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Firmware fix signal strength?

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dubbsix

Well-Known Member
Seems like many of us have experienced issues with call generation on the SGNEX, but my question is is that something thats fixable via firmware?
 
dubbsix said:
Seems like many of us have experienced issues with call generation on the SGNEX, but my question is is that something thats fixable via firmware?
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Unless a particular phone has a specific hardware issue then most things can be fixed with new firmware.
 
And if it isn't obvious, SGN is the first phone to report the actual 4G signal.

All prior 4G phones report the 3G signal, even when displaying that it's in 4G.
 
Some folks who left Nexus for Rezound or Razr are strongly of the opinion that it's radio hardware plaguing the signal reception so it won't improve much with updates if at all.

So I can't wait to test the radio fix that's supposed to hit by the end of Jan. I heard P3 said 4.1 and 4.0.4 improved radio much. Also it seems Rezound has LTE antenna on battery cover that get's good signal. I wonder if Samsung can modify CDMA Nexus battery cover to add LTE antenna like that. it may not be possible but just thought about it.
 
syntrix said:
And if it isn't obvious, SGN is the first phone to report the actual 4G signal.

All prior 4G phones report the 3G signal, even when displaying that it's in 4G.
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What about 3G phones? what did they report? I believe VZW's theory on this about 50%

quickaudi said:
Well, the lower signal that i see on the Nexus than my X is 3G too.
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THIS! lol :)

when putting my Gnex in forced 3G mode...the signal according to dbm and bars is far far more lower than any other 3G phone standing at the exact same spot.


Now to answer the Op's question. I am confident that this issue will get better. The thing is even with horrid horrid signal here at my home. It has not once affected my voice calls one bit. So that is one reason why i'm confident it will get better with future updates. I had the ReZound prior to this and yes it did get much better coverage but even it when in 3G mode was still lower than my old Droid X.
 
I think it will at least improve the stability of data connection plaguing some of us. Signal strength might be limited by antenna design though. Total loss of signal is the most upsetting thing on the phone though mine is doing fine.
 
Sandroidfan said:
Some folks who left Nexus for Rezound or Razr are strongly of the opinion that it's radio hardware plaguing the signal reception so it won't improve much with updates if at all.

So I can't wait to test the radio fix that's supposed to hit by the end of Jan. I heard P3 said 4.1 and 4.0.4 improved radio much. Also it seems Rezound has LTE antenna on battery cover that get's good signal. I wonder if Samsung can modify CDMA Nexus battery cover to add LTE antenna like that. it may not be possible but just thought about it.
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Thunderbolt has had the same exact antenna connectors since march 2011. It's simply a part of the HTC design. The problem is if you mess with the back cover you can end up having no reception.
On a sidenote, there is absolutely nothing wrong with GN's hardware. It's the software that's simply reporting the signal levels using some weird quantization that's pretty terrible. Software will easily fix that.
 
milan03 said:
The problem is if you mess with the back cover you can end up having no reception.
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Yeah this threw me for a loop for a few minutes! I was unlocking the HTC bootloader. After unlocking when I rebooted, I was like "NO SIGNAL?!?! :mad::mad::mad:" then I took a closer look at the cover and was like ":o:o:o *facepalm*" heh. It literally gets ZERO signal with the back cover off, which is to be expected it's like completely disconnecting the antenna from something and expecting a signal heh.
 
BTW, anyone who owned or owns a Samsung Fascinate knows that a software update can do wonders for things like GPS, signal strength, data speeds, etc. It is a shame that Samsung and Verizon took so long with these updates (don't freak out, this is a different phone and different circumstances) and get the phone to where it should have been on day one. Just before I bought the Nexus my Fascinate was updated to Gingerbread and it made a world of difference in the phone. Where I was only getting 1 bar at -99 dBm I was suddenly getting 4 bars at -80 dBm. That was all from one little update and by the dBm measurements I knew it wasn't just a signal bar manipulation too. It also wasn't just the new OS, the new radio was the big difference.
 
Just out of curiosity, have any of you that are having signal problems tried comparing the original radios to the leaked update versions? (LTE radio version EK06 and bootloader version EK04 are packaged as a single flashable update.) Here's the link to the 19-page discussion on XDA. Some people say it improved signal strength for them; others not so much -- but I didn't see anyone say it made things any worse. :)

I've been running with this update pretty much since I got the phone, and my actual reception seems about the same as I had with my original Droid.
 
rvonder said:
Just out of curiosity, have any of you that are having signal problems tried comparing the original radios to the leaked update versions? (LTE radio version EK06 and bootloader version EK04 are packaged as a single flashable update.) Here's the link to the 19-page discussion on XDA. Some people say it improved signal strength for them; others not so much -- but I didn't see anyone say it made things any worse. :)

I've been running with this update pretty much since I got the phone, and my actual reception seems about the same as I had with my original Droid.
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See my response from another thread about the leaked radios...

rvonder said:
I live in a 3G only area and the only reception problem I had was a delay (30-90 seconds) switching off between 3G/WIFI. I updated the baseband and it is now almost instantaneous. For example, listening to TuneIn radio, the audio drops and picks back up within 5 seconds. That means that it would have to pick up the new signal, buffer it, and resume playback. If I drive by my house, it will actually cycle twice 3g --> WIFI as I approach, WIFI --> 3G as I continue on. And that is at ~40MPH. These are the base-bands that should be in the 4.03 roll out.
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