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Aimbriano

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 15, 2010
11
2
Im torn between upgrading to the 14 pro max or sticking with my 12 pro max for one more year. Along with a better camera I'm really hoping for better service. Has anyone who upgraded yet noticed any improvements with signal or data speeds. Im a long time Verizon user and feel like service has gotten worse rather then better these past few years. Hoping for some improvements and some feedback. Thanks in advance!
 
I went from 12pm to 14pm mainly due to my battery not lasting, better gps tracking as I’m a runner and a better camera. So far I’m glad I did. Cant tell any signal or data speed difference but I will try that stuff out tomorrow.
 
I went from 12pm to 14pm mainly due to my battery not lasting, better gps tracking as I’m a runner and a better camera. So far I’m glad I did. Cant tell any signal or data speed difference but I will try that stuff out tomorrow.
Thanks for the insight. Have you noticed a good improvement on camera and battery. Both seem to have fallen off for me on my 12 pro max. Havent been able to find a camera comparison video on youtube yet between the two
 
Thanks for the insight. Have you noticed a good improvement on camera and battery. Both seem to have fallen off for me on my 12 pro max. Havent been able to find a camera comparison video on youtube yet between the two
The battery in my 12pm was my main reason for trading, I can tell you more tonight after a day of use. I took one photo so far and considering I’m a professional photographer I can say I was very impressed but lots more low light type photos will tell the story for me. I do mainly sports so no phone camera will ever replace my full frame Canons but they’re not meant to.
 
So after a little usage, can anyone chime in on the phone performance. Im currently testing tmobile along side verizon on my 12 pro max, If people can chime in on their carrier and hows the service on the newer iphoner 14 pro max, would help out make my decision
 
On 14PM not getting better signal. Many places I had outstanding speeds with 11PM/12PN/13PM I no longer have that with the 14PM. Maybe its at&t in Miami upgrading or some connectivity issues with the 14PM. Hoping next iOS updates fix something. Currently testing Verizon along my current at&t to see the differences. Not seeing any major differences either.
 
The battery in my 12pm was my main reason for trading, I can tell you more tonight after a day of use. I took one photo so far and considering I’m a professional photographer I can say I was very impressed but lots more low light type photos will tell the story for me. I do mainly sports so no phone camera will ever replace my full frame Canons but they’re not meant to.

In my limited tests so far, it's worse in every way to my 2 year old S20fe. I'm still amazed how good the pictures are from that low priced phone, don't know how Samsung does it. Maybe it's their past experience making actual cameras which were pretty cutting edge even years after they stopped making them.
 
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I had a 13 Pro Max and then 13 Pro, now have 14 Pro Max. I've noticed stronger signal than what I had before. My carrier is T-Mobile post-paid. I park in an underground parking garage at my office, before I had a couple bars of 5G and usable but slow data. With the 14 Pro Max I have 5 bars and excellent speed / connection down there. The X65 in the 14 Pro is supposed to be very good compared to older modems.

I've read that people have been experiencing issues on Verizon, not sure if they have been resolved with software and / or carrier update.
 
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I had a 13 Pro Max and then 13 Pro, now have 14 Pro Max. I've noticed stronger signal than what I had before. My carrier is T-Mobile post-paid. I park in an underground parking garage at my office, before I had a couple bars of 5G and usable but slow data. With the 14 Pro Max I have 5 bars and excellent speed / connection down there. The X65 in the 14 Pro is supposed to be very good compared to older modems.

I've read that people have been experiencing issues on Verizon, not sure if they have been resolved with software and / or carrier update.
I wonder whether the improvements you are seeing are the result of a better phone, or the result of T-Mobile improvements. I too have seen improvements in recent months and I haven't upgraded my phone in 2 years.
- Bars on a phone mean nothing.
- A better modem doesn't mean better reception, though it can mean faster data transfers.
 
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I wonder whether the improvements you are seeing are the result of a better phone, or the result of T-Mobile improvements. I too have seen improvements in recent months and I haven't upgraded my phone in 2 years.
- Bars on a phone mean nothing.
- A better modem doesn't mean better reception, though it can mean faster data transfers.
Was using 13 Pro until 2 weeks ago, doubt anything has changed on T-Mobile's end? They've done vast upgrades in my area, night and day compared to even a year ago. Yep I know bars don't tell the whole story, but I do notice a difference at that area when making calls / using apps / internet.

Correct me if wrong, but a better modem absolutely can have better reception, case in point old Intel modems prior to the QC switch. The X65 has an antenna redesign + more bandwidth re: carrier aggregation, compared to the X60 in addition to AI features that "can" improve reception. No idea how much of this is observable to the average user, I'm not at all a techie, just the gist of what I've read about the X65.
 
Was using 13 Pro until 2 weeks ago, doubt anything has changed on T-Mobile's end? They've done vast upgrades in my area, night and day compared to even a year ago. Yep I know bars don't tell the whole story, but I do notice a difference at that area when making calls / using apps / internet.

Correct me if wrong, but a better modem absolutely can have better reception, case in point old Intel modems prior to the QC switch. The X65 has an antenna redesign + more bandwidth re: carrier aggregation, compared to the X60 in addition to AI features that "can" improve reception. No idea how much of this is observable to the average user, I'm not at all a techie, just the gist of what I've read about the X65.

Modem stands for MODulator DEModulator. It's purpose is to modulate analog signals, such as telephone signals, to be transmitted using cellular networks. Yes, when people talk about signal reception they very often discuss the modem but more accurately, it's the antenna design that is making the difference. I am just being nit picky.

As far as T-Mobile goes, I did see improvements happen almost overnight a couple of months ago, after having seen all kinds of lesser improvements for several months. One day everything was lousy, the next it was wonderful. Since others have said they see little or no difference in reception between the 13 and 14, I still wonder if it's because this has now happened in your area as well.

And yes, ignore the bars. There is no standard for them and I have owned phones that would show 5 bars and have terrible reception and phones that had great reception even with only one bar.
 
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I typically had full signal at my house with AT&T with my old 12PM. I've noticed over the past month with my new 14PM I generally only have 2-3 bars at the house and it stays in wi-fi calling. My wife has the new 14 pro from the old 12 pro and have pretty much noticed the same thing on hers. She has full bars more often than me though. It's a clear difference in cellular strength between the old and new. Sometimes going in airplane mode briefly will reset things and give me full bars but sometimes not. Same issue at our office, I'll have 2 bars with everyone else around me with full bars, same AT&T network just older model iPhones. Compared my wife's 14 pro with mine and our bars always match, just less bars than older models. Very weird.
 
Bars mean nothing on a phone. There is no standard for what any number of bars mean and any phone manufacturer (or cell provider for that matter) may display whatever number of bars on its phones that they want. So a phone that is showing 3 bars may very well have the same reception as a phone displaying 5 bars. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it's true. The industry would do us all a favor if they stopped putting the bars on the phones altogether.
There IS a way to see the actual db reception level by going into field test mode. Google that for instructions on how to do so and what to look for (if you're interested). Although very flakey on iphones, this does give a much more realistic representation of what kind of reception your phone is getting than the bars do. Android phones allow the use of apps which tell you the db level.
That said, I HAVE noticed that at least with T-Mobile, my iphone 14 is connecting to a band 41 tower recently and I do get poorer reception in my house than I used to get when it would connect to a band 66 tower. Presumably the band 66 tower is either closer to my house or there is a better line of sight to it.
 
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I live in a home with metal roof and because of that I get very limited reception hence I use call from wifi inside my home. Outside is completely different story comparing my old iPhone 11 Pro to the iPhone 14 Pro. Before on the iPhone 11 Pro I get in the low 40 Mbps down and 2-3 Mbps upload speeds. Today standing in my front yard I got 98.4 Mbps upload and 12.94 Mbps upload on a 5G network connection and inside my home I am currently getting a LTE connection and it is 5.61 Mbps download and 0.48 Mbps upload.

I do suspect that T-mobile my cellular provider has recently upgraded their tower which is 6 miles away. Actual comparisons is really difficult because of the actual hardware by the cell phone provider, your location and even if the home you are in as some of us have completely different situations.
 
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