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

[apolloa]

Hmm might have to capitulate on my prior positive experiences with my Max. I had a few phone calls this morning and the other person couldn't hear me until I switched rooms in my house. I have Verizon and usually only have 1-2 bars in my house, this was how my X functioned this last year. With the XsMax it's very odd, it now shows me 3-4 bars in most places the X had 1-2 bars, far as I know checking Verizon's site no new towers have been added to my area and I've already had Verizon out to try and tweak the issue with no improvement. But now with that extra reception it seems the Max is getting worse reception, at least based on this mornings experience.

I really hope stuff like this isn't true: https://www.phonearena.com/news/iPhone-XS-Wi-Fi-LTE-antenna-tests-vs-Galaxy-S9-Pixel-3-XL_id109209 $1100 for a phone and I only have a few days to return it.

Well these FCC filings have been mentioned numerous times now, and it wouldn’t be the first time Apple messed up on its antenna designs...

Currently though it’s not looking good. I’m not going to spend a grand or more on a phone that can’t work as a phone!

 

[Packers1958]

Would shutting off data roaming under Settings>Cellular help with this issue?

 

[DotCom2]

how soon will we know if it is hardware or software?

Who knows. The more people who contact apple about it the sooner it would get recognized as a wide spread problem and the sooner the problem would be addressed

 

[Smoothie]

Verizon handles WiFi calling differently than T-Mobile, who handles it the right way. The way it should work is your phone should be set to "wifi preferred" this way it will 100% of the time automatically connect to WiFi calling any time there is a wifi signal. Verizon and AT&T have it set up to be "cellular preferred" which creates all kinds of problems when you have iffy to good cellular signal. At least with Android you can mod the settings to stay at "wifi preferred". Not sure if this is relevant, but it has been my experience. WiFi calling, when connected, has always been fantastic for me.

My experience exactly. I'm on Verizon, and this affects me. At home, I'm in somewhat of a "shadow" for cell coverage -- one or two bars max on my iPhone 7. If I use the phone in front of my house where the cell signal is slightly stronger, I get dropped calls when the connection can't decide whether to use WiFi calling or not. If I'm in the back of my house near my WiFi gateway, where the cell signal is weaker, the connection is always using WiFi calling, no dropped calls and the voice quality is very good. I didn't know that Android gives you the option to prefer WiFi.

 

[AudibleNectar]

OK, I'm going to have my cell provider hook up the Xs Max later this afternoon in a trial balloon to see how it does in my "real world". I've done a pretty extensive battery of tests with my 8 Plus in a variety of conditions and know pretty well where it's limits are as a baseline (as well as some measurements and methods expressed in this thread).

Sooooo

I should avoid "umbilical cording" my 8 Plus to the new Max and just have them set this up as a "new phone" just using my current info (phone number etc) from my 8 Plus - correct? If I'm gonna try it I want to get the best advice I can on how to approach the trial as I have 8 days to test it. Might as well since I preordered it and it's sitting here on my table - I guess I should at least TRY it before returning it, huh?

Any advice for the relative Apple newbie here?

 

[zemaker]

Just had AppleCare Help Desk contact me after I posted about this on their support forum. It looks to be widespread enough for them to want to place some sort of a profile on my iPhone X’s Max that will monitor network traffic to help with identifying what is causing these issues. According to them their engineers/developers need more logs to see what is happening.

So yeah looks like this is a real issue now.

 

[PBz]

OK, I'm going to have my cell provider hook up the Xs Max later this afternoon in a trial balloon to see how it does in my "real world". I've done a pretty extensive battery of tests with my 8 Plus in a variety of conditions and know pretty well where it's limits are as a baseline (as well as some measurements and methods expressed in this thread).

Sooooo

I should avoid "umbilical cording" my 8 Plus to the new Max and just have them set this up as a "new phone" just using my current info (phone number etc) from my 8 Plus - correct? If I'm gonna try it I want to get the best advice I can on how to approach the trial as I have 8 days to test it. Might as well since I preordered it and it's sitting here on my table - I guess I should at least TRY it before returning it, huh?

Any advice for the relative Apple newbie here?

To clarify, are you asking for help on setting up the phone without using a backup? I do it all the time .. if that is the case we can help.

 

[madKIR]

this is crazy. I have verified my max works in places my 7 plus didn't.

Are you on T-Mobile?

 

[Orangeman13]

Are you on T-Mobile?

verizon

 

[Harthag]

My experience exactly. I'm on Verizon, and this affects me. At home, I'm in somewhat of a "shadow" for cell coverage -- one or two bars max on my iPhone 7. If I use the phone in front of my house where the cell signal is slightly stronger, I get dropped calls when the connection can't decide whether to use WiFi calling or not. If I'm in the back of my house near my WiFi gateway, where the cell signal is weaker, the connection is always using WiFi calling, no dropped calls and the voice quality is very good. I didn't know that Android gives you the option to prefer WiFi.

Also on Verizon, for the most part I've been OK but this issue does happen occasionally. It depends on the (Android) phone re: whether or not you can adjust the setting. Sometimes you can go into "Developer Options" and edit the setting. Other phones, you'll need to run a command from your PC while connected to your phone via USB. I did this on a prior Pixel phone, it worked perfectly.

Now that I think about it, I could've sworn there was a way to do this with an iPhone. Not with a jailbreak. Shoot. I will dig around and post a link if I can find it.

 

[Packers1958]

Just had AppleCare Help Desk contact me after I posted about this on their support forum. It looks to be widespread enough for them to want to place some sort of a profile on my iPhone X’s Max that will monitor network traffic to help with identifying what is causing these issues. According to them their engineers/developers need more logs to see what is happening.

So yeah looks like this is a real issue now.

It was an issue when Apple was testing these phones. All their test prototype phones are monitored the same way, so they would have seen this issue months before release. I'm sure their engineers passed along the antenna issues, but the higher ups ignored the report because of the hard deadline. Right now, the engineers at Apple are all saying, "we knew this was going to happen, but no one listened to us"

 

[Harthag]

It was an issue when Apple was testing these phones. All their test prototype phones are monitored the same way, so they would have seen this issue months before release. I'm sure their engineers passed along the antenna issues, but the higher ups ignored the report because of the hard deadline. Right now, the engineers at Apple are all saying, "we knew this was going to happen, but no one listened to us"

Poop animojis, me-mojis, and thinness all take priority over ability to make a phone call. SMH.

 

[Packers1958]

Poop animojis, me-mojis, and thinness all take priority over ability to make a phone call. SMH.

The engineers keep a log on all test phones. But you are right, the higher ups are more concerned with all the other crap, than what the engineers find out. Apple has forgotten that "phone" is the bulk of their product name.

 

[Harthag]

The engineers keep a log on all test phones. But you are right, the higher ups are more concerned with all the other crap, than what the engineers find out. Apple has forgotten that "phone" is the bulk of their product name.

Says a lot about society as a whole as well...the movie "Idiocracy" is becoming a reality. Amazing how eerily accurate that movie was.

The hit movie in that movie was called "A-s." It is no different in my mind than the poop animoji that was so popular last year.

 

[AudibleNectar]

To clarify, are you asking for help on setting up the phone without using a backup? I do it all the time .. if that is the case we can help.

It seemed some were suggesting earlier to “set up as new” might yield different/better results than the transfer from phone to phone. I do have the 8 plus backed up in iCloud so I figured that’s good enough if nothing else.

I will also see what my carrier knows but if they don’t know/say much I fugured anything that can increase odds of success on this activation is helpful.

And yes I will be looking for answers if it goes wrong, and plan on maximizing the week I have before return deadline to see what can be gleaned.

 

[madKIR]

It was an issue when Apple was testing these phones. All their test prototype phones are monitored the same way, so they would have seen this issue months before release. I'm sure their engineers passed along the antenna issues, but the higher ups ignored the report because of the hard deadline. Right now, the engineers at Apple are all saying, "we knew this was going to happen, but no one listened to us"

Just like with the iPhone 4 they found out about the antenna issue way too late (allegedly the phone was already in early production stages), the rest is history. It might have been the case once again this year. They will definitely fix it in next year's iPhones.

 

[Glideslope]

Mine says-15
What does that mean?
My signal is okay right now but too many places it’s not. I love this phone but I don’t think I can live with it

You have a very strong signal.

 

[Packers1958]

Just like with the iPhone 4 they found out about the antenna issue way too late (allegedly the phone was already in early production stages), the rest is history. It might have been the case once again this year. They will definitely fix it in next year's iPhones.

I got burned with the 4, and if it's the case this year with my Max, there won't be a 3rd chance that I give to Apple. I can always go back to Android.

 

[AudibleNectar]

I have run a few field tests in places I live/work/frequent and it quit displaying the test figures. Weird. Was getting -30db rsrq0 at home but as soon as I tried other places no results are displayed. Thought it would be good background for evaluating signal strength and comparing the two phones. Does cell co get weird on people for using those tools?
[doublepost=1537988597][/doublepost]

I have run a few field tests in places I live/work/frequent and it quit displaying the test figures. Weird. Was getting -30db rsrq0 at home but as soon as I tried other places no results are displayed. Thought it would be good background for evaluating signal strength and comparing the two phones. Does cell co get weird on people for using those tools?

OK, it’s back after 6 tries.....

 

[Glideslope]

What's rsrp0 for then?

Reference Signal Received Power. rsrp0 measures the stronger signal of two anteni. Being these are all Intel Modems now a smaller number -40 vs -118 indicates the stronger LTE received.

 

[PBz]

I have run a few field tests in places I live/work/frequent and it quit displaying the test figures. Weird. Was getting -30db rsrq0 at home but as soon as I tried other places no results are displayed. Thought it would be good background for evaluating signal strength and comparing the two phones. Does cell co get weird on people for using those tools?

I have had it take longer sometimes. Give it a few minutes.

 

[AudibleNectar]

It came back

 

[madKIR]

I got burned with the 4, and if it's the case this year with my Max, there won't be a 3rd chance that I give to Apple. I can always go back to Android.

I hear ya! I was pretty much disappointed with the 4 as well! However, back then there was a quick and easy solution: putting a case or a bumper on the phone eliminated the issue. Now you can’t even do it with the new phones, as the nature of the issue is completely different. I contemplated the idea of upgrading from my X with the Qualcomm modem, but seeing all this feedback I’m not gonna take my chances. Last year I had the “pleasure” of dealing with the 8 Plus and the X, both with Intel, and it was a disaster!

 

[apolloa]

A question for the U.K. XS and XS Max users, has anyone using the O2 signal (O2, Giff Gaff, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile) experienced this signal problem with their phones? I’m on Tesco mobile and in my house get a bar or two of LTE and would like to have the same if I upgrade.

 

[michael31986]

Reference Signal Received Power. rsrp0 measures the stronger signal of two anteni. Being these are all Intel Modems now a smaller number -40 vs -118 indicates the stronger LTE received.

I have no idea if my numbers are good then. I keep reading different things on this thread about numbers for each rsrp0 and rsrq0