You think an entire team of RF engineers who have been building phones for over 10 years just missed that? Seriously?
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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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I didn't say they missed it. They probably underestimated the impact. Or they realized it too late, assumed it was just software, and are really confident they can push an update quickly once they gather info from real world users.
Happened once before with the iPhone 4. How'd they all miss the "grip of death" cause the reception to go out? I'm sure they noticed reception fluctuations but didn't think it would be as sever as it was in the hands of the consumers out in the world.
Top notch post, very well done and said. Just look at that XS Max, my sad current device. It’s striking. I’m calling ATT now, reverting to 8+ and going all in on XR, but it’s likely my last iPhon me unless Apple makes connectivity a priority. Now that I live in the city and move around a lot, I need top flight connectivity, and Apple simply doesnt offer that in every model. Rarely even.
The entire team of engineers managed to release a phone that has charging problems...
I don't think that's very likely either, especially in view of what happened with the 4. We know from past articles about their test setup that they have industry-standard testing facilities, plus they must be paranoid about this sort of thing after the 4, no? FWIW if I put my old X and my XS into field test mode in my house (lowish signal, 2 bars LTE max) they get rsp0 readings virtually the same as each other in the same location, connected to the same cell ID, same band (3). Biggest difference I've seen is 4dBM, usually it's 1-2. Odd if it's a design flaw. Maybe that small a difference can be significant though?
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No they didn't, it's a software bug that affects several models of iPhone (multiple users on here report that and that it's fixed in the 12.1 beta).
And there in lies the rub. In the end we honestly know nothing. We can speculate all we want and look at how our phones acted and how other people's phones have acted and make our own conclusions but in the end we must wait for Apple to give us any tidbit of information.
I really wish that it turns out to be some sort of software they can tweak. I want an iPhone Xs in my hand ASAP.
No. I don't believe the engineers missed it all. The higher ups decided to go ahead anyway, and there are a bunch of engineers at Apple right now saying "we told you so, but you didn't listen"
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Didn't one guy even get fired for telling them that there would be problems ? I am still wondering how reception will be with a Iphone 8 vs the XR but not brave enough to buy an XR and I don't have the time for the testing.
I'm dropping my XS Max off to At&t by mail on Tuesday and going back to 8+ For my use cases, the reception makes it all but unusable. I mean, I have wifi problems inside my home in my own office. That has never happened in the last 10 years with mobile devices, and this is my second XS Max as well. The good news is if the XR interests you, it looks to have better reception than even the 10, so just about the same as your current device.
https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/iphone-xr-trades-4x4-mimo-for-greater.html
I am strongly considering trying the XR 128 GB, but I am still a bit torn about it. Once I got my hands on the iPhone 8+ it's been darn sweet. I just hate those freaking top and bottom bezels so much after using the Max. I can always return it just like I did the Max if the screen and/or camera isn't satisfactory. Some seem to feel it's step down compared to the iPhone 8+. However, I have no money invested in this 8+ since I got it for free from our IT department. $799 vs $1099 for the Max. It's not as much to give up on vs my iPhone 8+, but compared to the Max of course it does have some limitations. The one thing that has my interest is the longer battery life.
I do miss the Max I can tell you that! I really did like that iPhone a lot, but was not willing to pay the price of admission and have crappy wifi (specifically) and cellular service. My issues didn't really start until a week in, most see it immediately.
I'm in Houston on Verizon, so I have not been able to notice the LTE issues from the viewpoint of "I have fewer bars" since the network is pretty dense here but there have been many times at work where the data does not work at all on my XS Max. Other times, a speed test will yield 0.5 - 1MB download and then the upload process just flat-lines at zero.
I decided to go back to my old phone, but wanted to wait until I took a road trip to Shreveport I already had planned to see how things would go in known fringe areas. There were several instances along the way where I had bars but streaming music failed but in two 5-10 mile stretches it actually said "No service." I've had solid service the entire way for years, and the other Verizon users riding with me (two 8+ on ios12, one S9+) had no issues.
I returned the phone yesterday and prodded the Apple guy for information, all I could get him to say was that "you aren't the first person who has returned the phone for issues." I was hoping maybe he would acknowledge that Apple knows and has a plan...but I'm not so certain we will see any acknowledgement from Apple until after XR comes out, if at all, in order to protect its sales.
I decided to go back to my old phone, but wanted to wait until I took a road trip to Shreveport I already had planned to see how things would go in known fringe areas. There were several instances along the way where I had bars but streaming music failed but in two 5-10 mile stretches it actually said "No service." I've had solid service the entire way for years, and the other Verizon users riding with me (two 8+ on ios12, one S9+) had no issues.
I returned the phone yesterday and prodded the Apple guy for information, all I could get him to say was that "you aren't the first person who has returned the phone for issues." I was hoping maybe he would acknowledge that Apple knows and has a plan...but I'm not so certain we will see any acknowledgement from Apple until after XR comes out, if at all, in order to protect its sales.
What if the iPhone Xr was delayed because Apple needed to redesign the antenna because they knew the Xs and Xs Max was going to have reception issues and it was easier to change the Xr than both the Xs and Xs Max?
The Xr chassis only supports 2x2 MIMO, so there was basically nothing to redesign: they’ve used the regular X antenna design.
Please submit this story to your local media !! lets put pressure on Apple to fix this major problem
I’m now thoroughly convinced we won’t hear an official statement (or corrective action) from Apple.
I know most of you think they will because, well, they’re Apple. I think they won’t, because, well, they’re Apple.
Not enough “noise” out there being made by the bigger tech blogs and mainstream media.
I know most of you think they will because, well, they’re Apple. I think they won’t, because, well, they’re Apple.
Not enough “noise” out there being made by the bigger tech blogs and mainstream media.
Really got some time to take my phone out and about and the issue is so bad for me. I fully am aware signal bars are meaningless but I was getting full bars and could not make a connection at all with my phone via cellular or data in several areas this past weekend. Never had issues in these areas in many years. I couldn't send iMessage's or text messages and phone calls held on for a few seconds then dropped. Trying to load maps so I could find local places wouldn't work at all. It's very disabling if I had to rely on this phone solely.
I'm trying to stay positive, but I have a sinking feeling you're right.
Let's be honest here. I would wager to guess that the vast majority of iPhone (and all smartphone) users are not the type who would be aware of or regularly perform speedtests etc. They might anecdotally find the phone to be bad with data or reception, but I'd guess are more likely to ignore it. I would imagine many with XS/XS Max phones might be experiencing the issue but just unaware of it.
They have a vocal subset (myself and those on this thread included) who are more aware of these things than maybe the average consumer (I by no means am a technical expert). Folks in our position have already done what we can by contacting Apple, opening support tickets, being active on these forums, and in many cases have been in direct contact with Apple support engineers to perform tests and send files. Despite these Apple techs saying they are "aware" of the issue impacting customers, the whole process is a black box. They've had our logs for over a week and have done so little as to keep us in the loop. I get the usual "hold tight" etc.
What would Apple do at this point? Maybe determine the issue is software and issue a fix? My pessimism is building unfortunately. But let's say it's hardware. No way would Apple admit to such a mistake that would IMMEDIATELY result in a loss of sales and issuing mass refunds and replacements when/if the issue would be resolved. But what if Apple chooses to ignore the issue outright? They still have a majority of users either not experiencing the issue or being unaware of it. Then they tell us "we determined there's nothing wrong with your device" aka "hey you're SOL on this" and infuriate this subset of customers.
What I DO KNOW is their communication has been terrible throughout this process. The phone has been praised by most every major publication. Let's say that they didn't encounter any issues. Great. But with all these threads about awful connection/reception, it infuriates me that it's given ZERO coverage besides "some are experiencing problems" as a throwaway. There's been more coverage making light of how these "gate" scandals come up with every release, and the tone is super dismissive. It's infuriating. You think this is a joke style "gate" controversy? Then I invite these people to actually do some investigative reporting and find someone with the issues first hand rather than write it off as a non issue that "fanboys" are complaining about.
Then that is strong evidence that it may be a software issue if the modem is pulling a strong signal.
Because calling things gates makes people sound ignorant. It makes fun of an otherwise possible serious issue and is used in a mocking tone at Apple; after all, you dont hear anything attached to -gate for other devices. Its simply mocking the iphone 4 issue.
Not every little problem is a scandal after all; the iphone 4 antenna, ok, I can see that even if I dont agree it was a scandal.
And every year someone starts a new -gate or 2 that ends up being nonsense or a witchhunt so its hard to take anything deemed as -gate by social media as truth.
If people and more so the media/social media would be more mature about discussing it and stop being ignorant calling everything a -gate scandal, it may gain some traction.
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I think some reviewers/bloggers are hesitant to say anything so Apple won't pull their credentials for next product launch. I find it hard to believe that not one of them would experience the signal/data issues.
Great image... I think the XR was staged to protect XS/XSM sales from ‘loyal’ buyers... those that consistently upgrade.
I can say, IMO, this is fact. I have presented conclusive evidence (different issues) to very high people at certain blogs and was ignored. Showed how to recreate the issue on-demand.. not just ‘gate’ ranting. Other issues that could be addressed quickly by Apple were published.
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