I am looking to pick up a Note 4. I am wondering how the device would perform in fringy signal areas. For example my iphone 6S on T-Mobile can hold onto 1-2 bars 4G, mostly 1 bar 4G, but usable in my office, periodically picking up 1 bar LTE. Would the Note 4 do the same?
Thanks
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I've seen some people post regarding less/lower signal bars when updating to the new radios which come with 4.3 and you have LTE.
At first I said "WTF" but then I realized... the bars are now sort-of working as intended...
Let me explain,
If you're connected to LTE, the bars are now based off your LTE signal strength. I noticed even at roughly -110 to -100 I only get one bar. I believe the bars start going up dramatically once you have a signal strength greater than -100 (for example, -95db, -85db) And we all know -130db is the cutoff before we lose LTE.
I figured this out once I turned the phone to "CDMA only" to test. Once on "CDMA only" I had almost full bars, (-70-75db for 3G/1x)
To conclude, if you're on LTE and only have 1 bar, you most likely/probably have great cell phone coverage as that 1 bar is determining signal strength for only LTE. When connected to LTE, you're also still connected to 1xRTT which is used for voice. LTE is only used for Data at the moment.
If you really want to test your cell phone coverage, you can get one of those programs to tell you both your 1x signal and 4G signal simultaneously.
Edit: I forgot to mention, Considering the LTE radio and 1x/3g radio are seperate, you're going to get mixed results depending on signal penetration through walls, trees, etc. From what I've seen so far, as of right now 1x/3g penetrates a bit better than LTE. But, really depends on your surroundings
Thanks for the info. Someone else tipped me off about this, and a few SpeedTest checks confirmed it. In fact, 1 bar with the 4.3 ROM produced slightly better results than the 4.1 ROM with 5 bars.
ED2O9 said:
Thanks for the info. Someone else tipped me off about this, and a few SpeedTest checks confirmed it. In fact, 1 bar with the 4.3 ROM produced slightly better results than the 4.1 ROM with 5 bars.
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Yup, which makes sense because when connected to LTE on 4.1 the 5 bars are based off your voice coverage, not LTE strength.
Still seems kind of dumb. I'd rather know what signal I have to make a phone call rather than what kind of data I can expect.
Thanks for info !
Sometimes just 1 bar but internet working well, but 4-5 bars it is not working/slower !
One thing I notice about the One is that on LTE, the signal bars are VERY conservative and they don't seem to directly reflect the LTE signal in dBm at a times.
I saw 2 bars at -87dBm, and then saw 3 bars at -89dBm. I'm very curious as to what kind of algorithm HTC is using to calculate bars. This is something I've only noticed on Sense ROMs. I'm looking at -72dBm on LTE right now and am only seeing 4 bars. The only time I saw 5 bars is when I had better than -60dBm! This is not the case on HSPA+ or GSM/EDGE
i think this:
5 bars for EDGE >> here starts 3G with 1 bar and ascending to 5 >>> here starts HSPA with 1 bar and ascendig to 5 >>> here starts LTE
this i what i think only
My T-Mobile speeds are pretty good. According to speed test pointing to the same server my speeds for the last few months were
4g (non-lte) up to 15 down, up to 5 up
LTE 35-50 down, 20-25 up
Yesterday I had issues with LTE, it was around 5 down. I thought too many people must have gotten T-Mobile in my area
Then I tested it again at night, same deal. I switched to 4g hspa (GSM\WCDMA Auto) and my download was crazy fast, up to 25mbps, while up was still under 5. Then I tried switching back to LTE (GSM\WCDMA\LTE Auto), but the icon wouldn't change to LTE. My samsung sitting a few inches away was showing LTE, but I didn't test samsung because it has used all high speed data. I rebooted the phone, still showed 4G, not LTE. Then I pulled the sim out of HTC One and put it in Nexus 5 - Nexus showed LTE right away and tested at over 35mbps. Put back into HTC One - this time LTE showed up, but speeds were still less than 5. (I did all tests at exact same place, with the phones laying in the same spot on the desk). I called T-Mobile tech support - no help
Then I took HTC One closer to the window, and speed went up to 30. Put it back on the same spot on the desk and speeds are fine, over 30. Tested 4g hspa - under 15. Today, speeds are up to 50, while 4g hspa again under 15.
What's the deal? Did T-Mobile guy do something? Hardware issue with my HTC One?
To summarize:
1. When LTE on HTC One was very slow, HSPA was very fast and Nexus 5 LTE was very fast (I didn't not test Nexus hspa unfortunately)
2, When switching from LTE to 4g hspa, switching back didn't work. Rebooting didn't help either. Trying the same thing today - it works but takes a while. I noticed if I switch from 4g hspa to LTE and then switch wifi ON and then OFF, LTE comes back right away. But without toggling WIFI it takes over a minute.
3. One other interesting thing - when I place a call LTE switches to 4g. After you hang up it switches to LTE, BUT -
On HTC One - it switches right away!!
On Samsung - always takes a little time. maybe even over a minute
On Nexus 5 - sometimes a few seconds, other times up 5 minutes!!!!
Why HTC One is able to switch to LTE right away, while Nexus 5 may take up to 5 minutes? is there an easy way (via some program) to force Nexus and Samsung to switch right away?
Thanks.
P.S. Another issue with HTC One - wifi is much weaker when further away from the router. I'd get 5mbps where Nexus 5 and Samsung would get 15-20. I had same issue with my previous nexus 5 but my new nexus 5 seems to be much better on wifi now. I know it has a lot to do with the router and replacing the router may fix the issue, BUT from my experience phones that aren't ok with home router may not be OK with public wifi either. I tested the public wifi with my old nexus 5, it was 30-50% slower than samsung.
Loving my Z3c so far, but I'm having one weird issue.
My APN settings are correct and I'm getting LTE, but I noticed that I was only getting two bars at home and my dBm was super high compared to my other phones (I normally get full bars with every AT&T phone at home). I rebooted the phone and it came back at full bars, with a really low dBm. Today, I went to work and after I came home, it was down to two bars again with a high dBm. I toggled mobile data off and on and it returned to full bars and low dBm.
Here's what I THINK is happening: I believe that at home, it gets on the 700mhZ LTE network and all is fine, but at work, it gets on 1700. Then it gets stuck on 1700mhz and stays that way until I toggle the connection off/on. It still gets LTE and decent speeds, but the dBm is high and the bars are low. I don't have any other phones that do this.
Does anyone know if there's a way to disable certain bands. On the LG G3, you can turn off LTE bands that you don't want in the phone menu. I'm wondering if there's a way to disable 1700 so this won't happen. Also wondering if anyone else on AT&T is experiencing this. I'm stock, not rooted.
Thanks!
Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk
Does anyone notices unstable signal bars on this phone? Same spot, same mobile network, my pixel 2 xl gets full bar while xz2 only hover around 1-3 bars.
This may also contribute to mediocre battery life I've been having. My mix 2s (sd845) certainly fares better in that department.
I can only compare it to Z5 on same location(basement,) which had none or 1 bar signal and no lte/4g, now i have 1-2 bars and lte/4g on xz2
I have the same issue. But it's everywhere. Not just in limited areas. Sometimes, I have LTE+ and next thing you know, it just says LTE with full bars but to internet. It's been doing that all day. might need a new SIM so I'm going to T-Mobile today.
Maybe it is a software related problem.
I had the same problem on LineageOS 14.1 and 15.1 on my Nexus 6, too.
i have the same issue with my xz2, the LTE network is unstable , sometime it goes to 1 bar or no HSPA instead of 4g , is it hardware or software issue ?
I've just tested a z3, xz2 and p8 lite 2017.
At home, weak signal sometimes, p8 has 4 bars, z3 3 bars and xz2 jumping between 1 and 2 bars.
At work, strong signal, p8 4 bars again, z3 jumping between 3 and 4 bars, xz2 2 bars and switching between 4g and 3g a lot.
Really hope they sort this.
Actually, my signal have always been pretty stable, coming from Z3. When I say stable, I mean 3 bars at LTE (4G reception in my location is still not that good, this is the location's fault, tbh). I got 1 to 2 bar(s) at LTE with my Z3.
I have noticed the opposite. My XZ2 has more stable 4G than other phones in my household consisting of iphones and samsungs and its way better than my previous xiaomi.
I get the feeling that the XZ2's signal bar is showing the signal quality rather than the signal strength. For example, when I'm in a congested area I can see that in apps like Cellmapper I have a strong signal to the nearby mast, but the signal quality is poor due to the high number of users and interference.
Overall, it is better to show the quality of the signal rather than the strength. Ultimately it's the quality that has the most impact on data speeds.
I have better reception on LTE/4g on the XZ2 than I do on my Nexus 5X, that sits around 2-3 bars and the XZ2 is constantly on 4 bars...so no complaints here ?
Same problem with my XZ2C
I get 2 bars on average on my XZ2 Compact. But it's very jumpy. When i take it out of my pocket it goes from 1 to 2 bars. No problem with other phones.
Signal Quality Issues here too
Have had my XZ2 for a couple of months and yes, signal issues galore. I commute for work on same highway almost every day and know where I would get some signal issues with my previous samsung phone but with sony its everywhere..even when I'm home its unpredictable. Sometimes I just get a voice message indicator but I did not hear it ring at all. I am aware that not all signal issues are the phones fault..the provider also is not perfect at times but I just cant help to compare it with my previous phones (many brands) and Sony falls short in that area... I was very optimistic being a nice top-tier phone, great pictures and video, the included software is not bad either, great sound from internal speakers including a nice display but fails to deliver on its most primal and basic function...voice calls. Will keep waiting for that much awaited OTA upgrade where Sony tends to this signal issue problem. If not, its off to craiglist.