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My Maxes that were returned had poor cellular/LTE, WiFi and even Bluetooth connectivity.
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iPhone 11 Antenna Gain
- Thread starter robrobrobro
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I had an 8+ on Verizon. There is an area at work where the connection would drop to a point where I couldn't hear the person, nor could they hear me, although the phone never disconnected. With the 11 Pro I can talk with no problems in that area.
So I’m going to put this out there and I’d like some feedback about the note 8 if possible but this is my experience.
Me and my wife switched over to ATT in 2015/2016. We all got iPhones and added 3 more people to the account, all with iPhones. I’m pretty sure everyone got their iPhones from Best Buy which AFAIK means they are Qualcomm. I think we all got 8 pluses and 8s or maybe they were 7 series.. I can’t remember. No one ever had any issues that I’m aware off. Fast forward to last year. I then have the note 8 while my wife get a XS Max. She never complained about is any issues and she works inside a steel and brick building. We also traveled quite a few times and she always used her phone for GPS and over the last year we have never had issues where my note 8 had signal and her didn’t. In fact we have had a few times here my note 8 didn’t pick up but hers did. That may have been due to band 14 but I doubt it. It was a fringe area and we were both on band 12 when I checked.
Me and my wife switched over to ATT in 2015/2016. We all got iPhones and added 3 more people to the account, all with iPhones. I’m pretty sure everyone got their iPhones from Best Buy which AFAIK means they are Qualcomm. I think we all got 8 pluses and 8s or maybe they were 7 series.. I can’t remember. No one ever had any issues that I’m aware off. Fast forward to last year. I then have the note 8 while my wife get a XS Max. She never complained about is any issues and she works inside a steel and brick building. We also traveled quite a few times and she always used her phone for GPS and over the last year we have never had issues where my note 8 had signal and her didn’t. In fact we have had a few times here my note 8 didn’t pick up but hers did. That may have been due to band 14 but I doubt it. It was a fringe area and we were both on band 12 when I checked.
There are no real-world issues with the 11 Pro from what I can tell after 6 days of usage (Verizon). Reception & connectivity seems as good as any of the numerous Qualcomm modem iPhones I've owned - perhaps better. In fact, I've had plenty of issues with numerous Qualcomm iPhones over the years - having to toggle airplane mode to restore connectivity, etc. I always assumed this was due to poor iOS software management of the cellular signal vs. the modem itself but I'm not sure. Either way, I haven't noticed any issues with the 11 Pro. Seems to be working great so far.
Can confirm, 11 Pro Max on Verizon no issues so far and slightly faster speeds than my previous Xs Max.
Came from an XS on Verizon and since day one of having it I noticed connectivity issues especially the area around my job. I experienced dropped calls and poor reception where my 7 plus did not have any of those issues.
Went to Apple and even had my phone exchanged shortly after it came out, but that did nothing. Got the 11 pro over the weekend and so far I have been able to test it at my local Target where I had poor service with the XS.
With the XS I wouldn’t be able to load certain apps and had slow data. Trying to load the Target app would take forever or won’t load at all. The Pro loaded up my Target app without hesitation more than once. The real test will come when I return to work next where I can test it around that area.
Went to Apple and even had my phone exchanged shortly after it came out, but that did nothing. Got the 11 pro over the weekend and so far I have been able to test it at my local Target where I had poor service with the XS.
With the XS I wouldn’t be able to load certain apps and had slow data. Trying to load the Target app would take forever or won’t load at all. The Pro loaded up my Target app without hesitation more than once. The real test will come when I return to work next where I can test it around that area.
Sooooooooooo I did a thing... I went to Best Buy and was looking at the note 10+ (still thinking about switching). But while I was there I saw a Verizon XS Max and it hit me. Check the field test menu!!! So I did and y’all are gonna freak bc I know I did. The XS Max was a full 9-11 dB lower then my pro Max. I was blown away by that. They were also on the same channel.
13. It’s a low signal area to begin with. Idk why Verizon is so horrible there.
That's pretty hard to do since they don't have carrier sim cards in their phones. You can still go into field test mode, but if there is no sim card, the numbers are going to be way off. I have my Verizon X and it has no sim in it, and the numbers bounce all over the place, from -30db to -136db. I put the sim in it and it becomes a lot more stable around -92 db.
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No. At this Best Buy they have 3 kiosks with the phone hooked up to the appropriate networks for each. I was originally going to compare the pro Max to the Note 10+ but it was off. Only notes that were in use had demo mode on them with not SIM cards.
I sure do. Mine was -99 and the Max XS was -110ish. It fluctuates 1 dB both ways for both phones.
OK, so you probably should have clarified in your original post (apologies if it's just me that misunderstood), but you are saying that your 11 Pro performed BETTER by ~10db. I didn't catch that until your follow-up post where you mentioned -99 for the 11 Pro vs. -110 for the XS.
Either way, glad to hear that the 11 Pro is performing significantly better on the same band vs. the XS!
I have been impressed with how much better my signal has been. Like I said in an earlier post, with the other phones I have had I could never place a call inside the building but with my new 11 Pro Max I am able to without a problem. I am really happy.
11 Pro here and better results than my Qualcomm X. T-Mobile in NYC. Now web browsing while on the train is much better since the phone automatically connects at each stop. With my X I would have to switch the cellular toggle off/on a lot. I no longer have to do that. Also, in my office in some corners of the building the X struggled up to the point where I had to connect to WiFi. Now I can just use cellular in most cases.
I think this Intel model generation is much better and the antenna is improved a bit, so all together it works better than the XS or the Intel X/8.
I had to go back to Best Buy again and I check on the phone again. It was on band 2. I swore it was on 13 last. So this brings up another ? I have noticed that this phone seems to love anything but band 13 on Verizon.
Verizon phones will do ANYTHING to stay off of band 13 if there is another option. Anything. This has been the case with every iPhone I've owned (long time iPhone user).
I don't know if the cell site does the band-steering or if it's iOS/carrier settings (I've heard conflicting info on this), but Verizon phones will always choose any other band over band 13 if at all possible. In a weak signal area, they usually latch onto band 13 first after toggling airplane mode and you may see full bars and then a minute later you'll see 1-2 bars and the phone will be on a different band (usually 2/4). They'll almost never switch back to band 13 - even at the expense of dropping a call sometimes. I guess it's because band 13 has much less capacity in most areas that Verizon tries to keep all devices off it - they basically treat band 13 as a last resort due to the decreased capacity and longer range.
Were both phones on band 2? Or was one of them on band 13? Try toggling airplane mode next time on both - in the event that you return to the store that is!
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Both were on 2 this time and in confirmed that the signals are correct from my previous post. it’s on the phone as to which bands they use. The tower has no clue which bands your phone is capable of. A issue I see with the iPhone is that there is no way of knowing what CA is doing. I wish Apple would open up the network API enough to read that stuff so I can geek out. That my favorite thing about Android.
This is where I've heard conflicting info. I've heard that the phone and cell site have the ability to communicate with each other and that the cell site has some band-steering capabilities. Similar to how most wireless routers can report the band and relative signal strength of each connected device when you log into the router's web page. Many of the newer routers have band-steering capabilities built-in as well vs. simply leaving it up to the device to choose.
I've used the Verizon LTE Network Extender in the past due to living in a fairly weak coverage area. The LTE Network Extender broadcasts on band 13 by default but is also capable of using band 4. Band 4 usage requires a switch from the Verizon network team however (you must open a ticket and you must be in an area that is licensed to use band 4).
Anyway, I've had iPhones that would absolutely NOT connect to the network extender when it broadcasted band 13 (default band). Sometimes they would connect if I toggled airplane mode, but after awhile they'd inevitably fall back to 1 bar of signal on band 4 on the macro cell tower. They would prefer 1 bar of band 4 vs. full bars of band 13 on the network extender 10-15 feet away! Only once the network team switched my network extender to band 4 would the iPhones reliably connect to it.
Crazy!
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I did take the trip up to my moms out in the country. The ride over was same as usual and when I pulled into the driveway I knew song was up. I was still connected to LTE, which is a little unusual. When I get inside and sit the phone on the counter and it connects to LTE.... NO phone I’ve ever had connected to LTE in that location that quickly. My iPhone 6S never connected to LTE in the house. But in this situation the house walls is just enough to stop LTE for other phones. I did make a call and it wasn’t very good but the fact I was on LTE was very impressive. I went outside and was able to use data as usual. Speeds were around 5 Mbps which is lower the normal but we have a lot more traffic today because there is a Virginia Tech football game tonight. I think the speeds I get normally outside is 15 Mbps or so. I was pretty amazed with this as I’ve hear a lot about the issues but this was better then my Note 8 and iPhone 6s. Would a Galaxy note 10+ be even better? I haven’t use anything newer the my note 8 other than the pro Max.