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What do the bars indicate?

oogje

oogje

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 4, 2002
265
50
nyc
I have a Verizon IP5. I'm at home connected via WiFi. I see 2 bars. If I turn off LTE, it goes to 5 bars.

So I'm guessing...

When the phone is idle, connected to WiFi, and cellular data and LTE are on, the bars indicate LTE or 3G signal strength depending which is active but I can't know for sure which it is.

If I turn off WiFi and the LTE symbol is showing, the bars indicate LTE signal strength.

If the 3G symbol is showing the bars indicate 3G signal strength.

If I turn off cellular data, the bars indicate talk (EV-DO?) signal strength.

If I'm talking on the phone the bars always indicate talk signal strength.

Am I guessing right or wrong?
 
Last edited:
The bars indicate phone signal strength only. E, 3G, 4G, and LTE indicate which data connection you have. The WiFi icon indicates its own WiFi signal strength.
 
It's voice signal only for the bars. If I turn off 3G I get five bars of voice from the closest tower. If I leave 3G on it detects another tower that's farther away and I get less bars. This is on a 3GS with an obviously damaged antennae though. When I get my five it will be interesting to see how it behaves with the towers here.
 
This makes me wonder though. When I walk into the biulding, I go from 4-5 bars on LTE, drop down to 3, 2, 1. Then it switches to 4G and jumps back up to 4-5 bars...
 
sawah said:
It's voice signal only for the bars.
Click to expand...

Wrong.

The bars indicate cellular signal strength on the current generation network that your phone is listening to at that time.

If your phone says "LTE," then it's showing you signal strength for the LTE towers it has connected to. This is a data-only network for now, so will only indicate signal bars for cellular data. The way the networks are deployed now though, it's pretty safe to assume that voice signal strength should be equal to or better than LTE, and will almost never be worse.

3G or "4G" indicates the signal strength of those respective networks. For Verizon, that's CDMA2000, and indicates signal strength for both voice and data. For AT&T, that's HSPA, and also indicates voice and data.

In both cases, not all CDMA/HSPA cell sites have LTE on them, so it's normal for LTE to have different signal strength than 3G/"4G."
 
scaredpoet said:
Wrong.

The bars indicate cellular signal strength. If your phone says "LTE," then it's showing you signal strength for the LTE towers it has connected to. This is a data-only network for now, so will only indicate signal bars for cellular data. The way the networks are deployed now though, it's pretty safe to assume that voice signal strength should be equal to or better than LTE, and will almost never be worse.

3G or "4G" indicates the signal strength of those respective networks. For Verizon, that's CDMA2000, and indicates signal strength for both voice and data. For AT&T, that's HSPA, and also indicates voice and data.

In both cases, not all CDMA/HSPA cell sites have LTE on them, so it's normal for LTE to have different signal strength than 3G/"4G."
Click to expand...
If I'm connected to WiFi, what do the bars indicate? I can't see an LTE or 3G symbol because the WiFi symbol/strength indicator is there.
 
oogje said:
If I'm connected to WiFi, what do the bars indicate?
Click to expand...

They still indicate the strength of the cellular network signal that the phone is currently connected to.

I can't see an LTE or 3G symbol because the WiFi symbol/strength indicator is there.
Click to expand...

You're right, you can't. This was true before LTE, too.
 
scaredpoet said:
They still indicate the strength of the cellular network signal that the phone is currently connected to.
Click to expand...

Thanks. If I'm connected to WiFi is there a way to tell which cellular network signal is being represented by the bars?
 
scaredpoet said:
Wrong.

The bars indicate cellular signal strength on the current generation network that your phone is listening to at that time.

If your phone says "LTE," then it's showing you signal strength for the LTE towers it has connected to. This is a data-only network for now, so will only indicate signal bars for cellular data. The way the networks are deployed now though, it's pretty safe to assume that voice signal strength should be equal to or better than LTE, and will almost never be worse.

3G or "4G" indicates the signal strength of those respective networks. For Verizon, that's CDMA2000, and indicates signal strength for both voice and data. For AT&T, that's HSPA, and also indicates voice and data.

In both cases, not all CDMA/HSPA cell sites have LTE on them, so it's normal for LTE to have different signal strength than 3G/"4G."
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information, I did not know this.
 
scaredpoet said:
Wrong.

The bars indicate cellular signal strength on the current generation network that your phone is listening to at that time.

If your phone says "LTE," then it's showing you signal strength for the LTE towers it has connected to. This is a data-only network for now, so will only indicate signal bars for cellular data. The way the networks are deployed now though, it's pretty safe to assume that voice signal strength should be equal to or better than LTE, and will almost never be worse.

3G or "4G" indicates the signal strength of those respective networks. For Verizon, that's CDMA2000, and indicates signal strength for both voice and data. For AT&T, that's HSPA, and also indicates voice and data.

In both cases, not all CDMA/HSPA cell sites have LTE on them, so it's normal for LTE to have different signal strength than 3G/"4G."
Click to expand...

I was incorrect. This is a much better explanation.
 
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