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upnorth85

macrumors 6502a
Oct 2, 2011
629
202
MN, USA
2.4ghz N wireless band will pull 50-60mbs down. If that's all you've ever known, then yeah you're not going to notice any difference at all. For the rest of us who have modern internet plans that can achieve > 100mbs, 50-60mbs is a slap in the face.
I was referring to cellular connection and data download speed from the TMobile tower. My WiFi speed is 200 Mbps from Comcast. No issues there.
 

Nhwhazup

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2010
3,474
1,718
New Hampshire
So who has a problem with both cellular and wifi ?
Only problem is with cellular for me - on ATT in NH. From LTE to 3G on both iPhones Max and iPhone 8 which are both running iOS 12.

iPad Pro which has not been updated still has LTE connection, also with ATT.
 

George Knighton

macrumors 65816
Oct 13, 2010
1,392
346
The only way that I can imagine that iOS can fix anything is to change how iOS asks for the bands to be checked.

At home in the country, I have a low RF signal Band 2 and a high RF signal Band 12.

But Band 2 is still faster for data.

If we have a way to cause iOS to check more intelligently for what is going on, and change bands to be appropriate for what is going on, then that might help with the problem people are reporting.

If I haven't used my iPhone in a long time, I'll pick it up and see that it's camping out on a one-bar Band 2 signal.

But as soon as I dial a number, the iPhone takes ½ a second to switch to three or four bars of Band 12.

I'm no expert, just a friendly user, and I have no idea how iOS decides all this. But I can't help wondering if the minority of users experiencing dropped calls and bad RF signal capture just need to be on a different band and somehow iOS doesn't know to switch them.

Just a wild guess from an amateur. Please don't yell at me. :)
 

cbrucecampbell

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2018
2
0
oregon
One more voice. XS-Max. Verizon. Linksys/Cisco wireless AP's. No cell issues, but as reported by others, my XS-Max WIFI needs to be toggled off/on 2-3 times per day. Locks up completely. Switching AP's also unfreezes it. Only takes a couple of seconds, so not that big of an issue, but it does need to get fixed. I do have an ipad air2 on IOS12 and it does not have the problem, so it looks like the phone to me. The phone does get on the 5Ghz WIFI bands OK. It's just the intermittent freeze-ups.
 

Smoothie

macrumors 6502a
Jun 23, 2007
781
544
California

That article references the guy who wrote the article that I mentioned very early in this thread. I doubt Apple would issue a software update to increase power output to compensate for poor antenna gain. That might run afoul of the FCC's concern about RF radiation near the user and it wouldn't affect the receive signal strength which also depends on antenna gain. Maybe Apple has some other way of dealing with this. We'll see.
 
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AudibleNectar

macrumors member
Jan 22, 2018
47
31
Uhhhhhhh boyeeeeeee does this stink. Been limping along with ailing phone among us waiting for this release, finally have the phone in hand and was to take it to carrier to get it activated/set up tomorrow. I'm on the US Cellular network (CDMA, pretty much shares/agrees with Verizon here, act the same) and after reading the Andrew Shepard material am NOT optimistic. The ONE TIME I put all my eggs in a new product release I end up getting roasted.

I may have no choice but to keep limping, return this (so I don't get stuck with it) and see what's up with the Xr and/or Xs fixes. If the Xs stuff IS truly hardware related I don't want to touch the Xs series with a ten foot pole, because no way will Apple take all those phones back and fix the hardware. And I NEED weak area reception. It's a MUST.
 

vinegarshots

macrumors 6502a
Sep 24, 2018
983
1,350
(TLDR version: XSMax is showing a stronger signal than iPhone7 Plus Qualcomm in my own test):

In an attempt to gather some more info for everyone (mine is a phone that seems to be working fine), I just opened field test on my XS Max and my wife's Qualcomm iPhone7 Plus to see if there's any difference in received signal strength. Here are the results. It appears that the iPhone7 Plus is actually showing a weaker signal than the XS Max on the closest tower (top image is 7Plus and bottom is XS Max)..

aamBEcj.jpg



MkFSo69.jpg
 
Last edited:

gadgetfreaky

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2007
1,404
532
I think I'm just gonna return my XS without even messing with it and either get the XR or a Pixel 3. Save my money until late November when all reviews are out for all the hot devices and all the bugs are ironed out.
modem in XR is worse.
[doublepost=1537893220][/doublepost]there are reports of this being fixed by restoring the phone as new. Renee Ritchie has a tweet.
this implies the cause has something to do with importing old settings and that there may be an easy settings fix that Apple can push to address this.
[doublepost=1537893277][/doublepost]this is helpful stuff!

In an attempt to gather some more info for everyone (mine is a phone that seems to be working fine), I just opened field test on my XS Max and my wife's Qualcomm iPhone7 Plus to see if there's any difference in received signal strength. Here are the results. It appears that the iPhone7 Plus is actually showing a weaker signal than the XS Max on the closest tower (top image is 7Plus and bottom is XS Max)..

aamBEcj.jpg



MkFSo69.jpg
 
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madKIR

macrumors 6502a
Feb 2, 2010
849
801
NYC
modem in XR is worse.
[doublepost=1537893220][/doublepost]there are reports of this being fixed by restoring the phone as new. Renee Ritchie has a tweet.
this implies the cause has something to do with importing old settings and that there may be an easy settings fix that Apple can push to address this.
[doublepost=1537893277][/doublepost]this is helpful stuff!
The Xr has a different chassis (new design), so we don't know yet how that antenna will perform. It might be better/worse/same as the Xs. Only time will tell
 

camera guy 2

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2018
1
1
Not reading all the pages, but I would mention that for some carriers, bars only show the amount of voice coverage you have, NOT how good your data connection is. I don't believe any carrier will tell you if you have "Great Data" versus "So-So Data" directly on the phone as far as speeds go. They show that you either "Have LTE or 3G Data" or "No Data at all".
 
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Lobwedgephil

macrumors 603
Apr 7, 2012
5,792
4,757
If the Rene Ritchie twitter fix is correct, seems Apple should be able to send out an update to fix things. I don't have the issue so can't test it.
 
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jtrue28

macrumors 65816
Apr 10, 2015
1,031
711
Lexington, KY
modem in XR is worse.
[doublepost=1537893220][/doublepost]there are reports of this being fixed by restoring the phone as new. Renee Ritchie has a tweet.
this implies the cause has something to do with importing old settings and that there may be an easy settings fix that Apple can push to address this.
[doublepost=1537893277][/doublepost]this is helpful stuff!

Let’s hope so.
 
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