Help Signal Strength

[kklier]

How is everyone finding Signal strength?

I stopped by my friendly neighborhood VZW Corporate store. There were 12 people in line for he GN. I went just to check it out and compare. One thing I noticed was the signal strength. The device had v4.0.2, but the signal strength seemed subpar.

I compared it to the Razr, Rezound, Bionic, and Charge. All these devices where around -39dBm to -55dBm, but the Nexus was -120dBm. The Motorola's had the best signal strength.

I'm a little concerned from that stand point. What are others seeing?

 

[djbasik]

I have had mine for about 2 days now (Virgin Mobile Canada, running 4.0.1).

I came from an iPhone and the only signal issues im seeing on the nexus is with wifi. My WiFi signal is significantly decreased in some areas. Not a big deal.

As for cell. signal I don't notice any difference.

 

[you2]

Ouch! That is really bad. This is sort of a thread bump because I would really like to hear from other VZ owners of the nexus (in the super duper big thread at least two people mentioned very poor reception).

How is everyone finding Signal strength?

I stopped by my friendly neighborhood VZW Corporate store. There were 12 people in line for he GN. I went just to check it out and compare. One thing I noticed was the signal strength. The device had v4.0.2, but the signal strength seemed subpar.

I compared it to the Razr, Rezound, Bionic, and Charge. All these devices where around -39dBm to -55dBm, but the Nexus was -120dBm. The Motorola's had the best signal strength.

I'm a little concerned from that stand point. What are others seeing?

 

[Slayer01]

I have -103 dBm

 

[rushmore]

Be careful, the Nexxites will mark this thread with an upside down "N". Thou shalt notteth' beseecheth' their idoleth'

The signal strength will be the greatest evah' in the minds of the beholders

Just messing around of course, but some posts in the forum do have that kind of vibe. The two issues mentioned have been the radio reception and wifi strength for the Nexus, so interesting to see if the VZW version users confirm it.

 

[you2]

Well; my understanding is the razr had crappy wifi reception too. Oh well i know a few folks still have the razr so maybe they will take the time to compare the two and comment on the different antennae (cell, 3g, 4g). I'm going to try to pick up a nexus after work; I guess if it sucks I can always exchange it for the razr in a week or two.

Be careful, the Nexxites will mark this thread with an upside down "N". Thou shalt notteth' beseecheth' their idoleth'

The signal strength will be the greatest evah' in the minds of the beholders

Just messing around of course, but some posts in the forum do have that kind of vibe. The two issues mentioned have been the radio reception and wifi strength for the Nexus, so interesting to see if the VZW version users confirm it.

 

[Puppa]

Careful--there's reported signal strength and then there's the actual quality of the signal. CDMA is a bit tricky in this area. If you get good connection quality, don't drop calls, and have good data rates, then the signal strength reported is just a number...

On the other hand, if your seeing calls drop, data outage, etc., please post--then it's something more tangible.

Just to be clear, I was talking about CDMA above. Wifi can be similar, especially N, with the reported strength only being part of the picture--if you still get good, reliable data transfers, don't worry.

 

[rushmore]

Well; my understanding is the razr had crappy wifi reception too. Oh well i know a few folks still have the razr so maybe they will take the time to compare the two and comment on the different antennae (cell, 3g, 4g). I'm going to try to pick up a nexus after work; I guess if it sucks I can always exchange it for the razr in a week or two.

As you know, I have not exactly been fawning over the Razr, so a little objective. The Razr has some issues: Fixed battery, display can get very warm, device freezes and reboots in HDMI mode- but the wifi and radio reception is as good or better than any device I have used.

Just test the device out and about Test in areas that are weaker and see if an issue. Could be nothing at all.

I am going to test one later today to see for myself. On the very evil selfish side, if the Nexus did have issues, it would make me feel better- I would have got one if had a micro sd slot. Razr is nice, but I still need to know

Puppa makes a good point, so just test it out

 

[kklier]

I reported above regarding the signal strength in the settings menus. All the devices where within 5 feet of each other. I would suspect they received the signal strength. My assumption was that the reported signal strength in the settings menu was standard across devices and that the signal indicator in the notification area was just the device manufactures interpretation of the signal.

 

[rushmore]

This is true to some degree for dBM, but should fall within a tolerance (a point or two). The dBM signal should be little difference in interpretation, where as signal bars will be very subjective and not worth comparing.

 

[blastbeats]

I had to go to work after picking up my Nexus. My office building is notorious for bad signal strength. I am in a 4g area but have only had it once, when I went outside; any other time I am at 3g.

However, and this a really early observation, I felt like I had better signal strength on my HTC Eris(!). I am getting less speed and more frequent lost signal then my 2 year old Eris.

I would like to stress again that nobody gets 'good' signal in my office building, just different shades of 'bad'. So far (aka 4 hours into owning it), the Nexus is doing worse then my old HTC Eris. I haven't even tried to make a call on it yet, I am strictly talking data.

 

[Ken7]

Careful--there's reported signal strength and then there's the actual quality of the signal. CDMA is a bit tricky in this area. If you get good connection quality, don't drop calls, and have good data rates, then the signal strength reported is just a number...

On the other hand, if your seeing calls drop, data outage, etc., please post--then it's something more tangible.

Just to be clear, I was talking about CDMA above. Wifi can be similar, especially N, with the reported strength only being part of the picture--if you still get good, reliable data transfers, don't worry.

I would tend to agree. Although I too am seeing about -112db, I'm not experiencing any issues with reception.

Battery life seems to be another issue.

 

[mobgob]

I don't really see any difference in signal strength. It is actually the same maybe slightly better than my wifes 4S. I had the Bionic and a OG droid and both of them were about the same as my Nexus is now.

 

[Ken7]

Oh well, so much for what I just wrote! I'm in my house and just dropped my 4G down to 3G and just went to NO DATA!

Damn it! This is EXACTLY what I worried about with the Nexus, the damn Samsung radio. I'll tell you this, if it's going to be a repeat of my horrific Samsung Charge, I'm going back to the Rezound.

Thus far I honestly think I was getting a better feeling with the Rezound.

Battery life seems to pretty dismal from what I'm seeing, but it's still early.

I also don't see any way to get a 16:9 Aspect Ratio from the camera. I was able to do that with almost all of my phones. Am I missing something?

Here's yet another thing I'm noticing. When watching movie trailers on either Flickster or Fandango, they look kind of blurry. I recall the Rezound looking much sharper and yet it had the same resolution.

 

[kklier]

hmmm, are you holding it right?

I was not even holding the devices in the store when tested them.

 

[kklier]

I'm seeing several people complain of this issue in with the v4.0.2 update on Engadget

PSA: Verizon's Galaxy Nexus getting Android 4.0.2 update today - Engadget

 

[Ken7]

hmmm, are you holding it right?

I was not even holding the devices in the store when tested them.

Yes Mr. Jobbs, I think I'm holding it right.

I'll confess to being more than a bit worried at this point. I also can't find a way to adjust screen brightness for the internet pages. On other Androids I've had a separate setting for internet page screen brightness, but I don't see it on the Nexus. The pages are a bit on the dim side.

 

[you2]

This review suggest 4G is better than the bionic; but battery life sucks royally:
Galaxy Nexus Review

 

[Sketchr]

So far singal strengh seems to mirror the Thunderbolt, but is not quite as strong as the Rezound in the same place.

 

[kklier]

I dunno. The Bionic and the Razr had the best reception with the Razr edging it out. When I get my Nexus tomorrow I'm going to hold off on the update and see what kind of signal strength I get on v4.0.1.

 

[rushmore]

Smart move so you can compare versions. If a difference, this would suggest the issue can be fixed in firmware and not a hardware issue

 

[OfTheDamned]

I'm getting pretty bad signal vs the Resound I had for a test drive. 4g is trying to switch off at my house were is was very solid on the HTC. My Fascinate was recently updated to 2.3.5 and that improved the signal by a ton so maybe 4.1 will be better too.

 

[Ken7]

This review suggest 4G is better than the bionic; but battery life sucks royally:
Galaxy Nexus Review

And I'll tell you this (at least so far), neither is even in the same ballpark as the Rezound. Battery life on the Rezound was the best I've seen on a 4G device and the 4G was rock solid.

I'm finding neither on the Nexus. It just isn't holding on to a 4G signal and the battery is really bad.

 

[Ken7]

I'm getting pretty bad signal vs the Resound I had for a test drive. 4g is trying to switch off at my house were is was very solid on the HTC. My Fascinate was recently updated to 2.3.5 and that improved the signal by a ton so maybe 4.1 will be better too.

Yup. I kept insisting that people were just dismissing the potential bad issues with the Samsung radio in the Nexus. Some said I was being an alarmist and the radio was 'new'. Well it seems that 'new' isn't 'better' in this case.

I'm really bummed at this point. But the Rezound is a definite fall back although I haven't tried the Razr. But that sealed battery still scares me. The heavy duty battery on the Rezound went on forever.

 

[nj02vette]

FWIW,
Signal strength on my GNex is -97dBm showing 2 bars.

Signal strength on my DX is -100dBm showing 4 bars.