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Weak antenna

omnius

omnius

Android Enthusiast
Well after reading through hundreds of posts on XDA about it, another 90 on code.Google.com, and seeing it mentioned in a few reviews it's safe to say that yes, in areas where signal is poor, the Nexus 4 does have a weaker antenna than it's contemporaries. Like inside large buildings with concrete etc. Secondly it's also been extensively covered that the design of it is similar to the antennagate scandal when you palm it in your left hand.

Note: I'm not asking for a debate on it. I've done enough research on it to be satisfied that the information is accurate so nobody's going to change my mind.

My purpose here is to ask another question - is this a deal breakers for you. I'm beginning to consider returning mine for an LTE device. Watching people in malls or inside other large buildings surfing away with 3-4 bars while I'm struggling just to maintain any connection at all in some cases is starting to really pissing me off. Right now I'm in a hospital with a coworker who's sg3 is barely indicating we're in a concrete structure and my dbn is never even passing -100, asu is at like 5.

I'm in a city of 3 million with tons of mobile coverage, and it's disappointing that I lose so much connectivity on top of having to skeletal grip this phone every time I set foot inside a concrete building.
 
I don't doubt you're right, but I haven't found it a particular issue in the real world.

At home, I have dire coverage but I haven't noticed that my missus get that much better service with her iP5.

If it's really bugging you, then I would trade. No point suffering if you can remedy the situation. S3s ought to be available pretty cheap now.
 
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As you can see if I hold the phone in the awkward top half of the phone manner I'm getting normal reception. If I nestled it normally in my palm, I take a hit in signal of full 2 bars. I've been repeating this all day for the last 2 days in different indoor locations and even different cities and it has never changed not even once. The n4 antenna placement makes this happen. Which is troublesome because we normally hold our phones this way while tapping and surfing with our right.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
 
MartinS said:
Get something else then?
Click to expand...

Most people won't be affected to notice, I'm hoping for input from people who spend a lot of time inside a lot of concrete structures where this becomes more pronounced. I'd like to hear whether they feel this is bothersome during real world use or not

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
 
I've never seen such problems in every day use and certainly feel that the N4 is better with signal than the GNex or Nexus S ever were.

I don't think I've ever had a phone that didn't suffer from lower signal strength when held indeed this one is currently sitting on my desk reading -89 and 12 and when held -95 and 10. This currently makes no difference to the operation of the device.

For those that insist on talking about bars - it drops from 4 to 3 in this situation.
 
I've never had an issue but I use a case. Have you tried your experiment with a case? It seems to be a similar issue that Apple had with their 4 or 4s.
 
omnius said:
uga2e8eb.jpg

yheza6ys.jpg


As you can see if I hold the phone in the awkward top half of the phone manner I'm getting normal reception. If I nestled it normally in my palm, I take a hit in signal of full 2 bars. I've been repeating this all day for the last 2 days in different indoor locations and even different cities and it has never changed not even once. The n4 antenna placement makes this happen. Which is troublesome because we normally hold our phones this way while tapping and surfing with our right.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...


I tried your test. I was unable to replicate the problem.
 
czechplastik said:
I tried your test. I was unable to replicate the problem.
Click to expand...

Same here.

The signal bars can be quite a poor representation of signal strength anyway (as silly as that sounds), try an app like Network Signal Info and monitor how big an impact holding it in a particular way has number wise on signal strength.

Up to you though, I've never noticed an issue with mine, but not all phones are created equal so that's not to say issues don't exist.
 
Biaviian said:
I've never had an issue but I use a case. Have you tried your experiment with a case? It seems to be a similar issue that Apple had with their 4 or 4s.
Click to expand...

+1 - I did note a weak signal sometimes, but it does appear to be working noticeably better with a case on it.

My office is small, but I'm in the part of the building that get's poor signal no matter what phone I use. My N4 does as well as any other phone I've used.
 
Biaviian said:
I've never had an issue but I use a case. Have you tried your experiment with a case? It seems to be a similar issue that Apple had with their 4 or 4s.
Click to expand...

+1 I realize it's anecdotal, but I have two very weak signal areas on my commute to and from work. I've had several phones I've used along that route (my last was a BB9900, the one before a Motorola Defy). I'm on T-Mobile and have always had occasional dropped calls in those areas (maybe 1 in 3 times), except with the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 is the only phone that I have had no dropped calls in those weak signal areas. I use a case and when driving my phone sits on the front passenger seat.

Not disputing the experience of others, but I haven't experienced any weakness in the N4 antenna.
 
My phone disconnect alot just because I am deep inside the bunker working. If I make the phone sit higher, it seems to work and dont disconnect.
 
El Presidente said:
Same here.

The signal bars can be quite a poor representation of signal strength anyway (as silly as that sounds), try an app like Network Signal Info and monitor how big an impact holding it in a particular way has number wise on signal strength.

Up to you though, I've never noticed an issue with mine, but not all phones are created equal so that's not to say issues don't exist.
Click to expand...

As far as using signal bars, I found it accurately correlates with the dBm shown in Network Signal Info and even changes at the same time. Shouldn't they be receiving data from the same source? It seems the bars are accurate, just not very granular.

I only noticed this because I was running into a similar problem as OP and almost posted about it, but it wasn't consistent enough to know for sure. I switched carriers and it wasn't a problem, but now I'm back again so I'll see if I can show the same thing clearly.
 
OhSeven said:
As far as using signal bars, I found it accurately correlates with the dBm shown in Network Signal Info and even changes at the same time. Shouldn't they be receiving data from the same source? It seems the bars are accurate, just not very granular.

I only noticed this because I was running into a similar problem as OP and almost posted about it, but it wasn't consistent enough to know for sure. I switched carriers and it wasn't a problem, but now I'm back again so I'll see if I can show the same thing clearly.
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They should yeah, but I've found them to be pretty inaccurate. At work, I'm about 75 metres away from the mast, get a faster speed on the mobile network than I do on my home wifi and I rarely get above 2 bars. Network signal Info tells me the signal is really strong.

WiFi indicator is much the same :confused:
 
I dont know if its the custom ROM's or what but Ive noticed my phone has gotten worse over the course of ownership since I got it in November. I now see at the end of the day under "cell standby" anywhere from 3-6% of no cell service.

Its really frustrating because all my previous phones never had this issue. The first few months with the phone I never had any % of no cell service, its only crept up recently.

Maybe the HTC One will be better...
 
Sorry OP...I disagree

My n4 gets service everywhere with TMO here in NYC.

And when compared to the iphone 5 it's a joke. Where the iphone 5 loses service the n4 doesn't, where the i5 drops calls, the n4 doesn't. And very importantly, where the i5 is just terrible on wifi and range, the n4 holds strong and never drops the signal.

Of course it varies based on where you reside...but to me I've grown to think the n4 has one of the strongest antennas that I've seen in a phone...And I've used a ton over the years!
 
I wasn't going to comment on this thread having owned a Nexus 4 for only a short time, but I will anyway and say I agree with both points of view in this thread :-)

Compared with my old Motorola Milestone the Nexus 4 signal strength indication changes dramatically with the way you hold it, and generally indicates lower signal (fewer bars) at home where signal strength is fairly poor. In stronger signal areas I see little difference.

That said the Nexus 4 performs better as a phone (both speech and data) despite the lower indicated signal and shows no tendency to completely lose signal in places where the Milestone often did, telling me that there's more going on than shows in the crude five-bar strength indicator.

I'm not overly concerned about the indicator or even the real, measured signal strength, only about the way the phone maximises the signal it sees. In this regard I find my Nexus 4 to be very, very good.
 
I was in Austin recently where I thought I'd have better connection given its a bigger city, but when I was in buildings and my hotel I did notice that I had connectivity issues, and it was kind of frustrating.

Given where I live now there is no major huge buildings besides the mall and hospitals and I've never had issues inside the mall. But I do notice depending the area that I'm in that the coverage is a lot weaker.

Anyone know if the LTE radio in this thing will be enabled again in the next update? I'd hate to have to downgrade back to 4.2.1. Keylimepie?
 
mb41186 said:
I was in Austin recently where I thought I'd have better connection given its a bigger city, but when I was in buildings and my hotel I did notice that I had connectivity issues, and it was kind of frustrating.

Given where I live now there is no major huge buildings besides the mall and hospitals and I've never had issues inside the mall. But I do notice depending the area that I'm in that the coverage is a lot weaker.

Anyone know if the LTE radio in this thing will be enabled again in the next update? I'd hate to have to downgrade back to 4.2.1. Keylimepie?
Click to expand...
At this time google can NOT enable the LTE legally because it did not go through FCC as LTE device.

What would be nice is if they run it back through FCC as LTE.
 
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