iPhone XS Max Is the mobile reception on the xs Max even worse than iPhone X ?

[solodogg]

I have not seen a single person confirming that their XS Max is performing equally to an 8, 7 or 6 in low signal areas.

So speaking of not paying attention...

My wife has a QC 8 on T-Mobile, and I have an Xs on the same carrier and account. There have been many instances where her phone was showing 4G or E while I was still holding on to 1 bar of LTE. We recently traveled from Indianapolis to Destin, and ran across many backwoods areas in Alabama with little or no coverage, and in every single scenario we noticed my phone had service wrote hers did, and would hold service longer than hers.

So what exactly are you looking for here? Do you need video of the phones side by side traveling every inch of Florida with Tim Cook riding shotgun while singing Elvis? I’ve posted results from good signal areas where people have complained that their Xs is slower, and I’ve posted results from bad signal areas where people claim their Xs can’t hold on to anything. Do you need one with 2 bars of service while I’m standing on my head in a vacuum chamber to see if it has any ill effect on the antenna?

 

[roncron]

A lot of things are pointing to hardware.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-xs-antenna-problems,news-28160.html

Not a lot of things. One thing. The one-month-old wiwavelength blog post by a guy nobody’s ever heard of cited in this one-month-old-article.

 

[kingston73]

I do think that people have legitimate issues with their phones but I also think that some of those people just don’t want to or can’t admit that others really don’t have any issues.

As solodog said above, I have also had great luck with my max and I get reception in some places I never did with my 7+. Even more telling, my wife’s max hasn’t had any issues at all and she travels all across the country using her phone constantly. If there was any issue with reception she’d have noticed.

I just really don’t understand why some people can’t accept that some of us have actually good phones with no issues.

 

[jim29411]

I do think that people have legitimate issues with their phones but I also think that some of those people just don’t want to or can’t admit that others really don’t have any issues.

As solodog said above, I have also had great luck with my max and I get reception in some places I never did with my 7+. Even more telling, my wife’s max hasn’t had any issues at all and she travels all across the country using her phone constantly. If there was any issue with reception she’d have noticed.

I just really don’t understand why some people can’t accept that some of us have actually good phones with no issues.

The issue is the antenna signal graphs which supposedly came from the FCC website. Unless the graphs are faked for the iPhone XS, it can be clearly seen that the XS antenna design has poor performance when compared to the iPhone 8. The performance difference is significant.

Is it possible that Apple has changed the antenna design and that some of the folks like SoloDog have an XS with a new antenna design?

 

[Packers1958]

The issue is the antenna signal graphs which supposedly came from the FCC website. Unless the graphs are faked for the iPhone XS, it can be clearly seen that the XS antenna design has poor performance when compared to the iPhone 8. The performance difference is significant.

Is it possible that Apple has changed the antenna design and that some of the folks like SoloDog have an XS with a new antenna design?

If they changed the antenna design, they would have to submit those changes to the FCC ahead of time, and they would be public record.

 

[jkozlow3]

Is it possible that Apple has changed the antenna design and that some of the folks like SoloDog have an XS with a new antenna design?

Are you seriously asking if Apple changed the antenna design a few days into the manufacturing process?? The XS has only been out for a month!

 

[OBirder]

So speaking of not paying attention...

I can confirm as you have that if my Max can get a LTE signal even with just one bar, it at times holds a phone call better than my 8+ had.

However for the handful XS and XS Max I know of in the remote outdoors without LTE coverage it does not.

I asked for example of people in an non LTE area how it compares.

You did not provide such an example, at least not explicit.

So what exactly are you looking for here? Do you need video of the phones side by side traveling every inch of Florida with Tim Cook riding shotgun while singing Elvis?

No need to get insulting or personal.

Some of us already have to deal with not having sufficient signal which some seem don’t want to accept.

I know there are many of us.

I am afraid that a software update will not fix our non LTE and non WiFi cellular signal situation.

If you have a great phone and it is working better in non LTE coverage be happy.

What reasonable advice are you giving us?

 

[jim29411]

Are you seriously asking if Apple changed the antenna design a few days into the manufacturing process?? The XS has only been out for a month!

Since Apple submitted the original antenna design information to the FCC, they would certainly have known about the gain issue and may have started phasing a new antenna design into production immediately. This would explain why the number of complaints are so low that the problem hasn't risen to the level of general public perception.

 

[jkozlow3]

This would explain why the number of complaints are so low that the problem hasn't risen to the level of general public perception.

Or...most people are morons and have not noticed the problem as a result.

 

[Smoothie]

Since Apple submitted the original antenna design information to the FCC, they would certainly have known about the gain issue and may have started phasing a new antenna design into production immediately. This would explain why the number of complaints are so low that the problem hasn't risen to the level of general public perception.

Highly unlikely. Apple can’t change the antenna design in a way that would substantially affect performance without re-submitting new data to the FCC for approval. And that would be available to the public.

 

[solodogg]

I know there are many of us.

What reasonable advice are you giving us?

So, who else in this thread is complaining about having bad signal when on Edge or HSPA?

Everyone else on here other than you is complaining about fringe areas of LTE service, and there have been almost as many people in this thread with good service in fringe areas as there have been bad service.

What reasonable advice I’m giving is that you need to sit back and wait for a software patch. Maybe there is a specific condition that’s causing issues that most users aren’t experiencing, but if I’ve learned one thing about Apple it’s that they do their best to make things right.

If you feel that strongly that your phone is a POS, return it or sell it to someone else, and move on about your life. But coming on here making broad statements like “there are many of us” is ridiculous when many = about 12 so far. I promise there are less than .01% of all Xs and Max purchasers that are complaining of these issues, otherwise NBC nightly news would be crying the blues by now.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Still no problems. I’ve been in Orlando for the past week, and so far my launch day Xs Max on AT&T has had the same bars everywhere as my Qualcomm iPhone X, but it is getting 2-3x the download speeds, even with 1-2 bars.

They’re usually at 2-4 bars, and on a couple of rides in big buildings they both drop to 1 bar at the same time. I lost signal inside of Poseidon’s Fury at Universal at the same time on both phones. But the Xs Max caught 4G unlike the X as we were leaving the building. Both caught LTE at the same time, but the Xs Max briefly had that 4G signal while X had no service.

And both dropped to 1 bar inside of Na’vi River Journey, but the X was downloading at 1.5 Mbps and the Xs Max was 3.4 Mbps.

Here in Animal Kingdom Lodge, with both showing 2 bars of LTE, the Xs Max just tested at 38mbps down 2mbps up, while my Qualcomm X was 14/1.4 mbps. However the Qualcomm X drops to 1 bar more often than the Xs Max. At 1 bar at the lodge the speeds dropped to 2.54 mbps vs 1.23.

 

[doboy]

Still no problems. I’ve been in Orlando for the past week, and so far my launch day Xs Max on AT&T has had the same bars everywhere as my Qualcomm iPhone X, but it is getting 2-3x the download speeds, even with 1-2 bars.

They’re usually at 2-4 bars, and on a couple of rides in big buildings they both drop to 1 bar at the same time. I lost signal inside of Poseidon’s Fury at Universal at the same time on both phones. But the Xs Max caught 4G unlike the X as we were leaving the building. Both caught LTE at the same time, but the Xs Max briefly had that 4G signal while X had no service.

And both dropped to 1 bar inside of Na’vi River Journey, but the X was downloading at 1.5 Mbps and the Xs Max was 3.4 Mbps.

Here in Animal Kingdom Lodge, with both showing 2 bars of LTE, the Xs Max just tested at 38mbps down 2mbps up, while my Qualcomm X was 14/1.4 mbps. However the Qualcomm X drops to 1 bar more often than the Xs Max. At 1 bar at the lodge the speeds dropped to 2.54 mbps vs 1.23.

Just enjoy your Max. I never had issues with 2 different Maxes and 2 different networks. You didn’t buy it to field test it, haha

 

[solodogg]

Still no problems. I’ve been in Orlando for the past week...

I’ll be at Epcot tomorrow night, wanna get together and speed test the hell out of that park?

I’m actually glad to see you’re not having issues with AT&T down there, I used to have issues a couple of years back and they still don’t work at my house on the NW side of town.

 

[apacho]

Not a lot of things. One thing. The one-month-old wiwavelength blog post by a guy nobody’s ever heard of cited in this one-month-old-article.

Who cares if someone ever heard about him or how old the article is?
At the end of the day he is pointing to the right thing!

Your intention is only to downplay the issue, you got zero interest in solving the problem.

https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/iphone-xs-and-xs-max-mostly-fail-to.html

 

[kingston73]

Or...most people are morons and have not noticed the problem as a result.

Just enjoy your Max. I never had issues with 2 different Maxes and 2 different networks. You didn’t buy it to field test it, haha

I agree with this, I know some have legit complaints but I also think some are complaining too much. If you are that unhappy with the phone send it back and buy something else.

I really don't understand the theory that there's a problem that people aren't noticing....if you don't know there's a problem then there isn't actually a problem. It's only an issue if it becomes an issue for YOU.

Who cares if someone ever heard about him or how old the article is?
At the end of the day he is pointing to the right thing!

Your intention is only to downplay the issue, you got zero interest in solving the problem.

https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/iphone-xs-and-xs-max-mostly-fail-to.html

I do think the repeated reference to this article is a little funny, so many arm-chair engineers in this world. I'm not going to try to pretend that I understand rf signals and gain and what not. I understand my phone either working or not working when I need it to, and if it didn't work I'd send it back and get something else.

 

[crouch]

Look at the second item under "Other improvements and fixes". Fingers crossed!

 

[AMTYVLE]

Look at the second item under "Other improvements and fixes". Fingers crossed!

Well damn, if 12.1 fixes this issue I'm heading to the Apple store today to buy the XS Max I've been holding off on because of the cellular issues..........!

 

[ROLLTIDE1]

Well damn, if 12.1 fixes this issue I'm heading to the Apple store today to buy the XS Max I've been holding off on because of the cellular issues..........!

Beta didn't fix anything so I doubt this does anything either

 

[Banglazed]

Beta didn't fix anything so I doubt this does anything either

The final release today is a different build than beta 5. It might be worth looking into for LTE fixes.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Interesting they acknowledged it.

 

[pamploner]

"Improves cellular connectivity for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR"
-- 2nd bullet in Other Improvements and fixes
=======
Let me know if it fixes the issue and I'll go upgrade now.

 

[dazz87]

Look at the second item under "Other improvements and fixes". Fingers crossed!

People who were already on the 12.1 beta and there is no fix..........The fix will be release Sept of next year.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

People who were already on the 12.1 beta and there is no fix..........The fix will be release Sept of next year.

Different build, and was never mentioned previously. Not saying this fixes it, but different then the last beta.

 

[DotCom2]

Sooooo waiting to hear if this fixes it for you guys!