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First day with 5S

Leet Apple

Leet Apple

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 10, 2009
852
18
Canada
Well i picked up my 5S early int he morning and had all day to fool around with it, what I've noticed that i think is a little strange is i haven't had a full set of bars all day :confused:

I live literally as downtown as you can get in Toronto why aren't i seeing full bars is my phone defective?
 
I have on average 3-4 bars out of 5. It's not typical to always have full bars.

Also at 3-4, I never have any issues. You're fine.
 
The number of bars correlate with the distance u r from a cell tower, not the signal strength.
 
First day with 5S

Leet Apple said:
Well i picked up my 5S early int he morning and had all day to fool around with it, what I've noticed that i think is a little strange is i haven't had a full set of bars all day :confused:

I live literally as downtown as you can get in Toronto why aren't i seeing full bars is my phone defective?
Click to expand...

Check with other people on the howardforums it's geared more for cellphones n cell providers has a Canadian section. Also indoors you will probably never get full strength r u turning 4g on or off?
 
Leet Apple said:
Well i picked up my 5S early int he morning and had all day to fool around with it, what I've noticed that i think is a little strange is i haven't had a full set of bars all day :confused:

I live literally as downtown as you can get in Toronto why aren't i seeing full bars is my phone defective?
Click to expand...

What carrier are you on? I use Virgin, thats bell's network. I rarely get more than 3 dots. But thats normal don't worry about it.
 
Just because you live downtown in one of the biggest cities in the world doesn't mean your reception will be good. There are so many interferences, phones to serve, etc.

You could try going up the CN tower and seeing if that helps. :D
 
jdaniel said:
Check with other people on the howardforums it's geared more for cellphones n cell providers has a Canadian section. Also indoors you will probably never get full strength r u turning 4g on or off?
Click to expand...


My 4S used to get full bars in my house all the time :confused:
 
Leet Apple said:
My 4S used to get full bars in my house all the time :confused:
Click to expand...

Yeah iPhone 5 and 5S have worse signal reception than the 4 and 4S. It's the metal casing. They allow signal to get through via the 2 glass bars at the button and top - but if you cover one of these two with your hand (like if you're using the phone, holding the bottom) you will experience a loss of service i.e 1-2 bars.

I was holding my phone with 2 hands the other day for some reason (it was comfortable at the time I think), like one hand wrapped around the top (loosely) and the other hand typing on the button, and I noticed my bars went from 5 to 3 immediately as I did this. And up to 4 when I took my hand off the top of the phone

Everyone tries to make excuses as to why signal from the same location, and same service all of a sudden got worse after switching phones. But it's just the phone. It's not a defect, it's design
 
Leet Apple said:
My 4S used to get full bars in my house all the time :confused:
Click to expand...

I think you generally just end up getting fewer bars on LTE, which the 4S did not support.

For example (same location, same time):
 

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joeblow7777 said:
And what determines the strength of the signal if not how far you are from a tower?
Click to expand...
Quite a few factors and variables (like actual power output of the tower, load of the cell, any interference that might be present, etc.). Distance from the tower is but one of those, and not necessarily one of the most important ones.
 
I'm certainly no expert but I just got a brand new sim card in my 4s and ever since my signal strength has been WAAAAY improved. 5 bars/dots almost all the time.

I dont know how all that works, but it apparently makes a difference.
 
Well today I've finally gotten full bars in my house, i guess my iPhone needed a day to get accommodated
 
coolio93 said:
This sounds very off to me. The bats signify signal strength AFAIK
Click to expand...

Because it is off.

Signal strength is given by the bars in representation to the dB level. In this case, optimal for cell towers is somewhere between (Five bars/circles) -50dB to -67dB, with lowest possible signal (one to no bars/cicles where you will suffer drops) at -117db to -124dB. Some manufactures simply use different scales. But in general that is the thumb rule.
 
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