if you test something like flash videos on a website imo your adding too many more variables though.

 

i kind of see your point. Instead of people freaking out just by looking at the signal strength , instead if you do some simple tests and it still performs then that proves if the numbers are misleading or not.

Personally i have already sort of done that. I get zero to one bar at home. Yet i still have crystal clear phone calls and haven't dropped one call yet. In fact i even drove through a known call dropping area the other day on the phone and it never dropped.

 

This is my experience as well. Calls are very good with even 1 bar. And at my home I have a network extender. My other verizon phones are reading -30 to -50 dbm around the home connected to the extender. But the nexus reads -80 to -100....still, call quality is as good and most often better than with the rezound and TB....

 

With 1 bar and -100 dbm, I still managed 7Mbps down speedtest and have no problem streaming HD video from youtube.

 

AnandTech - Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue

worth the read, i think this guy is dead on. seeing as how 4g is out at the moment and my nexus is on 3g i decided to compare the dbm between the nexus and droid x (work provided). every other time i compared the dbm between the two the X is always better but my nexus always has some level of 4g signal. either way the nexus on 3g -93 the droid x -93. any other time i compared the two at my desk the nexus would be -99 to -101 and the X is always in the low 90s (in my office building, outside i get full 4g on the nexus). So from my quick personal observation this guy is dead on accurate.

when i get home tonight i will compare the nexus in 3g to all my other devices but considering the droid X has the best number when i compared this in the past i bet i find the same result.