Signal Bars in dBm?

[JMF_Droid]

Now I know this issue or thread is probably somewhere out there, but I could not find one for the Fascinate? So I apologize ahead of time.

Anyways, as you all already know the Fascinate sometimes shows bars the do not match up w/ the dBm & vice versa. I was wondering if anyone knew what rang of dBm were equivalent to each set of bars? I've found one before for 5 bar phones, but ours only has 4 bars. Also...it's the lower the #, the better, right? So like -77dBm is better than -102dBm?

 

[Frisco]

Yes, with dbm you're looking to have the lowest number possible.

As far as the display bars equivalencies to the actual dbm data, I doubt there is much in the way of reliability/accuracy with that.

 

[JMF_Droid]

Yeah, the bars don't seem accurate at all. They actually make me laugh. Seeing as I can have 3 bars, be at -96dBm, and also be at 3 bars w/ -81dBm....I see combos of stuff like that all day. Also I just downloaded the Real Signal app to see how it matched up, now I have all kinds of different readings, lol! Idk which one is real. The bars don't match up w/ the stock dBm reader...and definitely don't match up w/ Real Signal. Real signal always claims I have worse service than the bars & stock dBm reader in the options settings. None of this matters truly to me bc I've never had a dropped call or any slowness in data. Just a peev more than anything. lol

 

[JMF_Droid]

Also forgot to state that for some reason the app caps off at -86 no matter what the bars or phone says it'self lol. I find that odd too.