I have an iPhone4 and my partner has an iPhone 3g. Hers always shows 5 full bars at the place where we live in Oslo. Mine fluctuates between 3-4. I tested both phones using the field test in exactly the same place in the house. We both use the same operator and the result on both phones was -97.
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iOS 4.1 Restores Field Test Mode
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In my home, which gets GPRS at best (never see 3G at home), I get between -83 and -91.
I'm on O2.
I'm on O2.
wow this is getting pretty pathetic...all the news and releases are 99% their mobile stuff...what about the ones who spent 2G's on a Macintosh?
Its like watching your expensive hardware become a forgotten afterthought before your eyes
Its like watching your expensive hardware become a forgotten afterthought before your eyes
I have expressed my worry over Apple's massive change of focus from Mac to iOS devices.
Every keynote is iOS based, and the vast majority of the news regarding Apple is about iOS.
The day Steve stood on stage and boldly said Apple are a mobile company and that "Computer" was being dropped from their name, I said the Mac was facing the beginning of the end.
Soon it to will become iOS based somehow.
Thinking...
Sitting at my desk where I often work from home I get -95 quite a lot.
After yesterdays 4.1 update though I used the phone all afternoon heavily and not only did I not get any dropped calls but one call was close to an hour (57 minutes I think) and no dropping.
So....I think my issues were proximity sensor related.
Cool beans. I like the fact that I can toggle back and forth now - thank you Dr. Kevorkian!
Sitting at my desk where I often work from home I get -95 quite a lot.
After yesterdays 4.1 update though I used the phone all afternoon heavily and not only did I not get any dropped calls but one call was close to an hour (57 minutes I think) and no dropping.
So....I think my issues were proximity sensor related.
Cool beans. I like the fact that I can toggle back and forth now - thank you Dr. Kevorkian!
Thanks for the info on wifi. I'm mainly interested to learn that touching the 'top' black bar has no effect of 3G/2G service. I've had varying result with wifi. I tried it again...30feet away and mostly there is no effect on wifi with touching the black band at the top. Sometimes there is a slight effect.
I think what I take away from this is only the lower left black strip has any effect and only if you are 3-4 bars or lower (i.e. -95 or worse). Touching the rest of the metal antenna has no effect on 3G/2G service. So in this sense the 'Death Grip' is a mistake...it is only the little 1 mm strip at the lower left that is the problem.
So I'm glad Apple reinstated the field test mode. I've had this on all my non-JB iphones from 3G onwards. I think it will help people learn in detail the 'map out' of their phones, and where not to touch...if they go with a naked IP4.
The camera has the same issue...there is a larger spot not to touch when taking photos
(i.e. lens), but the feedback is good there...now so too with the dBm numbers. I prefer this to bars. Also one learns that the bar scale is not linear...there is a lot of dB's above 5 bars to go...the current scale is really weighted now to poorer signal areas. So if you have 5 bars...there is no antennagate issue.BTW, the new HD photos are super!
It is a one way street. I've had this for couple of years. You can only tap to one or the other, but not go back to only bars only again permanently...afaik.
Generally....very generally...
-100 to -41 dBm means sufficient coverage or signal for voice
-115 to - 100 dBm means poor coverage or signal for voice ( but possible)
Less than -115 dBm means no coverage or voice
For 3G (WCDMA) another number is equally important (Ec/No, a 'noise factor') that is not given in Field Test mode (use to be, but no more). This means it is possible to have -96dBm (because you are receiving many weak cell towers), but 'high' noise because one tower not being dominant...and still have poor voice with - 96 dBm.
But in general, the above chart should be a good indicator. I make many calls with -102 to -106dBm. When you get up to -80's and better...it is a very clear voice signal.
ATT told me that their criteria is - 95 for acceptable voice. Data is something else. SMS will get through at extremely low dBm's I always told my daughter to SMS, even with poor coverage...it generally will get through more than voice. Good advice in case of emergencies.
Why would you restore if you can just reset all settings and keep all data on the phone? It's only a settings reset not a restore of the entire phone!
Simply reset settings:
You will need to navigate to: Settings/General/Reset/Reset All Setings.
This will make you have to set up your phones settings again (ring, pas code, email signature, etc.) but will turn off the switching.
Hope this help!
That way I don't need to worry about what settings I might have forgotten to fix after resetting them. All I lost by restoring was a couple pictures I took to test the HDR, since everything else was backed up.
What FW are you both on? You can see this if you go into Settings -> General -> About -> Version: X.X
I'm thinking she's on 4.0 or previous and you're on 4.0.1 or above.
Hi josielinnea I am using 4.1 and she uses 3.1.3. She had problems upgrading to 4. Hopefully she will manage this time.
Need help....
Can someone help me understand something... In my office at work I get varying signals... sometimes it says Searching... Mostly its an Edge signal reading a -96 ( it never gets into the -100's it just goes to searching)... sometimes its a 3G signal with a similar number. If I go outside I get a solid 3G signal -85. Of course if i have 3g my speeds are faster.
Does an edge signal drop easier (at lower a DB number) When im at home i can be at a -110 and still stay connected.
Thanks
Chris
Can someone help me understand something... In my office at work I get varying signals... sometimes it says Searching... Mostly its an Edge signal reading a -96 ( it never gets into the -100's it just goes to searching)... sometimes its a 3G signal with a similar number. If I go outside I get a solid 3G signal -85. Of course if i have 3g my speeds are faster.
Does an edge signal drop easier (at lower a DB number) When im at home i can be at a -110 and still stay connected.
Thanks
Chris
I was just think about the people who want to revert back to bars. If you used the respring method while in Field Test Mode with the db's showing, would it go back to bars if you were in Field Test Mode and toggled to bars and then respring?
Anyone care to try it?
Anyone care to try it?
I did. No change. Personally, I'd rather have the numbers there (and if I want bars, I can tap the top corner), so no big deal.
BTW, I'm getting a -50 reading sitting about 2 feet from my MicroCell.
Chris,
By default, the iPhone will try to go to 3G...so you must be on the boundary between the two. Turn off 3G (in settings) and it will stay in Edge mode.
Edge doesn't drop easier than 3G. But if there is a hint of 3G around it will try for it. Apple and ATT have made some changes to prevent this from going crazy of course.
Just realized you could switch back and forth from number to bars by simply tapping the number/bar. It will stay on bars though until touched again.
Actually, you could almost get to 0 if you really tried. While doing cell phone testing for my work, I got a T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9700 down to -15. Granted I was standing literally 3 feet below the cell we have in the building.
So to get lower than that, you'd basically need to touch the antenna to the tower.
All the iDevice news and sales are helping to increase the sales and market share of the bigger Mac's and MacBooks. A percentage of all those profits get rolled back into a larger overall R&D budget for all new products. A lot of the development investment in the iPhone OS got rolled back into Snow Leopard to make it even more efficient. The improved Xcode tools benefit both platforms.
What's pathetic about that?