services doing.

The Note2 should be coming to the USA in 5 major carriers... so you should be covered.

I do agree that MOTO and HTC radios in past phones have been better than Samsung. But the rumor is that samsung has used better radios in these new devices.

While I am at the end of my contract, the rest of my family members on my plan are not and still have over a year to go. I haven't had terrible coverage with Verizon per se, everything is fine when I'm out of my suite.

I'm not really looking for other devices or carriers, rather I'm wondering if anyone has insight as to how this tech has improved and if it makes a difference with 4G over 3G in terms of signal strength.

 

[aentropy]

I do not own a Galaxy Note 2, but from prior experience with Samsung, i can tell you there radios are not the best.

Usually their devices have mediocre antennas that work okay.

If you are looking for a device with the best antenna I would go with anything Motorola has made, their radios/antennas are the best i have ever seen on a device.

Hope this helps!

So true. Maybe it's because of their time in the game but their antenna AND call/earpiece quality have always been awesome. I don't like their phones as much these days (why are we trying to design phones that are supposed to look tough or like they will stab you when you sleep...) but those are great things about motorola.

TIMEPORT baby!!!

 

[Digital Controller]

While I am at the end of my contract, the rest of my family members on my plan are not and still have over a year to go. I haven't had terrible coverage with Verizon per se, everything is fine when I'm out of my suite.

I'm not really looking for other devices or carriers, rather I'm wondering if anyone has insight as to how this tech has improved and if it makes a difference with 4G over 3G in terms of signal strength.

If you are looking for good coverage of 3G/4G LTE i would suggest to go with Verizon, you really can't go wrong with the coverage they have...I guess other people might notice the lack of quality in Samsung radios, but with Verizon, since the coverage is so good, the lack of radio on Samsung's part is unseen.

IF the radios are getting better on Samsung's end i applaud them, i would certainly enjoy something better than the one in my GNex

 

[Ballymoss]

I've not measured it in any scientific way but I regularly have a drink in a nearby pub and I found it hard to get a decent signal on my SG3, so for instance when I was using the TapaTalk app to access this forum I would often give up. However the SGN2 seems to connect without problem. I am sure there is some improved hardware "under the bonnet".
With WiFi using something like Google Now and asking it it a question the response is instantaneous.

 

[dochog]

I do have to say that the iphone 4 seemed to give better signal, but, hey, it's quite nice when they can't get hold of you sometimes, so I see that as a bonus.

 

[zombdroid]

At my place of work, my cell and 4g are both on the weak side. I had a previous HTC phone and the reception on all antennas was just terrible. I had no signal in half of our building, I had to get rid of the phone, went to the Motorola Photon and it worked great. I currently have the RAZR Maxx and again, the antennas are great.

I am planning to ask my local Verizon corp store if I can borrow a Note 2 for a couple of hours for antenna evaluation. OpenSignal is a great application for testing signal strength.

 

[Ag76]

At my place of work, my cell and 4g are both on the weak side. I had a previous HTC phone and the reception on all antennas was just terrible. I had no signal in half of our building, I had to get rid of the phone, went to the Motorola Photon and it worked great. I currently have the RAZR Maxx and again, the antennas are great.

I am planning to ask my local Verizon corp store if I can borrow a Note 2 for a couple of hours for antenna evaluation. OpenSignal is a great application for testing signal strength.

I also work in an area that receives a weak signal on Verizon. I'm considering upgrading to the Motorola Razr HD Maxx, but am now very interested in the Note 2. My concern is that I'll get a better signal with the Razr HD than the Note 2, based on reputation. Zombdroid, I hope you're able to borrow a Note 2 from Verizon and compare signal strength between the Note 2 and your Razr Maxx. I look forward to hearing the results.

 

[drexappeal]

With experiencing Motorola radios, this is the one area that has me most concerned...simply due to past history with Samsung. I just hope the radios are strong enough for my needs.

 

[colnago]

FWIW, I have a T-Mo Defy, which supports HSPA on both T-Mo and At&t. It acheived better dBm numbers than both my at&t and T-Mo branded Notes, on the irder of 10 - 15dBm on both networks. This from someone who made an antenna for the original Droid (test results in that forum here).

I may be taking the Note 2 back, given that it will drop to Edge, or lose network altogether, where the Defy would still be on HSPA.

 

[Old Faithful]

I also work in an area that receives a weak signal on Verizon. I'm considering upgrading to the Motorola Razr HD Maxx, but am now very interested in the Note 2. My concern is that I'll get a better signal with the Razr HD than the Note 2, based on reputation. Zombdroid, I hope you're able to borrow a Note 2 from Verizon and compare signal strength between the Note 2 and your Razr Maxx. I look forward to hearing the results.

After lurking here for a while I found a post that I felt compelled to answer, since, as a country boy, signal strength has always been concern number one with all the phones we've had over the past 20 years, and since we have both the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the Motorola RAZR HD.

After using these phones for the past 3 months I can tell you that they are definitely better than what we used to have, but contrarily to most of the opinions expressed here, in this case Samsung has beaten Motorola, and by about 3 dBms!

In any case, both these phones perform better than the older phones we have had before. Whereas we used to lose connection around -103 to -105 dBm, with the Note 2 I can hold on to a conversation and keep it clear all the way at least to -111 dBm and it detects service all the way down to -113dBm, whereas the sound on the RAZR starts getting garbled at -109 dBm.

One thing I'd suggest the original poster is to consider a wireless amplifier. We've had one for several years and since we've had it, it's much, much easier on the battery and the radio component as well (before that I'd notice that signal sensitivity would gradually diminish over time)

 

[PiscesCloud]

Hi Old Faithful

Sounds interesting but what is a 'wireless amplifier'? Is it a device you attach to your house to boost the signal or something attached to the phone to improve its sensitivity?

 

[tigmd99]

Yes, Samsung has certainly improve their radios. In fact, right now, my GN2 has better cell reception than my wife's iPhone 5...both on Sprint network.