So it’s been 24 hours since the phones started being delivered so for those of us still waiting can anyone with the 12 Pro Max comment on the signal, is it better than the IPhone 11’s, are you getting signal in places you couldn’t with your previous phone.....
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iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Max how’s the antenna signal/reception
- Thread starter Woody1073
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I'm coming from XS Max to 12 Pro Max on T-Mobile. I'm averaging about 1 bar higher throughout my house. Keep in mind that I'm going from LTE to 5G on T-Mobile so the different band for 5G could be helping with better signal. I was averaging 30 to 50 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up on LTE. Now 120 Mbps to 170 Mbps down and 30 Mbps up on 5G. I'm super happy with this upgrade. The camera is amazing at night in my opinion (took photos at a drive-in movie last night).
I’m coming from a 2020 se and a 11pro. The signal is more consistent for sure. I know a lot of people on here want a comparison based on the dbm of the connection but unfortunately the field test on the new iPhone is very lacking at the moment. Rsrp only updates rarely. There is no sinr indicator or rsrq. The carrier aggregation information isn’t there either, also I’ve noticed the bandwidth information to be completely wrong. Only information that is correct if the modem refreshes the information is the pci of the tower and the band indicator.
To be honest I think it’s worse than my 11PM. My WiFi speeds are slower (200 vs 150ish) my 5G speeds are also slower.
And my reception seems to be poorer. My 11PM would get signal in the elevator. My 12 does not.
Maybe it’s Verizon lte vs 5G. I’m not sure - I have 5G auto selected.
I will say my gf has a 12 Pro and hers outperforms mine - she’s on spectrum which I think is Verizon. So may be my phone.
And my reception seems to be poorer. My 11PM would get signal in the elevator. My 12 does not.
Maybe it’s Verizon lte vs 5G. I’m not sure - I have 5G auto selected.
I will say my gf has a 12 Pro and hers outperforms mine - she’s on spectrum which I think is Verizon. So may be my phone.
My 12 pro max reception is vastly superior to my XR.
So glad to have a qualcomm equipped iphone again
So glad to have a qualcomm equipped iphone again
I’m on Verizon and twice I’ve got no bars for no reason at all. I had to restart my 12 pm to get signal back up. I was also on the phone trying to have a conversation with my wife at the mall food court who was sitting less that 50 ft away and I couldn’t hear her but she could hear me. I looked at my signal and was at 1 bar.
does anyone have suggestions why this is happening to me or what I can to prevent this?
does anyone have suggestions why this is happening to me or what I can to prevent this?
Been using a mini for a week. What I've noticed is that the phone displays more bars but this is no indication of anything as bars are arbitrary. A phone can show 4 bars and actually have worse reception than a phone showing 2 bars.
The way to measure signal strength is by going into field test mode and looking at the dBm measurements. Unfortunately, Apple has rendered field test mode almost useless in its latest form. It just does not update frequently enough and one measurement that you see when you run it, may or may not be very indicative of what's really going on over the course of several minutes. Signal strength can vary greatly from moment to moment. That said, in comparing the results with a couple of Android phones that I have and with what I remember getting the last time I owned an iphone, in spite of the bad field test, I can honestly say based on many many measurements over the past week that the reception on the mini is about the same, maybe a bit worse than previous iphones I have used. On the other hand, speed tests have shown it to be much faster. Don't confuse speed tests with reception though as speed can vary by an enormous amount based on several factors the most common being network congestion.
The way to measure signal strength is by going into field test mode and looking at the dBm measurements. Unfortunately, Apple has rendered field test mode almost useless in its latest form. It just does not update frequently enough and one measurement that you see when you run it, may or may not be very indicative of what's really going on over the course of several minutes. Signal strength can vary greatly from moment to moment. That said, in comparing the results with a couple of Android phones that I have and with what I remember getting the last time I owned an iphone, in spite of the bad field test, I can honestly say based on many many measurements over the past week that the reception on the mini is about the same, maybe a bit worse than previous iphones I have used. On the other hand, speed tests have shown it to be much faster. Don't confuse speed tests with reception though as speed can vary by an enormous amount based on several factors the most common being network congestion.
It’s very disheartening to think the aerial technology isn’t being improved like the rest of the phone is, to give an example of my reasoning for this question in the first place is I couldn’t get enough signal recently to be able to go online to check out reviews for a takeaway before ordering food from there, so my partner handed me her phone as she had full bars and fast connection.......my phone is an iPhone 11 and hers is a Samsung A20, her phone cost less than a quarter of what my phone cost yet signal/reception obliterates my iPhone, oh and were on the same network, I did think maybe it’s my sim so we swapped sims and still the same result, her phone was like warp speed compared to mine of which she took great delight reminding me how cheap her phone is 🙄
I've been using and paying attention to phones and their signal strengths for many years. Androids have always had better reception than iphones but it's never really been a big enough difference to deter me from owning an iphone from time to time. But my average dBm measurement with my Samsung has been between -70 and -83 or so in the room I am sitting in right now. With the iphone mini that I have been using for the past week, it's been anywhere from -85dBm to about -95dBm. Still no terrible, but the difference is meaningful. God forbid I should drive into an area where the Samsung might be at -110 or so, still good enough to hold onto a call but if I was using the iphone in that area, I might be at around -120 or worse, dropping calls like mad.
I really do agree with you that it is disheartening but I've come to the conclusion that the cell companies spend so much time and effort on giving us the latest technology at the sake of never really perfecting what they've already given us. Same with computers and cell phones themselves. Everyone thinks that the latest tech is what's important, so we are constantly in an uphill battle of catching up and trying bug fixes for every new thing that comes along. I've been involved with computers since the 80s and always thought back then that it would be nice to finally get beyond this constant struggle with upgrades and their designers and engineers taking months to fix bugs. Now 40 years later, none of that has changed really.
I really do agree with you that it is disheartening but I've come to the conclusion that the cell companies spend so much time and effort on giving us the latest technology at the sake of never really perfecting what they've already given us. Same with computers and cell phones themselves. Everyone thinks that the latest tech is what's important, so we are constantly in an uphill battle of catching up and trying bug fixes for every new thing that comes along. I've been involved with computers since the 80s and always thought back then that it would be nice to finally get beyond this constant struggle with upgrades and their designers and engineers taking months to fix bugs. Now 40 years later, none of that has changed really.
I feel the same in that I’ve never let poor aerials deter me from owning an iPhone and over the years I’ve moved from Samsung to Apple on a number of occasions though I’ve owned more Apple, I did however briefly have an Huawei P40 Pro and that gave me the best signal I have ever had in my neighbourhood and that was (get this) -110 to -114dBm yes that was my average, good thing about androids you can get an app which tells you via a needle on a scale what dBm your at but I’ve no idea how to check dBm on an iPhone but if the Huawei P40 Pro was -110 to -114 I’m guessing my iPhone 11 is maybe around -120? Biggest plus for me regarding iPhones is the support iPhones get for several years and that’s the biggest reason I’ve always leaned more towards iPhones that androids........it’s just those damn Apple aerials need sorting 🤣
My co-worker has the 11PM and he gets 40-60mbps less than me. We’re both on Verizon. I’m constantly getting about 80-100mbps on LTE!
Ah I see your co-worker’s phone has the old modem so it’s good the new modem is downloading faster, I’m not sure the modem has any bearing on the aerial signal quality? How you finding the 12 Pro Max? That’s the phone I was going to get but I think I’m going to wait till the next iPhone’s come out and hopefully they will make the batteries slightly bigger rather than smaller
I am actually curious about this myself but I haven’t left the house to do anything but grocery shopping in over a month 😩
i just hope it Switches faster between edge (yes ... this unfortunately still happens a LOT here in Germany) and LTE. It always took forever on my XS Max to finally switch form edge to LTE. Sometimes requiring airplane mode on and off
i just hope it Switches faster between edge (yes ... this unfortunately still happens a LOT here in Germany) and LTE. It always took forever on my XS Max to finally switch form edge to LTE. Sometimes requiring airplane mode on and off
Just an update. Today I returned my 12 mini and swapped it for a regular 12. All I can say is there seems so far to be a big difference. My 12 is now showing results right there with my Samsung. Something I've never seen an iphone do before.
So far, so good.
So far, so good.
Another huge concern for me is I’ve read you can’t force the iPhone 12’s to use 3G, I’m on 3G most of the time and often have to force my 11 to use it becomes if it detects even the slightest 4G signal it’ll most often stay latched onto this rather than change onto a stronger 3G signal, I’m forever running the ookla speed tests when my phone seems slow and 9 times out of 10 it’s connected to 4G on a barely there signal and I’ll then force it onto 3G and have 5 or 6 times more speed it just doesn’t seem to clever at determining which signal to switch to for the best mobile experience, I def need the ability to be able to force my phone to use 3G which it appears you can’t with the 12’s.
The pro max is great!!
I upgraded from an X and was intimidated by the pro max size at first. After using it for a few days, I’m glad I did not go for the regular size pro. My X was right at 78% battery health and I’m on my phone 7-8hrs a day so it needed to be charged quite often. The Pro Max on the other hand will get me by a full days work and then some.
Funny you say this. When I was in the Bahamas with my wife, she uses Samsung phones (puke) but she had strong wifi where my iPhone X wouldn't even connect.
Yup. Actually I hate the Samsungs but their reception capabilities are very good.
Just a note..I exchanged a mini which I thought had terrible reception issues with a 12 yesterday. Interestingly enough, while the mini had 4 full bars in the most of the places I used it, the 12 has more of a tendency to show 2 or 3 bars in the same places. However, in doing signal check measurements, I am seeing that the 12 actually has much better numbers. It's actually the first iphone I've ever used whose reception can compare with a Samsung.
As I've said in other threads, the bars meaning nothing.
Just a note..I exchanged a mini which I thought had terrible reception issues with a 12 yesterday. Interestingly enough, while the mini had 4 full bars in the most of the places I used it, the 12 has more of a tendency to show 2 or 3 bars in the same places. However, in doing signal check measurements, I am seeing that the 12 actually has much better numbers. It's actually the first iphone I've ever used whose reception can compare with a Samsung.
As I've said in other threads, the bars meaning nothing.
Another update as I have been playing around with the phone on the road today.
My 12 has had no issue whatsoever so far in holding connections. I went for a couple of drives where I know the reception is usually kind've spotty and it held on a call for the entire drive (about 45 minutes) without ever dropping. I also noticed that the iphone 12 will retain a 5g connection very reliably even when my Samsung struggled and dropped to LTE several times.
The bars on the iphone were usually around 2 or 3, but the Samsung usually kept steady on full bars, even though both showed roughly the same signal strength (the iphone even better at times) when measuring them...further proof that bars mean nothing.
Overall, I am very pleased so far with the 12 and I really think that the vast majority of issues are coming from things related to how it's working (or not) on Verizon. I am using T-Mobile.
My 12 has had no issue whatsoever so far in holding connections. I went for a couple of drives where I know the reception is usually kind've spotty and it held on a call for the entire drive (about 45 minutes) without ever dropping. I also noticed that the iphone 12 will retain a 5g connection very reliably even when my Samsung struggled and dropped to LTE several times.
The bars on the iphone were usually around 2 or 3, but the Samsung usually kept steady on full bars, even though both showed roughly the same signal strength (the iphone even better at times) when measuring them...further proof that bars mean nothing.
Overall, I am very pleased so far with the 12 and I really think that the vast majority of issues are coming from things related to how it's working (or not) on Verizon. I am using T-Mobile.
I’ve been having reception problems with my iPhone 12 pro max. Have to go into and out of airplane mode to get any bars when I come into the house, my 11 pro max worked with no problems. Tried to go into filed test mode but do not see the complete list of options to find the single strength - any one else noticed filed test mode on 12 pm does not provide a field test mea option.