Help Signal strength/call quality of Evo 3D

Welcome to the forums!

Best luck with your replacement.

You know, I'm not really good at giving out kudos that often. But in this case I really want to thank you guys for doing the job that so many professional reviewers didn't seem to.

Maybe their methodologies are better than I give them credit for but their evaluations
seemed lacking in discipline. Maybe they just got a phone with a bad radio (which does happen) but it doesn't seem like any of them took the time to touch base with Sprint about the issue if that was the case.

I've gained more in depth knowledge from this thread than I did from any review I've read so far.

You guys are way better than I will ever be at testing. I have noticed since moving over that my speeds seem to be slower (Speedtest.net) I know not accurate but what I am wondering is, maybe there is a combination of things that could be causing my problem. Maybe Sprint has picked up a significant number of new customers in my area? Maybe there are technical issues with a tower(s)? Maybe I have a 3D built on Friday or Monday? I did try the proxy settings fix which used to work wonders for my Evo but every time I apply the fix my speeds get into the double digits. Thanks to Novox, Early Mon, The Hooded Claw and everyone who has taken the time to due some qualitative analysis for those of us technically inept.

Charles

TheHoodedClaw said:

I am using 3g and did tests using speednet as described above. My impression so far is that the 3d is similar to the 4g, maybe very slightly slower. Since I didn't test them side by side, it's hard to be definitive.

BUT, I am comfortable saying that stories that the 3d is sluggish are just not true, at least for my 3d on the network in my town.

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a36guy said:

Im taking my EVO 3d back, I love the speed and the newer software. the problem is reception. It is not as good the signal is not as good as the 4G. Teh little difference is enough to cause problems at both houses I own. The internet worked fine before but now fails most of the time. It drops calls were it rarely did before.
The battery is nice it lasts about double the 4g and I will miss that.

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This is my problem in a nutshell. The three places I use my phone the most my service is lousy, my calls all break up. My Hero, my kids Moments and my wife's Rumor all work just fine in all the same spots, never great reception but I did not have any issues. I am getting my new EVO 3D today and I have a couple of days to see if its better. I really hope that it is because I do not have any interest in the Photon or the Within.

Unfortunately I'm in the same predicament. Lots to love about the phone, but the phone part isn't one of them. I've swapped out two already, both have the same poor call quality next to a Hero and a Samsung Intercept. I can't even get visual voicemail the signal is so weak.

Replacement, sadly, did not resolve any of my issues.

I'll be sitting back now, waiting for Nexus 3, which will hopefully land on Sprint. I too have no interest in Motorola or Samsung.

Hey all

Well I just sent the email below to HTC. I am very dissapointed about my reception problems.

My new EVO 3D has very pool signal strength compared to my old EVO. I had my EVO for a year and in the same house, same office, and same parts of town I dropped calls on my EVO maybe 2 or 3 times. Well now with my EVO 3D I drop calls weekly if not daily and this is extremely disappointing. Sprint had to install an Air Rave in my house because the service was beyond unacceptable. Last week I exchanged my EVO 3D for a new one at a sprint store thinking I had a bad unit and nope, no difference at all. Still very week signal strength and dropped calls. Also I detest having to use an Air rave in my house because every time you make or receive a call it beeps three times in my ear.

I have one simple problem with this test. The test should be done while it is being held in the hand. This is where most people use their phones and i have noticed a significant drop in dbm while it is held in the hand. Anybody willing to try this?

THEFORCE said:

I have one simple problem with this test. The test should be done while it is being held in the hand. This is where most people use their phones and i have noticed a significant drop in dbm while it is held in the hand. Anybody willing to try this?

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You say you noticed a significant drop in dbm... care to provide some actual numbers?

novox77 said:

You say you noticed a significant drop in dbm... care to provide some actual numbers?

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Sure, and currently where I am, I not touching my phone I get between -93 and -95dbm as soon as I pick the phone up in a normal holding position it drops to -101 to -103dbm. The when I'm home it goes from -86dbm when not touching it to -91dbm and -95dbm when holding it. the evo 4g never had such a severe drop

Got a chance to test both phones. I couldn't duplicate your results. I went as far as cupping both hands around the phones and saw maybe 3-5dbm loss, but hard to say if that was just random fluctuation or not. The difference would hardly account for calls being systematically dropped due to poor signal.

Regardless of this test, my 3D clearly gets a weaker signal in my house than my 4G did. For the first time ever ive had missed calls due to not having a signal inside.

bigzeto said:

I got my 4G in February and can honestly say I have never dropped a call on it. I live in a pretty fringe area so I should be a good test subject for the signal quality of the 3D. Just by looking at the signal levels in ##DEBUG#, the 4G and 3D are pretty similar in db levels.

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I've had time to do my own testing of the 3D vs. my 4G and my conclusion is this.

Reception seems to be very similar as I have not dropped a single call even when driving in extremely low coverage areas (-100 db and worse).

I think the 4G provided a little bit better clarity to my ears. I've tried EVRC-B and 13k and they both seem to help. 13k seems the best to me, but I thought the 4G delivered better call quality.

3G performance seems very similar as well, but I was mostly concerned about voice.

Hi,

Been watching and reading a lot of reviews as of lately regarding the EVO 3D. It will be coming to Rogers in august, the question I have is does this phone have antenna issues or reception issues? Most reviews claim that the sensation does not have those issues. As a device I prefer the EVO 3D, but I fear having reception issues and dropped calls and data speed issues. As everyday users do you guys have any of these. The Iphone4 was a nightmare for me regarding dropped calls, just don't want to fall with the same problem again.

Would appreciate feedback
Thanks

You can wrap yourself in the fetal position around your phone and you'll still get calls.

jerofld said:

You can wrap yourself in the fetal position around your phone and you'll still get calls.

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LOL good answer explains everything

hhah fetal position. LOL
I have a 3D and its working well. No issues with reception.

I've had my E3D for 34 days now and it simply amazes me still.

Call quality=10
3G=8or9, Sprints been flaky since April/May
Overall phone rating= Simply awesome.

What wiley said

Like I said previously my call strength and quality are terrible compared to my other Sprint phones (Hero, Moment,EVO 4g and LG Rumor2) I have eight total.
But I am waiting on a replacement, that was over 2 weeks ago and it's still on back-order? I don't quite understand that, I didn't realize there was a shortage of these phones. Beside the whole actual phone part sucking I love the phone unless it freaks out when I use my aux cable or headphones and it does that almost every time.

Just wondering how the antenna is on the Evo 3D, signal strength wise. Preferably in the Las Vegas area and what kinds of average 3G speeds you get over here.

Anticipating the release of the Evo 3D to Virgin Mobile (hopefully) and I'm trying to determine if I want to jump ship or stay with the Triumph.

Thanks in advance.

Phandroid has this interesting side project called Carrier Coverage and you can search various locations and by various devices to see how signal strength actually is. These reports are submitted by users, not sales representatives, so the results are not skewed. You should check it out

jerofld said:

Phandroid has this interesting side project called Carrier Coverage and you can search various locations and by various devices to see how signal strength actually is. These reports are submitted by users, not sales representatives, so the results are not skewed. You should check it out

Click to expand...

I was looking for coverage for the Evo 3D in some particular areas but could only find coverage by either carrier or device and not both at the same time. Is there a way I can find how well it picks up a signal in my area?

Go by the carrier coverage.

The 3D is certainly capable of holding even a weak signal.

Personally, I have had no difficulty with my 3D in Vegas, even when in electrically noisy areas.

Don't recall how I did on 3G there, sorry.

When I was using my HTC Hero, I became aware of certain "dead spots" in my apartment. Places where if I wandered into them, my cellular signal would get weak enough to lose the call. So I learned to avoid them. Some days I couldn't. It seemed like those areas were like "gaps" that would morph, grow, and shrink in size, sometimes enveloping more space than normal and make it difficult to make a call in places where I'd usually sit while talking on the phone.

Fast forward to today, where I'm now actively using an HTC Evo 3D. A far superior phone in many respects. My expectation was that my reception would either be about the same or improve... not get worse. But I had a call today where it was dropped 3 times, despite my having moved around to "better signal" spots in my apartment. I finally had to resort to standing near a window, the "last bastion" of a decent cell signal.

I'm rather shocked. I would have expected the Evo 3D to be better with call reception. But I won't be quick to blame the hardware (this is a used phone, but in great shape functionally and cosmetically). I'm thinking that perhaps the radio information stored in the phone may not be optimal. I activated it on Ting (an MVNO of Sprint) and all went well. Ting is just an administrative entity that uses the Sprint network, so it's virtually as if I just switched phones directly with Sprint. However, I'm wondering if perhaps some of the radio information wasn't properly or thoroughly updated. The PRL update indicated success yesterday... but is it possible the PRL isn't the "optimal" one? It shows as 22092, which I checked on-line as being the most recent update for 800 ESMR capable phones.

Also, is there anything enhanced in custom ROMs that might help make the phone more efficient for reception?