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Verizon GS3 signal reception thread

data issues related to dbm #'s?

  • high dbm, data works fine

    Votes: 53 68.8%

  • high dbm, data does not work

    Votes: 17 22.1%

  • other: explain in comments

    Votes: 7 9.1%
  • Total voters
    77
DILands said:
Dear Rush,

You're killing me!! LOL

I'll be waiting for more of your feedback - but suspect that I'll be hitting Best Buy tomorrow. Since "display" doesn't come under "reception", can you comment on the GPS?

Thank you soooo much!
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Faster GPS acquisition than the Razr, so good in my book.
 
Rushmore, you gonna make me try to pick one up this weekend....if there are anymore left.

DILands....you asked Early Mon the same question I wanted to ask about the RAZR HD. Curious to hear his thoughts.
 
Just checked the LTE coverage map posted earlier. I had no idea I was right in the middle of a LTE area! I thought it was still coming and was just expecting to use only 3G for a while. Does LTE weaken the 3G signal you recieve? About 3 months ago my Dinc 2 started getting horrible reception. Really looking forward to the SG3 now!
 
KevSmileTime said:
Just checked the LTE coverage map posted earlier. I had no idea I was right in the middle of a LTE area! I thought it was still coming and was just expecting to use only 3G for a while. Does LTE weaken the 3G signal you recieve? About 3 months ago my Dinc 2 started getting horrible reception. Really looking forward to the SG3 now!
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it says I live in 3g only but my phone is pulling 4g

Verizon Wireless Coverage Map | Verizon Wireless
 
bennybbc said:
The problem with saying that is unless you know this to be the case with "a lot" of owners complaining of poor reception, it doesn't really help determine how many people are actually getting worse reception than they would with another brand/model of phone. You may be correct in some cases but it really does hurt the credibility of the people who have worse reception and have stated so without going into enough detail.

If EVERYONE reporting poor reception would at least include real world, hands on, "Can you hear me now" and effective/non-effective 3G/4G coverage info along with how many bars or the db level it would go a long ways towards convincing people like yourself who aren't convinced that Samsung/Verizon has a problem with the SGS3 reception.

I'm not saying that reporting db data is useless but I think we can all agree that there are a lot of variables that frequently makes it's value in determining reception level unreliable. It's easy to compare an SGS3 in a fringe coverage area, (Every town/city has some known weak spots) to what you knew your old phone to get or, even better, side by side with another brand/model of Verizon phone at the same time in the same place. Are they both able to send and receive a phone call without dropping? What's the call quality? How about data? Do they both get 3G or 4G? Can they both log onto the same website or does one say, "Website not available" or, "No internet connection" (as mine will do most places in my house but NEVER with my Droid X)? These kinds of tests are the only tests that really matter at all. Throw me (SGS3) and any home run king major league slugger (Droid X) a slow and easy pitch with a tennis ball and we can both bat the ball way into center field. That represents medium to excellent cell phone coverage. Now throw a 90mph fast ball at us and the home run king will knock it out of the park and I'll be lucky to get a foul tip. Unfortunately my house is the cell phone coverage equivalent to home plate in Yankee Stadium. Nothing but fast balls and my SGS3 is striking out every time while all of the other phones in my house are getting singles and stand-up doubles.

Benny
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Ummm I kinda do know since 1. I did it myself and 2. Go back and reread every post in this thread. (My rezound, thunderbolt, droidx, etc. is getting better signal. All are on gingerbread);)
I don't doubt you or your daughter aren't, but as far as my tests around lake ouachita, east end, Arkansas(neither get good service with either the razr or sgs3) and my house around maumelle (excellent 4g coverage) has passed with flying colors. Sorry you're not having good luck.
 
rushmore said:
Alrighty then!

So far, the reception on my white 32gb G3 is just as good (or better) as the Razr in my fringe signal office and speedtest shows 40% faster download speeds (hence, the better). Also, my 213 apps (yes, too many) downloaded in around half the time.

So for me at least, the GS3 has passed the first "Go, No go" test and on to the house and the backroad test. It is 3G where I live and the next test, but 4G passed 100% for me :)

I am going to post a mini review, but holding out until I do the 3G and call coverage test where I live. So far, call quality IMO is better than my Razr.

3G coverage performance aside, the GS3 so far is OUTSTANDING and I was WRONG about the display, so the VZW store must have a bum unit. The GS3 I have is a lot brighter and the display IMO rivals the quality of my iPad 3.

Best Buy also rocked in their service (I was wrong there too).
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Looks like you're having the same luck as me. ;)
Mine was made in China. Was yours too?

Oh, not sure if anyone knows but this thing does svdo in 3g.O
 
Well, I went to one of my favorite dead spots in a mall not far from me. The results are somewhat better than what I got with my GNex, but not tremendously better. At one point I got my first 'no connectivity' as my wife went into a Macys. I freaked and ran after her to grab her IPhone to see what hers did. Fortunately hers was also in a no data mode at that same spot (even though the IPhone will just sit there and hang indefinitely). The GNex & S3 will report back there's no connection, but somehow the IPhone makes you feel a bit better about it. :)

But it was my impression that I got a more consistent 4G in most parts of the mall and less data outages than my GNex. Unfortunately my GNex is not active and the only way to do a true A/B at the same time is to open up the S3, remove the sim and put it back in the GNex. A bit of a pain for A/B-ing.

It's still my impression the best performer in this area was the Rezound. However, thus far I'm happy with the S3 for the larger screen size and readability. But I'd like to test more in some other problematic spots.
 
Currently on a road trip to visit family and the sgs3 is holding up great. Lots if switches from lte areas to 3g and back and forth and it seamlessly switches where my previous lte phones would take awhile to get data back . Will test more once I arrive because the house isn't a real strong signal area. Doing amazing so far in the few days I've had it.
 
Upgraded from my Incredible to this today. Not sure why but my old phone was struggling to get 1x most of the time and 3g was a sporadic blessing.

I've had solid consistent 4g with the S3 all day when I was out and about (downtown portland). Download speeds were mostly fantastic.

At home 4g is spotty and internet cuts out occasionally. When it works it's slow. Doesn't particularly matter since I prefer to use WiFi at home anyway... I missed the window to get the phone and keep my unlimited data :(

Currently it reads -106 dBm and 32 asu. Still outperforming my DInc, for what it's worth, but mine was pretty fubared so it's not necessarily saying anything. I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on reception, but so far I'm optimistic about it working when I need it to.
 
Was doing some numerical testing on my GNex & S3 tonight and maybe someone out there can explain the results.

Using the stock signal strength reporting, it seemed that the GNex was getting consistently better dbm readings by about 10 (Gnex-99 & S3-109). Yet the GNex would read an 'asu' of about 1 while the S3 would have a much better 'asu' of about 38. Any explanation?

Also, download & upload speeds were generally much better on 4G at my house on the S3 than the GNex.
 
bennybbc said:
I went to the Verizon Corp. store yesterday and talked to a guy there. He actually seemed to know what he was talking about. I explained to him that my daughter and I both have the same phone and both have the exact same reception issues. It seems unlikely that the phones are from the same batch but I guess it's possible. Her phone shipped from Memphis and my phone shipped from California. I didn't ask about swapping out my phone since I don't believe that it's just coincidence that both phones just happen to be identically defective. He was sympathetic but what could he do? He offered to let me return the phone for a refund (Minus $30, of course) but I'm not ready to do that.

I do get reasonable reception for both voice and data when driving around my town. But that's never been a problem with any of my/our phones. It's our house that has the "Fringe coverage". But none of us have ever had reception this bad with any of our phones at home. It's easy to get good reception in a medium to strong signal area. It's the weak areas that separate the good from the bad.

I can't explain why some people are getting good reception with their SGS3 and we aren't. But it's a fact that we can't talk on our phones at home at all and that has NEVER been a problem with any phone we've ever had. In fact, I don't recall anyone who's ever visited our house having this problem with their phones. I think it's safe to say that our two S3's get the worst reception of any phones that have ever been in our house. We've lived here for about 20 years and we have a lot of company.

At this point I don't know what I'm going to do. I really don't want to give up this phone. I have a lot of money and time invested in it. It's very unlikely that I'll return the phone for a refund. Getting screwed by Samsung/Verizon with a crappy phone AND losing $30? I don't think so. But I have considered selling it on Ebay. I haven't looked into what they're selling for (Lightly used) but I'd think I could probably get $500 for it, maybe more. I don't know. But then what? Go back to my Droid X and wait for something that is comparable in features but actually gets good reception? Maybe. That Razr HD that's rumored to be coming out sounds promising since Motorola is the king of reception in my experience. But I'll have to pay full retail and how much is that going to cost? When will it hit the market? What are my other options that won't be a step down in features and cost me an arm and a leg? Enquiring minds want to know.;):rolleyes:

My 16 year old daughter is finally coming out of denial about her phone. A couple of days ago it was: "How's your new phone?" "Great! I love it!" "Have you checked the data and voice reception?" "No, I'm using wifi and I haven't made or received any calls." She usually texts or uses our land line since her old Incredible got a slightly garbled signal (But It didn't drop the calls!). I had already tested her phone myself the same day I got my phone and knew it had the same unusable reception mine has. She was in the shower so she didn't know I'd done that and I didn't want to burst her bubble by telling her that her new phone sucks. Last night I called her phone from our LL and of course it dropped it within seconds. She called me back and it took two tries because the first call got dropped while it was ringing. The second call got dropped within two seconds. I think that took some of the shiny sparkle off of her new baby but I don't think she wants to get rid of the phone. Just like my phone, with her phone she gets excellent call quality all over town as well as 3G data. Again, so does any other Verizon phone.

My neighborhood is slightly elevated above the surrounding areas but my street has always received weak reception from any service that sends a signal. DSL is slower here than even a block or two away. Clear Wire isn't even available on our block but it is within a block or two away. The reception of any of the other cell providers is also weak in the same area as Verizon. But Verizon is usually the strongest, at least compared to ATT and Sprint.

The only suggestion the guy at the Verizon store had was to buy one of those whole house wireless extenders. I've never looked into those (Never needed it) and he said they are about $250. Ouch! Add that money to what I could hopefully sell my SGS3 for and I can buy a phone that doesn't NEED a wireless extender.:(

Benny
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Benny, I got the exact results with my S3. I'm scratching my head how some people can say they are getting better reception with the S3 than they did with Motorola. L
I returned both of my S3's. I have a network extender in my house, but the issue I am concerned about is everywhere but my house (such as at work). My Razr gave me signal 85% of the time even in the belly of some of the buildings I work in. The S3 died 10 feet into the door. By the way, I bought my network extender off Craigslist. Verizon have gotten pretty stingy about handing those out now a days.
If you want to return your S3 ( and please do before your 14 day window closes, the sooner the better as proof your very unhappy with the phone ) make sure you call Verizon at least 4 times and tell them you want your complaint documented. Have them walk you though all the silly troubleshooting methods (because none will work on this S3 anyways). Then when it finally comes time to return the phones to your local Verizon store, ask the clerk if there is a restocking fee, then ask her why, and tell her how inconvenienced you have already been and such a fee is totally unfair. Tell her to look at your records and how many times you have called and complained about the bad reception and simply put your not going to risk one of your family members not being able to get ahold of you because Verizon sold you a defective phone. If they say the fee stays, demand to speak to a manager. Give him the same song and dance.
If he says he can't remove that fee, ask for the fee to be deducted from your bill at least. Sometimes you have to even call the disconnect department and ask them what you need to do to cancel your service. They will ask why. They have the power to wave those fees.
Not only did they wave my restocking fee, they reset my upgrade date to December 2011 and gave me back my unlimited data.
Just stand firm with them. You can get rid of the restocking fees.
I am going to hold out for the Razr HD myself as well. Although I personally feel Motorola phones are too cold or industrial looking, they have the best reception.
 
Ken7 said:
Was doing some numerical testing on my GNex & S3 tonight and maybe someone out there can explain the results.

Using the stock signal strength reporting, it seemed that the GNex was getting consistently better dbm readings by about 10 (Gnex-99 & S3-109). Yet the GNex would read an 'asu' of about 1 while the S3 would have a much better 'asu' of about 38. Any explanation?

Also, download & upload speeds were generally much better on 4G at my house on the S3 than the GNex.
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not sure the ASU has any real significance: Mobile phone signal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
based on the equations there I still cant get the numbers to match so for 4g on lte the equation is something entirely different
 
Finally picked up my S3 from the Verizon store today. It is wonderful! I made 3 crystal clear calls and it is truly a gorgeous phone.

Coming from the Incredible I only had 3G so I'm not sure if there is a problem with my phone or simply my house... but I have not seen 4G once on the S3. 3G connects without a problem (however I'm not on unlimited data so I prefer to keep it on wifi). I disconnected wifi just to test if 4G worked and it never connected. I left it on and then tried playing a YouTube video to push it to work and it never switched from 3G (which luckily works quickly for me but still, would like 4G).

I'm going to drive around tomorrow and see if I get 4G anywhere. According to the coverage maps I should be getting it here. We'll see! Other than that, couldn't be happier!

Right now I am showing -90 dbm, 4 asu. My girlfriend got the exact same phone and is showing -96 dbm, 1 asu right next to me.
 
DILands said:
OK - you got me interested - what burbs?? My problem is that I'm out out work for a bit - so - I won't be able to give it (IF I actually pull the trigger) a good test of streaming to/from work - and getting any type of reliable signal @ work.

My ThunderBolt sucks getting anything reliable (even 1x) at work. USUALLY, streaming Pandora is OK - other times - it'll just start buffering - and need a reboot. Rhapsody (which I really love) is wayyyyy less solid - so - I wrote that off to the app - not the device.

I live in KofP - and take the turnpike up to the NorthEast - so - more location details would be helpful.

TIA!
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Sorry I missed this post - I was getting four bars in Plymouth Meeting and through the drive on 76 back into the city.
 
Picked my white 16gb up at the Verizon store today. Have had a razr since launch day. In my office my razr always was at about -107. Galaxy S3 comes in at the same thing-107. However, the data is much, much, faster on the galaxy then my razr. Both phones are my only internet since I live out in the middle of nowhere so I can really tell the difference. Without my Wilson 4GV I get like 3 down and 1-2 up. With I get like 20 down and 5 to 7 down. Also, I always had problems with lost connection while tethering with the factory verizon app on my razr. No problems at all using Foxfi on the galaxy. Heck I just downloaded a 1.5 gb rooted rom without dropping connection 1 time.
 
jroc said:
Rushmore, you gonna make me try to pick one up this weekend....if there are anymore left.

DILands....you asked Early Mon the same question I wanted to ask about the RAZR HD. Curious to hear his thoughts.
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Going through 3G and wifi tests and also a business trip tomorrow, so should post mini review (FWIW) in less than 24.
 
rushmore said:
I do not have the box around at moment. Will check later.
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What up mi amigo ? Glad you got your S3 ( finally ) even though it's a loaner for the time being. Turtleman would love this phone up there in KY, it's some real live action !!!! :turtle::turtle:

Thought you might want to know sean76 is back from the dead. He's all S3ed up & ready to play w/ the big boys.
 
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