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I don't really understand much about the wifi technology or how the antennas work but here in the UK, I cant say that i have noticed anything any different on my Max in comparison to how my X performed in terms of speed or signal strength. What seems bizarre is that not everyone is experiencing the same issues and I would have thought that if it was hardware, then the issue would be across the board.
Has anyone in the UK experienced any drop in performance as a lot of the posters on here seem to be from the US?
 
Antennae gate part deux?

My local Att antenna has LTE12, LTE2, LTE 30 bands. I get only B2 and B12 at home. B30 signal is very weak due to the problems with SiriusXM and even without the problem cannot reach me.

LTE12 is the lowest 700MHz band and I had 2-4 bars at home on LTE12 on my 7/X. Very rare (5-7%) I had LTE 2 which is 1900+ MHz. My new iPhone XS Max has better reception and connected to LTE B2 most of the time (90%) with 1-2 bars and sometimes stays on very low B2 signal.
If I look at bars my reception is getting worse , but in reality it is better.
 
I would like to add the discussion: I have an iPhone 8 with the Qualcomm modem. I use Verizon as my provider.

I am currently staying in an area where used to get full bars (LTE) 99% of the time. Once in a while I would fall back to 3 bars, but it was rare. Ovet the past month or so I started seeing 3 bars more often than 4. I attributed this to the heat, and humidity, in my area. Seriously.

I updated to iOS 12, and I am now getting 2 bars, while sometimes falling back to wi-fi calling. In this location, I have NEVER fallen back to wi-fi calling. The signal also seems unstable as the strength indicator fluctuates frequently.

My wi-fi signal strength also fluctuates between 2 and 3 "bars". Before iOS 12 it was usually at full strength.

I thought I had a broken phone, but after reading the first post of this thread, I am now wondering it is iOS 12 and/or the carrier update included with it...

This is a long thread, and I will be reading more, but I wanted to share my experience as there are a lot of posts to read through!

It is quite possible that the carrier update is causing your cellular issues. They may be pushing your phone towards preferentially using higher frequency bands in order to preserve the low-frequency LTE for edge cases.

It could also be a temporary issue at the tower, etc. Hard to say unless you had been using the field test menu and know what bands were being used in the past. Even then it would just be an educated guess. It could be some iOS 12 bug or configuration issue. I think all of us hope it is something like that with an easy fix.

As I mentioned in the other thread, in a large building with poor signal on high-band LTE I tested a Qualcomm iPhone X with iOS 12 against my XS and the X was arguably worse than the XS. The Qualcomm iPhone 7 was noticeably better though.

The WiFi problem... who knows!
 
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People should realize that Apple will usually identify and fix the issues within six months.

If people are bothered by early adopter issues, they should wit six months before purchasing. Being so called beta testers has risk.
You are absolutely right. I wish I had waited for a few months.
 
I don't really understand much about the wifi technology or how the antennas work but here in the UK, I cant say that i have noticed anything any different on my Max in comparison to how my X performed in terms of speed or signal strength. What seems bizarre is that not everyone is experiencing the same issues and I would have thought that if it was hardware, then the issue would be across the board.
Has anyone in the UK experienced any drop in performance as a lot of the posters on here seem to be from the US?
Not noticing any issues on EE here in the UK, signal seems the same where I live, speeds are great. As to WiFi I have by bands divided with different SSID's so it stays on 5Ghz 802.11ac Mimo and speeds are great.
 
Jesus Christ. At least I’m not having WiFi issues, but this is ridiculous. Last night I have about 60mbps download when I was out and now I’m my apartment I get 2. I’m noticing I get really bad service in my apartment compared to the X.
 

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Did you read the article or did you just want to act like this is the downfall of Apple?

TLDR: There is almost no evidence this is an issue with users also reporting better results and carriers posting conflicting results.

It would be great if you would just read some replies before posting.

The FCC Data clearly shows less than optimal reception.

It depends on where you are and what signal strength you have.
- When signal strength is average to good, the improved modem (compared to older intel modem iPhones) will outweighs the weaker antenna.
- When signal strength is less than average, the weaker antenna will become a bottleneck that even the better modem can’t make up for.

And when you are used to an Qualcomm modem, the iPhone will only perform better when connected to a network that supports 4x4 MIMO (enough available antennas on the base station/cell tower).

That’s at least what it looks like to me. I have an X my Gf has a XS.
When signal is good, here is much faster in download speed, when signal gets weaker, my X is actually faster.
When the signal gets even weaker (walking into the woods) her new phone drops LTE well before mine.

Hope this can be patched somehow. However I don’t think it is a huge issue, her phone works perfect 95% of the time.
 
Overall my experience with the XS (Verizon SIM) and cellular connectivity has been mostly positive and unchanged vs my iPhone 7 Verizon - and I pass through areas with weak connectivity. There are two issues though that I hope can be addressed via a software update:

1. I lost connectivity yesterday as expected in a parking garage. When I drove out LTE got back established with 4 bars but there was actually zero connectivity. Toggling airplane mode did not fix it. Connectivity only came back after powering the phone off and on again.
2. In my house the XS will hang onto the 2.4GHz network and refuse to connect to the 5Ghz network (Apple Extreme router). I do not want to separate the two via SSID as I have areas the 5gHz will not reach.

Also, I recall well that when I purchased my iPhone 7 Verizon for the first several weeks I constantly lost LTE connectivity. This was a major discussion point back then on the forum. After a few weeks this was fixed with an iOS and Carrier FW update. So I am hoping we see something similar here.
 
Those likely that are not having the problems are those in markets with saturated towers like a big city where you could be connected to one of ten towers at anytime . Rural users and those on the edge of coverage areas are not going to be able to use any of the XS phones . Just now I made an hour drive and I almost never had full signal. It seemed stuck on 1 to 2 bars the entire trip. The only way I could get 4 bars was to turn my cellular amp on and even then it struggled to give me 4 bars . Fix your crap Apple !!!
Not really true. I’m in NYC and having horrendous issues with both LTE and WiFi speeds. XS max on AT&T.

I’ve seen others post from NYC with the same problems.
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Jesus Christ. At least I’m not having WiFi issues, but this is ridiculous. Last night I have about 60mbps download when I was out and now I’m my apartment I get 2. I’m noticing I get really bad service in my apartment compared to the X.
Yes finally another fellow New Yorker. Same issues for me. LTE is ~1mbps. Unfortunately I’m also having WiFi issues with speeds ~10mbps.
 
Okay, so I ran the speed tests on both my Max and my husbands iPhone 8. Both ran super slow and although both phones are showing 4G, they are actually connecting at 3G.

Now my iPad Pro 9.7 is still getting LTE and the Speedtest shows LTE. The only difference is that both phones are on the iOS 12. The iPad was not updated and is still on 11.4 or whatever it was.

So the common denominator for slow seems to be iOS 12. At least with our devices.
 
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Hi, guys. I have question for you. Did the problems is only speed related , i mean is there a problem to lose gsm connection and cant even call ? or just drop from LTE to 3G if its a poor signal but dont have problem with calls.
I am asking because in my country LTE speeds are like 60mbps and my home Intet is also 60mbps (wifi).
I dont bother to have lower speeds like 60mbps, because of my net speed limits :) if there is no one have problem with calls , it is ok for me to upgrade from SE i think :)
 
Folks, the answer to this predicament doesn't lie in the hardware, the software, the case you have on your phones or even the way you're holding them. No, the answer is far more simple. For those of you having these issues: you're all simply unworthy.
 
My Verizon connection wasn't working. I reset the Network settings and then got 167 Mbps download in midtown NYC. Then got home in Brooklyn and tried it this morning and had two bars and got 38 Mbps. Plenty of speed for a phone. And obviously I have faster wifi at home which is what I will use.

I will test LTE again when I get into work in Manhattan.
 
Okay, so I ran the speed tests on both my Max and my husbands iPhone 8. Both ran super slow and although both phones are showing 4G, they are actually connecting at 3G.

Now my iPad Pro 9.7 is still getting LTE and the Speedtest shows LTE. The only difference is that both phones are on the iOS 12. The iPad was not updated and is still on 11.4 or whatever it was.

So the common denominator for slow seems to be iOS 12. At least with our devices.

Just ran Speedtest on my 8+ and got 169Mbps down and 48 up so I'd say nothing changed since I updated to iOS 12.
I'll try again when I'll buy the Xs but they might have issued an update before I get my new phone.
 
Overall my experience with the XS (Verizon SIM) and cellular connectivity has been mostly positive and unchanged vs my iPhone 7 Verizon - and I pass through areas with weak connectivity. There are two issues though that I hope can be addressed via a software update:

1. I lost connectivity yesterday as expected in a parking garage. When I drove out LTE got back established with 4 bars but there was actually zero connectivity. Toggling airplane mode did not fix it. Connectivity only came back after powering the phone off and on again.
2. In my house the XS will hang onto the 2.4GHz network and refuse to connect to the 5Ghz network (Apple Extreme router). I do not want to separate the two via SSID as I have areas the 5gHz will not reach.

Also, I recall well that when I purchased my iPhone 7 Verizon for the first several weeks I constantly lost LTE connectivity. This was a major discussion point back then on the forum. After a few weeks this was fixed with an iOS and Carrier FW update. So I am hoping we see something similar here.

I had the same problem with cell connectivity on T Mobile. The XS shows full bars of signal but I have no data connection. Toggling Airplane mode doesn’t fix it and I need to do a full restart. I really hope this is fixed in a carrier settings or firmware update.
 
I have been having same issue with Wi-Fi on my iPhone X for months, Apple even replaced phone in July, as it was suspected that Wi-Fi chip was bad. Still have issues.

My iPhone X Wifi went to crap when installing iOS 12. I await 12.x update to fix that. Works great after a restart but goes to crap in a day or so. (same experience on multiple wifi networks)
 
I can tell you that from my limited testing with consumer equipment, it seems both my iPad Pro 9.7” and my iPhone XS Max seem to jump around quite a bit, usually to 2.4GHz over the 5GHz band.

I reduced power of the 2.4GHz to a “low” setting and increased the 5GHz band to the highest setting and they still prefer 2.4GHz. Both devices exhibit the same behavior for me.

I have a Ubiquiti AC capable AP in each room of my house, so distance or obstructions aren’t the problems. (I made sure each test was connected to the expected device).

Turn on 5G Band steering also... should help.
 
I usually doubt a lot of these type things but I can confirm there has to be an issue. My Carplay is wireless in my BMW and it drops out randomly quite a bit with my new XS Max, something that's only happened once ever with my X or 7+. ios 12 or 12.1 Beta have the same behavior. Hopefully it's rectified soon.
 
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