Help Signal Strength

[JBH]

True. Time will tell.

I'm thinking of doing a return during my "worry free" guarantee period just to see if there is any variability in manufacturing.

Well with the thunderbolt, charge, bionic, a radio fix was able to help with the reception and data connectivity I would assume this would be the same way. Plus the testers already said that 4.1 increases signal strength greatly so I guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

[PhilosoRaptor]

I'm glad I'm not seeing any reception issues.. just to compare with what I said in my previous post, I compared my G-Nex with the wifes OG Droid at the house and my G-Nex was only like -6 dBm higher on signal strength.

Anyone who's going by the signal bars in the notification bar should stop comparing them that way. Across phone manufacturers those bars can mean very different strengths, so it's not a good way to compare them.

 

[Wolfedude88]

Merged threads together.

 

[kklier]

I see all of you posting about strength but that EVEN the db level is all relative information. The thing I see NONE of you posting is "I have slow speed and cant do things" or "I can't do things". I have not once lost a signal and been without a data connection. I think the reading is just off, much like most phones. None are ever consistent. That's factual. Just like battery meters and saying they are dead when they actually have 10% or so left. Since Thursday I have monitored this very heavily. I live in Winston-Salem, NC. Drove to Cary, Charlotte, Lexington, Greensboro, High Point, back to Winston and now I am in Charlotte as I post this. I have never lost signal or exeperienced a slow network. I have not dropped a call or done anything of the sort. So who cares if the bars move...as long as it's working. On 1 bar I got a 30 mb down 8 up test. Most of your home networks are likely around 12...so who cares? I really just don't get the obsession so can you enlighten me?

If it hindered your day, I would completely understand.

I work in Cary and were I would get a 4g signal in my office on the Razr I would only get a 3G signal on the Nexus.

 

[kl68]

According to verizon's 4G map I live i a 4G area, but my GN is bouncing between 1 and 2 bars or -120dBm to -100dBm. Not good. Switching to CDMA only (3G) I still get only 2 bars or -93dBm. Not good either.

 

[rezajune]

First of all, this is the worst product launch in the history of product launches.

Second of all, I used to half full signal 3g at my house with Droid X, rooted on apex custom rom.

After Gnex, no 4g, who cares at least I got 3g...nope....no 3g and dropped calls left and right like I as on first generation T-Mobile.

never will I buy another phone on day of launching.

And the battery life is beyond horrendous on Gnex...only lasted me 3 to 4 hours with moderate use, where as my beat up Droid X lasted me at least 6 to 7 hours with beaten up batteries.

For a google flagship phone, this is not good.

Thanks google and verizon for a 300 dollar paperweight...at least the transition back to my Droid X was painless.

 

[ANewDay]

Looks like I may hold off on this. I thought 4.0.2 fixed these signal issues, hence the delay in the release.

Larger thread on the signal issues - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1395226

 

[kklier]

Looks like I may hold off on this. I thought 4.0.2 fixed these signal issues, hence the delay in the release.

Larger thread on the signal issues - Bad signal on VZW GNex - xda-developers

Thanks for the link. I'm glad it's been mentioned on another forum...this thread has more posts though.

 

[ANewDay]

^ I meant larger than the previous link on xda posted by another member.

 

[tonmarchelli]

i too am experiencing these problems. i am torn on what to do because i love just about every other aspect of the phone. form factor, screen, ICS and battery life isnt as bad as it is put out to be. I bought the extended battery, lowered the screen brightness a bit and i can get easily through an entire day.

but when it all comes down to it this is still a phone and needs to function as one. in a spot at work where i always had 3-4 bars or 85-90 Dbm. now im getting 0 bars and steady 120 Dbm, a few dropped calls and failed text messages. I cannot have a phone that will not function as much as i love everything else.

i think the phone is beautiful. works well in every other aspect. Ive already tried the RAZR but got rid of it for the battery issue

Im planning on taking it back before my grace period is over but and am left with afew options. either getting a rezound or putting my iphone 4 back in service and waiting until the next batch of ICS 4G phones comes out. (probably the latter).

does anybody know of any fixes in the near future of this problem? it just annoys the crap out of me that they built this phone with such terrible service. and expect people to shell out 300-700 dollars for it.

 

[jroc]

My main issue in all this is historically Samsung just hasnt been good for reception for me. Only other manufacture I actually compared it to is Motorola. Sometimes....reception might just be part of the pro/con list. And something we all have to decide are deal breakers or not. If you spends most of your time in great reception areas, than you will be fine. If not...its something to think about and something to make sure you know about with your device if it turns out to be hardware.

Could be bad phones, maybe an update will fix issues. Just based on history....this has me rethinking my 'switch to a family plan just to get a G Nex' plan now. This gives me a lil hope tho:

I have a place where I try all of my Verizon phones. Only the phones with better radios can make calls from a couple of parts of my local Target. I first noticed the problem with my Eris while talking to my wife. The call dropped and I could not call. Since then I have tried a number of phones at the same spots. HTC phones have historically never worked there, although the Rezound worked fine there. I tried the Nexus in both spots today and it was able to make and hold calls. That puts it up with the Motos and a few others.

Data is another story. Mine has been pretty good at most times, but inconsistent. It that it is slow to switch from tower to tower and from 4G to 3G. Eventually it gets there, but it takes a long time. Mine also seems to be getting better than it was when I first activated it.

Those are my observations. Still hope there is an update to make it hang onto 4G better.

When I got out of the store yesterday, I checked the signal difference between my OG Droid and G-Nex. G-Nex was -51 dBm, Droid was -61 dBm. Seems to get about the same as my old Droid though. At work, I always have a relatively 3G weak signal and sometimes drops to 1X. It was about the same deal with my G-Nex today. It hung to a weak 3G signal and dropped to 1X once for a few mins.

Ken,
While I have absolutely no doubt of your qualitative measurements, and my own measurements haven't been stellar, my anecdotal results are quite different.

With 1 bar of 4G, -100dBm 56 ASU, I'm still getting 35Mbps down. I streamed an entire HD movie at that signal level with no buffering problems. Today, while in a store that traditionally has problems with sending text messages on my old phone, I sent a few with no issues.

So while the numbers don't lie, I haven't had any real world usage problems. I admit, I'm going to need to do a lot more investigation, but right now, not seeing any problems with reception.

My main want n need is phone reception, dont really care about data. I want a 4G phone tho cuz the web browsing on 4G is nice, when I have a good 4G signal. I said IF it was on par with my Droid 1 with reception, it could be a keeper. Going from the Droid 1 to the Droid X1 to the RAZR, reception got better each time. With the DX1 Moto went with Diversity Antennas and it actually helped. I assume all Motos with big screens after that has it too.

First of all, this is the worst product launch in the history of product launches.

I think that title might go to the Droid Bionic, maybe Duke Nukem Forever too...lol

Only other thing I noticed is the screen on the Nexus although larger which is one of the reasons I have an interest in it, does appear to be more washed out compared to my Razr. Just my observatiosn based on my not so scientific tests

I saw a G Nex yesterday....and I noticed something odd with the screen too. But thats a post for another topic.

 

[jsalimao]

Im really hoping that a SW/FW update can boost the output power of the radio. Then again isn't the problem on the input side? If its having a hard time receiving the signal I'm not sure how they could fix it.

I'm really disappointed with the reception. I havent had over 3 bars on 3G yet and I never get 4G. My only hope is that they lowered the radio power because of the battery life...idk but it doesn't look promising.

 

[amigos]

Took my phone off charge at 7 am. I looked at it by 9 and battery was down to 20%. The signal had no strength and I wasnt able to make a call. I checked the battery section and according to it the "phone on standby with no signal" took 75%%. I had to do a battery reset and then its OK now. This is bad as i use my phone as my beeper and am on call every 4th or 5th night. I am coming off blackberry bold and k had a Droid x prior to that. I live in a pretty strong signal area so can't explain what happened. I'm hoping its just a one time thing but if it happens again I'll switch it. With all this mess regarding the nexus launch I just don't wanna get stuck with it beyond the return period and keep waiting for the next update.

 

[sharmahw]

I live in central NJ and all other Samsung Android phones have BETTER signal than Nexus. I get 1 bar, that also disappears often and my speed tests are HORRIBLE. I have NOT gotten more than 1mb download and 750kb upload
Called Verizon, usual crap of reset the phone that I am NOT going to do because it does NOTHING. Also changed the phone and made NO difference. I guess I am juts joining the gang of unhappy users. I did conform with Verizon that I am in 4G area and good coverage.
Samsung better issue a fix. I'll also call them and compain (not that it does much)...they have terrible LTE radio.
Regards

 

[gapi]

So from what I'm understanding from you guys, when comparing the Galaxy Nexus to another phone for signal strength, the Galaxy Nexus appears to be worse according to the numbers. Before concluding that the Galaxy Nexus does not get good reception, has anyone noticed that it can do better with a week signal vs. the other phones.

What I mean is this. Gnex VS. X-phone is -110dbm and -90dbm. But what if the Gnex can still function with a signal as bad a -130dbm but X-phone wont work with even -110dbm. In that case, the numbers don't matter much. All I care about is how the thing performs in the real world. So far its been working great for me.

I admit I'm getting depressed reading this thread, as I see -112 dBm/1 bar @4G.
But I also see similar in sometimes with no bars, just a triangle I can still talk and Webb pages load fine. This is with me sitting in a known weak signal area.
But all the signal talk has me .

 

[BigRedNole]

My signal strength is -103 dBm.

 

[1977sjr]

I see all of you posting about strength but that EVEN the db level is all relative information. The thing I see NONE of you posting is "I have slow speed and cant do things" or "I can't do things". I have not once lost a signal and been without a data connection. I think the reading is just off, much like most phones. None are ever consistent. That's factual. Just like battery meters and saying they are dead when they actually have 10% or so left. Since Thursday I have monitored this very heavily. I live in Winston-Salem, NC. Drove to Cary, Charlotte, Lexington, Greensboro, High Point, back to Winston and now I am in Charlotte as I post this. I have never lost signal or exeperienced a slow network. I have not dropped a call or done anything of the sort. So who cares if the bars move...as long as it's working. On 1 bar I got a 30 mb down 8 up test. Most of your home networks are likely around 12...so who cares? I really just don't get the obsession so can you enlighten me?

If it hindered your day, I would completely understand.

For me, there is a DIRECT correlation between high/low signal strength and fast/slow 4G speeds. At work where my 4G signal is 3 bars and around -80Dbm, I get 16Mbs down and 4Mbs up. Here at home in northern Cincinnati (which is in the heart of 4G coverage per Verizon's map) which is only five miles from work, I get 0 to 1 bars of 4G and 4G is often times non-existent. When I actually do have 4G at home, it's at 1 bar maximum, about -115Dbm and I only get about 3Mbs down and 0.5Mbps up. I don't believe for a second that an inferior radio/signal doesn't affect upload/download speeds. I know everyone's location and other factors are unique, though, and can result in either lucky or not so lucky results.

 

[jenuine]

My signal strength ranges from -110 dBm to -120 dBM. I'm getting really frustrated with this signal issue. I had a Thunderbolt prior to this phone... and the signal strength on that wasn't all that great either. On my college campus, I would only see 2 bars at most; in a lecture hall, I would have no bars. At this rate, I'm going to have zero reception everywhere I go on campus.

There better be an update soon. I love this phone.. but the weak signal strength is driving me crazy.

 

[kklier]

Yesterday after my problems in rural NC I called up Verizon. After working with a tech she decided to give my Nexus a DOA status since I had signal issues out of the box. Today I went into a corp store at the local mall to do the exchange. After I got the phone I had to call into work and about 10 seconds into the call my coworker could not here me. My wife's Razr had no issues making a call. This was not more than 200 feet from the store and a tower is located right near the mall.

I've never had signal issues in this mall before.

 

[kk4df]

I loaded an app called OpenSignal to watch how my phone switched towers and to follow signal strength during a trip from home to work.

First, signal strength reads stronger in this app than in the phone status. But what was interesting is how I swapped towers. I often didn't swap to the closest tower.

 

[kklier]

I loaded an app called OpenSignal to watch how my phone switched towers and to follow signal strength during a trip from home to work.

First, signal strength reads stronger in this app than in the phone status. But what was interesting is how I swapped towers. I often didn't swap to the closest tower.

I tested this same app yesterday. On my wife's Razr I would have no issues locking unto a tower and recording info, but on the Nexus sometimes it would not even grab a lock from a tomorrow with this app. Was it the nexus or was the app having an issue with Android v4?

 

[TWISM]

-75 dBm 16asu

not sure if thats good or bad, but its working.

 

[sdsubasketball]

do you guys think this issue will really be fixed by a software update?

 

[kk4df]

do you guys think this issue will really be fixed by a software update?

I think you'll see improvement over time with software updates. How much improvement and how much time is the big question.

 

[val88]

Its the price we pay as early adopters. I fully expected these issues out the gate with improvements over 1-3 months so I won't let it frustrate me.

I set my expectations realistically. I think a lot of the 4G issues the carriers can't really figure out easily and its a figure it out as we go kind of deal. Too many nuances with phones/region combo. Maybe if they used carrierIQ they would have the data to debug with. :b

My signal issues are not constant. And I am more than happy to have those occasions of 27mbps download vs 1 or 2 bad data occurrence/day.