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Help Some last minute questions ;-)

S

suntopper

Newbie
OK, here's the deal. I've got four days left on my 14 day trial and I've got some questions hopefully someone can answer to help me make up my mind. I know there are varying opinions on some of these but I thought I would ask the forum!

1) How does WiFi work on your DC? I cannot get all four "arcs" even when I'm in the same room as my router. My DINC get's all four two rooms away. FYI, my router is not touted as a high signal strength model but I would expect to get more signal in the same room? It also seem to drop wifi before a web page gets loaded (or a speedtest is complete).

2) I live on the same side of the puget sound as GunnerJim so normally I only get 3G while at home. I spent the weekend at my son's in Redmond, WA (just across the lake from Seattle) and only got one spectacular 15.9 mbps (dl)/10mbps(ul) during multiple tests. This was at 9:24 PM on Friday night so maybe he network wasn't that busy. All of the other speedtests averaged 5 to 8 mbps (dl). My cable router gives me 7.3/1.7 mbps (dl/ul).

My question is, do you think these results are normal or should I exchange it for another phone? (bad radio???)

On the plus side I really like the phone (especially the screen) but maybe I'm just a phone geek that loves having the latest in my hand. The battery is on par with my DINC so I would need to buy an extra battery for those long plane rides to the east coast. I played a 2:39 movie the other day and it only took 25% of battery which I thought was extremely good. Might have to try that again!

Whatever I decide, thanks to everyone on the forum for being so informative. I've been following this forum for 2-3 weeks and want to commend everyone for keeping it friendly!
 
Thanks for the reply Kelmer.

I talking 4G speeds. My 3G speed runs about 500Kbps/800Kbps (ul/dl) which seem kind of backward to me. Also, the 3G seems to drop out during the speedtest (which may explain the low speeds). I also notice when I dl a webpage the first 7/8 of the page loads quickly then takes 10-20 secs to finish. I have dolphin HD loaded and the default browser and both act the same. I'm not sure if I had this same behavior with the browser on the DINC but I'm pretty sure the 3G speeds were better.
 
suntopper, I have had 2 Droid Charges (Nothing was wrong with 1st one I returned, just thought LG Revo may be better-IMO NOT) and took them to the same areas for testing in Seattle...

Pikes Place,
Museum of Flight,
SeaTac Airport,
South of SeaTac all the way to Pierce County Line

Consistent 24-28MB down, less around Pikes Place, better results south of there.

I get the same 3-4 arc issue with Wifi, does not stay locked at 4 arcs when in room with router. But speed thru-put is usually good over Wifi, about 15MB down on a 18MB ISP advertised speed. Battery life is great, I think better than my DINC, which also had an AMOLED screen (1st Gen). The Extended Battery is pure Gangster- About 2 days of really good usage.
 
Thanks GunnerJim I was hoping you'd respond. I just drove back around Tacoma today. I was watching the phone to see when I would lose 4G. Never even thought about a speed test (ugh). I bought the phone at Costco. Maybe I'll exchange it for another DC and see if they can renew the 14 days. This is the only huge issue I have with the DC. I want to try out the Verizon case with the stand built in since I always use my phone as an alarm. Right now I'm using a "collector plate stand" to put it where I can see it all night. Works fine, but I'd rather have the capability all the time especially on planes and in hotels!
 
Suntopper, here are some good links to some post I did on the cases:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-droid-charge/360213-best-case.html

and the accessories:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-droid-charge/340868-accessories-dc.html

May help you in making some decisions on buying. I still am unsure what is the best way to tote phone with extended battery.
With VZW Hawk Holster, naked or
Droid X2 Leather Holster, naked.

I figure for 9.99 a replacement extended cover is cheaper than Ghost Armor or anything like that.
 
With your supposed wifi problem is anything else wifi in the same room? Are a lot of electronics around your router? Do you have any gaming systems?

Keep in mind ALL electronics around your router put out interference that will lower your signal. Also bluetooth kills wireless signals. Bluetooth transfers a lot of data over a short range. It has a signifigant power.

Other electronics are probably lowering your signal strength, but at wireless N, (or even g if your on that) even with 2 bars of signal unless your on 100mbps fiber optic it wont matter. Your transfer speeds on broadband are not fast enough to affect the 350mbps of wireless N.
 
I would expect the same interference on my DINC as well so I think it's a limitation with the DC. (especially since gunnerjim had the same experience). However, I'm probably going to keep the phone. The only question was if I was going to ask to exchange it for another DC. But you know how that goes, the new would probably be worse than the old one. My wife once exchanged a leather couch three times. Of course the first one was the best!

Thanks again for the input everyone!
 
There is a free app on the market called wifi analyzer. Check it out and see if that helps. Maybe you just need a different channel.

The app will show you wifi signal strength, competing wifi channels, etc. Great tool IMO
 
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