Cellular strength and throughput - Samsung Galaxy S8+ Real Life Review

We know how much you like to stream, ahem, "videos", and so cellular data is mega-important. Rate this thread to express how you think the Samsung Galaxy S8+'s LTE performs. A higher rating indicates that it's fantastic: throughput is excellent and signal strength is top-notch.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add.

I get a low 4g signal at work whereas on my s7 edge I didn't get anything

Mine is a lot better than any phone I've had before. Usually at home on all my other phones I have 1-2 bars and on the S8+ I have at least 4 bars.

Bars are no indication of true signal strength. My S8+ doesn't get nearly as strong of a signal as my Pixel XL. I drop signal a lot more often now. I was rather disappointed with the performance of the cell radio actually.

For me, the signal is about the same at home. But at work, the S8+ performs much better than the Note5 that I had... Must be an extra band or something. The Note5 would hang on to an unusable LTE signal or drop to 3G/1x inside my job. The S8+ stays on on LTE with a usable signal.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

It's worst Then S8 as I used that before shifting to S8 plus. But download speed is great.

My S7 was better. The S7 ised a new duel antenna tech, I am not sure the S8 used it or not.

My AT&T Note 4 and my new S8+ get about the same signal, which is really disappointing

I generally see around 5-8dbm better then I did with my pixel xl at home..notice the s8+ does drop signal little easier tho then my pixel in fringe areas

Tested right outside my house. Never had these speeds on my Note 5.

Comming from a S6, the signals and speeds are far better, also my s6 was missing a few bands so never ever got speeds like this on my Jio 4G Network in India

At work on LTE Im getting 31 Mbps down and 6 Mbps up. Not bad! Faster than our company wifi!

webtech9 said:
At work on LTE Im getting 31 Mbps down and 6 Mbps up. Not bad! Faster than our company wifi!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to get 54Mbps which WAS faster than the company wifi. Then we bumped up to 500Mb.

Poor Reception in Canada on Bell Mobility
I just got an unlocked S8+ that was apparently originally from Sprint (because that is where the home page goes in Samsung Internet).
I do not get very good reception on it – even in urban/suburban areas. Sometimes, when I am inside a building, it disappears altogether. I often get 1 or 2 bars on the reception indicator. If I check the “Sim Card Status” screen under settings I get -105 dBm 3 asu. I don’t really know what those numbers mean.
Is there anything I can do to improve reception? Should I be calling Bell and maybe they need to know what kind of phone I have? Should I expect an S8+ purchased directly from Bell (they also carry this phone) to have better reception? Or is the reception of “105 dBm 3 asu” fine and it’s just the indicator showing low levels?
As much as I like this phone I cannot be missing calls randomly. I have a business to run.
Thanks.
The Fish

thefish123 said:
I just got an unlocked S8+ that was apparently originally from Sprint (because that is where the home page goes in Samsung Internet).
I do not get very good reception on it – even in urban/suburban areas. Sometimes, when I am inside a building, it disappears altogether. I often get 1 or 2 bars on the reception indicator. If I check the “Sim Card Status” screen under settings I get -105 dBm 3 asu. I don’t really know what those numbers mean.
Is there anything I can do to improve reception? Should I be calling Bell and maybe they need to know what kind of phone I have? Should I expect an S8+ purchased directly from Bell (they also carry this phone) to have better reception? Or is the reception of “105 dBm 3 asu” fine and it’s just the indicator showing low levels?
As much as I like this phone I cannot be missing calls randomly. I have a business to run.
Thanks.
The Fish
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Click to collapse
Hey fish you want it down, the dBm i mean. Here's a quote "-50 dBm is great signal or full bars. -120 dBm is very poor signal or a dead zone." you at 105 dBm is garbage, no wonder your missing calls.. Since you are experiencing network issues, you could get a replacement, but i don’t think it will make much difference. as it's all same hardware. Why not get a Google Pixel XL i heard they got awesome reception! Or if you’re at home a lot, purchase an lte repeater booster ? Problem Solved!

Drop in signal & Block sign
Im living in UAE - and my service provider is etisalat, and my 4G signal is dropping and sometimes i get block sign, i tried my sim in different device it working.
i have started a thread on the subject if anyone could help me please.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...block-sign-t3851575/post77823171#post77823171

N1NJATH3ORY said:
Hey fish you want it down, the dBm i mean. Here's a quote "-50 dBm is great signal or full bars. -120 dBm is very poor signal or a dead zone." you at 105 dBm is garbage, no wonder your missing calls.. Since you are experiencing network issues, you could get a replacement, but i don’t think it will make much difference. as it's all same hardware. Why not get a Google Pixel XL i heard they got awesome reception! Or if you’re at home a lot, purchase an lte repeater booster ? Problem Solved!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went through a whole “carrier switching” routine (details found somewhere on these forums) and after changing the CSC to Canadian I flashed Bell Mobility's firmware. The phone now shows that it’s an SM-G955W which is the Canadian model. And apparently now supports additional LTE bands 29(700) and 30(2300) which were missing from the SM-G955U (I determined this by dialing *#2263#).
I have no idea if it *really* supports these bands or just *says* that it does but my gut tells me that it really does support them. I suspect that the hardware for the SM-G955U and SM-G955W is 100% identical and any differences are controlled through software only.
And I seem to have better reception now. I am getting 4 to 5 bars in most places and under -100 dBm in most places. Plus Wi-Fi calling works now so I have reception in my basement at my house.
The true test will be when we go camping next summer.
The Fish

thefish123 said:
I went through a whole “carrier switching” routine (details found somewhere on these forums) and after changing the CSC to Canadian I flashed Bell Mobility's firmware. The phone now shows that it’s an SM-G955W which is the Canadian model. And apparently now supports additional LTE bands 29(700) and 30(2300) which were missing from the SM-G955U (I determined this by dialing *#2263#).
I have no idea if it *really* supports these bands or just *says* that it does but my gut tells me that it really does support them. I suspect that the hardware for the SM-G955U and SM-G955W is 100% identical and any differences are controlled through software only.
And I seem to have better reception now. I am getting 4 to 5 bars in most places and under -100 dBm in most places. Plus Wi-Fi calling works now so I have reception in my basement at my house.
The true test will be when we go camping next summer.
The Fish
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Click to collapse
Happy days for you i do suffer poor signal in my house:crying: i'll see if i can flash the CSC to fix it, thanks for the update!

s7 does lot better than 8+ in the same room

Related

Radio comparison - Verizon GN vs Thunderbolt

Both phones set to CDMA EVDO only, no LTE radios active. Location is 3G EHRPD enabled, but does not have any 4G towers for miles. I held both phones the exact same way in the exact same location within 30 seconds of each other to record my results.
Signal Test:
Galaxy Nexus 3G Signal Strength: 0-1 bars, -120dbm 99 asu - -100dbm 1 asu
Thunderbolt 3G Signal Strength: 1-3 bars, -94dbm 2 asu - -85dbm 2 asu
Bandwidth Test:
Galaxy Nexus 3G Bandwidth: 0.86mbps down, 0.54mbps up
Thunderbolt 3G Bandwidth: 2.94mbps down, 0.56mbps up
Bandwidth test was the best of 3 runs using www.speakeasy.net/speedtest connecting to New York, NY. Current location is central NJ.
My Galaxy Nexus is running stock 4.0.4 with the newest radios and bootloader, along with Imo's kernel 2.4.1 exp2.
Honestly, after having my Thunderbolt for 8 months, coming to this supposed better phone and having these kind of radio problems is just appalling. The Thunderbolt was always railed for being the pioneer of LTE radios, and for getting weak signal. Well after these tests I am not sure what to believe besides the truth that is sitting in front of me. My brand spanking new Google phone has by far the worst radio I've ever seen in a Verizon smartphone.
I'm going to be hopeful in getting an update that may resolve these radio issues, but the realist in me tells me this is 100% hardware.
I'd like to get some results from other Verizon Galaxy Nexus users running 3G to see what kind of dbm and bar signal, as well as what kind of bandwidth you guys are getting. I am very disappointed and want to know if it's a hardware defect or if this phones radios' really are this bad
Meh. The Qualcomm radios in both of these phones are in fact ****. I think the build of the Galaxy Nexus (whether it be physical or software) has something to do with it. Maybe Samsung herp derped the position of the radios or Google took a **** on the blobs.
Regardless, its a great phone and still gets better data speeds than every other carrier and phone. -coughs- iPhone users -coughs-
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Except it doesn't get the best data speeds of any other phones, as my test results conclude.
Even on 4G I've nabbed 40mbps down 15mbps up bandwidth tests on that same exact Thunderbolt when I was in a good signal 4G area. How much have most GN users hit on 4G? 30mbps down?
This phone is a great micro-tablet, but as a phone it is heavily lacking.
DaRkL3AD3R said:
Except it doesn't get the best data speeds of any other phones, as my test results conclude.
Even on 4G I've nabbed 40mbps down 15mbps up bandwidth tests on that same exact Thunderbolt when I was in a good signal 4G area. How much have most GN users hit on 4G? 30mbps down?
This phone is a great micro-tablet, but as a phone it is heavily lacking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really, cause I have seen people getting upwards of 50mb/s on the Nexus (seems like most of them live in NYC).
Not to mention I was talking about people on other carriers.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Other carriers is a given, but that really isn't what the point of this comparison is. The point is I'm holding two phones on the same carrier, at the same time, the same way, and one performs multitudes greater performance than the other. Has nothing to do with other carriers.
Fact is this phones radio is junk. You can have a quad core 1080p Super AMOLED Plus screen and 2GB of RAM, the best GPU on the market and 128GB of space, but if it can't hold a signal to save YOUR life, then what good is it at as a phone?
Samsung/Google needs to get on this right now and fix this phones radio. I'm just worried that it can't be fixed through a software OTA...
And I'd also like some speed comparisons, namely 3G, from other Verizon GN users if possible please.
On 3g i used to get about -75 at worst with thunderbolt at my house. Currently getting -93 at best with two different galaxy nexus. Usually worse. Used to have a stable 4g signal too. Now it drops after a few seconds
johnprevite said:
On 3g i used to get about -75 at worst with thunderbolt at my house. Currently getting -93 at best with two different galaxy nexus. Usually
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Click to collapse
That sounds about right... very disappointed in these radios.
I get the same -120dbm, 99asu with my Nexus at home, where I would get around 95dbm on my old Tbolt. I think the antenna/radio gives up signal quicker at the fringe distances faster on the Nexus - if I go into a city I get the signal strength I am supposed to get. I have a theory that part of the problem may lie with Verizon's use of old Alltel towers (I'm on the VA/NC border) - The signal in my area is consistently weak, but I've gone to other rural areas & gotten good strength. Perhaps Samsung/VZW will give us a software update on the phones...and perhaps when they upgrade our towers around here for LTE it might straighten up the tower's overall firmware...But we probably wont get LTE here until 2020.
strongergravity said:
I get the same -120dbm, 99asu with my Nexus at home, where I would get around 95dbm on my old Tbolt. I think the antenna/radio gives up signal quicker at the fringe distances faster on the Nexus - if I go into a city I get the signal strength I am supposed to get. I have a theory that part of the problem may lie with Verizon's use of old Alltel towers (I'm on the VA/NC border) - The signal in my area is consistently weak, but I've gone to other rural areas & gotten good strength. Perhaps Samsung/VZW will give us a software update on the phones...and perhaps when they upgrade our towers around here for LTE it might straighten up the tower's overall firmware...But we probably wont get LTE here until 2020.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LTE will cover Verizon's current 3G footprint by the end of 2013, FYI.
Here's hoping!
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

Cellular strength and throughput

We know how much you like to stream, ahem, "videos", and so cellular data is mega-important. Rate this thread to express how you think the OnePlus X's LTE performs. A higher rating indicates that it's fantastic: throughput is excellent and signal strength is top-notch.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add.
I just purchased the OnePlus X and I use ATT. I haven't received the device yet, but I bought it knowing about the missing bands. How prevalent is the LTE issue?
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
t2jbird said:
I just purchased the OnePlus X and I use ATT. I haven't received the device yet, but I bought it knowing about the missing bands. How prevalent is the LTE issue?
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's an unlocked phone, which OnePlus advertises as compatible with LTE networks on both AT&T and T-Mobile. However, the OnePlus X lacks support for AT&T's most widely used LTE frequency. Further, it doesn't have support for a frequency that T-Mobile is rapidly transitioning its network to. (It almost goes without saying, but the OnePlus X doesn't work at all with Verizon and Sprint's networks, and it is not advertised as being capable of doing so.)
IF YOU USE THE ONEPLUS X ON AT&T, EXPECT HSPA DATA
That means that while the OnePlus X is capable of connecting to AT&T's LTE network, it can't in many areas because it can't talk to the 700MHz frequency (also known as LTE Band 17) AT&T most often uses. In my experience, using the OnePlus X on AT&T in New York City and surrounding areas for the past week, I was unable to keep an LTE signal for more than just a couple of minutes. Most of the time the OnePlus X was stuck on AT&T's HSPA network, which is much slower in both uploads and downloads than LTE. All of these issues also apply to the MVNOs that use AT&T's LTE network, such as StraightTalk or Tracfone.
Source - The Verge.
My oneplus X doesn't seem to have too good 2G, 3G or LTE reception. I've been testing lately with different providers. The phone, in battery menu, mostly shows yellow or orange signal strenght under the battery bar. See the attached screenshots. My S3 shows mostly green bar, sometimes yellow or orange, in the same conditions. I would like to ask you: do you have something similar?
koen12333 said:
My oneplus X doesn't seem to have too good 2G, 3G or LTE reception. I've been testing lately with different providers. The phone, in battery menu, mostly shows yellow or orange signal strenght under the battery bar. See the attached screenshots. My S3 shows mostly green bar, sometimes yellow or orange, in the same conditions. I would like to ask you: do you have something similar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my cell coverage looks the same
never had a problem with my nexus 4
sadly i dont remember if this issue popped up with 2.2.0 or was there from the beginning
I'm on tmobile in arizona and my reception is a improvement over my old nexus5. The tmobile rep said the phone was missing band 2?? I think he meant band 12.
Anyways think the oneX has the same bands as the old nexus5.
I've issue with instable mobile network reception. Here are two videos, one of OPX and one of GS3. The OPX signal strength fluctuates between -91 dBm and -105 dBm during the video. The GS3 signal strength fluctuates between -97 dBm and -101 dBm during the video.
So it more than incidentally happens that my internet connection is lost or down from EDGE to GPRS (as well as H+ to 3G) so my internet speed drops. I also think my idle battery drain issues have something to do with it. By the way running CM13-20160521 nightly. OOS2.2.1-x is no different.
Edit: network is Hollandsnieuwe, that's Vodafone. Videos are uploading now.
opx lte
It works the band 4 (1700/2100) for OPX white? Any rom that band is unlocked in E1003?
I need this band for LTE in my country and i like the white!
The phone is LTE cat4 (150/50Mbit), so don't expect ultra fast LTE speeds.
koen12333 said:
My oneplus X doesn't seem to have too good 2G, 3G or LTE reception. I've been testing lately with different providers. The phone, in battery menu, mostly shows yellow or orange signal strenght under the battery bar. See the attached screenshots. My S3 shows mostly green bar, sometimes yellow or orange, in the same conditions. I would like to ask you: do you have something similar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UPDATE: I flashed the 2.2.1-X modems and the signal strength became normal
ORIGINAL TEXT:
Exact same situation with mine. I'm in Italy on TIM and I get orange levels more often than not. I never got these low levels of of reception with my previous phones.
So, either it's some bug in the displaying of the signal strength or there is some problem. I hope it's a software\firmware problem that can be patched.

Cellular strength and throughput

We know how much you like to stream, ahem, "videos", and so cellular data is mega-important. Rate this thread to express how you think the ZTE Axon 7's LTE performs. A higher rating indicates that it's fantastic: throughput is excellent and signal strength is top-notch.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add.
I was on my way up northern Michigan and my wife drove for a bit and I compared the axon to her Moto G (2016) and it they both had to about the same signal. Both had issues shedding weaker towers. Now that we are up at the cabin both phones have very similar signal. So I think the axon is at least as good as a Moto G (2016).
runderekrun said:
I was on my way up northern Michigan and my wife drove for a bit and I compared the axon to her Moto G (2016) and it they both had to about the same signal. Both had issues shedding weaker towers. Now that we are up at the cabin both phones have very similar signal. So I think the axon is at least as good as a Moto G (2016).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On what network?
murkwell said:
On what network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cricket (att)
Now that I am back at a keyboard I can expand a bit. I was testing via running speed tests. When I first started the Moto G was destroying the Axon. I started getting a sunken feeling, but then I noticed the Axon shifted off a tower only getting HSPA ("4G") to one using LTE so I reran a few speed tests and the Axon trounced the Moto G, as it was still stuck on the under performing tower. So that's when I thought maybe a rural roadtrip, with an iffy signal to begin with, wasn't the best way to test this. Once we arrived at the cabin we both had between 1 and 2 bars of HSPA connection that would only work in specific corners of the cabin effectively. Seemingly the same.
I know this isn't an empirical test. I wasn't comparing the actual db numbers or anything. But to my eyes, Axon is about on the same level as the Moto G (2016). I don't know how good the Moto G actually is but I remember reading it had good signal when I was originally reading reviews for it.
Once again this was all tested on the Cricket (via AT&T) network.
Up in Canada on Rogers and am having severely low signal rate. Cannot find service in any basement ive been in throughout the city. Signal of around -120dBm inside buildings. The signal seems very erratic and jumps from 96-143dBm extremely quick. I seem to think there may be a modem problem with this network. If anyone else is on Rogers please chime in on your findings.
The signal strength is worse than my s4, I checked the db and it is 5-10db worse, but occasionally will jump to being on par to the s4. Tested on tmo lte, neither phone was being held. Not sure how the rating is 4.5/5 as a reddit post agrees that there is some issue.
The signal quality is definitely not stable, had a few minor call drops if I am not in certain parts of my house and inside stores which can be tough on signals but it's nowhere near as strong as my other test phones such as the S5, Note 4, and S6 Edge+. I was dropping calls earlier this week and switched back to Note 4 and I was able to talk everywhere w/o dropped calls. This is on Tmobile and signal is decent in my area. Then on WIFI strength, the Note 4 beats it by 20-30% throughput. That's a 2014 device.
My problem with all these Chinese brand phones is they have great specs but software is lacking. Looks like I maybe back to my workhorse Note 4.
So I used this phone to drive Uber in Los Angeles all last night and had some pretty major problems.
GPS Signal would randomly shift positions so Google Maps would keep rerouting during trips. This didn't always happen, but happened enough to be annoying.
I'm pretty sure I lost a bunch of trip requests because they just never got through to my phone.
This is either because the OS wasn't allowing the notifications to come through correctly, or because of the network performance.
Interestingly I was streaming podcasts the entire time which came through fine for the most part, but they would cut out every once in a while if I ended up in areas with 1bar (which happened often last night).
This is a pretty major problem for me, I don't know if something like Cyanogenmod will fix me not receiving requests, but the cellular and GPS performance are very clearly performing poorly.
Edit:
Cellular performance is now much better after the update.
I would say it's on par with average smartphones (I still lose reception where most people do), and it no longer just drops and stays of signal for no good reason.
GPS performance is OK, it tends to shift around while I'm driving a bit (thinking I'm on the street next to me).
Antenna Strength
Has anyone been able to confirm that this is due to a bad physical design of the antenna and not a software issue?
I was ready to buy this device until I saw these reports of bad signal strength
Hi guys,
Can any European users comment on radio signal performance? Could the issue be limited to the US version?
joaste said:
Hi guys,
Can any European users comment on radio signal performance? Could the issue be limited to the US version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To asnwer my own post, it seems some amazon.de customers are returning the phone due to very poor reception.
I was soooo looking forward to buying this phone and am shocked that ZTE would put it on the market with such a problem. Time will tell if it is hardware related (which it probably is), but most likely my money will go to another brand. I sooo wanted good sound :crying:
EDIT: please, any feedback from European customers?
There are some reviews about the cellular strength on a german forum (android-hilfe.de/thema/empfang-des-axon.792336/) but without any comparison to other phones.
Radio Performance
The Pocket Now review of the Axon 7 mentions potential radio issues and compares it to other phones.
Axon 7 Signal Strength
It doesn't look good.
I wonder if the new "Mini" version of the phone has the same issue and if not, perhaps they corrected a hardware flaw.
There is a new software update for the Axon 7 coming soon. I hope it addresses the signal strength issue, but I wouldn't hold my breath. We may have to just wait for the Axon 8.
when new software coming.
((RayDar)) said:
The Pocket Now review of the Axon 7 mentions potential radio issues and compares it to other phones.
Axon 7 Signal Strength
It doesn't look good.
I wonder if the new "Mini" version of the phone has the same issue and if not, perhaps they corrected a hardware flaw.
There is a new software update for the Axon 7 coming soon. I hope it addresses the signal strength issue, but I wouldn't hold my breath. We may have to just wait for the Axon 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When new Axon 7 update coming? any link for that please
Note 3
Cellular: -93 dBm
Wifi 5ghz: - 46 dBm
Axon 7
Cellular: -118 dBm
Wifi 5ghz: -59 dBm
Can't perform an LTE speedtest on the Axon 7. It won't hold a connection long enough. Web pages constantly fail to load.
Signal strength is significantly worse than my 3 year old Note 3. So much so the phone is unusable at home.
I commented elsewhere on this as I'm mainly sending the phone back because of the very poor camera and the disappointing audio.
The radio however is the worst I've had since 3G was launched. I've been all over Brussels today and barely seen a 4G signal. I'd forgotten 3G existed until today. I managed to get the Axon to connect to 4G by toggling the mobile data on and off but it quickly went back to 3G.
My bedroom is in the basement but thanks to a nearby base station I get four bars 4G on my Honor 7. The Axon get one-two bars on 3G.
I'm bailing out now. I'm not waiting for a software update to fix the radio and I'm not sure the camera *can* be fixed, it's that bad.
The lovely screen apart, the A7 is a downgrade from the much cheaper Honor. Shame.
Grey Axon 7 purchased from Amazon Germany.
LTE: Nexus 5X: -105 dB, Axon 7: -113 dB
Forcing 3G on both phones: Both about -95 dB.
European version
Indoors in a café. Both of our phones are on the same network using the same base station. The Nexus 5x shows -106dBm on LTE while the Axon 7 shows -111 dBm on HSPA and is unable to load a page.
A bad camera, broken audio and a weak radio now seem a heavy price to pay for a nice screen and a top of the line chip.... it was too good to be true.
When I was walking home from campus today, I had 4G with a maximum of 2 bars missing (one missing most of the time, sometimes full bars) 90% of the 3km trip. Don't have any other LTE phones to compare it to, so take that with a grain of salt.

Cellular strength and throughput

We know how much you like to stream, ahem, "videos", and so cellular data is mega-important. Rate this thread to express how you think the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom's LTE performs. A higher rating indicates that it's fantastic: throughput is excellent and signal strength is top-notch.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add.
Compared to my Nexus 6P, this phone tends to stay on HSPA+ more often than my 6P did. This phone either wont choose LTE or doesn't get LTE in many places where my 6P did. A bit frustrating.
DriveEuro said:
Compared to my Nexus 6P, this phone tends to stay on HSPA+ more often than my 6P did. This phone either wont choose LTE or doesn't get LTE in many places where my 6P did. A bit frustrating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here; I'm on straight talk, and I'm stuck on HSPA+. My S6 used to get LTE at full bars.
I'll chime in here. I fell asleep and my 8 month old destroyed my Moto Z Play. The Zenfone 3 zoom has a much crappier radio interface layer setup as I get 2g in places where I had lte in the same area and same SIM card. Otherwise specs were pretty much identical. Also while I get better battery it's not an extra 1500mh . I averaged 6 1/2 hours screen time on the zplay and average only 7 1/2 here with same apps /usage.
Anonamoose said:
I'll chime in here. I fell asleep and my 8 month old destroyed my Moto Z Play. The Zenfone 3 zoom has a much crappier radio interface layer setup as I get 2g in places where I had lte in the same area and same SIM card. Otherwise specs were pretty much identical. Also while I get better battery it's not an extra 1500mh . I averaged 6 1/2 hours screen time on the zplay and average only 7 1/2 here with same apps /usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a little strange: as my previous post states, I was stuck on HSPA+ at home. Well I went into town yesterday, and caught 4G. Went back home... And I have 4G at home now.
Strange, but I won't complain.
The maximum I can get anywhere is HSPA+, even in places where my lgg3 would have full LTE coverage. Very disappointing quality of an otherwise impressive device. It is possible that at&t does not yet recognize the phone as 4g capable in their database yet, and this will change later, but for now at least, I don't think that this phone is a worthy purchase.
NoTucks said:
The maximum I can get anywhere is HSPA+, even in places where my lgg3 would have full LTE coverage. Very disappointing quality of an otherwise impressive device. It is possible that at&t does not yet recognize the phone as 4g capable in their database yet, and this will change later, but for now at least, I don't think that this phone is a worthy purchase.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been getting 4G no problem on my AT&T SIM card, so they definitely recognize the phone as 4G capable. Coverage does seem slightly worse than my Galaxy S7 though.
I have no problem. Where I'm staying my network has domestic national roaming. At home I get LTE+ signal, but most of the time, it on LTE.
I'm a truck driver in Canada, so I travel a lot within Canada. I have to admit that the strength of LTE on this phone is very poor. In cities it's ok, the speed is high. However, when you get on road, the phone often looses the signal where s7 still has LTE and stream video. I'm disappointed with the phone. I would never buy it again for travel although it has excellent battery life.

Weak antenna?

Seeing 4 bars of LTE signal strength on my phone is like seeing a unicorn.
I live in Upstate NY and I have the A705MN phone.
I have tried three different sim cards, all of them of course GSM compatible. The result is exactly the same among all three. I typically get 1 or 2 bars LTE.
My previous phones under the same carrier and same sim card were typically 4-5 bars. (The Wifi strength, BTW, is equal to what I've seen from my other phones.)
What can I do to improve the signal strength?
I've seen posts by those with S10's where they do something to disable specific bands. But I'm not sure how to do that on the A70 phone. I've tried the specific codes that were mentioned in threads for the S10, but those codes do not work on the A70.
Please help. As much as I like the Samsung otherwise, this factor might be the reason I return the phone.
Yes same problem here
106IFA said:
Seeing 4 or 5 bars of LTE signal strength on my phone is like seeing a unicorn.
I live in Upstate NY and I have the A705MN phone.
I have tried three different sim cards, all of them of course GSM compatible. The result is exactly the same among all three. I typically get 1-3 bars LTE.
My previous phones under the same carrier and same sim card were typically 4-5 bars. (The Wifi strength, BTW, is equal to what I've seen from my other phones.)
What can I do to improve the signal strength?
I've seen posts by those with S10's where they do something to disable specific bands. But I'm not sure how to do that on the A70 phone. I've tried the specific codes that were mentioned in threads for the S10, but those codes do not work on the A70.
Please help. As much as I like the Samsung otherwise, this factor might be the reason I return the phone.
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Try LTE only settings in settings>connections.
senseijtitus said:
Try LTE only settings in settings>connections.
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Thank you for the screenshots.
I edited the access point that I'm using and changed it to LTE. But then when I go to select network mode, I cannot chose LTE Only. That option does not show up. I have tried rebooting after editing and selecting the Access Point, and I still do not see that option.
I have tried using apps such as 4g Network Only and have switched to LTE only, but that change does not seem to make a difference or the network goes down altogether.
Any suggestions?
senseijtitus said:
Try LTE only settings in set5ings>connections.
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There was a post in the forum for using settings editor app to enable LTE only option. It will enable this option for both sims.
senseijtitus said:
There was a post in the forum for using settings editor app to enable LTE only option. It will enable this option for both sims.
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I haven't been able to do this or find what it is you're referring to. I've tried adding a few values through Settings editor apps. Values such as "hw_networkmode_preference" etc.
Doesn't work.
But besides, why would setting the connection to LTE only fix this problem? I don't see how this is not a herring.
Most of the times I am see 2 bars of strength. Every now and then I get 3 bars, and more frequently than that I get only 1 bar. 4 bars is quite rare.
The real problem with this antenna is that if I step inside a supermarket or bathroom then my connection is gone. If I'm traveling around the state of NY, in more remote areas, I'm sure I will not have a chance of any connection.
I would LOVE this phone if it had a better antenna. I can deal with the subpar fingerprint reader. Just give me a strong antenna like all of my previous phones and then I'd be a happy camper!
I decided not to return the phone so I am stuck with this phone.
106IFA said:
I haven't been able to do this or find what it is you're referring to. I've tried adding a few values through Settings editor apps. Values such as "hw_networkmode_preference" etc.
Doesn't work.
But besides, why would setting the connection to LTE only fix this problem? I don't see how this is not a herring.
Most of the times I am see 2 bars of strength. Every now and then I get 3 bars, and more frequently than that I get only 1 bar. 4 bars is quite rare.
The real problem with this antenna is that if I step inside a supermarket or bathroom then my connection is gone. If I'm traveling around the state of NY, in more remote areas, I'm sure I will not have a chance of any connection.
I would LOVE this phone if it had a better antenna. I can deal with the subpar fingerprint reader. Just give me a strong antenna like all of my previous phones and then I'd be a happy camper!
I decided not to return the phone so I am stuck with this phone.
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Setting the band to lte only would help in better reception even at low signal strength. One thing I had noticed in lte band is its consistency in connection speeds and call quality even with low signal. I think this is because of the high bandwidth of the lte signals. But I'm not an expert in it. Try changing the band to lte only. It should work better.
senseijtitus said:
Try LTE only settings in settings>connections.
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Where did get this theme and icons in screen shots ?
Maystro said:
Where did get this theme and icons in screen shots ?
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Bodhosativa theme from xda apps section.
senseijtitus said:
Setting the band to lte only would help in better reception even at low signal strength. One thing I had noticed in lte band is its consistency in connection speeds and call quality even with low signal. I think this is because of the high bandwidth of the lte signals. But I'm not an expert in it. Try changing the band to lte only. It should work better.
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Click to collapse
But I'm trying to get better signal, rather than better reception with low signal.
There's got to be something wrong with my phone. It blacks out if I step inside a bathroom in a building and such and it's very rarely at 4 bars.
A thing I noticed. If I go and select 2g/3g only (switch off 4g lte) my signal reception instantly switches to full (4 bars) Usually I get around 2 bars with LTE active.
The strange part is that even with lte off I can still receive an lte 4g signal when outside..this is perfect for me as it means i have a really strong signal (reception) indoors but still have the benefit of 4G outside. I don't quite understand it tbh. I mean i have switched to "2g/3g only" yet i still see 4G pop up in the status bar on my commute, and it definitely receiving 4G speeds. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not but I kinda like it.
Con500 said:
A thing I noticed. If I go and select 2g/3g only (switch off 4g lte) my signal reception instantly switches to full (4 bars) Usually I get around 2 bars with LTE active.
The strange part is that even with lte off I can still receive an lte 4g signal when outside..this is perfect for me as it means i have a really strong signal (reception) indoors but still have the benefit of 4G outside. I don't quite understand it tbh. I mean i have switched to "2g/3g only" yet i still see 4G pop up in the status bar on my commute, and it definitely receiving 4G speeds. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not but I kinda like it.
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That's a terrific idea. Thank you for bringing that up.
I am implementing your suggesteion and it's nice to see 3-4 bars of strength again.
I don't need the fastest data connection. I just need a strong or secure basic data connection, since most of the time I'm not doing anything data intensive with my phone anyway when I"m away from a wifi connection.
But I'm not sure if my phone hops up to LTE at anytime.. I wish had the same "bug" that you do. I just started testing with your settings so I'll see if I can get it so that 3g is the preferred and basic network and 4g is the optional...
After another day, I'm back to LTE/3g/2g auto.
The general reception even for 3g or 2g is lower overall than what I saw from every other phone I have used. So in areas where I can expect to have a relatively low signal I get a particularly low signal for all bands, 4g, 3g, and 2g. That being the case, there's no practical difference if I cap my connection or not.
Samsung better warranty this phone. Does anyone know who I should call?
Since I bought my phone through an Ebay seller and the phone is West Carribean stock, not USA stock, which is where I am, I have no warranty on this phone.

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