Verizon GS3 signal reception thread

[Skeeter125]

Interesting you say that...I wondered that myself. Something just doesn't feel natural about not being able to hit *228 and update prl or anything. :hmmmm2:

I agree. I think the sim cards do not automatically update the prl like they are supposed to and that may be some of the reason. It just seems that when every phone is having the problem in some sort it is more than the antenna or radio that is being used especially when the same phones had no problems before lte and have no issue if switched to 3g only.

 

[rivera02]

i must really be lucky to live in such a good signal area. I've never dropped a call with my nexus and i never lose data...as long as the gs3 is at least as good as my gnex I'm good to go

 

[parapluie]

Thanks for all the updates about signal and call quality! I have been waiting to play around with an S3 in person before jumping in and ordering one (though it has been VERY difficult not to pre-order!) and this thread is going to greatly impact my decision.

 

[rushmore]

By the way nearly all have caved in for new devices and gone with the same radios. So that Razr HD is rumored to now have the same radio as the S3. CPU Testing numbers sent also show this. On the LTE side of the house there are a limited number of players in the multi core world. So many if not all have gone to Qualcomm.

Motorola DROID RAZR HD specs leaked on NenaMark site

Why Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 has the competition on the defensive | ExtremeTech

So it seems the only possibility for improvement is the antenna quality which is a pretty standard formula (although Apple found out the hard way how to wrongly do an antenna).

If Moto has gone by the S4 route then I would think they would have very similar performance.

Just Sayin...

Antenna design tends to be the real weak link. That is what hurt the Gnex, since all first gen LTE devices for VZW had similar radios.

 

[Skeeter125]

Antenna design tends to be the real weak link. That is what hurt the Gnex, since all first gen LTE devices for VZW had similar radios.

all the 1st gen lte devices used each companies own "lte radios" which seemed to all suck and be real battery hungry.

 

[Thechidz]

Bad news so far for me unfortunately :/ not connecting to 4g at all in my apartment and stuck on a slowwwww 3g connection at 3 bars, whereas on my thunderbolt I had a strong 4-5 bars of 4g. Wish there was a 4g toggle like on my bolt. If this is the case ill be seriously considering trading for a razr maxx

 

[mush10]

Mine seems to be holding up okay against my iPhone and seems to be better than my Gnex in terms of not losing signal. Still very early in my usage though.

One thing it is doing is flying on the LTE network. It is much faster than my Nexus for some reason.

 

[SamMax]

post from another user different forum


"well just got mine and the signal is 118, my nexus was 120 and my rezound is 99 or less.

I just tried making 3 calls and all of them dropped, shame as this phone is very nice but typical samsung crap antennas. I will see how things shake out but if it doesnt improve mine is going up for sale. I did not take off the plastic yet as I wanted to test it"

 

[dracozny]

nearest 4g access is 30 miles away so 4g isn't a big deal to me

 

[SamMax]

nearest 4g access is 30 miles away so 4g isn't a big deal to me

I don't have 4G where I live either. That's not the issue it's 3G.

 

[techgeek32]

I am beginning to think all these "signal issues" Is more with verizon's network and how it deals with sim cards more than the phones per say. Before lte I used various phones from various manufacturers and none had issues with reception, where as it seems every lte phone that comes out has some sort of reception at first( that 99% of the time gets fixed via an update) Just seems strange all the sudden these phones that had no issues before start all having reception/data issues.

I would disagree. I had this problem with Samsung phones on Sprint. They are known for having weaker antennas.

 

[techgeek32]

post from another user different forum


"well just got mine and the signal is 118, my nexus was 120 and my rezound is 99 or less.

I just tried making 3 calls and all of them dropped, shame as this phone is very nice but typical samsung crap antennas. I will see how things shake out but if it doesnt improve mine is going up for sale. I did not take off the plastic yet as I wanted to test it"

That is what I was afraid of. Every Samsung phone I have owned had poor signal quality due to weak antennas. Glad I didn't return my Razr Maxx yet.

 

[droblyer]

Update. I went to verizon and got my sim replaced. Didn't help anything. Unless im in the city and on 4g i have basically no data connection. 4g flies but on 3g even with two or three bars it won't do anything 90% of the time. Whenever I try to browse web or play store I get something like no internet connection, check connection and retry. My sister also recieved her s3 today so I went over to her house to compare and hers is the same way. Im totally bummed out at the moment. Even driving between her house and mine, about 15 miles I was trying to update some apps and it didn't even finish one. Also while trying to talk on the phone the other persons voice is constantly cutting out. Keep in mind this is not out in the boonies.

This is opposite of my experience with my old nexus. It usually showed low signal but almost always worked.

Not to mention the lower left corner of my screen has a purple tint. Not trying to discourage anybody, you mileage my vary. Maybe I just got a bummed unit, but it doesn't look good that my sisters has the same connectivity issues.

 

[ajdroidx]

Well, after reading some of these threads, I just want to CRY! I know some of you said 4g is not an issue, and I suppose its not, but from my experience with the Galaxy Nexus, even 3g connection had issues. Now, my wifi thats a different story, as is the network extender, but sometimes the Nexus has issues with the extender in the same room.

I know, the nexus and the SIII are two different devices. Two different radios and such. To me, as was mentioned by another user previous here on this thread (I think?) I wonder if its verizons network. Seems like the GSM phones have far fewer issues. Sure, verizon has a large network and blazing speeds, but what good are they if you can't stay connected? Why does the droid and rezound not have the issues that the samsungs do? antenna design?

At any rate, I am about at my wits end with the nexus. There is NOTHING on verizon right now that I am interested in. AT&T seems to get a better selection of phones and at least I can import devices and use a prepaid sim card.

I really hope these reports on the VZW S3 are very few and far between, but... I don't know...

 

[heyeaglefn]

My reception has been fine, good 4G signal. This is my first 4G phone and 4G just rolled out a few weeks around here.

I would calm down and see how it is for you before getting worked up.

 

[MooN]

My report isn't too scientific lol. However, the spots where I had weak signals on my Droid X, I have no signal at all on the S3.

 

[legalkill]

Sitting in my bedroom, Kennesaw, GA, My wifes Bionic -87, my s3 -108.

 

[darkestred]

Coming from a TB i'd say the signal strength is equivalent. I was getting 75-78 in my room and on the S3 its 80.

I made a call today and it sounded very clean. I made another call to customer support since my unlimited was gone. I could hear the rep clearly but i had to ask him to repeat some things. Could have just been the connection.

 

[FirstGen]

So the lower the dBm, the better? What is asu? what numbers should we be looking for?

 

[rage151]

By the way nearly all have caved in for new devices and gone with the same radios. So that Razr HD is rumored to now have the same radio as the S3. CPU Testing numbers sent also show this. On the LTE side of the house there are a limited number of players in the multi core world. So many if not all have gone to Qualcomm.

Motorola DROID RAZR HD specs leaked on NenaMark site

Why Qualcomm

 

[Skeeter125]

Update. I went to verizon and got my sim replaced. Didn't help anything. Unless im in the city and on 4g i have basically no data connection. 4g flies but on 3g even with two or three bars it won't do anything 90% of the time. Whenever I try to browse web or play store I get something like no internet connection, check connection and retry. My sister also recieved her s3 today so I went over to her house to compare and hers is the same way. Im totally bummed out at the moment. Even driving between her house and mine, about 15 miles I was trying to update some apps and it didn't even finish one. Also while trying to talk on the phone the other persons voice is constantly cutting out. Keep in mind this is not out in the boonies.

This is opposite of my experience with my old nexus. It usually showed low signal but almost always worked.

Not to mention the lower left corner of my screen has a purple tint. Not trying to discourage anybody, you mileage my vary. Maybe I just got a bummed unit, but it doesn't look good that my sisters has the same connectivity issues.

that seems like you got a lemon. To many issues all in one to be the phone otherwise everyone would be packing them back up to return.

 

[Skeeter125]

And honestly I will decide once my sgs3 comes whether it is sufficient or not, getting worked up over what others are reporting is worthless, because unless they are standing right next to you everything is going to vary. Relax people take a deep breath it is only the first day. If this is another nexus type reception issue I am sure it will surface and once anandtech does their review we all show know.

 

[SamMax]

So many, if not all 4g carriers have gone to Qualcomm. They probably will. Before 4g, everyone was on Qualcomm. There are many factors that contribute to radio performance - overall network, radio, proximity to a tower, etc... But I think the one that applies here is the RIL. Everyone used Qualcomm 3g radios, but different brands with the same carrier would have differing radio performance. It is due to the RIL - the interface between the phones hardware and modem.

Here's an excellent read to further explain why Samsung's radio's appear to perform poorly, no matter what radio they use. RootzWiki

That rootwiki kept me for a little bit then...I started to feel retarted..I don't know for sure maybe it's the wine.

 

[huffbanger]

So the lower the dBm, the better? What is asu? what numbers should we be looking for?

No, higher is better, or less negative. -80 is better than -83. Once a signal drops below -110 dBm or so, the receiver in the phone cannot differentiate the actual signal from noise. All receivers have noise. The "intelligence" or signal must be stronger than the noise, usually by about 10db.

On a side note: If the S3 truly has a horrible radio, would we be able to swap to a different phone AND keep our unlimited data?

 

[svensett]

Ok, here's my story...

Activated online per instructions and everything went fine. Popped 4G SIM in add fired it up and it took a while, but completed the activation process. Checked My Verizon and it showed the S3 instead of the DX, no issues with my unlimited plan.

The phone auto-detected my wifi and connected fine. It had already started downloading apps over 3G, but switched over to wifi. Ever since then it will not connect to mobile data (3G)... It popped on to 1X for a little bit, but no 3G since 1st start up.

The real kicker is I have 4-5 bars of service with 70-75 dBm. Called my landline and left a message and the call was crystal clear from both ends. A couple of text messages came through fine too.

Right now I have no data connection. No clue about 4G since it's not available in my area yet.

One weird thing with the connection though. Just for the heck of it, I did a manual check for software updates. The 3G symbol popped up in the notification bar briefly, then disappeared.

Guess I'll be heading to the VZN store tomorrow to see if there are any tech bulletins by then...



EDIT!!! Not sure what happened, but I let the phone sit for a while with wifi off and if finally grabbed 3G and so far it is staying on.