Razr M Antennagate?

[smuckers]

I've also had my m for about 2 weeks.. I'm on 2-3 bars 4G at home at work its hit or miss though.. Large factory.. I'm 30 miles west of Detroit, MI and vzw is expanding Detroit area next week so hopefully gets a little better at work... But overall quite happy with the 4G coverage in my area.. Still loving the M

 

[jntdroid]

Though it does seem to give up on 4G and switch to 3G a little more often than my other devices, the switch is fast and seamless, without dropping data. Based on some other evidence, I'm leaning towards some software tweaks fixing it, or at least greatly improving it.

Make sure, if you're having issues, you report it with details over at the Moto support forums for the Razr M.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

[bonzomatic]

No problems here

I've had my M for a couple weeks now and the only time I have had any trouble with not getting 4G was at a concert where everyone was tying up the bandwidth. I also have yet to have a missed call like I did with my Droid X.

 

[bryanwieg]

Hello,

I am researching getting a Razr M. I live in an area where there is no 4g, but I do rely on the 3g heavily.

On the topic of a firmware update, there is a claim of a pre-release Jellybean update from Verizon and Motorola. I was wondering if anyone had tried it, and if it affected the antenna issue.

Google, 'RAZR M firmware', or here is a link on a news article on the update:
Android Advices: How to Update Motorola Droid Razr M with Official Jellybean 4.1.1 Firmware - Android Advices

Thanks,
Bryan

 

[TisMyDroid]

Welcome to DF bryan! I live in a weak 3g area and I have had no problems with keeping and using 3g. In addition, yesterday I was with my family traveling over 100 miles wine tasting in boonvilles of sorts. I was the only verizon amidst a gs3 and a nexus on sprint, another Android (not sure which one) on AT&T and an iPhone on AT&T. I was the only one who could make phone calls and connect to data without fail. It was quite comical because everyone was constantly telling me they needed my phone. So, my opinion is this phone and Verizon is a pretty darn reliable combination.

As far as the jelly bean leak, I'm not sure how possible that is. The article states that you must be rooted and I don't think the ability to root the M has been developed yet. Maybe that leak only applies to the developer M's with the unlocked bootloaders.

 

[jntdroid]

Actually mattlgroff "cheesecaked" a leaked build (not the OTA) off of Moto's servers. He had to be rooted to do that obviously, but the build will flash on a stock/retail/unrooted Razr M.

A fastboot file was also released that will supposedly get you back to stock ICS - but I have yet to see anyone do it, myself included.

Thanks to some instructions from Matt (mainly due to the fear of being stuck on this leaked build forever, and how to potentially avoid that), I felt more comfortable flashing the leak today, been running it since mid-afternoon.

I intended to write up a bit more about it over in the "leak thread", but just haven't had a chance. So far, I don't see any glaring errors. JB runs great on it. It's a little smoother/snapper, not quite as drastic as the change when the Gnex hit JB, but still good.

Leak thread here on DF (that I need to update!): http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-razr-m/226593-do-not-try-razr-m-jelly-bean-test-build.html

XDA thread with great info from Matt: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1934396

XDA thread with fastboot: [Fastboot] Droid Razr M Xt907 Ice Cream Sandwich - xda-developers

 

[bryanwieg]

Excellent! Please share if or how it affects the signal issues, if you get a chance!

 

[jntdroid]

Excellent! Please share if or how it affects the signal issues, if you get a chance!

Will do! I've been curious as well but haven't had a chance to test yet.

 

[TisMyDroid]

Wow, thanks jntdroid! This is great news. I'm gonna let you be my Guinea pig but might end up getting too antsy and go ahead anyway. Super!

 

[wouldchip]

I did that already. I have wifi at home and at work but outside I'd like to be in 4g and sadly it seems to be hard to do on this phone.

Sent from my Droid RAZR M using Tapatalk.

I wrapped a paper towel around the phone and it works much better.

 

[liftedplane]

I wrapped a paper towel around the phone and it works much better.

Wrap it in tinfoil and hook it up to an old TV VHF antenna

Sent from my frozenly delicious razr maxx.

 

[jntdroid]

Well I didn't get around to really testing out the radios on JB, but I can verify that you can sbf/fxz/fastboot (potato potawto!) back to the stock, "factory" state, from the current JB leak.

 

[wouldchip]

Wrap it in tinfoil and hook it up to an old TV VHF antenna

Sent from my frozenly delicious razr maxx.

I did that. All I got was 60's re-runs!

 

[bryanwieg]

Quote From Motorola Forum

From your post it is not clear if you are aware, but you CAN disable 4G LTE on your Razr M. Open up the phone app, type [removed], then go to "Phone Information," scroll down to "Set preferred network type," and choose "CDMA auto." This will force your phone into 3G mode and solve any 4G/3G signal switching issues.

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/9dd3df67c5?commentId=668037#668037

There is no 4g in the outback where I live. How can I disable it to preserve battery?

Thx,
Bryan

 

[dan.dar]

Just came back from VZW store. The Razr Maxx HD doesn't have the same issue as the M. When laid down both phones DBM was around -77, when picked up, the M was at -88, while the Maxx was at -79, just a 2dbm difference.