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Help Signal Strength performance

G

granger

Newbie
Sorry for the cross post, but I have not seen a response from the Nexus forum and thought this group would also have some insight into my question.

Thanks!!!

I am torn between the razr and the upcoming nexus. While I have work through most my pros/cons on both phones, the one area I am unsure on is signal strength. I have not been happy with my HTC Incredible in this category and if one of these phones would be a big improvement over my HTC that could help make up my mind.

Let me know, based on your experience with the razr or samsung phones in general, how you would rank signal strength performance for the Incredible, Razr and Galaxy Nexus (or similar).

Thanks for your help!!!
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Not sure about Samsung phones but from what I've heard, Motorola has the best radios in the industry which leads to excellent signal strength. I had a HTC Thunderbolt and and a Droid Incredible before that and my RAZR beats the pants off of both those phones in every way, especially in signal strength and quality.
 
AeroEngi said:
Not sure about Samsung phones but from what I've heard, Motorola has the best radios in the industry which leads to excellent signal strength. I had a HTC Thunderbolt and and a Droid Incredible before that and my RAZR beats the pants off of both those phones in every way, especially in signal strength and quality.
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That is great to know. With my incredible I drop calls in 3 places during my ride to work, but do not drop at all on my way home. Being in the other lane of a country 2 lane road is enough to lose the call. Would be great to not have to worry about it

Thanks for your help!
 
I am a gadget guy so I switch smartphones often. I have had several smartphones over the last several years from Blackberry, Motorola, LG, HTC, and Samsung and I can say that without question Motorola has the best radio/signal performance and Samsung has consistently had the worst. I don't know what it is but Samsung radio's and signal never seem to be up to par and oddly seems to get worse the longer you use the device. That being said we don't know what the Galaxy Nexus signal will be like but if history is our guide then the Razr should be much better in that department.
 
FragDroidX said:
I am a gadget guy so I switch smartphones often. I have had several smartphones over the last several years from Blackberry, Motorola, LG, HTC, and Samsung and I can say that without question Motorola has the best radio/signal performance and Samsung has consistently had the worst. I don't know what it is but Samsung radio's and signal never seem to be up to par and oddly seems to get worse the longer you use the device. That being said we don't know what the Galaxy Nexus signal will be like but if history is our guide then the Razr should be much better in that department.
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Thanks for your input. That may seal the deal. I care about all of the features and have changed my mind more times then I can count, but this is a hot button issue for me.

May wait for the Nexus to launch to be sure, but I'm less worried about waiting after seeing some of this feedback.

Thanks again!
 
You won't regret getting the RAZR. I've never been so satisfied with a phone in my life than with my RAZR. I personally believe that the only thing the Nexus has going for it is ICS and that won't even be an issue when ICS is released for the RAZR.

Good luck.
 
FragDroidX and AeroEngi, have you used the Mobile Hotspot feature of the RAZR? I'm in the dilemma of which phone (RAZR or Nexus) also so I'll list my priorities:

1. Connection to the net and signal strength
2. Ability to use Mobile Hotspot for my laptop.
3. The rest is doable.


I travel and currently have a Chocolate Touch for phone and a MIFI for hotspot. Both work well for me now, great connection and signal strength. But I want to combine both functionalities in the smartphone and have a combined data/mobile broadband plan instead of having these on 2 different devices. And of course, these are 3G devices and that works for me so 4G LTE is just a bonus in my location.

So 1 and 2 are biggest concerns/needs.

Thanks for any advice!
 
I can't compare to the Nexus, but I can tell you that my Razr gets much better reception than the Thunderbolt that I was using ie. in the mall or gym I wouldn't get a signal in some areas with the Thunderbolt; the Razr loses 4g but has full strength 3g in those same areas.
 
IMO and based on many devices tested, the Razr has the best reception of any so far. Call quality is definitely the best.
 
SJS1951 said:
FragDroidX and AeroEngi, have you used the Mobile Hotspot feature of the RAZR? I'm in the dilemma of which phone (RAZR or Nexus) also so I'll list my priorities:

1. Connection to the net and signal strength
2. Ability to use Mobile Hotspot for my laptop.
3. The rest is doable.


I travel and currently have a Chocolate Touch for phone and a MIFI for hotspot. Both work well for me now, great connection and signal strength. But I want to combine both functionalities in the smartphone and have a combined data/mobile broadband plan instead of having these on 2 different devices. And of course, these are 3G devices and that works for me so 4G LTE is just a bonus in my location.

So 1 and 2 are biggest concerns/needs.

Thanks for any advice!
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I use Mobile Hotspot with my RAZR and laptop frequently and it works great, especially when I am in a strong LTE area. It does suck down gobs of juice though so I need to have it connected to an external power supply. I tried to use USB from laptop to keep the RAZR charged up adequately with LTE but the USB didn't deliver adequate amperage to stop the phone from slowly reducing charge level over time while the external power supply was able to keep the phone at 100% battery level.
 
Thanks, edstewbob! That is great information for me. I'm guessing the Mobile Hotspot also works on 3G if I'm not in a 4G area? Since I travel a bit where there might not be 4G, that's important!
 
SJS1951 said:
Thanks, edstewbob! That is great information for me. I'm guessing the Mobile Hotspot also works on 3G if I'm not in a 4G area? Since I travel a bit where there might not be 4G, that's important!
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Yes I use it in both 3G and 4G areas and in some weak 4G areas it transitions back and forth seamlessly.
 
consider this...

Your droid razr will connect to laptops and tabs with blue tooth and provide internet service via the bluetooth connection.

I first did this with the droid x and have confirmed it works with the razr as well.

This feature is built into the Moto phones as sold by verizon and no root or any sort of mod is needed.
 
Update: I went to the Verizon store today and ordered a white RAZR, to be delivered. They didn't have any in stock. I also got rid of my MIFI number and downgraded my plan minutes, got the data/mobile hotspot 6GB plan. I'm saving about $50 per month.

I can't wait to get my phone. Thanks to all here who provided answers to my questions to help me decide the best choice for me based on my equipment usage.

Happy!
 
lens pirate said:
consider this...

Your droid razr will connect to laptops and tabs with blue tooth and provide internet service via the bluetooth connection.

I first did this with the droid x and have confirmed it works with the razr as well.

This feature is built into the Moto phones as sold by verizon and no root or any sort of mod is needed.
Click to expand...


What app to work on the Razr? Does this work with Android tablets or just Windows PC?
 
Bluetooth tether works with all Tablets, PCs, devices that work with the PAN Bluetooth profile. Moto phones all seem to have this feature builtin No Root required. RAZR is BT 4.0 so should handle these connections well while keeping battery usage low.
 
lens pirate said:
Both. Just use bluetooth. After you par the devices on the PC or Tab open the connection settings and chose "use for internet"

Works really well.
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equake & lens,

What app do you use to enable the needed handshake for a connection from phone to tablet? I appreciate the blue tooth connects the devices, but what enables the tablet to see and use the internet from the phone? Not seeing the connection options you mention with Android tablets (Flyer, View and Thrive).

Thanks

Update: I tried connecting and no luck: "Paired but not connected". Seems it is device specific, rather than all devices (PAN issue).
 
rushmore said:
equake & lens,

What app do you use to enable the needed handshake for a connection from phone to tablet? I appreciate the blue tooth connects the devices, but what enables the tablet to see and use the internet from the phone? Not seeing the connection options you mention with Android tablets (Flyer, View and Thrive).

Thanks

Update: I tried connecting and no luck: "Paired but not connected". Seems it is device specific, rather than all devices (PAN issue).
Click to expand...

On your tab go to where it says pair but not connected then check the options for that connection should be a use for internet feature of some sort. This does work and thats a fact. Keep trying. U will figure it out.
 
Weird -- I just tested this with a transformer tablet; on the droid if i long press on the connection - the only options are disconnect and disconnect/unpair. I see no option to share data. The phone was set to wifi for the test. It looks like verizon 4g/3g is down again.... i'll update when it comes up (if it ever does).


lens pirate said:
On your tab go to where it says pair but not connected then check the options for that connection should be a use for internet feature of some sort. This does work and thats a fact. Keep trying. U will figure it out.
Click to expand...
 
I tried this with my Transformer and Razr. I could get them to pair, and I changed the setting on the TF to get its internet from the Razr, but when I tried to go to a website I got a 'network problem' error (it's just like using Verizon's network :) ).
The Razr is connected to wifi and working fine, so I presume these two devices can't actually work together to do this (it would be nice if someone could prove me wrong on this).
BTW, when I made the TF discoverable and had the Razr search for devices is when they would pair and connect. I first tried it with the Razr discoverable and the TF searching for devices - they would pair but not connect.
 
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