Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Max(IT)

Suspended
Dec 8, 2009
8,551
1,662
Italy
interesting test .... samsung showed as they are dragging behind lately, even to cheap chinese manufacturers.
 

John Mcgregor

Suspended
Aug 21, 2015
1,257
1,485
Newport
when i was using S6 i also noticed that it was slow to connect to a faster network when it was available, but i assumed it was the networks fault. Now i see it's the phone. All i can say that my 6S Plus connects to a faster network faster than S6.
 

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
16,077
19,072
US
Hmmmm....I currently have a Note 5 and 6s+ and they both connect the same to faster networks. I often do speed tests Speedtest app using both WiFi and Cellular networks. They BOTH are very close to each other. Sometimes the N5 wins sometimes the 6s+ wins. This is real world testing from a person with both phones over time and different locations.
Oh and with different carriers as well. I have accounts on TMO and Verizon.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,878
10,987
S6 Edge. I have no problem reaching 90Mbps on T-mobile network. And haven't had a dropped call yet. My signal strength is usually in the -70s dBm according to the Phoneinfo app.
 

jpiszcz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 28, 2010
413
76
I've tested ATT/VZN/T-Mobile, currently on T-Mobile.

With Verizon (when I was testing it, I was seeing -110 to -115 in buildings) and even outside only rarely did I ever see 4-5 bars.. A friend has a Verizon iPhone 6 - I see -108 dbm on this friend's phone, 7mbps down, 1mbps up. I test with T-Mobile similar signal but 25mbps down and 5.8 mbps up..

Do Verizon iPhones have issues picking up LTE?

Anyone here have 5 bars on LTE with Verizon -- if so, how often?

It would be interesting to know for folks with iPhone 6 and 6s' in particular if you bring up the dbm meter in the top left corner:
http://www.cultofmac.com/128306/access-the-hidden-field-test-app-for-iphone-ios-tips/

Then note what type of signal you see and where is your phone when you test it?

For me:
T-Mobile: average: -102 to -107 (main floor/basement) LTE (speeds generally 20-30mbps down, 5-10 mbps up almost all of the time)
Verizon: -102 LTE to -114 (main floor/basement) (8-12 mbps down, 1-2 mbps up when peak)
ATT: -102 to -108 (main floor/basement) LTE (2mbps down, 1mbps up when peak)

--

When driving I see AT&T and T-Mobile consistent 4-5 bars (and -68dbm or lower (in the -60s))! For Verizon I only once saw 5 bars when I was about 30ft from a tower. Really? When driving I'd normally see between 1-3 bars of LTE and it was always changing between those 1-3 bars. Where as with ATT or T-Mobile the LTE generally stays at 3-4 bars of LTE driving the same route.
 
Last edited:

Photogdave

macrumors regular
Dec 20, 2011
155
11
Im currently searching forums to see if this very thing is happening. I had a Verizon 5s back around October. I went and the whole family got 6s's. I have a 6s Plus and immediately I noticed the signal isn't as strong as it was on my 5s in similar places. Very rarely do I see 5 bars on this 6s in places I did before. I use a Wilson Antenna cradle as well. So I almost always had 5 bars on my 5s, and now the 6s Its usually 3 bars. Sometimes 4. Also, Ive noticed something strange with the 6s+....when I'm getting 2 bars in an area where I know I should be getting 4-5...IE city. I can turn on airplane mode and then turn off AP mode and cause it to search for signal and boom, 5 bars.
Originally I was attributing this to false bar correlation to db. What I mean was, as I understand it, the bars are just a picture painted for us based on a range of db.
Meaning they say for example "anything between range of -100db thru -90db we call 4 bars, anything -89db thru -70db we call 5 bars"
These are not accurate numbers I'm using, I'm just saying for example.
But I figured on the 5s it was just a matter of Apple calling 5bars at -100db where as the 6s phones Apple decided -100db was now 3 bars. So basically if you have -100db its same signal, just not painted as such with bar representation.
I noticed on both phones there were times when I could out the phone in the cradle and it actually dropped bars. Made no sense, but some of those times the db actually improved while showing less bars.
Before I turn on cradle Id have say -110db signal and showing 3 bars.
Id then turn on the cradle and it would drop to 2 bars but signal would increase to -89db.
Confused the **** out of me. I don't get it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.