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

[jkozlow3]

On 12.1.1b1 ... Verizon ... XS

I also have a iP7 on 12.1.1b1 on Verizon - QC radio.

Gasp ... my XS consistently bench marks 30-50% higher than the i7 on both down AND uploads. My XS was typically doing well on the download, it was the uploads that were killing me. I was surprised to discover that the i7 struggled also on the up so it definitely help to put my XS upload scores in perspective.

So they (Apple and/or Verizon) either broke the code such that all phones are pretty much equal now ... or ... they actually fixed a thing or two.

In the first case, maybe ... just maybe ... the root cause is known then ...

If my XS can perform equal to or greater than my i7 Qualcomm based phone ... I'm good.

That's promising, but I really wish people realized that there is much more to this issue than DL/UL speeds - especially if you are in a strongish signal area. The cellular problems with the XS happen in WEAK coverage areas. I don't really care if I get 10MB or 50MB down for the most part. The difference is negligible and does not provide a significantly different user experience for what 99% of people do on their phones (email, texting, social media, web browsing, etc.).

What I do care about is that my phone selects the best signal/band as quickly as possible and that it maintains the best connection at all times (meaning that the phone is aggressive enough in seeking out the "best available option" when it needs to).

If the signal is strong enough, a higher frequency band (i.e. band 2/4) is fine. When the signal gets below a certain threshold, it should drop to the appropriate lower frequency band (i.e. band 13) in a timely manner. All of this should be seamless to the user and the user experience should be as good as it can be given the cellular reception in a given area (a variable Apple certainly has no control over).

All of this to say, I don't give a crap what my speeds are on a speed test as long as my phone is giving me the best user experience it can. If it's not connecting to the appropriate tower or band, then Apple is holding the user experience back. If the network/carrier/capacity sucks in the area I'm in, then so be it.

 

[maka344]

One bar of LTE signal. No issues here.

 

[roncron]

Thank you, @noteple, this is a really excellent summary of the variety of issues people have reported throughout the 141 pages of responses to this thread.

Different people are experiencing different issues from this list. Multiple issues probably means there are multiple causes. So a fix that solves problems for one group of users probably won't help another group that's experiencing a different subset of the issues on this list.

It’s conflated multiple issues
WIFi To Cellular And Back
WiFi 2.4 verses 5Ghz seek hold release
WiFi Calling preference differences between carriers
Speed tests upload download ping jitter
Cellular data even being available
More bars signal strength vs actual connectivity
Cellular network and band preference seek hold release between carriers
And networks just having a bad day, congestion, excessive data use.
Oh and there might be a defective handset or two

 

[The Oak]

That's promising, but I really wish people realized that there is much more to this issue than DL/UL speeds - especially if you are in a strongish signal area. The cellular problems with the XS happen in WEAK coverage areas. I don't really care if I get 10MB or 50MB down for the most part. The difference is negligible and does not provide a significantly different user experience for what 99% of people do on their phones (email, texting, social media, web browsing, etc.).

What I do care about is that my phone selects the best signal/band as quickly as possible and that it maintains the best connection at all times (meaning that the phone is aggressive enough in seeking out the "best available option" when it needs to).

If the signal is strong enough, a higher frequency band (i.e. band 2/4) is fine. When the signal gets below a certain threshold, it should drop to the appropriate lower frequency band (i.e. band 13) in a timely manner. All of this should be seamless to the user and the user experience should be as good as it can be given the cellular reception in a given area (a variable Apple certainly has no control over).

All of this to say, I don't give a crap what my speeds are on a speed test as long as my phone is giving me the best user experience it can. If it's not connecting to the appropriate tower or band, then Apple is holding the user experience back. If the network/carrier/capacity sucks in the area I'm in, then so be it.

I have found folks talk about download a lot. My downloads have always been good. It is the uploads the phone just seemed to be really slow. Hence for me I was about down and up.

Also I totally get in strong signal areas I have never seen anything faster than what the XS cranks. It is really cool to see.

My report was in areas that I struggle with. Hence I was optimistic about my findings.

 

[antisomnic]

Since updating to the 12.1.1 beta I have not had any LTE connection drops. In fact I seem to have better reception too. This leads me to think it’s a software issue.

Note I never had any issues with Wi-Fi

 

[bushman4]

well The one positive take away after 12.1 is that Apple isworking on it
never had these problems with the Qualcomm Modems

 

[Waterman316]

Ok so if I got this right, the above pic where it says mode it’s 802.11a/n as of right now. That’s the 5ghz band correct? It was at 802.11b/g/n a moment ago...which from what I understand means 2ghz band...am I right?

Click on the router that you think you're connected to in the app. There should be a line that shows how many wireless devices are currently connected. Click that. Then you should see the names of the devices...click your phone. In there should be 4 lines...one of which will say how "good" your connection is...mine usually says "Excellent". Click that. There it will show what band, whether a, b, g, n, ac and the maximum connection speed you can achieve in the current situation.

 

[jkozlow3]

well The one positive take away after 12.1 is that Apple isworking on it
never had these problems with the Qualcomm Modems

That's not true at all.

iPhone 7 on Verizon (Qualcomm) was terrible for 4+ weeks after launch back in 2016. The phone would drop to "no service" randomly all the time in known areas where the service was strong. It took 4-8 weeks for Apple to get it all sorted out with iOS/Carrier settings updates. I believe they released a patch pretty quickly to fix some of the issues but I believe it wasn't 100% resolved until after 2+ iOS updates. It's hard for me to remember the exact details/timeline as to when it was fixed but my wife and I both frequently experienced the issues on Verizon with our brand new iPhone 7 devices.

Here's a link to a 76 page thread about the issue on MacRumors:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-7-plus-no-service-vzw.1997680/

 

[vinegarshots]

View attachment 800728
Ok so if I got this right, the above pic where it says mode it’s 802.11a/n as of right now. That’s the 5ghz band correct? It was at 802.11b/g/n a moment ago...which from what I understand means 2ghz band...am I right?

If youre just trying to figure out if youre on a 5ghz or 2.4ghz connection, youre overcomplicating things a bit. When you setup your router (if it's dual band), you can give each band a different SSID. So you can name the 5ghz SSID whatever you want and then connect to that on your phone.

 

[Waterman316]

If youre just trying to figure out if youre on a 5ghz or 2.4ghz connection, youre overcomplicating things a bit. When you setup your router (if it's dual band), you can give each band a different SSID. So you can name the 5ghz SSID whatever you want and then connect to that on your phone.

I tried that once before. But all I have is the app on my phone...don’t have a computer. It didn’t take when I tried to name the 5ghz network

Edit. I think I got it now. All I have to do is change the 5ghz network name and it takes care of the rest on its own right? Nothing else to change?

 

[jtrue28]

Yes, that will work. A/N band was 5ghz.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

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.

We flew back to Colorado on Tuesday and I'm just now catching back up on the forums. Sorry I didn't respond.

 

[richard371]

Seems like the reception complaints are dying down a bit. Maybe we are making some progress with the latest updates?

 

[ROLLTIDE1]

Seems like the reception complaints are dying down a bit. Maybe we are making some progress with the latest updates?

Or people have giving up on Apple ever fixing the hardware related problems with the XS phones

 

[predation]

Seems like the reception complaints are dying down a bit. Maybe we are making some progress with the latest updates?

I’m really curious about 12.1.1. I don’t want to do a beta install. But some of the guys over in the iOS forum are reporting faster reconnects.
[doublepost=1541251631][/doublepost]

Or people have giving up on Apple ever fixing the hardware related problems with the XS phones

Lolz.

 

[kneezmo]

Or people have giving up on Apple ever fixing the hardware related problems with the XS phones

Probably.. more than 1 month later, or costumers accept this, or they recover their money and get other model (X, Xr..)

 

[Otflyer]

Or people have giving up on Apple ever fixing the hardware related problems with the XS phones

I didn’t think my Max would ever work as I would expect so, traded for XR and am satisfied.

 

[Juanefny]

So here I am... one month later and I think I’m seeing the issue everyone here has been complaining about. I take a class at the university in a very low signal setting. Signal there is now totally unusable. I’m pretty sure i had enough speed before on my x to use the phone...
So if I wanted to get the XR, what are my options? I got the xs through the Apple upgrade program.

 

[Nhwhazup]

Probably.. more than 1 month later, or costumers accept this, or they recover their money and get other model (X, Xr..)

I think it’s a combination of some are better, others accept a sub par working phone or trade for a better working model. Especially now with the XR’s out, I would imagine many have just moved on.

 

[kneezmo]

I think it’s a combination of some are better, others accept a sub par working phone or trade for a better working model. Especially now with the XR’s out, I would imagine many have just moved on.

Agree. And now that i read this, i will wait for 2020 model with 5G.. I dont wanna a 2019 model without 5G. Keep my new X for 2 years.
https://9to5mac.com/2018/11/02/iphone-5g-2020-rumor/

 

[jtrue28]

So here I am... one month later and I think I’m seeing the issue everyone here has been complaining about. I take a class at the university in a very low signal setting. Signal there is now totally unusable. I’m pretty sure i had enough speed before on my x to use the phone...
So if I wanted to get the XR, what are my options? I got the xs through the Apple upgrade program.

Buy the XR and sell your XS. (After making the payments to buy it from Apple)

 

[roncron]

I think it’s a combination of some are better, others accept a sub par working phone or trade for a better working model. Especially now with the XR’s out, I would imagine many have just moved on.

Agreed. And maybe also that after 3500+ responses to this thread, people feel they’ve learned about as much from this thread as they’re going to learn from it.

 

[Nhwhazup]

Agree. And now that i read this, i will wait for 2020 model with 5G.. I dont wanna a 2019 model without 5G. Keep my new X for 2 years.
https://9to5mac.com/2018/11/02/iphone-5g-2020-rumor/

I think I’ll be in the same boat. I really like the new X - just works like it’s supposed to in all aspects. My old trusty 6S Plus will be moving on to a new owner next week. That’s been an awesome phone for me.

 

[Juanefny]

Has anyone posted some speed tests and signal strength screens comparing the xs to the XR?

 

[noteple]

After a week with 12.1.1 (Not Verizon)
I’ve seen better recovery from LTE to 4g and back to LTE
In the past if handset would drop To 4g it would stay until there was a cell handoff with a strong LTE signal.
Still getting moments of silence where handset can hear tower but tower does not hear handset (voice) but no call failures this week.
If data connection active during voice call handset set doesn’t always prioritize voice Over Data But it’s better than it was.
Looking forward to next modem firmware release

Carriers are learning how to rig Speedtest results especially stationary verses handset being mobile
Steaming live video from one handset up to the cloud and down to another handset shows how much it all falls apart. Not just a xs/Max Problem