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Nhwhazup

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2010
3,474
1,718
New Hampshire
It is worth a try. My XS has zero issues and a great screen. I took it on a trip across a few states in the Midwest and to Europe. There was no noticeable difference in connectivity vs my previous iPhone 7. I think there is a random bad batch with malfunctioning hardware. I also believe there will be an iOS / Carrier firmware update to improve transition across carrier bands / towers - same as with iOS 10 and iPhone 7 Verizon two years back.
So far my new Max has much better cellular connectivity than my first one. In my normal day to day activities it seems the same as my 6S Plus. I will do further comparisons against my husband’s 8 in the next day or so and report back.
 

Packers1958

macrumors 68000
Apr 16, 2017
1,954
2,587
South Dakota
Most people would be afraid, at this point, that they would get one of your old phones as a refurbished unit when they do a swap ;-)

My iPhone XS Max is not worse than my iPhone X with QUALCOMM, but my iPhone X with QUALCOMM receiption and performance in my neighborhood has always been terrible (as was my 7+ before that, and my 6s+, etc).

In strong signal areas my Xs Max has been better. But I really was wanting mine to be better than my X everywhere I go.

I now kind of wish that I had done what you did, and keep returning new ones and getting new ones, in the hopes that I would get an Xs Max that’s better than what I’ve grown used to.

Maybe it’s not too late for some people, but others are past their return window, and now have to see a genius and be able to prove that their phone does not work in weak signal areas when they take it into the store.

You don't have to take it to a Apple store. You can actually mail it to Apple. You have 2 choices when you do that. They send you out a new phone right away, charge your CC, and when they get your old one, they remove the charge. Or you can mail it to them, they check it out, and if defective, they send you a new one, or send you old one back if it's not defective. The downside to that is you will have to have a backup phone.
 

MaskedCarrot

macrumors 6502
Mar 25, 2009
464
270
Northern VA
To be honest, I've had iPhones for years and never really felt they had good reception to begin with. Last year I also had a Pixel XL as a secondary play phone, and I'd put my sim in there and use it for a few days here and there, and it always had MUCH better reception than the iPhone 7 Plus (Qualcomm) and even when I had an 8 Plus before getting the X a few months after launch.

When I would check in field test mode, the Pixel XL would consistently beat the iPhone by anywhere from -15 to -20 dBs. Many times I would notice the Pixel would have full bars in an area around -90 or so, where as the iPhone would be anywhere from -105 to -110.
 

elitypes

macrumors regular
Oct 5, 2007
114
201
the Apple representative providing me support for this issue has just disappeared for 3 days now, no contact, gone.
Same. I am trying not to get overly paranoid, but the technician had been super responsive in the past. Now it's been well over a week and I have not received replies to my emails or returned calls. It's definitely starting to get worrisome.
 
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Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,645
52,419
In a van down by the river
Same. I am trying not to get overly paranoid, but the technician had been super responsive in the past. Now it's been well over a week and I have not received replies to my emails or returned calls. It's definitely starting to get worrisome.
They usually don’t get back in touch unless they need to get more information or logs etc.
 
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jona2125

macrumors 6502a
Jul 12, 2010
780
651
Currently using tethered Wifi from my other phone because Beta 4 seems to have essentially stalled my phone. Noticed Waze was just a blank map and then realized I couldn’t make any connection or phone calls even though my phone showed strong signal. This has continued for a 30 mile drive. Been home for 10 minutes and still hasn’t regained any functionality without being on WiFi
 

PBz

macrumors 68030
Nov 3, 2005
2,616
1,577
SoCal
Same. I am trying not to get overly paranoid, but the technician had been super responsive in the past. Now it's been well over a week and I have not received replies to my emails or returned calls. It's definitely starting to get worrisome.

Give them a few days. Could be very busy and as someone else mentioned, they can have weird working days. I have experienced this personally. Nothing by Wed/Thurs and your concern is definitely justified.
 

decypher44

macrumors 68000
Feb 24, 2007
1,812
2,987
Orange County, CA
Currently using tethered Wifi from my other phone because Beta 4 seems to have essentially stalled my phone. Noticed Waze was just a blank map and then realized I couldn’t make any connection or phone calls even though my phone showed strong signal. This has continued for a 30 mile drive. Been home for 10 minutes and still hasn’t regained any functionality without being on WiFi
Well, THAT’S not good.
 

jona2125

macrumors 6502a
Jul 12, 2010
780
651
Well, THAT’S not good.

It’s finally back to normal but holy cow does the latch issue seem to be so much worse now. It’s like it just fully wants to try it’s hardest to stay focused on the least optimal tower. There’s gotta be some fix for that.
 

steve62388

macrumors 68040
Apr 23, 2013
3,100
1,962
Same. I am trying not to get overly paranoid, but the technician had been super responsive in the past. Now it's been well over a week and I have not received replies to my emails or returned calls. It's definitely starting to get worrisome.

Or they might be getting tired of your constant calls and emails. They’re only human after all.
 
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OTACORB

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2009
1,546
1,035
Central, Louisiana
I have had the new Max for since Friday and I am happy to report I've had really good cellular signal and service with no issues. Wifi switching was a little wonky still, but Beta 4 seems to have addressed that and I notice it now switches to wifi as quickly as my iPhone 8+. Seems they are on a slow roll to fix all the issues being reported.

Right now I am very content with my iPhone XS Max. This is a pretty new batch of phones too when I checked the serial number not on the crazy site, but on the list someone posted. Mine was made the 2nd half of 2018 week 9/30 to 10/8 and in fact when I used coconut battery Plus it tells me manufacturing date of 10/4/18. Not that this means anything just saying. No problems!
 

Rayfire

macrumors 68030
Aug 25, 2008
2,579
148
PNW
So far my new Max has much better cellular connectivity than my first one. In my normal day to day activities it seems the same as my 6S Plus. I will do further comparisons against my husband’s 8 in the next day or so and report back.
That is some great news! Hopefully further tests would solidify that.
 
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HeadphoneAddict

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,041
888
You don't have to take it to a Apple store. You can actually mail it to Apple. You have 2 choices when you do that. They send you out a new phone right away, charge your CC, and when they get your old one, they remove the charge. Or you can mail it to them, they check it out, and if defective, they send you a new one, or send you old one back if it's not defective. The downside to that is you will have to have a backup phone.

Yeah, I still have my iPhone X on another line with AT&T, as well as an old iPhone 6 on a ting.com SIM for emergencies. Before the Xs Max my iPhone X was my primary, while my secondary line had a 7+ that I used like a iPad Nano. Now the X has moved onto my other line.

I'm not sure what I'll do - as my Xs Max is not any worse than my Qualcomm X in weak signal area around my home, but the X reception at home did not not happy at all.

I think I'm waiting to see if this is indeed a hardware issue. If it's fixed with software I'll be happy, but if everyone with new phones made after a certain date have no issues despite no software update, then my Week 35 iPhone is going back.
 

Smoothie

macrumors 6502a
Jun 23, 2007
781
544
California
Well, my Max just acted strange. I came into my house and it connected to WiFi. But I noticed that it was showing 4 bars for LTE (Verizon). I usually get one or two. So I thought, "Wow, this is great!" I decided to test the speed, so I turned off WiFi. It wouldn't connect to Speedtest at all. None of my online apps would connect, and I kept getting a message to check my network connection. So I put the phone into airplane mode, waited a minute and then took it off airplane mode. Now the LTE signal strength showed two bars. It would connect to WiFi, but still not to LTE. It only connected to LTE after I rebooted my phone.

This sounds like a software glitch to me since this is the first time it's happened, but I can't know for sure. Frankly, Apple should extend the return date for these phones for at least 30 days while they sort out their software. But, of course, they won't so I need to make a decision in the next few days. I've never been this ambivalent about a phone before.

Edit: One other bit of info. While the phone was in LTE limbo, I called my phone from a landline and the call went through.
 
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idntknw

macrumors regular
Nov 11, 2012
154
19
Well, my Max just acted strange. I came into my house and it connected to WiFi. But I noticed that it was showing 4 bars for LTE (Verizon). I usually get one or two. So I thought, "Wow, this is great!" I decided to test the speed, so I turned off WiFi. It wouldn't connect to Speedtest at all. None of my online apps would connect, and I kept getting a message to check my network connection. So I put the phone into airplane mode, waited a minute and then took it off airplane mode. Now the LTE signal strength showed two bars. It would connect to WiFi, but still not to LTE. It only connected to LTE after I rebooted my phone.

This sounds like a software glitch to me since this is the first time it's happened, but I can't know for sure. Frankly, Apple should extend the return date for these phones for at least 30 days while they sort out their software. But, of course, they won't so I need to make a decision in the next few days. I've never been this ambivalent about a phone before.

Edit: One other bit of info. While the phone was in LTE limbo, I called my phone from a landline and the call went through.

I've noticed the same thing. I've had to put in airplane mode a couple of times to get it to connect to LTE.
 

jona2125

macrumors 6502a
Jul 12, 2010
780
651
Well, my Max just acted strange. I came into my house and it connected to WiFi. But I noticed that it was showing 4 bars for LTE (Verizon). I usually get one or two. So I thought, "Wow, this is great!" I decided to test the speed, so I turned off WiFi. It wouldn't connect to Speedtest at all. None of my online apps would connect, and I kept getting a message to check my network connection. So I put the phone into airplane mode, waited a minute and then took it off airplane mode. Now the LTE signal strength showed two bars. It would connect to WiFi, but still not to LTE. It only connected to LTE after I rebooted my phone.

This sounds like a software glitch to me since this is the first time it's happened, but I can't know for sure. Frankly, Apple should extend the return date for these phones for at least 30 days while they sort out their software. But, of course, they won't so I need to make a decision in the next few days. I've never been this ambivalent about a phone before.

Edit: One other bit of info. While the phone was in LTE limbo, I called my phone from a landline and the call went through.

This is similar to how my phone has been behaving since launch albeit I don't always get through with calling.
 

dooku77

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2014
128
104
Well, my Max just acted strange. I came into my house and it connected to WiFi. But I noticed that it was showing 4 bars for LTE (Verizon). I usually get one or two. So I thought, "Wow, this is great!" I decided to test the speed, so I turned off WiFi. It wouldn't connect to Speedtest at all. None of my online apps would connect, and I kept getting a message to check my network connection. So I put the phone into airplane mode, waited a minute and then took it off airplane mode. Now the LTE signal strength showed two bars. It would connect to WiFi, but still not to LTE. It only connected to LTE after I rebooted my phone.

This sounds like a software glitch to me since this is the first time it's happened, but I can't know for sure. Frankly, Apple should extend the return date for these phones for at least 30 days while they sort out their software. But, of course, they won't so I need to make a decision in the next few days. I've never been this ambivalent about a phone before.

Edit: One other bit of info. While the phone was in LTE limbo, I called my phone from a landline and the call went through.

I’ve been having to do this often now. As soon as I toggle airplane mode on and off, full bars of LTE come back.
 

kingston73

macrumors 65816
Dec 23, 2015
1,166
717
So is there any kind of consensus for good vs bad phones? Is it carrier based or manufacturing based or new vs old? Or is it all completely random?

My wife and I both haven’t had any issues with our T-Mobile Max’s, and she travels a lot all over the country and heavily relies on her phone so she’d definitely notice any signal issues.
 
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Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,645
52,419
In a van down by the river
So is there any kind of consensus for good vs bad phones? Is it carrier based or manufacturing based or new vs old? Or is it all completely random?

My wife and I both haven’t had any issues with our T-Mobile Max’s, and she travels a lot all over the country and heavily relies on her phone so she’d definitely notice any signal issues.
No consensus.
 

dooku77

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2014
128
104
So is there any kind of consensus for good vs bad phones? Is it carrier based or manufacturing based or new vs old? Or is it all completely random?

My wife and I both haven’t had any issues with our T-Mobile Max’s, and she travels a lot all over the country and heavily relies on her phone so she’d definitely notice any signal issues.

I really can’t tell if mine is good or bad. I have my Max on T-Mobile also. I’m in New England. Just like when I had AT&T, I have good and bad coverage in different places. I can say for sure that when I go down to 1 bar LTE, my phone will not connect to anything at all and that’s usually the indicator that I should toggle airplane mode.
 
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