• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Signal Strength

My friend has the Bionic. When we were at a pizza place last night, I had one bar of 4G outside. When we went in, it switched to 3G, but my friend had 4G just fine on his Bionic.

The couple places I went today, I had very slow 3G speeds, and a couple times no data, due to the weak radio on this GNex. I've never had any connectivity problems anywhere in these same locations with my DX.

The GNex may have slightly faster 4G speeds compared to other phones, even with the GNex's weaker signal, but the fact remains that the signal is still weaker, and connectivity issues abound, even in 3G, where there should be no issues with a good radio, period.
 
Sandroidfan said:
That's what I noticed with Gnex, Razr in my local store too. Gnex was just as fast or faster than Razr on data despite higher dBm reading.

But I haven't tested them on 3G and that seems like good finding. I think this probably means that ICS is reading signal dBm with LTE when it's on, but GB doesn't. If that's the case, higher dBm on Gnex is not really concern for me.
Click to expand...

I agree, however I think I am still going to wait a couple weeks before I give my wife My Razr and steal her upgrade to get the Nexus
 
eedlebop said:
I am seeing -76 to -85 dBm, which seems to equate to full bars on the indicator and 6500 up and download on speedtest.net. everything seems to be working fine.

Question, when I connect to my home wifi, does the 4g radio automatically shut off or keep running? Being new to android I don't know how to read the status bar glyphs yet.
Click to expand...

It shuts off 4G radio once it's connected to WiFi. It's good to use WiFi wherever it's available as it uses less battery power than 4G radio.
 
3g 4g signal keeps dropping out, and i am getting 0-1 bars ans losing data and voice off and on all day:mad:.. i am great on wifi though
 
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.
 
eedlebop said:
ah, excellent. I spend 90% of my day in wifi, and the office network is blisteringly fast. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I hope the same

Tested netflix for a while, wow that's a battery hog on other phones, but not here... some youtube, some calls, been unlocking the screen all day, some txt's.... it's more than I would normally use, especially YT on weekend.

64% at about 7 hours.

I've also had the screen on the highest brightness level just to test.

This phone is simply amazing! And I've got past the 3 full charges. Anyone saying they have issues in 24 hours should be shot :D:D

This is on par, or better than my bionic and much better than the Charge.
 
I've had the Nexus since launch and today went into a local corporate VZW store. I compared signal strength on each and every 4G phone.

There was not a single 4G phone that came close to the poor signal strength of the Nexus...not one! In fact ALL the phones were getting between 45db and 56 db (at the worst)...this includes the cheapy 4G phones.

The Nexus? Their unit (and mine) was only getting 79db with a full set of bars.

I had issues in a mall the first night I got the phone and this was the same mall I'd been to with both my Bionic and my Rezound. Both of those had no issues with the 4G in the mall, but the Nexus could not hold on to the 4G signal. Granted it's not a strong 4G signal there, but that's the point. It's these areas that the other phones hold on to it and the Nexus can not.

The qualitative measurements of all the 4G phones today showed me this is a REAL problem guys. This is nobody's imagination and this does not vary from phone to phone. The Nexus radio has an issue and I'm dubious if it can be fixed via software.

It's really a shame since I like the phone otherwise, but without knowing if it will or can be fixed before my return period, I'll probably be forced to go back to the Rezound.
 
I agree with the problems. I am not gonna try and say its showing weaker then it is.

It is weak. It drops to 3g when others hold onto 4g.

I dont know if it can be fixed either. But it is a problem. P
 
you2 said:
Is there anyway to confirm if the 4.02 or 4.1 update is the lte fix ? I kind of hope to order a phone this weekend and this issue with lte is one of the gating factor of yea/nay towards the nexus.
Click to expand...

When I received my Nexus on Friday I purposely left it on 4.0.1. In my office I could get a 4G signal with the Razr, it not the Nexus. Upgrading to 4.0.2 made no difference.
 
bcltoys said:
These signal problem's you guy's are having is this happening in your hand cause my X has about 20dbm diff from my hand to just laying on my couch.This only happen's if i'm a marginal area like my house which is about 5 mile's from the tower that I get my service from.
Click to expand...

My initial test was made in the Verizon store, not holding any devices.
 
ryotto said:
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.
Click to expand...

Today in a rural area I had voice quality issues on the Nexus. I called back on my wife's Razr. The nexus was showing -120dBm, the Razr -93dBM.


This was a 3G only location.
 
My Incredible got between 3 to 4 (four being the max) where I live.

My GNEW is getting between 1 to 3 and the data bounces between 3 and 4G. I probably get 4G the most... and the phone works so I am OK with it. Seems every time a new phone comes out the reception gets worse... EVERY damn time.

It works so whatever... but just saying...

BTW, FWIW, YMMV, EOA, (end of acronyms) I had to return my first GNEX because the data network would regularly bounce between no data, 3g and 4g not to mention the voice reception would flat out dies as well. The second phone seems to be working well.

And now my new signature...

MY KINGDOM FOR AN EXTENDED BATTERY!!!
 
I keep losing connectivity, voice calls drop and I'm at -120-130 dbms.

Absolutely horrendous signal, I had a tough time calling VZW to get a replacement phone. Same problem.

Honestly how did this phone make it past testing!?!?
 
When I have strong 4G, data rates are plenty fast. Weaker signal = slower rates. Switching from LTE/CDMA to CDMA, I drop from 4G to 1X. I've not seen any 3G on this phone yet, and I got 3G on my DX phone perfectly well from here.

Is anyone else missing 3G when you disable LTE?
 
Bought my Nexus yesterday and immediately saw signal strength issues when I got home (compared to my old Moto Droid and my wife's HTC Eris). Went back to the store today and put my phone next to the one on display. My phone was showing -92 dBm, the one in the store -75 dBm. We were there for about an hour (wife bought the Rezound) and that was consistent the entire time.

I called VZW tech support when I got home and he said there is a known issue with the way the signal strength is displayed on the phone that will be fixed with the next OTA update "in March". He tried to tell me my comparison in the store wasn't necessarily valid (anyone want to comment on that?). So, as he suggested, I'm doing a hard reset and, if the problem still persists (it does), the store will replace the phone and we'll see if it is a bad radio or that's the norm with the phone.
 
i have to admit the radio is a little less desirable. I was standing in a friends house today. My G Nex was 120dbish...my fiance's Droid incredible was 90dbish standing in the exact same spot. I had 4G turned off of my G Nex. It had zero bars of 3G. This has to be one of the things killing the battery as well. Very unfortunate. I'm still keeping mine though. It may not get fixed 100% with updates but i bet it will get better.
 
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.
 
Funny thing is that all the other 4g devices got updates to fix the radio issues since they all had pretty crappy reception out of the box. But hey if you can't wait for 4.0.3 and 4.1 which testers have said helped the radio a lot then good luck with another 4g phone. I think the iphone would be your best bet, you don't seem to realize the issues you complain about most androids have and are/were fixed via updates.
 
All the I-phoners were having a great time mocking me.

What's the deal with this signal issue?

Good grief ---- I replaced my Palm for the GNEX and the Palm Pilot had far better reception. :mad:
 
I'm skeptical of a software update positively affecting signal reception. Seems to me reception is a function of hardware. True DSPs can be programmed. But antennas are "fixed at birth".

What will likely happen (like on iPhone) is that the "bars" will be programmed to be more "optimistic", as opposed to an actual signal strength improvement. A placebo.

Since I love the phone otherwise I hope I'm wrong. But since I have responsibilities I have to have a phone that works. I have no room for a phone with "no service" when I live smack in the middle of booming cell service including LTE. Of course I could swap between the razr and gnex as signal conditions require. Do I really want ICS that much? Hmm

For the most part like you I have not had issues while the signal is in a weakened state. I have also, however, experienced a couple of "out of service" scenarios and other -120dBm signal scenarios.

Let's hope the software is just misreporting the #s. But "no service" is pretty straightforward.

Premium1 said:
Funny thing is that all the other 4g devices got updates to fix the radio issues since they all had pretty crappy reception out of the box. But hey if you can't wait for 4.0.3 and 4.1 which testers have said helped the radio a lot then good luck with another 4g phone. I think the iphone would be your best bet, you don't seem to realize the issues you complain about most androids have and are/were fixed via updates.
Click to expand...
 
JBH said:
I'm skeptical of a software update positively affecting signal reception. Seems to me reception is a function of hardware. True DSPs can be programmed. But antennas are "fixed at birth".

What will likely happen (like on iPhone) is that the "bars" will be programmed to be more "optimistic", as opposed to an actual signal strength improvement. A placebo.

Since I love the phone otherwise I hope I'm wrong. But since I have responsibilities I have to have a phone that works. I have no room for a phone with "no service" when I live smack in the middle of booming cell service including LTE. Of course I could swap between the razr and gnex as signal conditions require. Do I really want ICS that much? Hmm

For the most part like you I have not had issues while the signal is in a weakened state. I have also, however, experienced a couple of "out of service" scenarios and other -120dBm signal scenarios.

Let's hope the software is just misreporting the #s. But "no service" is pretty straightforward.
Click to expand...

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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom