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RumorConsumer

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 16, 2016
1,638
1,150
Hello! I happen to have received my lovely blue iPhone 12 Pro today and have had my iPhone 11 Pro for a year. I loved it. Great device. Absolute killer reception on both LTE and Wifi. But wow. I have a Cisco Meraki network at my property and in my main usage area I am using a Meraki MR52 which is a flagship indoor access point of the last couple years. 4 spatial streams, 4 antennas, Wave 2, its amazing. So for kicks I put my 11 Pro next to my 12 Pro on a table in the same orientation (to control for antenna exposure) about 30 feet away and this was the result. I left it there for a good 10 minutes, then thought maybe the access point should be restarted (hence the short connected times) but sure enough it fluctuates between being a 3-8db (!!!) difference between the devices. That is astoundingly better. In my eyes its a true case of good to great. But WOW that is amazing. Below is the readout with identifying marks redacted of my client management window in the Meraki dashboard. You can see the 11 Pro and the 12 Pro are the last two devices connected and above them you see my 16" MacBook Pro coming in at 23db but its significantly farther away and behind a wall. The rest of the devices are quite close by the access point hence their high scores.

I also confirmed with an assistant who held both phones 1 foot apart at chest height to get the upright orientation of the antennas (it matters quite a bit actually) and the delta closed to about 3db average, so its less of a difference but still that is unreal at a more horizontal orientation.

difference.jpg
 
Last edited:

bz101

macrumors newbie
Oct 31, 2015
17
11
Curious if you have it backwards. Usually it's written as negative number with the smallest number being better (ranging from -35 to -95db typically). Not sure what app you're using.

Anecdotal testing on cell service indicates significantly worse reception on iPhone 12/pro. See this thread ... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-12-pro-connectivity-issues.2263167/page-3

Perhaps it's not a reception issue but a pure software issue.
 

RumorConsumer

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 16, 2016
1,638
1,150
Curious if you have it backwards. Usually it's written as negative number with the smallest number being better (ranging from -35 to -95db typically). Not sure what app you're using.

Anecdotal testing on cell service indicates significantly worse reception on iPhone 12/pro. See this thread ... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-12-pro-connectivity-issues.2263167/page-3

Perhaps it's not a reception issue but a pure software issue.
To the last few posters-
That’s not how Cisco measures it. See article:

 

RumorConsumer

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 16, 2016
1,638
1,150
Very helpful to understand. TY for sharing! So it would seem that the new iPhone is scoring better.
Much much better.
Also understand that my environment is rural and very RF clean so that may have something to do it why it’s so much better for me or differs compared to other use cases. Rural with 250/250 fiber and enterprise class WiFi across 160 acres and a 10 gigabit backbone 🤩
 

RumorConsumer

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 16, 2016
1,638
1,150
Much much better.
Also understand that my environment is rural and very RF clean so that may have something to do it why it’s so much better for me or differs compared to other use cases. Rural with 250/250 fiber and enterprise class WiFi across 160 acres and a 10 gigabit backbone 🤩
Addendum
I can stand 340+ft from an MR84 with Omni antennas and get 23db with this thing which translates to 802.11ac speed testing at 90mbit. That is unheard of.
 
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