Disappointed with LTE performance

[matrix07]

Is your husband’s iPhone also on Verizon?

You're quoting the wrong person. He's not OP.

 

[Farrellcollie]

I am not the op. I was just reporting my experience with verizon - my watch loses/can't connect in a lot of places that my phone is able to.
[doublepost=1507084684][/doublepost]

What he said is true though. T.

I strongly disagree.
The problem has also been reported by other sources.

 

[lordofthereef]

Excuse me, but there was nothing crazy about my post. I was simply stating a fact. The watch antenna is clearly not as powerful as the phone, so it doesn’t serve as a reliable replacement for when I don’t want to bring my phone along. My primary justification for buying a watch with cellular was to leave my phone in the car when kayaking. The performance issue was disappointing to me. The lake I was on was by no means in a remote location, so it’s not unreasonable to expect it to work where cellular service is available - especially considering the paddle boarding example used for the Apple event.

I still enjoy the watch and feel it’s an improvement over the series 2 and I do agree with you that there’s no harm in trying it to see if it works for you. Just don’t call me crazy for stating my experience, please and thank you.

I think you’ve made an assumption here. I didn’t read this as the poster calling you crazy. Just the overall doom and gloom “beta tester” talk on the page. Try not to take offense so quickly on a forum. You’re in for a long hard ride if you do.

 

[KPOM]

We are all guinea pigs for the Apple Watch series 4 LTE.

More likely the Apple Watch Series 8 with 5G. The LTE watches will always have limitations because LTE uses a lot of power.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Excuse me, but there was nothing crazy about my post. I was simply stating a fact. The watch antenna is clearly not as powerful as the phone, so it doesn’t serve as a reliable replacement for when I don’t want to bring my phone along. My primary justification for buying a watch with cellular was to leave my phone in the car when kayaking. The performance issue was disappointing to me. The lake I was on was by no means in a remote location, so it’s not unreasonable to expect it to work where cellular service is available - especially considering the paddle boarding example used for the Apple event.

I still enjoy the watch and feel it’s an improvement over the series 2 and I do agree with you that there’s no harm in trying it to see if it works for you. Just don’t call me crazy for stating my experience, please and thank you.

I think you’ve misunderstood my post. I was not referring to you as being crazy or any one person in this thread. I was trying to explain to Rmpaul that he should not cancel his order solely based off the things he reads in the forums. These forums have a predictable cycle and we’re in the negative phase that comes 1 to 4 weeks after a product launches.

As for the problem you experienced, I understand why it is disappointing to you. I am a kayaker and I hope to use it while paddling too. Keep in mind that cell signals are strange sometimes. My wife and I have been paddling on the water side by side many times and one of us has good reception while the other person has no signal at all...and we both have iPhones. I would not write the Watch off based off that one experience. Just food for thought...

 

[Farrellcollie]

Here is an explanation about lte differences on watch versus iphone and interesting (to me) info about difference in performance on different companies.
http://blog.ihs.com/first-apple-watch-with-cellular-will-benefit-from-a-strong-mobile-signal

"The impact of these differences is that not all networks are created equal and not all Series 3 Cellular users will experience the same level of connectivity. Especially, at the cell edge, Apple Watch could encounter difficulty holding on to weak LTE signals, presenting a sub-par mobile performance relative to that of the companion iPhone."

 

[eastamherstbias]

Excuse me, but there was nothing crazy about my post. I was simply stating a fact. The watch antenna is clearly not as powerful as the phone, so it doesn’t serve as a reliable replacement for when I don’t want to bring my phone along. My primary justification for buying a watch with cellular was to leave my phone in the car when kayaking. The performance issue was disappointing to me. The lake I was on was by no means in a remote location, so it’s not unreasonable to expect it to work where cellular service is available - especially considering the paddle boarding example used for the Apple event.

I still enjoy the watch and feel it’s an improvement over the series 2 and I do agree with you that there’s no harm in trying it to see if it works for you. Just don’t call me crazy for stating my experience, please and thank you.

You are one person out of millions and we don't know all the variables...etc. You are stating one experience. Nothing more.

 

[Smoothie]

I have the reception issue even in the pool. I can get signal all around the edge of the pool, once I start swimming the signal will be gone.
Im not sure how the surfer was able to receive calls in the Apple TV ad.

Once your watch is below the surface of the water, the signal will get blocked. Above the water, the surrounding water shouldn't cause a problem. Submarines have to surface to use ordinary radio frequency communications. Very low frequency radio can penetrate water to a shallow depth, but that requires an enormous antenna. You'd need a very large watch and an even larger wrist.

 

[Rmpaul211]

I have the reception issue even in the pool. I can get signal all around the edge of the pool, once I start swimming the signal will be gone.
Im not sure how the surfer was able to receive calls in the Apple TV ad.

I’m still trying to figure how the lady was in the middle of a body of water and we heard her clear on the keynote. Unless they were in a control enviorment.

 

[KevinMac]

I was so excited to upgrade from the second generation watch to the 3. I couldn’t wait to try it while out kayaking. Sorry to say, I completely lost service while out on the lake. My husband had his iPhone with him and never lost a signal. So apparently the smaller antenna in the watch affects reception in some areas even though the phone has no problems. So disappointed with the LTE.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It helps all of us who have or will have a watch to know what may happen.
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I’m still trying to figure how the lady was in the middle of a body of water and we heard her clear on the keynote. Unless they were in a control enviorment.

I would imagine it was triple checked before the keynote to make sure there was signal. Also, I think it was hard to tell how far off shore she was. Someone was holding the video camera... so they were either in a boat or standing on shore.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I’m still trying to figure how the lady was in the middle of a body of water and we heard her clear on the keynote. Unless they were in a control enviorment.

It’s quite simple. She had cell reception.

Too much is being read into this thread. Unless someone is completely new to modern society, it’s of no surprise that there are areas with bad reception and good reception. Just 3 days ago, I used my iPhone extensively from a boat that was literally 5 miles offshore in the North Atlantic Ocean with no problems at all. Then a few hours later, I had no reception at all in an open area of a very populated city. You either have reception or you don’t.

I’m certain someone will test the Watch against the iPhone in a lab, but there is no way we can form any sort of conclusion based off one user’s random experience.

 

[spiritedcharm]

So what carrier or carriers are your watch and husbands iPhone on?

My Series 3 connection has been flawless. Even in the middle of large steel buildings.

Also, did you swipe up into control center and verify that your LTE was switched on and hunting for a signal? When I first got my watch for whatever reason it was switched to off a couple times.

We both have the iPhone 7 Plus on Verizon. I did swipe up and it said something like “no connection.” It’s the only place I’ve had a problem so far though

 

[HeathH]

I’m still trying to figure how the lady was in the middle of a body of water and we heard her clear on the keynote. Unless they were in a control enviorment.

Not hard at all. They have the ability to find the strongest signal on the strongest carrier in what ever area they want, then test and test and test until they are confident it will work for the demo.

It is interesting though how those examples are interpreted by some users. I guess it's easy to imply that since they showed a surfer getting a call then a surfer anywhere should get the same service, if they show a stand up paddler making a call then it should work for me on any lake anywhere.

 

[richard371]

I bet it was recorded In advance and he synced with the video to make it look live. Imagine if the call had dropped or she fell off. That would be the biggest embarrassment to Apple yet. Why take the risk esp Apple is pretty good with secrecy.

Not hard at all. They have the ability to find the strongest signal on the strongest carrier in what ever area they want, then test and test and test until they are confident it will work for the demo.

It is interesting though how those examples are interpreted by some users. I guess it's easy to imply that since they showed a surfer getting a call then a surfer anywhere should get the same service, if they show a stand up paddler making a call then it should work for me on any lake anywhere.

 

[sliderocity]

Not even remotely true.

Oh.

 

[HeathH]

I bet it was recorded In advance and he synced with the video to make it look live. Imagine if the call had dropped or she fell off. That would be the biggest embarrassment to Apple yet. Why take the risk esp Apple is pretty good with secrecy.

Certainly possible, but probably unlikely.

 

[Farrellcollie]

It is interesting though how those examples are interpreted by some users. I guess it's easy to imply that since they showed a surfer getting a call then a surfer anywhere should get the same service, if they show a stand up paddler making a call then it should work for me on any lake anywhere.

I don't think it's a unusual for a consumer to think that anywhere their phone gets service their watch should also. I mean certainly apple's advertising, like any advertising, is taking liberties and stretching the truth - but at the same time it would seem that the consumer would be able to expect the watch to get the about same signal their phone did. Apple hasn't, in any ad I have seen, come out and said oh no you're not going to get the same coverage that your phone gets. Not every consumer is an engineer etc.

 

[zhenya]

You are comparing the reception of your phone with a much larger antenna and, more importantly, over a decade of refinement to provide the absolute best reception possible, to a tiny watch in its first two weeks of its first generation. Of course there are going to be times when the watch doesn't work as well as the phone! Expecting anything else is pure fantasy. I am quite sure that the reason carriers are offering the first 3 months of service for free is in large part because they know the rollout is going to be a bit rocky and it will save a lot of customer service time in refunding service charges for poor experience. Give it some time.

 

[spiritedcharm]

You are one person out of millions and we don't know all the variables...etc. You are stating one experience. Nothing more.

Duh
[doublepost=1507126036][/doublepost]

Not hard at all. They have the ability to find the strongest signal on the strongest carrier in what ever area they want, then test and test and test until they are confident it will work for the demo.

It is interesting though how those examples are interpreted by some users. I guess it's easy to imply that since they showed a surfer getting a call then a surfer anywhere should get the same service, if they show a stand up paddler making a call then it should work for me on any lake anywhere.

That’s not what I meant when I mentioned the example. Clearly I don’t expect that I will have reception everywhere I go. However, I did expect at least spotty reception where my iPhone had a full signal - whether it was on a lake or not.

 

[richard371]

are you sure the iPhone wasn't connected to 4G which the AW doesn't support?

Duh
[doublepost=1507126036][/doublepost]

That’s not what I meant when I mentioned the example. Clearly I don’t expect that I will have reception everywhere I go. However, I did expect at least spotty reception where my iPhone had a full signal - whether it was on a lake or not.