Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone XS Max Is the mobile reception on the xs Max even worse than iPhone X ?
- Thread starter mydogeatsbeats
- Start date
-
- Tags
- iphon xs max
- Sort by reaction score
I came from a Qualcomm iPhone X, and the only tangible difference has been slightly shorter reach on my 5ghz wifi. LTE is DEFINITELY worse in almost every case. Just got back from a Disney World (2 week vacation) and ended up using my iPhone X due to LTE connection issues. Good thing i still have my old X.
My XS Max was nearly useless at Disneyland California. I returned it for a new one. The new one has been working as it should for the past week. I wish I could use it at Disneyland again but, I won’t be going back again for years.
I was at Disneyland over th past weekend. First time with the xs max there.
I didn’t have any issues.
I have to admit that I wasn’t checking on the cellular connection.
Just noticed every time I pulled the phone out for use, it was working.
I used to have an annual pass at Disneyland...it is definitely a challenging environment for connectivity. I used to get so frustrated before they finally installed WiFi
Just a quick update for anyone that maybe interested. My last report I was still having some wifi issues. This 2nd Max I've never really had any cellular concerns, it's always been on par with the iPhone 8+ that I use for work. They added wifi at work and I was not really able to maintain a wifi signal, unlike the iPhone 8+. I did install the iOS 12.1 beta 5 and I don't know if had some fixes in it, but since that time I've gotten a decent signal at the office. I've always gotten good wifi at home, but I don't mix 2.4 and 5Ghz... In fact I don't even have 2.4Ghz turned on at home as I don't need it because my signal is wall to wall and I even had antenna's outside on my back patio. I do use wifi at other locations and again have not noticed any issues. So.. as of now it seems this iPhone XS Max is pretty solid on cellular and wifi.
The XR is coming in tomorrow it's my son's, but he is out of town till Saturday and told me to play till my hearts content, so I plan to do just that. I will have to decide quickly rather to return the Max and save $500 with the reduced cost of the Apple Care + and going from Max with 256gb to XR with 128gb. I guess I'll know in the next 24 hours.
The XR is coming in tomorrow it's my son's, but he is out of town till Saturday and told me to play till my hearts content, so I plan to do just that. I will have to decide quickly rather to return the Max and save $500 with the reduced cost of the Apple Care + and going from Max with 256gb to XR with 128gb. I guess I'll know in the next 24 hours.
I havent bothered with the beta, but Im hoping 12.1 improves my 5ghz wifi as well. Im not having huge problems, but I definitely have a slightly weaker 5ghz signal on my Max than i did on my 7+
I had two problems with my Max. The phone would not reconnect to LTE after being in a no signal environment such as going on an indoor ride. I had to reboot the phone. Sometimes I couldn’t use data even in the open. I could use WiFi but, chose not to as it didn’t appear to be secure.
Which carrier? I am at Disney quite a bit, and have had better service with my Xs than my QC X.
From what I can tell based on my work environment it seems that 12.1 has tweaked WiFi a bit more. You know it's like everything else though your mileage may vary.
Yeah my first Max, after initially thinking it was solid, I started having issues with the cellular and like you said going into really low signal or no signal areas and then coming back into signal areas it didn't always reconnect. However, I guess for the most part I am pretty blessed in that generally speaking from the metro area to the rural areas where I live about the lowest my signal gets is around 2 bars. I have traveled into some lower signal areas and I've only seen my phone drop to 4G 1 time and it switched back automatically to LTE a few minutes later. So, I seem to be in a pretty good coverage area and the working theory is that if you are in a good coverage area you likely wouldn't see significant issues. I use a VPN on my phone 24/7 so that is about as secure as I can make it right now. I hate being on WiFi when I connect in unsecured placed, but I don't do that very often anyway.
After a little testing, I am getting better speeds with my Xs than I was my 7. I’m on Verizon for carrier.
Latest LTE test gave me
Downstream: 62 mbps
Upstream: 9 mbps
I believe that I had 30 and 5 respectively on the 7.
My home WiFi I get:
Downstream: 205 mbps
Upstream: 11.3 mbps
I don’t believe I ever got much over 150 down on my 7.
So it has seemed to improve for me.
Latest LTE test gave me
Downstream: 62 mbps
Upstream: 9 mbps
I believe that I had 30 and 5 respectively on the 7.
My home WiFi I get:
Downstream: 205 mbps
Upstream: 11.3 mbps
I don’t believe I ever got much over 150 down on my 7.
So it has seemed to improve for me.
I think we may be looking at this all wrong. This has proven to be a good thing. I found out my ex-wife tried to call me twice today and it wouldn’t go through! Thanks, Apple!
I'm well past the refund date, they're launch day devices. I have swapped back to using an X as a daily driver for now though because it's getting increasingly unusable for me to be deadzoned during my drive to work, and the 15 or so minutes it takes to finally catch a connection once I'm at work. The signal bars indicate I have outstanding connection and LTE the entirety of the time but nothing works and I can't receive/make phone calls, get messages and emails, or do anything requiring internet connection without switching to WiFi so it just seems like faux projection because I have not been able to reproduce this on non XS devices. I'm going to escalate this with Apple and see if I can get a new phone finally. I have an XR coming today and hopefully there are none of these issues.
Push hard and keep at them.
This has to be a potential bad batch of phones. Too many phones are not having these problems. I haven't had this problem or any connectivity issues on my Max at all. I hate that you are not able to use your device like you should.
crouch said: ↑
Something new I noticed (and maybe this has been pointed out already):
When I leave my house and my wi-fi connection, and then return home, the phone won't automatically re-connect to wi-fi. It just stays with cellular. My 8+ would re-connect almost instantly. So not only am I constantly using a sub-par cellular connection, the phone won't even take advantage of wi-fi automatically.
I've upgraded my iphones a number of times, and I've never experienced anything this frustrating before. I'm on a Week 33 XS model, 12.01, AT&T.
Yep. My X does this as well.
Something new I noticed (and maybe this has been pointed out already):
When I leave my house and my wi-fi connection, and then return home, the phone won't automatically re-connect to wi-fi. It just stays with cellular. My 8+ would re-connect almost instantly. So not only am I constantly using a sub-par cellular connection, the phone won't even take advantage of wi-fi automatically.
I've upgraded my iphones a number of times, and I've never experienced anything this frustrating before. I'm on a Week 33 XS model, 12.01, AT&T.
Yep. My X does this as well.
Lot of people have been testing these at Disneyland. Could it be congestion there? I know for a fact when I go to a basketball game, I have zero chance of receiving a call or sending a text. 23,000 people, all mostly on AT&T...not happening.
This morning I was catching up with the morning news and social media on my phone in my house. I'm connected to WiFi and I also have some cell reception there. Two times Safari just sat there and tried loading pages.
The problem it's really hard to identify who's having issues. There's a rather small population of XS series owners that are actually active on this forum and in general online discussing the issue. When dealing with Apple about this in store last week they have had a "large number" (their words) of people coming in exchanging devices for similar device behavior. People usually just go right into the stores to address issues, same with other purchases like TV's, cars, etc. A very small number comparatively actually come go on a forum to share/confirm issues.
As I've said, most people won't even notice issues. It will be brushed off as a spontaneous event unless someone else brings it to their attention which. Actually thinking about this makes some logical sense why Apple doesn't really come out with bold announcements that there is an issue because of the mass awareness it would bring, and also the small percentage that likes to just take advantage of any opportunity.
Last edited:
This issue is much more complex than faster speed tests.
Yes, when the XS is not having issues with cellular connectivity, the speed tests are better vs. previous iPhones. The problem is, the XS has a lot of issues with cellular - particularly in areas where the signal strength is on the weaker side. Sometimes it even says you have 3-4 bars but you can't even load anything that requires data. Other times calls drop or voice packets are lost (resulting in periods of silence on the call).
My wife and daughters 7+ worked fine. I was the only one with connectivity problems.
