iPhone 6 plus antenna strength compared to the Note...

[Rbtrucking]

I have always been a note user up until the 6 plus. The main reasons I chose the note over the iPhone was because of the size and battery life. I tried a 5 once but the battery was horrible and the antenna strength was also horrible. I figured maybe they improved that with the iPhone 6 plus..

In my school I was always able to get wifi and decent signal with the note. With the iPhone I get nothing and it drains the battery horribly and basically renders the phone useless. Do any of you have any experiences similar to this? Is there any way to fix this? I really am enjoying my experience on the iPhone except for this problem. This is a big problem however since I do spend a lot of time at school and can't be without a functioning phone.

In a 1 hour class the phone will drain over 10% battery searching for a signal. With the note I would lose maybe 1% Any similar stories, what did you do to fix it?

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

With those thick antenna bands that are bit of an eyesore we better get the best reception ever...

Did you change carriers between the Note and the 6+? If not, perhaps you have a dud 6+ with defective antenna? It's difficult to believe that with the same carrier you'd get 5 bars with the Note but searching constantly for signals with the 6+.

 

[Rbtrucking]

I didn't switch carriers I am on sprint and I never said the note got full bars it was low too but never completely collapsed and was rendered useless like the iPhone. The note could usually hang on to 1-2 bars while the iphone just stays in extended. I don't really think its defective, I mean most places I do get really good signal its just in school.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

I didn't switch carriers I am on sprint and I never said the note got full bars it was low too but never completely collapsed and was rendered useless like the iPhone. The note could usually hang on to 1-2 bars while the iphone just stays in extended. I don't really think its defective, I mean most places I do get really good signal its just in school.

Different phones render signals differently, even if they get the same signals. 2 bars on one phone may be equivalent to 1 bar on another phone. I'd suggest remaining connected to wifi at school (which will still allow you to get iMessages) or even putting it in airplane mode (which will prevent battery drain).

 

[techspin]

Have you tried rebooting the phone? Works for me sometimes when there are problems with reception.

 

[iososx]

My iPhone 6+ and Note 4 both on AT&T are identical in reception and call quality.

The only problem is my iPhone has a very small range of volume adjustment and doesn't get loud enough to hear the person I've called unless ambient noise level is very low.

Conversely my Note 4 volume is adjustable from soft to very loud which makes it useful under any circumstances.

 

[Rbtrucking]

Different phones render signals differently, even if they get the same signals. 2 bars on one phone may be equivalent to 1 bar on another phone. I'd suggest remaining connected to wifi at school (which will still allow you to get iMessages) or even putting it in airplane mode (which will prevent battery drain).

Ya I do try to stay on wifi but the wifi at my school is terrible too and constantly disconnects. I suppose I could do airplane mode as well.

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Have you tried rebooting the phone? Works for me sometimes when there are problems with reception.

Ya that worked once but hasn't worked every time i've tried it.

 

[mKTank]

I think the reception quality is the same hardware-wise. AKA the antennas are probably just as nice as one another.

Software-wise, however, there's a pretty sizeable difference.

My university, as most of not all universities, offers a campus-wide Wi-Fi. How they accomplish this is using the same SSID throughout the entire campus, but offered through many access points. The premise is: you connect to the network and it jumps between access points as you walk around campus without having to re-connect or re-input your credentials over again. Pretty simple implementation.

Sometimes there are dead spots where there is no nearby access point or the signal is too weak and the phone defaults to LTE/3G until it can reconnect to Wi-Fi.

On my Note 4, this network setup is proving to be a major pain in the ass. I've activated Smart Internet feature (forgot the exact name, but it's supposed to more intelligently handle Wi-Fi signals) and it still totally freaks out between access points (many, many toast notifications "Connected to University Wi-Fi," every 30 seconds) and my Spotify stream goes straight to hell. Frankly, it's almost impossible in this regard to listen to a whole song without Spotify pausing or without Google Play Music (All Access) skipping the song because it thinks there's an error in playing it.

With my iPhone, however, it seems Apple's figured out how to do it properly. It jumps between access points at the perfect times with little to no interruptions, and jump to and from LTE, again, with no noticeable pauses in internet service. The phone has to do just as much jumping around between networks, but it seems like it's much more opportunistic with its signal-grabbing rather than Samsung/Qualcomm's loyalist approach. Whatever it's doing, I certainly don't have to worry about it; I never get pauses or skips in the music and it works very well overall.

Specs is one thing (and in this regard, I'd say they're probably fairly closely matched in regards to antennas) but software implementation is where all the potential lies.

 

[spinedoc77]

I've owned both the Note 3, Note 4 and iPhone 6 plus. The Note 4 gets the best reception out of all of them. The ip6+ gets similar reception to my Note 3, it's very good but not quite perfect.

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I think the reception quality is the same hardware-wise. AKA the antennas are probably just as nice as one another.

Software-wise, however, there's a pretty sizeable difference.

My university, as most of not all universities, offers a campus-wide Wi-Fi. How they accomplish this is using the same SSID throughout the entire campus, but offered through many access points. The premise is: you connect to the network and it jumps between access points as you walk around campus without having to re-connect or re-input your credentials over again. Pretty simple implementation.

Sometimes there are dead spots where there is no nearby access point or the signal is too weak and the phone defaults to LTE/3G until it can reconnect to Wi-Fi.

On my Note 4, this network setup is proving to be a major pain in the ass. I've activated Smart Internet feature (forgot the exact name, but it's supposed to more intelligently handle Wi-Fi signals) and it still totally freaks out between access points (many, many toast notifications "Connected to University Wi-Fi," every 30 seconds) and my Spotify stream goes straight to hell. Frankly, it's almost impossible in this regard to listen to a whole song without Spotify pausing or without Google Play Music (All Access) skipping the song because it thinks there's an error in playing it.

With my iPhone, however, it seems Apple's figured out how to do it properly. It jumps between access points at the perfect times with little to no interruptions, and jump to and from LTE, again, with no noticeable pauses in internet service. The phone has to do just as much jumping around between networks, but it seems like it's much more opportunistic with its signal-grabbing rather than Samsung/Qualcomm's loyalist approach. Whatever it's doing, I certainly don't have to worry about it; I never get pauses or skips in the music and it works very well overall.

Specs is one thing (and in this regard, I'd say they're probably fairly closely matched in regards to antennas) but software implementation is where all the potential lies.

I found the Note 4 to be slightly wonky with WiFi as well, not as bad as you though. My first Note 4 also had GPS issues since we are on the subject of antennas.

 

[wxman2003]

The signal strength in dBm between my 5s and 6 Plus are exactly the same.

 

[Rbtrucking]

I think the reception quality is the same hardware-wise. AKA the antennas are probably just as nice as one another.

Software-wise, however, there's a pretty sizeable difference.

My university, as most of not all universities, offers a campus-wide Wi-Fi. How they accomplish this is using the same SSID throughout the entire campus, but offered through many access points. The premise is: you connect to the network and it jumps between access points as you walk around campus without having to re-connect or re-input your credentials over again. Pretty simple implementation.

Sometimes there are dead spots where there is no nearby access point or the signal is too weak and the phone defaults to LTE/3G until it can reconnect to Wi-Fi.

On my Note 4, this network setup is proving to be a major pain in the ass. I've activated Smart Internet feature (forgot the exact name, but it's supposed to more intelligently handle Wi-Fi signals) and it still totally freaks out between access points (many, many toast notifications "Connected to University Wi-Fi," every 30 seconds) and my Spotify stream goes straight to hell. Frankly, it's almost impossible in this regard to listen to a whole song without Spotify pausing or without Google Play Music (All Access) skipping the song because it thinks there's an error in playing it.

With my iPhone, however, it seems Apple's figured out how to do it properly. It jumps between access points at the perfect times with little to no interruptions, and jump to and from LTE, again, with no noticeable pauses in internet service. The phone has to do just as much jumping around between networks, but it seems like it's much more opportunistic with its signal-grabbing rather than Samsung/Qualcomm's loyalist approach. Whatever it's doing, I certainly don't have to worry about it; I never get pauses or skips in the music and it works very well overall.

Specs is one thing (and in this regard, I'd say they're probably fairly closely matched in regards to antennas) but software implementation is where all the potential lies.

Yup I know exactly what your talking about, that sprint connection optimizer that was pure hell for me too! You gotta disable that, and you will see a WORLD of difference.

I'm also pretty sure that just as you say the class that I am having trouble with is right in the middle of a "dead zone" at the school where there is unfortunately no wifi or sprint signal but I have to say as I said before the notes antenna seemed to be able to handle it a bit better than the 6 plus. There are areas in my school where I get full wifi and have no trouble. The problem is, most of my classes are in the dead zone.

I guess if I want to stick with the iPhone I could just use airplane mode when in those dead zones. For those of you that do have the note though and have experience with it, would you say it handles bad signal better than the iPhone in terms of battery drain and app crashes? On the iPhone hangout is completely useless when in a bad service area where on the note it never was affected.

Overall it seems like the notes hardware was stronger.

 

[Bahroo]

Yup I know exactly what your talking about, that sprint connection optimizer that was pure hell for me too! You gotta disable that, and you will see a WORLD of difference.

I'm also pretty sure that just as you say the class that I am having trouble with is right in the middle of a "dead zone" at the school where there is unfortunately no wifi or sprint signal but I have to say as I said before the notes antenna seemed to be able to handle it a bit better than the 6 plus. There are areas in my school where I get full wifi and have no trouble. The problem is, most of my classes are in the dead zone.

I guess if I want to stick with the iPhone I could just use airplane mode when in those dead zones. For those of you that do have the note though and have experience with it, would you say it handles bad signal better than the iPhone in terms of battery drain and app crashes? On the iPhone hangout is completely useless when in a bad service area where on the note it never was affected.

Overall it seems like the notes hardware was stronger.

Hangouts not working on iOS without connection is just the fact that Hangouts is a core google service, it does work a little better on Android (but you cant send 10 second video clips or any video over Hangouts on Android at all unlike iOS version)

Updated apps for the 6 Plus/6 run absolutely great on my 6 Plus and very rarely crash

 

[mKTank]

I've owned both the Note 3, Note 4 and iPhone 6 plus. The Note 4 gets the best reception out of all of them. The ip6+ gets similar reception to my Note 3, it's very good but not quite perfect.

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I found the Note 4 to be slightly wonky with WiFi as well, not as bad as you though. My first Note 4 also had GPS issues since we are on the subject of antennas.

Yeah my Note 4 suffers from GPS issues as well. I mean Maps sort of works but I live in Winnipeg so I don't have many tall buildings around. As is, I get lock after a pretty sizeable wait (30+ seconds, sometimes a minute) whereas my 6 Plus gets it in 5 seconds flat. But then again I'm thinking maybe this is an Android thing because I've had more Android phones than I've had iPhones and they've all been slow on signal acquisition.

----------

Yup I know exactly what your talking about, that sprint connection optimizer that was pure hell for me too! You gotta disable that, and you will see a WORLD of difference.

I'm also pretty sure that just as you say the class that I am having trouble with is right in the middle of a "dead zone" at the school where there is unfortunately no wifi or sprint signal but I have to say as I said before the notes antenna seemed to be able to handle it a bit better than the 6 plus. There are areas in my school where I get full wifi and have no trouble. The problem is, most of my classes are in the dead zone.

I guess if I want to stick with the iPhone I could just use airplane mode when in those dead zones. For those of you that do have the note though and have experience with it, would you say it handles bad signal better than the iPhone in terms of battery drain and app crashes? On the iPhone hangout is completely useless when in a bad service area where on the note it never was affected.

Overall it seems like the notes hardware was stronger.

Naw man I'm using my phone with Rogers. I'm just using Samsung's built-in Smart Wifi feature thing...unless it's the same thing as Sprint's feature, only rebranded...

Also, am I the only one getting the blinking location icon every few minutes like clockwork? Even with GPS turned off? App Ops is reporting that it's Android System (so probably time zone, cell search, etc) so at least it's not a rogue app.

 

[MattMJB0188]

I don't know how on earth you people can use a Samsung device? Their software is beyond terrible, inconsistent, and laggy. Oh is it laggy. And yes I have played with the Note 4. Every Samsung phone since the original has had horrible touch wiz lag. And for the record, I love Android, just not Samsung.

 

[mKTank]

I don't know how on earth you people can use a Samsung device? Their software is beyond terrible, inconsistent, and laggy. Oh is it laggy. And yes I have played with the Note 4. Every Samsung phone since the original has had horrible touch wiz lag. And for the record, I love Android, just not Samsung.

The features are what set it apart, to be honest. I mean I never really used the multitasking features but the S Pen is a pretty unique feature in today's smartphone market, you've gotta admit that.

S4, S5, etc I don't really care for, but the Note 4 is honestly where Samsung really tries its hardest. Yes they lag but I suppose you'd expect it given the amount of features they fit in.

 

[MattMJB0188]

The features are what set it apart, to be honest. I mean I never really used the multitasking features but the S Pen is a pretty unique feature in today's smartphone market, you've gotta admit that.

S4, S5, etc I don't really care for, but the Note 4 is honestly where Samsung really tries its hardest. Yes they lag but I suppose you'd expect it given the amount of features they fit in.

I have had every Samsung phone, believe me on that one. The software is just so incredibly awful it makes the phone seem like a pos. With the specs Samsung packs in these devices they should fly, but they don't. When scrolling through the Note 4 messaging app, it's extremely jerky. Opening apps takes additional time. And the average user wont use about 75% of the features after day 1.

Not too mention the screen only looks sharp with Samsung's icons and in their menus. No other app takes advantage of the 4K display. And for some reason even 4K wallpapers don't look as sharp once set as wallpaper.

I'd buy the Note 4 in a second if it it came with stock Android.

 

[superlawyer15]

Annecdotal as it may be ...
..but my IP6+ gets far far FAAR better service than my old note 3

 

[mKTank]

I have had every Samsung phone, believe me on that one. The software is just so incredibly awful it makes the phone seem like a pos. With the specs Samsung packs in these devices they should fly, but they don't. When scrolling through the Note 4 messaging app, it's extremely jerky. Opening apps takes additional time. And the average user wont use about 75% of the features after day 1.

Not too mention the screen only looks sharp with Samsung's icons and in their menus. No other app takes advantage of the 4K display. And for some reason even 4K wallpapers don't look as sharp once set as wallpaper.

I'd buy the Note 4 in a second if it it came with stock Android.

Well some people use these features so that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Also a Note 4 with stock Android would be a huge waste of screen space (see: Nexus 6).

 

[spinedoc77]

Annecdotal as it may be ...
..but my IP6+ gets far far FAAR better service than my old note 3

I haven't found that to be the case. In particular in my gym, a large metal hangar sort of gym. My ip6+ drops in the same exact places in that building that my Note 3 dropped. My Note 4 didn't drop at all in the same building.

Yeah I know not exactly scientific, but I really only care about reception.

 

[Coupz]

iPhone 6 in Austria and I've never found a place where my phone didn't had a signal from my carrier.

Maybe you guys should have to do different things when you're in school or gym.

At work I have full signal and full wifi. In my evening school where I don't have time for playing with my phone I have 4 dots.

 

[techspin]

iPhone 6 in Austria and I've never found a place where my phone didn't had a signal from my carrier.

Maybe you guys should have to do different things when you're in school or gym.

At work I have full signal and full wifi. In my evening school where I don't have time for playing with my phone I have 4 dots.

What do you mean by "do different things"? Just wondering.

 

[Coupz]

Like listening to the teacher or concentrating to the exercise you do in gym.

 

[nas2344]

Yeah I've had deadzones and I think it happens to everybody, and sprint service is finally starting to get better. Most places that have wifi only have one access point for a huge building so it'll be lousy but so far I've only been to one place that has many of the same access points around there building and the wifi signal is incredible and iphone handles very well