Is ANYONE having reception issues?

[jazzman09]

yes this problem is really real, a case doesn't solve it and it looks like it is hardware related, no fix in sight, sad might have to return phone because of it.

 

[pank]

yes this problem is really real, a case doesn't solve it and it looks like it is hardware related, no fix in sight, sad might have to return phone because of it.

That really does disappoint me... Like I said I really do love the phone and Android, looks like I'm going back to my (locked down) iPhone 3G. God I hate having to Jailbreak just to do the simplest of modifications

And what really sucks is I get a full zero drop not even touching the phone. That really makes me think there is an issue with the antenna they use....

 

[jazzman09]

That really does disappoint me... Like I said I really do love the phone and Android, looks like I'm going back to my (locked down) iPhone 3G. God I hate having to Jailbreak just to do the simplest of modifications

And what really sucks is I get a full zero drop not even touching the phone. That really makes me think there is an issue with the antenna they use....

here too, sitting down on table 5 bars, pick it up 0 - 2 bars, great!

 

[Baldilocks]

Yes, mine bounces like crazy from 5-0 to the big fat No Service symbol. Every Samsung I have ever owned has been poor in the RF department. I shouldn't have expected this one to be any better.

 

[mongstradamus]

Its good to know i am the only person having issues picking up the phone and losing 2 or 3 bars. Sounds like if no fix is in sight returning the phone, guess going to have to just eat the restocking and upgrade fee

 

[jpeg42]

But are you dropping calls and data? I am finding no dropped calls or voice issues and low drops in data with one or even no bars. Sure if I superman grip the phone I can get significt loss but nothing as bad as the iphone 4.

 

[rlb4]

How do people in Northern NJ find the reception and ability to hold a call? I'm coming from an iphone 3G that dropped calls a lot even with 5 bars.

 

[mongstradamus]

if i pick up the phone i get the blue circle with line thru saying no service, i cant text or make any calls i have tried. If i were to get an signal with no bars my dl speeds from speedtest are 1/3 the speed of if it were just laying on the table. Definatly a no go for me,

In areas where on my old 3g iphone i would get full bars like in the apple store where theres an micro cell tower, i dont get full , while the iphone 4s in the store get full bars no matter how hard i grip them

I really liked this phone too thats whats the most disheartening

 

[jpeg42]

if i pick up the phone i get the blue circle with line thru saying no service, i cant text or make any calls i have tried. If i were to get an signal with no bars my dl speeds from speedtest are 1/3 the speed of if it were just laying on the table. Definatly a no go for me,

In areas where on my old 3g iphone i would get full bars like in the apple store where theres an micro cell tower, i dont get full , while the iphone 4s in the store get full bars no matter how hard i grip them

I really liked this phone too thats whats the most disheartening

All I can say is if your captivate is giving you signal issues in a certain location, an iphone 4 will be worthless....trust me.

A drop of bars from holding a phone shows weak signal area. That doesn't happen in strong five bars or store worth a micro cell.

My iphone dropped to no signal from the same couch my captivate drops to one or two bars when holding, but never no service on it.

Signal in my house is crap I guess but I didn't notice it until these new smart phones.

 

[mongstradamus]

I am not going back to get an iphone 4 , my 3g iphone wouldnt really drop where it would be unusable i still could browse web and text. The captivate I can't even do that.

The point i was making about apple store was , an area where most phones get full service no matter what you do to it this phone drops 2 or 3 bars. Thats not acceptable in my book.

I will have to see what att and samsung say about this issue, i was ******ed and bought apps and all the accessories for the phone.

If i upgrade to anything i would jump to vzw and possibly get the droidx. reason stayed with att is the plan got grandfathered into they dont offer anymore and its 25 bucks a month cheaper then any other plan out there

 

[jpeg42]

sure you need a phone that is reliable. I blame at&t.

Did the store phones have 4.01?

 

[mongstradamus]

i actually dont blame att as much as i do samsung in this case. I did a little test in my living room which has router and cable modem in it , i walked to far side of the room by the door, my wifi signal dropped from full to 1 bar. That definately is a problem

 

[Baldilocks]

Sorry to say, but I can often make calls on my iPhone 4, where the captivate has the No Service symbol. No getting around the fact that the antenna on the iPhone is simply stronger - no matter what media hype says.

 

[mongstradamus]

the antennae strength of the phone is a bit weird , it drops so drastically when the phone is touched that seems to be a major problem. its a major deal breaker for me that i cant actually touch the phone or i will lose service.

I will give captivate another chance when i try to exchange it for a new phone if those issues arent fixed looks like i will either go back to an really old samsung flip phone or jump to vzw and get an droid x or incredible

 

[Dyskresiac]

Here's some comparisons with phones that don't suck. Saying it has better call quality and reception than an iPhone is like saying it sounds better than a tin can. Blackberries are quality phones, with the best quality.

So I have my Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Curve, and Samsung Captivate side-by-side.

Bars:
Captivate-2/3 depending on grip
Bold-5 stable
Curve-5 stable

Measurements:
Captivate- -97dBm to 105dBm erratic
Bold- -70dBm stable
Curve- -75dBm stable
Bold- Completely cusping it in hands, leaving only enough opening to see the screen: -89dBm

Call Quality:
Captivate- Drops calls, even when it doesn't it's very muffled
Bold- Crystal Clear
Curve- Crystal Clear


Comparing the Samsung Captivate to the iPhone is like comparing it to other kids on the short bus. Yeah, it's better no doubt. But let's get real. What is a phone if you can't make clear calls on it? I'm really considering returning my captivate for the Torch.

 

[samtr87]

If it's muffled, try turning off the noise suppression.

 

[Dyskresiac]

That didn't change it. I'm just coming from the Cadillac of phones (Blackberry Bold) to a "Pimped Out" Ford focus (Samsung Captivate.) So I have a different perspective than those coming from a Pinto (iPhone.)

 

[samtr87]

When you're on a call, turn on noise reduction if you haven't tried it yet.

 

[Jsimm13]

My husband and I both bought captivates a couple of weeks ago and the reception in our house is terrible!!! I changed phones from a Blackberry Pearl and he had the I-phone, both phones had way better reception than these new captivates. AND IT DOESNT MATTER WHICH HAND I HOLD IT IN!!!!!!!! In a matter of minutes the bars change drastically. And sometimes I cannot send text msgs for minutes while I am sitting in certain spots (upstairs in my bed, or downstairs on my couch). It continuosly says FAILED until it decides to get some bars! And Im not receiving the messages either because I can see that the person sent the message at say 10:30 but I dont get it on my phone until 10:40. And no im not dropping calls but I want to actually receive the calls when a person calls, not get their message (becasue my phone never rang) and have to call them back!! This is unsat. When I call to complain..Best Buy (where I bought), At&t, and Samsung they all say....We havent heard of any problems like this from anyone esle!!! Its absolutely driving me crazy. I guess I will have to go back to a blackberry!

 

[pank]

My husband and I both bought captivates a couple of weeks ago and the reception in our house is terrible!!! I changed phones from a Blackberry Pearl and he had the I-phone, both phones had way better reception than these new captivates. AND IT DOESNT MATTER WHICH HAND I HOLD IT IN!!!!!!!! In a matter of minutes the bars change drastically. And sometimes I cannot send text msgs for minutes while I am sitting in certain spots (upstairs in my bed, or downstairs on my couch). It continuosly says FAILED until it decides to get some bars! And Im not receiving the messages either because I can see that the person sent the message at say 10:30 but I dont get it on my phone until 10:40. And no im not dropping calls but I want to actually receive the calls when a person calls, not get their message (becasue my phone never rang) and have to call them back!! This is unsat. When I call to complain..Best Buy (where I bought), At&t, and Samsung they all say....We havent heard of any problems like this from anyone esle!!! Its absolutely driving me crazy. I guess I will have to go back to a blackberry!

I gave up and returned mine, horrible reception... I actually took a video / link below (on a flat surface with no hands touching the phone and you can see the bars bounce from 3 to 0 bars).

http://androidforums.com/samsung-captivate/128368-anyone-having-reception-issues.html#post1260766

I got tired of all the dropped calls and returned the phone then went out and purchased a Droid X. Night and day and to top it off the battery life is the best I've seen on a droid phone...

 

[Divinedark]

Mine works just fine. Fewer dropped calls and a higher data transfer rate side by side with my 3GS. Granted, not having HSUPA sucks, but I'll live.

I have stated once and will state it again, I believe that is just the way the signal is being shown on the graph that makes people freak out. I've been able to maintain a stable download rate with my bars jumping all over the place, holding the phone or not.

I've had a light touch with my phones when holding them since I had one of the first Blackberry devices with the most pickey antenna in the history of man, so I never grip my phone per se. But I do notice that when I palm the back of the device that I lose a bar. Maybe two, but that doesn't seem to impact performance.

One thing that I've noticed with Android devices that people don't think about. There are numbers everywhere. The amount of memory you're using, the amount of signal the phone is reporting, the numbers all over the battery graph. If you stare at the numbers and don't treat them like they're almost completely arbitrary you will never enjoy your phone. That's why Apple hides those things from people. Just let the device work... Have fun with it. It's not like you're stuck with this thing till you die. Just use it however you want and wring every last drop of fun out of it. If it doesn't work as you'd like your phone to work, then take it back and get one that does.

 

[pank]

Mine works just fine. Fewer dropped calls and a higher data transfer rate side by side with my 3GS. Granted, not having HSUPA sucks, but I'll live.

I have stated once and will state it again, I believe that is just the way the signal is being shown on the graph that makes people freak out. I've been able to maintain a stable download rate with my bars jumping all over the place, holding the phone or not.

I've had a light touch with my phones when holding them since I had one of the first Blackberry devices with the most pickey antenna in the history of man, so I never grip my phone per se. But I do notice that when I palm the back of the device that I lose a bar. Maybe two, but that doesn't seem to impact performance.

One thing that I've noticed with Android devices that people don't think about. There are numbers everywhere. The amount of memory you're using, the amount of signal the phone is reporting, the numbers all over the battery graph. If you stare at the numbers and don't treat them like they're almost completely arbitrary you will never enjoy your phone. That's why Apple hides those things from people. Just let the device work... Have fun with it. It's not like you're stuck with this thing till you die. Just use it however you want and wring every last drop of fun out of it. If it doesn't work as you'd like your phone to work, then take it back and get one that does.

I'll respectfully disagree... For my personal experience I was getting dropped calls and zero data connection when the phone/bars would bounce down to zero.

 

[Divinedark]

I'll respectfully disagree... For my personal experience I was getting dropped calls and zero data connection when the phone/bars would bounce down to zero.

And that's fine. This was just my personal experience with 5 different Captivate devices. I had reception problems with Captivate number 1, but I haven't had trouble since.

I'm sure you're having trouble with your phone. I'm not saying there isn't viable concerns here, but I'm saying that my experience has been fine. I'm not a fanboy. I've traded the Captivate twice for an iPhone 4 and my reception and call quality were just much much better with the captivate while showing fewer bars. Not a huge victory there, considering, but none the less.

 

[pank]

And that's fine. This was just my personal experience with 5 different Captivate devices. I had reception problems with Captivate number 1, but I haven't had trouble since.

I'm sure you're having trouble with your phone. I'm not saying there isn't viable concerns here, but I'm saying that my experience has been fine. I'm not a fanboy. I've traded the Captivate twice for an iPhone 4 and my reception and call quality were just much much better with the captivate while showing fewer bars. Not a huge victory there, considering, but none the less.

No problem and I appreciate your posts. Actually I am a fanboy (an apple fanboy, wouldn't trade my iMac/Macbook/ or iPods for anything else)

I've been an iPhone user since day one and have owned each new version. However I'm glad I jumped on the Android train and I truly love the OS, regardless of which phone.

Take care Divinedark.

 

[Divinedark]

No problem and I appreciate your posts. Actually I am a fanboy (an apple fanboy, wouldn't trade my iMac/Macbook/ or iPods for anything else)

I've been an iPhone user since day one and have owned each new version. However I'm glad I jumped on the Android train and I truly love the OS, regardless of which phone.

Take care Divinedark.

Same here. I kept an iPhoto event book for the 2.5G, 3G, and 3GS launch line. It was great... Don't know why, but I love a good line standing...

The iP4 just really disappointed me... Loving Android so far, and no cheek dials. haha!