So this is becoming more of an issue to me..

[lazarus2297]

First off I really like the my Nexus.. but signal issues are getting on my nerves..

I would say that it seems that my Nexus "can" get a good signal it just seems to fluctuate a lot.. when comparing dBm with my OG droid the OG will "settle" and hold a signal better (and with a higer dBm reading too) like at my home my Nexus will fluctuate from -93 to -75 on the same tower.. I have had the same results on a Completely Stock 4.0.2, Stock 4.0.2 with the updated radios, and custom ROMS with 4.0.2, and 4.0.3.. So it is more hardware than anything else..

Below is a picture of some thing I see WAY more than I ever have with other phones.. My Nexus would get a decent signal at the same location of the screen shots it just won't hold it at all..
View attachment 45261

 

[pool_shark]

I hadn't thought of this before but I remember on the Droid X forums, someone posted turning of roaming and setting system select to home only significantly improved their signal.

 

[manilaboy1vic]

is that just at home? you dont go wifi at home? my house is in a spotty area too :/

 

[lazarus2297]

no the screenshots were from inside a mall this afernoon.. my home is in a good coverage area (although i do typically go on wifi at home) but that was just to give an example of how the signal fluctuates even in a good area.. if I was to compare my signal to my wifes iPhone at home...hers never shows less than full signal bars and mine goes from full to 1 on the same tower... so when i am in a not so good coverage area this problem is made even worse and like I said I have never had the same issues with other phones in the past.. in the same places..

I would love to compare the dBm reading from her iPhone but I can't find an app anywhere that does that for the iPhone

and setting to "home only" wouldn't help at home as it's not switching towers it bouncing around on the same tower. and I tried that this afternoon at the mall and it didn't help at all..

it's not a setting its the phone... it pretty much has the worst reception of any phone I have had, but I really like it so that why it bothers me so much... if i didn't like the phone i would just go back to the Rezound..

 

[Vfa82247]

Damn... And I was thinking off switching over from rezound... Ehhh, I'm still gonna do it... Going to a Verizon store tomorrow...

Also, I have a cousin who bought a rezound from Amazon wireless... So he can't get an exchange from Verizon... Only replacements...

He is looking for someone to trade with... Rezound for Gnex... He lives in the los Angeles area... If you know anyone who is interested, hit him up:

[email protected]

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

 

[lazarus2297]

here is a better comparison which really shows how bad the Galaxy is compared to Moto phones.. this is a side by side comparison with Stock Moto Bionic vs. Stock Galaxy Nexus on the same tower, etc...

Like I said earlier I like my Nexus but it would also be good if the reception would be on par with other 4G phones..:frown:

View attachment 45355

 

[jcardona1]

That's why I returned the POS and got a Rezound. Mine, even though it showed 3G and showed a few bars, it would be grayed out. When it was gray, I had no data connection whatsoever. I had to wait for it turn blue, then I could go online, do whatever. And signal was ALWAYS weaker than my GF's Droid X, measured in dbm. I don't care how awesome a phone is, if it can't hold a signal, it's worthless. I'm not a kool-aid sipper so I took it back. I'll take a working phone over the ability to hack/mod/customize any day of the week.

 

[droidtom]

Bars or DB readings aside regardless of the readings my nexus gets faster speed test results and browses faster from the same spots than my og or my dx.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[lazarus2297]

Bars or DB readings aside regardless of the readings my nexus gets faster speed test results and browses faster from the same spots than my og or my dx.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

That's the 4g... the bionic, rezound, etc.. all get faster speeds and they have good reception too, so i don't really understand the point in your response

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[sb1831]

I had the same issue with my first Nexus. Took it back and got another one and flashed the 4.0.3 radios and it seems to be doing a lot better but I still have the occasional loss of total connectivity.

 

[Se7enLC]

I'm not sure what to think about signal. I often see 4G with what looks like zero bars. I go into About | Status and it lists -115dBm. Now, I only have the OG to compare it to, but on there, -115 was pretty much dead. -120 was the number that gets filled in when you are in Airplane Mode.

Now, even with zero bars and -115dBm, I have signal. I can use the phone fine. I opened up "Speed Test" and got something like 6mbps - with what I thought was no signal at all. With full 4G signal I was seeing over 20mbps.

A couple things to note. I remember reading about a signal measuring issue. The signal strength you see in the about screen on the Nexus is the signal of the 4G radio if you are on 4G, and the 3G radio if you are on 3G. The claims I read said that on other pre-Android-4.0 phones, the About screen will ONLY show the signal of 3G, even if you are on 4G. And I think it also claimed that the number of bars was based on that number as well.

So by that logic, you can compare 3G to 3G apples to apples, since both phones will be reporting signal strength and "bars" in the same manner. But when they are connected to 4G, other phones will continue to show the 3G signal strength (which is higher, as you'd expect)

Anandtech Article here is a very good read and shows very clearly that you just cannot compare the different 4G phones until they are all running 4.0 or if you have access to a service console

AnandTech - Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue

Droid-Life summarizing the article somewhat:
Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Is More Accurate Than Others, There May Be No Problem – Droid Life

Now here is what scares me. It sounds like Verizon is making an update to the Nexus to "make it more like other handhelds". Does that mean it will now show 4G with signal bars for 3G?? Time will tell, and hopefully the AOSP roms will revert that change and give us the accurate display instead:

Verizon Confirms Galaxy Nexus Software Update, Will “Adjust Signal Indicator” to Better Match Other Devices – Droid Life

 

[Chizzele]

This is something we are all keeping an eye out for... I got no signal complaints what so ever but if big red would temper with the reading of the signal instead of the signal strength that would ridiculous..

 

[Htown315]

My nexus is fine and on the average of five speed tests scored higher than a razr set to the same server. I am on the radio leak now but was not at the time of the tests. Just my .02

 

[x25064]

Ever since I flashed Axiom I have little to no signal probems. Switches to 4g in a matter of 20-30 seconds rather then minutes, and my gps locks on within 20 seconds. So far so good. Those of you with problems should try a root/rom combo. Worked for me thus far.

 

[Se7enLC]

This is something we are all keeping an eye out for... I got no signal complaints what so ever but if big red would temper with the reading of the signal instead of the signal strength that would ridiculous..

Hard to say. I would like to see a useful display, and whatever that means is open for interpretation.

As an example, here's what signal bars mean on an iPhone 4, according to Anandtech (similar dBm to bars comparisons can probably be found for other networks and devices, this is just the first one I saw that looked reliable):

View attachment 45378
AnandTech - Apple's iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed

From around -90dBm up to -50dBm is all shown as "5 bars" (-50dBm is pretty much the max you can get, IIRC) Is that misleading? Perhaps. But what are the bars supposed to be used for? They are supposed to indicate how good your signal is. It's not like a gas tank where you need a linear scale from full to empty. You need to know how useful your signal is. If -90dBm is enough to get full data speed and make/receive calls, why shouldn't that be 5 bars? The end-user doesn't need to know if they have -90, -70, or -50 - they have "full signal". Once the signal strength starts degrading their service (speed, call quality, etc), that's when signal bars are useful. They will indicate HOW degraded the service is.

So that is all 3G (and that signal bar was actually for ATT GSM - but the numbers happen to line up with the range you see on CDMA 3G as well).

For LTE, the signal range may well be the same (-120dBm to -50dBm), but the meaning might be different. What is the threshold for what you call "full signal"? How much signal strength do you need to get full speed out of your device?

If Verizon/Google wants to make some judgement call for where the 5-bars threshold is, I'll support that, so long as it can be well justified. If LTE doesn't need as much signal as 3G did (which is definitely the case in my experience), that change would give my handset more bars for a lower signal strength, but it would give me more information when I need it (when I have low signal). Right now, the signal bars are worthless for me. If it says "4G" at all it is blazingly fast - even if zero signal bars are lit up. I'd rather see the bars 1-4 used to show me helpful information about degredation and see a full 5 bars whenever the signal is "good enough for full speed". (Actually, I'd prefer to just see the raw signal strength and develop my own mapping of what that means for my typical use)

I could be completely off, but this is my take on reading various articles on the topic and my own rudimentary understanding.