Why does my wifi signal strength suck?

[jamst149]

The wifi indicator sometimes only show 1bar. Meanwhile i sitting maybe 10 feet away from my modem/router. Speedtest shows me getting 3200 kbps down and 1200 kbps up.

With two bars I am getting 8700 down and 2400 up.

I never get 3 bars.

Any analysis of these numbers? Are they typical? Anything I can do to achieve 3 bars?

 

[sitlet]

I noticed that too, my couch is 6 feet from my router, and if i move the phone around in my hand, i go from full bars to one bar. the wifi antenna in phones arent that great in order to save battery.

 

[Zardos]

I've noticed this too. It doesn't have any effect on my speed though.

 

[edlex]

According to RiverOfIce the wifi and 4G radios are terribly underpowered. She seems to think it's software related.

 

[nancyh1990]

Same issue. From 3 to 1 bar, my speed sucks. Never had this problem with my itouch, Macbook Pro, and my dell xps laptop.

 

[Evo_Pimpin]

I've noticed this too. It doesn't have any effect on my speed though.

Same here. My speed stays fast even though I only have one bar showing.

 

[polkadots]

A better question is "Why does my WiFi signal strength INDICATOR suck?" The indicator on your screen might not be the best indicator of strength. It could read 0, or 129869 bars...but all that really matters is the speeds you're pulling. Download the speedtest.net app and see what you're speeds are like.

 

[neodorian]

Yeah, "bars" are a very vague idea of signal strength. They are only for general quick looks at whether you have signal or not. I agree that the radios in this phone are not particularly good as I have less wifi and wimax signal than other similar devices in the same room. It would be nice if software fixes it but I get the feeling that you will run into more battery issues then. Everything with these cutting edge devices is a thin line between performance and battery life.