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On the plus side. I did the follow up on this on the phone app for this forum which I haven't been able to say before.

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I'm in California on AT&T, my iPhone 5 was the first of each of the iPhone's I've had that performed very well as a telephone. I was hoping my SGS4 would be it's equal or at least close.

As it turns out the Samsung is crystal clear, has a wide range of volume adjustment, and is far and away the very best phone I've had. It's shocking and very appreciated. Especially since I don't use a land line.

In fact since my wife talks on the phone so much, once she experienced a call on my S4, she promptly asked me to replace her iPhone 5 with an S4. I never thought she'd give up her iPhone 5 for anything.

The good news is her S4 is also exceptional, the bad news is now I'm paying more for a bigger airtime plan :)
 
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A small country? What, does the UK only have the one cell tower? :)

There were local planning objections to all the others.


As an addendum, I'd point out I wasn't comparing this with other smartphones or iAnythings as this is my one and only ever smartphone. But I have 7 or 8 mobile phones on the premises all of which do a better job on the holding a phone/text connection front than my Note 3. It was a shock.

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There were local planning objections to all the others.


As an addendum, I'd point out I wasn't comparing this with other smartphones or iAnythings as this is my one and only ever smartphone. But I have 7 or 8 mobile phones on the premises all of which do a better job on the holding a phone/text connection front than my Note 3. It was a shock.

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I wonder how widespread this issue will be, time will tell as more of us receive ours.
 
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I wonder how widespread this issue will be, time will tell as more of us receive ours.

From what I've been told here, not very much. As a phone, it clearly sucks. But apparently not to anyone referencing another smartphone. It's way worse than any dumb phone or indeed Nokia feature phone I have used - at fringe area performance - but it seems to me that it's likely better than an iPhone which latter has now become the new aluminium standard that most people will be using as their benchmark.

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OK Guys. I think I owe a great big fat apology...

So where I live, I'm basically dependent on just one tower with just about one other occasionally getting a look in. About every 6 months that tower goes down. Looks like that happened for the last 24 hours - exactly coinciding with the arrival of my Note 3. But now, I just returned and suddenly, I've got a perfectly OK signal and reception.

I'll keep this monitored but it looks like a false alarm on the Note 3's capabilities as a phone.

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OK Guys. I think I owe a great big fat apology...

So where I live, I'm basically dependent on just one tower with just about one other occasionally getting a look in. About every 6 months that tower goes down. Looks like that happened for the last 24 hours - exactly coinciding with the arrival of my Note 3. But now, I just returned and suddenly, I've got a perfectly OK signal and reception.

I'll keep this monitored but it looks like a false alarm on the Note 3's capabilities as a phone.

Moveon-Nothingtosee.png

I think its weaker than my note 2. Yesterday had H showing sat at my deskm on the N2, today have G on N3.

This doesnt just disrupt calls but stops me using the internet too. Almost in 2 minds about keeping it....Its causing real problems for me.
 
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True confessions, I'm such a smartphone addict, I've got several active lines. Once my Note 3 arrives I'll be comparing phone call performance against my iPhone 5 & Galaxy S4.

I've had every iPhone since the original, and not until the iP3GS was Apples phone performance decent. iPhone 4 brought the highly controversial and much denied "Antennagate" scandal which was very real. Just one article confirming the true cause was published, then quickly extinguished. Anyway not to revisit that nightmare, I'll fast forward to today.

Once I have compared these three I'll check in with some feedback for all.
 
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I think its weaker than my note 2. Yesterday had H showing sat at my deskm on the N2, today have G on N3.

This doesnt just disrupt calls but stops me using the internet too. Almost in 2 minds about keeping it....Its causing real problems for me.
Signal strength indicators are just that, a very rough indicator that should never be viewed as an accurate instrument. In fact unfortunately it seems to be human nature for some people to base their experience on how many bars the indicator shows rather than actual phone performance.

Candidly I rarely look at mine, and most certainly never compare two phones based on visible bars.
 
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OK Guys. I think I owe a great big fat apology...

So where I live, I'm basically dependent on just one tower with just about one other occasionally getting a look in. About every 6 months that tower goes down. Looks like that happened for the last 24 hours - exactly coinciding with the arrival of my Note 3. But now, I just returned and suddenly, I've got a perfectly OK signal and reception.

I'll keep this monitored but it looks like a false alarm on the Note 3's capabilities as a phone.

Moveon-Nothingtosee.png


Simon:

Can you do an update to the OP so people skimming the forum won't think you're still having an issue? If this was a tower problem and not a phone problem, they need to know that and are unlikely to go through this thread to find out :)

Thanks!
 
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Signal strength indicators are just that, a very rough indicator that should never be viewed as an accurate instrument. In fact unfortunately it seems to be human nature for some people to base their experience on how many bars the indicator shows rather than actual phone performance.

Candidly I rarely look at mine, and most certainly never compare two phones based on visible bars.

Agreed. But a side by side test with my n2 both on o2 sims suggests the n3 is very weak in poor reception areas and in doors. I believe this is a valid thread still.
 
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