Verizon GS3 signal reception thread

Ches111 · Jul 9, 2012

I am a Moto Fan but trying to be realistic. In the link below you will see a couple of items of concern:

Motorola DROID RAZR HD specs leaked on NenaMark site

First: The proc listed is an S4 variant.
Second: The nomenclature MAXX is not used

This leads to the info I provided before. I would love for Moto to release a Razr HD "MAXX".
However it looks like they will go the same route as before. Release a Razr HD and sometime after a Razr HD MAXX.

This all makes sense if you think about it. The SOC S4 when it comes to LTE is considered a "sipper" of power. It allows to standardize on a single chipset to provide for all vendors since the S4 as shown in the GS3 release can support the whole gamut. This would mean they go away from the TI OMAP and their own radio selection as they have done in the past.

With the drop of the "MAXX" the battery may or may not suffer since the non MAXX version was already using a 1780mAh battery.

Just some food for thought for the folks that are stating they will wait for the RAZR HD MAXX since the S3 supposedly has horrible reception

.

By the way this may also mean a delay in launch of the RAZR HD if the Qualcomm manufacturing throughput issues are true.

red66charger · Jul 9, 2012

svensett said:
Do you have connection issues?

lol...every day. But to be clear, this is on a VZW Gnex. My comment was more to the point that -100 dbm isn't entirely bad. It can be much worse. I'll go stealth since I don't have a GS3...but I'll be lurking. Enjoy your SG3's.

Ken7 · Jul 9, 2012

2horses said:
So, once I activate my S3 (in hand right now, but not activated yet) will I still be able to power on my old Dx and compare signal strength between the two? I'm thinking not, if it is removed from the network. Or will it still work, just won't have my phone number associated with it?

You should be able to switch the Sim from unit to unit. I did that when I had my Razr. I compared signal strength with the Razr & GNex.

Oops. Not sure if the Dx uses a Sim like the S3.

dmanindfw · Jul 9, 2012

Ken7 said:
You should be able to switch the Sim from unit to unit. I did that when I had my Razr. I compared signal strength with the Razr & GNex.

Oops. Not sure if the Dx uses a Sim like the S3.

No SIM in the DX, at least not removable.

Ken7 · Jul 9, 2012

Ches111 said:
I am a Moto Fan but trying to be realistic. In the link below you will see a couple of items of concern:

Motorola DROID RAZR HD specs leaked on NenaMark site

First: The proc listed is an S4 variant.
Second: The nomenclature MAXX is not used

This leads to the info I provided before. I would love for Moto to release a Razr HD "MAXX".
However it looks like they will go the same route as before. Release a Razr HD and sometime after a Razr HD MAXX.

This all makes sense if you think about it. The SOC S4 when it comes to LTE is considered a "sipper" of power. It allows to standardize on a single chipset to provide for all vendors since the S4 as shown in the GS3 release can support the whole gamut. This would mean they go away from the TI OMAP and their own radio selection as they have done in the past.

With the drop of the "MAXX" the battery may or may not suffer since the non MAXX version was already using a 1780mAh battery.

Just some food for thought for the folks that are stating they will wait for the RAZR HD MAXX since the S3 supposedly has horrible reception .

By the way this may also mean a delay in launch of the RAZR HD if the Qualcomm manufacturing throughput issues are true.

Thanks for the info. But of course this still doesn't say anything about the antenna design or placement. Reception may still vary. If I were a betting man, I'd say they will. By how much and to whose advantage, I have no idea.

To be clear, I don't think anyone is saying the S3 has horrible reception, but early reports are not encouraging and don't suggest 'stellar' reception either.

We shall see. I'll be waiting for more reports before plunking down $650 and another reception-plagued phone.

Sandroidfan · Jul 9, 2012

It's still too early to tell. But it seems initial feedback is not so bad, nowhere near what Gnex received first on verizon. I saw some reports matching or even beating Razr on dbm. There are some folks with glitches/troubles, but not more than what usually happens with new phone launches.

Personally I wouldn't care too much about dbm here and there as long as it works with good data speed, call quality without signal dropping.

svensett · Jul 9, 2012

red66charger said:
lol...every day. But to be clear, this is on a VZW Gnex. My comment was more to the point that -100 dbm isn't entirely bad. It can be much worse. I'll go stealth since I don't have a GS3...but I'll be lurking. Enjoy your SG3's.

Thanks for the clarification. I just threw that out there as an example. The problem I see here in the S3 threads is people are just assuming connection issues because of the signal readings, but very few have reported actual connection issues.

As an update, today at my workplace I have 4G and so far no connection issues. Signal for 4G has been -94 to -98 dB on my random checks. Speeds are faster than 3G, but not what some have been seeing. 2.8-4.6mbps down, 1.1-3.1mpbs upload speeds. The building is a metal wharehouse type structure converted to office space with lots of computer equipment running all the time.

bennybbc · Jul 9, 2012

Travisimo said:
I'm in the same boat. Out of curiosity, how would you go about doing this with an unopened GS3? You still have to activate it, right, since it's assigned to the line you purchased it on? So you can activate it without opening the box, and then re-activate your old phone? Then just sell the phone unopened?

How are you going to activate a phone sealed in a box that doesn't have the battery or sim card installed? And if you buy a phone at the discounted price doesn't Verizon say you have something like 2 weeks to activate it or they charge you several hundred dollars extra?

Benny

wishiwas · Jul 9, 2012

I got my S3 earlier today and snuck away at work to activate it and try it out for the day.
I could tell right off bat the 4G signal and calling signal was much poorer than my Motorola.
Please, dont think I am dumping on this phone. The phone is the best I have ever used. The display is much larger than you think as well. But the weak signal is a deal breaker for me

I put the same radio station app on my S3 and a Razr and walked around one of our buildings. I also did the same with making a phone call.
The Razr held solid, but the S3 broke up and paused many many times.
I am so heart broken after all this time of waiting for this phone.
I dont know if this is something Verizon can even do something about, or if its just weak antennas in the S3.
I hope the best for the rest of you. For me, its back to my plain Jane Motorola.

Ken7 · Jul 9, 2012

Sandroidfan said:
It's still too early to tell. But it seems initial feedback is not so bad, nowhere near what Gnex received first on verizon.

Well I think that most of us looking to switch from the GNex are looking for better than 'not so bad'. I need better than that to switch. A definite improvement in radios/data reception is what I'm looking for.

I'll wait for more reports.

Ken7 · Jul 9, 2012

wishiwas said:
I got my S3 earlier today and snuck away at work to activate it and try it out for the day.
I could tell right off bat the 4G signal and calling signal was much poorer than my Motorola.
Please, dont think I am dumping on this phone. The phone is the best I have ever used. The display is much larger than you think as well. But the weak signal is a deal breaker for me
I put the same radio station app on my S3 and a Razr and walked around one of our buildings. I also did the same with making a phone call.
The Razr held solid, but the S3 broke up and paused many many times.
I am so heart broken after all this time of waiting for this phone.
I dont know if this is something Verizon can even do something about, or if its just weak antennas in the S3.
I hope the best for the rest of you. For me, its back to my plain Jane Motorola.

This is precisely the kind of valuable report we need. I'm really sorry for your experience, but your report is extremely valuable to us sitting on the sideline. Your practical, common sense testing is not showing results that I was hoping for. But it does seem to be more common from reports around the internet.

It's just stunning to me that Samsung can't figure out how to get the kind of reception that the Razr & Rezound get.

It's looking more like a Razr HD for me, but I'll wait for more reports. No rush since the Razr HD isn't even out yet.

rushmore · Jul 9, 2012

Thursday should be high noon for me.....

No new device pixie dust in my eyes either.

Just cold hard reality........ The only pixie I like is the group Pixies.

SamMax · Jul 9, 2012

rushmore said:
Thursday should be high noon for me.....

No new device pixie dust in my eyes either.

Just cold hard reality........ The only pixie I like is the group Pixies.

At least our expectations are fairly low. Shouldn't take much to please us.

I live in a fringe area. I can currently just barely get good enough reception in my basement to send & receive texts and make phone calls. Upstairs I get pretty good consistent 3G. We shall see Thursday if it's a keeper or not. I hate the thought of waiting for another long drawn out release date, so the phone would have to pretty bad before I would consider returning it.

darkestred · Jul 9, 2012

Well. I was worried earlier today. Took a buddies motorola droid and put it in my cube. It read -90-93dbm. My S3 read 115. I switched off 4g and its reading -94.

So, the real question with these "tests" is to make sure both phones are on the same network.

Sandroidfan · Jul 9, 2012

darkestred said:
Well. I was worried earlier today. Took a buddies motorola droid and put it in my cube. It read -90-93dbm. My S3 read 115. I switched off 4g and its reading -94.

So, the real question with these "tests" is to make sure both phones are on the same network.

Can you switch off 4G from setting menu on GS3, or did you use a radio switch app? I saw on other thread there is no forced 3G mode in GS3.

c4v3man · Jul 9, 2012

LG Spectrum 4G: -83/-85 (70%)
SGSIII: -77/-79 (79-83%)

Using opensignal app. Phone set in same location on desk, in leather phone holder/prop.

While the Spectrum may not be great, the SGSIII is at least a little better...

cedjunior · Jul 9, 2012

Got mine today. Currently at work, 2nd story of a 5 story office building. 4g is between 2-3 bars, -104 - -106 dBm. Just did a speed test, maxed out at about 16,000 kbps down and 4,000 kbps up. Its about the same, maybe a little lower at home in my apartment.

I've only seen the phone switch to 3g once, as I was taking it out of my pocket after sitting down at my desk here. I take the stairs up, so it might have dropped 4g in the stairwell. Other than that, it has stayed on 4g the entire time.

My Droid X (3g of course) would get -90 - -95 dBm at work and sometimes over 100 dBm at home, so I'm pleased with the performance of the GS3.

Skeeter125 · Jul 9, 2012

So i received my sgs3 today and as soon as it was activated i went into my basement where even the maxx would bounce between 4g lte and 3g. Sitting in the same spot as with my maxx( no longer have it so can't say what the dbms are) my sgs3 is holding 2 bars of lte and has stayed like that the entire time. It also is reading -109dbms. I loaded up instagram, facebook, and the play store, and all loaded without any issues. So at least for me anyway the sgs3 is doing its job. I was surprised to see it doing so well in an area that even my maxx had issues.

rushmore · Jul 9, 2012

SamMax said:
At least our expectations are fairly low. Shouldn't take much to please us.

I live in a fringe area. I can currently just barely get good enough reception in my basement to send & receive texts and make phone calls. Upstairs I get pretty good consistent 3G. We shall see Thursday if it's a keeper or not. I hate the thought of waiting for another long drawn out release date, so the phone would have to pretty bad before I would consider returning it.

Best Buy is starting to get them in now, but not selling until 12th. Must dwell on "what if" for signal for a few more days... Meh.

cedjunior · Jul 9, 2012

2horses said:
So, once I activate my S3 (in hand right now, but not activated yet) will I still be able to power on my old Dx and compare signal strength between the two? I'm thinking not, if it is removed from the network. Or will it still work, just won't have my phone number associated with it?

Thechidz said:
nope data will shut off right away

I have both my DX and my GS3 in front of me. The GS3 is activated, the DX isn't, DX still reports a signal strength of -89 dBm.

Ken7 · Jul 9, 2012

Skeeter125 said:
So i received my sgs3 today and as soon as it was activated i went into my basement where even the maxx would bounce between 4g lte and 3g. Sitting in the same spot as with my maxx( no longer have it so can't say what the dbms are) my sgs3 is holding 2 bars of lte and has stayed like that the entire time. It also is reading -109dbms. I loaded up instagram, facebook, and the play store, and all loaded without any issues. So at least for me anyway the sgs3 is doing its job. I was surprised to see it doing so well in an area that even my maxx had issues.

Promising. It's just so weird that we're seeing results all over the place. Some say better, some say worse and some say the same. I can well understand getting these varied results given the infinite number of signal strength & quality areas that people are testing in. But we're seeing very varied results in just fringe areas.

You'd think if the phone does poorly or does well in these areas we'd see a fairly consistent trend, but that's not the case. :thinking:

Ken7 · Jul 9, 2012

rushmore said:
Best Buy is starting to get them in now, but not selling until 12th. Must dwell on "what if" for signal for a few more days... Meh.

Maybe if security at your local BB isn't good you can..........nah, not worth it.

Skeeter125 · Jul 9, 2012

Ken7 said:
Promising. It's just so weird that we're seeing results all over the place. Some say better, some say worse and some say the same. I can well understand getting these varied results given the infinite number of signal strength & quality areas that people are testing in. But we're seeing very varied results in just fringe areas.

You'd think if the phone does poorly or does well in these areas we'd see a fairly consistent trend, but that's not the case.

but like many have said, they are only saying it's bad because of the #'s and there has only been 1 or 2 reports of it actually affecting the use of the phone. At least for me numbers do not really matter unless it is constantly dropping and looking for signal which so far does not seem to be the case. I hope others get similar results but if everyone is just going off of the numbers then yes it is lower than most phones but its more than just numbers.

Sandroidfan · Jul 9, 2012

Skeeter125 said:
but like many have said, they are only saying it's bad because of the #'s and there has only been 1 or 2 reports of it actually affecting the use of the phone. At least for me numbers do not really matter unless it is constantly dropping and looking for signal which so far does not seem to be the case. I hope others get similar results but if everyone is just going off of the numbers then yes it is lower than most phones but its more than just numbers.

That's my thought exactly. Personally I think that using only signal dbm on Razr as reference is like setting up ourselves for disappointment though I saw some reports SIII matches or beats Razr on dbm. I don't care too much about dbm as long as it doesn't affect phone/data use.

BTW I just took a look at signal thread on Dinc 4G forum. Almost all of them are crying out for lower dbm than OG Dinc and Rezound! It's amazing none of them seems to realize ICS is reading it differently. Understandable as it's first HTC ICS phone on verizon but still funny.

Ken7 · Jul 9, 2012

Skeeter125 said:
but like many have said, they are only saying it's bad because of the #'s and there has only been 1 or 2 reports of it actually affecting the use of the phone. At least for me numbers do not really matter unless it is constantly dropping and looking for signal which so far does not seem to be the case. I hope others get similar results but if everyone is just going off of the numbers then yes it is lower than most phones but its more than just numbers.

Well if true, then is there any point at all in reporting #s? The old theory used to be at least do ICS to ICS for comparison of devices, but if there's no correlation to #s and performance, then what's the point?

I'm not sure I'm willing to accept the fact that comparing #s have no significance in real-world testing. Don't get me wrong, I'd always prefer to hear real world tests for data drops, phone calls and such, but surely something must correlate to this performance that's quantifiable. If not dbm, then what? :thinking:

Verizon GS3 signal reception thread

data issues related to dbm #'s?

high dbm, data works fine

high dbm, data does not work

other: explain in comments

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