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iPhone XS Max Is the mobile reception on the xs Max even worse than iPhone X ?
- Thread starter mydogeatsbeats
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Apple actually has done limited recalls on past products if they found a defect.
My parking lot at work... Verizon, Sprint and AT&T don’t do well. T-Mobile on my SE rocks.
My Qualcomm iPhone X (Verizon): Two bars. Calls, texts and data all work as expected.
Coworker’s iPhone 10s Max (Verizon): Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Notta.
This is sad... even worse for people who can’t get their X back. I knew this was going to be an issue. I’ve never been a fan of the Intel modems... this is why.
My Qualcomm iPhone X (Verizon): Two bars. Calls, texts and data all work as expected.
Coworker’s iPhone 10s Max (Verizon): Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Notta.
This is sad... even worse for people who can’t get their X back. I knew this was going to be an issue. I’ve never been a fan of the Intel modems... this is why.
I am not entirely convinced that this is a radio issue. It very well may be a manufacturing / design defect.
Either way, although my intentions were otherwise, I will not upgrade until this matter is resolved to my satisfaction.
So ran a semi-scientific experiment with my iPhone 7+ running iOS 11 and iPhone XS Max runnin iOS 12 on TMo network. My 7+ is running off of Qualcomm modem and 600 MHz is NOT available in my area 
Ran speedtest from different parts of my house at the same time next to each other using 2 SIMs: DL/UL/latency
7+: 0.6/0.8/81, 9.5/3.7/87, 13.7/3.9/86, 1.4/1.9/81, 4.4/0.7/100, 0.72/2.08/218
XSM: 1.0/0.4/78, 16/4.9/83, 19.5/2.2/81, 2.6/4.6/79, 6.5/1.0/105, 3.05/0.96/124
Download speeds were consistently faster throughout the house. Upload speed varied.
Ran speedtest from different parts of my house at the same time next to each other using 2 SIMs: DL/UL/latency
7+: 0.6/0.8/81, 9.5/3.7/87, 13.7/3.9/86, 1.4/1.9/81, 4.4/0.7/100, 0.72/2.08/218
XSM: 1.0/0.4/78, 16/4.9/83, 19.5/2.2/81, 2.6/4.6/79, 6.5/1.0/105, 3.05/0.96/124
Download speeds were consistently faster throughout the house. Upload speed varied.
This is so bizarre. We have ATT on all our devices. Phones - 6S Plus, 8 and my new Max all updated to iOS 12 and one iPad Pro 9.7 on 11.4.
iPhones 8 and Max are showing 4G but when tested showing 3G at download rates of .12 - yes that’s a decimal point! The 6S Plus and iPad show LTE and download between 3 and 5 - not great but 26 plus times faster. Very sad that the newest phones are the worst.
I spoke with my son earlier and during the call, he told me he was going to hang up and call me back. Something was wrong with his phone.
When I asked him what was going on, he said, every time he leaves from work, his Max will not properly reconnect to the Verizon network. He loses signal once he goes in the building and it will not reconnect once he leaves work unless he restarts his phone. He didn’t see the email I sent him until after he restarted the phone. I told him to try airplane mode instead, but the point is, he’s experiencing problems with his phone that he didn’t have with his Samsung. He’s not happy about it either. It’s killing his excitement to return back to Apple and iOS.
Jury is still out for me. I was at a client site and didn’t have much opportunity to browse on my phone. I did notice poor data service in the lobby of the building. Commonly visited internet sites were slow to load which has never happened unless I was in an area with bad reception. I’m downtown tomorrow where I should have zero problems with reception or data service - we shall see.
When I asked him what was going on, he said, every time he leaves from work, his Max will not properly reconnect to the Verizon network. He loses signal once he goes in the building and it will not reconnect once he leaves work unless he restarts his phone. He didn’t see the email I sent him until after he restarted the phone. I told him to try airplane mode instead, but the point is, he’s experiencing problems with his phone that he didn’t have with his Samsung. He’s not happy about it either. It’s killing his excitement to return back to Apple and iOS.
Jury is still out for me. I was at a client site and didn’t have much opportunity to browse on my phone. I did notice poor data service in the lobby of the building. Commonly visited internet sites were slow to load which has never happened unless I was in an area with bad reception. I’m downtown tomorrow where I should have zero problems with reception or data service - we shall see.
So I cant read through this whole thread to see but I'm not only noticing poor mobile service but my wifi is also garbage. I'm regularly getting 1-2 mbps via my wifi connection while I simultaneously get 100 mbps on my macbook. Anyone else getting really poor wifi connections?
First day I noticed my mobile service was really bad compared to my old 6s. I was comparing my Xs Max to my wife's 6s while being in the same place at the same time.
First day I noticed my mobile service was really bad compared to my old 6s. I was comparing my Xs Max to my wife's 6s while being in the same place at the same time.
Similar things were happening to me. Texts and emails were not sent out if you are moving around in the buildings because of signal re-establishments issue.
Yes speed is faster. But what is the point of fast speed if connection is unstable...
I am not totally convinced it’s a device issue.
I was in an Apple store with my X and updated the carrier settings.
I have never had less than 5 bars in that store. After the settings were applied my X dipped to 3 to 4.
I have an att tower literately in my backyard.
Never have I had less than 4 bars when I was in my cellar. Everywhere in the house a solid 5.
Now, 2 in the cellar, 3 to 4 elsewhere.
I was in an Apple store with my X and updated the carrier settings.
I have never had less than 5 bars in that store. After the settings were applied my X dipped to 3 to 4.
I have an att tower literately in my backyard.
Never have I had less than 4 bars when I was in my cellar. Everywhere in the house a solid 5.
Now, 2 in the cellar, 3 to 4 elsewhere.
Please understand that bars are a way to illustrate signal strength, they are somewhat subjective and can be manipulated by a simple update. As long as you still can make calls, texts, and use your data you are okay.
But “No Service” is “No Service”, right? That’s pretty objective when I can talk to my daughter on my 8+ while getting no service on my Max. And I wasn’t holding it wrong because I wasn’t holding it at all. Both were sitting on the car seat. Happened numerous times while driving across the country the last two days.
Apple knew keyboards were time bombs in 2016 and 2017 MBPs and did nothing publicly & when they did admit it .. they gave a BS reason. I know this because they left the repair depot test running on my ‘repaired’ MBP. I recreated the issue in under an hour. It’s heat.. not dust/dirt/crumbs.
When a multi-repaired $1,500 MBP becomes a $3,000 credit with Apple you know they know... my 13” 2016 MBP became a 2017 13” MBP then a 2017 15” MBP.. then credit which I used for a refurbished 2015 13” MBP & 2017 refurbished iMac for kids.
[doublepost=1537931700][/doublepost]This may be a dumb question but does everyone testing cellular have data and voice roaming enabled in Cellular settings?
So what carriers is this with where the main issues are? Is it possible this is more a carrier issue or not?
I have read through a lot of the comments now and a lot of people are talking about the 5ghz broadcasting issue. I'm running an airport in my home that has dual band transmission. Is there any way for me to eliminate the 5 ghz band to avoid the issue?
I don't think you want to eliminate the 5GHz band. The issue is that the XS/Max will get stuck on the 2.4GHz band, even in circumstances where it should use 5GHz. Leave the 5GHz network enabled so your other devices are still able to use it.
If you must, you could name the 5GHz network something different and connect your devices to the two separate networks manually.