how can you tell the date?
How do you determine the date from the XF?
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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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Mine is starting FF and XF as well. 256gb Max.
Unfortunately it will be hard to find any real corroboration without info from Apple. If it was something they could easily isolate to a batch, one would assume they would tell us to get a replacement?
I can't speak for the others but the serial number is the first thing the Apple genius noted as well as the Apple support tech I have been working with for the last ~2 weeks.
Still really waiting on some actual information about a root cause and possible remedy.
There is a list I found that tells you the factory and date based on the letters.
All you need is the first two letter, that's the factory and the fourth and fifth letters for the date.
X is second half of 2018
The next letter is the date range. Could be a number also for the fifth digit.
My iPhone that sucked was built in 8/19 - 8/25
The letters were X8
I have a silver 256GB Max bought from Apple, It's the one that came with a T-Mobile SIM. Serial starts with F2 and looks like date range in the serial number is X9. Had it since launch day and am not seeing any LTE issues. It's on par with my Qualcomm X.
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So what are people's experiences with taking it to Apple? I just went by and they acted like they had no idea what I was talking about (probably legitimately don't) and told me it would be an hour and a half to get it looked at despite it being pretty empty in there (which was shocking). I've only had the thing for 8 days so I feel like I should be able to exchange it. They didn't offer me that but I was on my lunch break and couldn't wait around and chat.
Sounds like a lot of people in here have working phones so maybe I should try an exchange.
Sounds like a lot of people in here have working phones so maybe I should try an exchange.
Don't exchange it! You'd be stuck with it for good. Just return it for a full refund and buy another one.
They always say this BS that they have never heard of an issue, etc. They're instructed to act this way.
An update - way back on page 20 something I posted about terrible cell performance in areas with weak service on my XS Max. The modem would frequently switch to 3G or 1x and become unuseable in both cases. Sometimes this could be fixed by cycling airplane mode but often a power cycle was required to restore data connectivity. This all occurred while I was stationary at my desk and was 100% reproducible regardless of day, night or weekend (shift work...) My iphone X had no issues maintaining LTE in this location, so my user experience went from great to terrible literally overnight by 'upgrading' to the XS.
The detail I left out from my original post is that I was on Verizon. AT&T is known to have better service in this particular location, so I swapped carriers. I can now say that I'm back to having zero issues. Most interestingly, even edge cases aren't a problem anymore. I can walk about 30 feet in the same building and get to an area where all phones drop service completely. Now on AT&T the XS reconnects to LTE instantly once available, every time, without requiring an airplane or power cycle. In other words, the phone works as expected. It appears that this behavior is band related. Use the right bands in your area? No problem. Use the bugged bands? Too bad so sad. Apple will be happy to play the worlds smallest violin for you for your wasted time.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not praising AT&T or Apple here. Quite the opposite actually. This is a fail for Apple. It's pretty conclusive to me that the Intel modem firmware is half baked, especially when it comes to the Verizon spectrum that it didn't have to support in the past. All because of a petty license fee dispute from a $1,000,000,000,000 dollar company.
The only good news here is that a firmware fix should technically be possible. However, given that Apple doesn't really seem to care about how well their phone works as a phone as much as they care about new emoji I'm not holding my breath.
The detail I left out from my original post is that I was on Verizon. AT&T is known to have better service in this particular location, so I swapped carriers. I can now say that I'm back to having zero issues. Most interestingly, even edge cases aren't a problem anymore. I can walk about 30 feet in the same building and get to an area where all phones drop service completely. Now on AT&T the XS reconnects to LTE instantly once available, every time, without requiring an airplane or power cycle. In other words, the phone works as expected. It appears that this behavior is band related. Use the right bands in your area? No problem. Use the bugged bands? Too bad so sad. Apple will be happy to play the worlds smallest violin for you for your wasted time.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not praising AT&T or Apple here. Quite the opposite actually. This is a fail for Apple. It's pretty conclusive to me that the Intel modem firmware is half baked, especially when it comes to the Verizon spectrum that it didn't have to support in the past. All because of a petty license fee dispute from a $1,000,000,000,000 dollar company.
The only good news here is that a firmware fix should technically be possible. However, given that Apple doesn't really seem to care about how well their phone works as a phone as much as they care about new emoji I'm not holding my breath.
Somehow I don’t think The guys drawing the new emoji are from the RF engineering department.
Is it true (per post 2157 above) that if you exchange a phone for another rather than return and repurchase the 14 day return period doesn’t apply to the exchanged phone.
Half the posts in this thread are blaming the new antenna design which has absolutely nothing to do with Intel.
The other half are blaming Intel despite the posters knowing absolutely nothing about the actual root cause. There are probably 20 different pieces of software that work together to run a LTE modem written by various companies and people. You don’t have the information to speculate on this.
And no, you can’t just walk into an Apple Store and expect them to know what you’re talking about. They’re not instructed to hide anything, they just don’t know. They’re front line support.
This is literally a brand new device. You can’t test for all bugs. No device meets the real world without needing fixes.
I am so tempted to just go get an XS and if it doesn’t work I am out of the Apple Upgrade Program. Turning in my 8+ and returning an XS (if the issue is present) would exit me from the plan.
I watched the Google announcements today and while I love the camera of the Pixel, I don’t think that is enough to convert me. If I wait until the weekend I will be in range of returning with the XR being launched.
As far as testing goes, my office would be great for it. We have one side of our building with a tower and all bars while my desk is two bars and I can find areas of the building with no coverage. Could likely test the re-connect issues and low-signal issues.
I watched the Google announcements today and while I love the camera of the Pixel, I don’t think that is enough to convert me. If I wait until the weekend I will be in range of returning with the XR being launched.
As far as testing goes, my office would be great for it. We have one side of our building with a tower and all bars while my desk is two bars and I can find areas of the building with no coverage. Could likely test the re-connect issues and low-signal issues.
Oh please! They know exactly what the person is talking about if it's a widespread issue! Keep defending Apple! They are instructed to not engage in conversations like that with customers. It's supposed to be discussed with their geniuses if you are willing to make an appointment and wait god knows how long.
Thank god I don't own this overpriced phone that doesn't really work as a phone. I had enough with the Intel modem models last year! I'll probably keep my Qualcomm X until it dies LOL
It's a combination of the antenna side of things and the Intel radios. The Intel radios hit NYC harder than some other markets since NYC is a Verizon market, and Verizon customers are coming from Qualcomm radios, so the difference is that much bigger.
AT&T is NYC is abysmal with any phone. I have AT&T and I like AT&T's network in CT, as it works almost everywhere here, but NYC is a bad market for them. They are still playing catch-up from a combination of the 2007 iPhone mess that caused an influx of customers onto their network and a really lousy spectrum position there compared to Verizon, along with Verizon have the upper hand due to Cellco getting advantageous backhaul deals from Verizon New York, which is huge in such a dense market with entirely underground utilities. B30 and now B66 are helping, B14 will further help, and their network is now quite usable compared to 5 years ago when I would regularly have lots of bars and no usable service of any type, or data would be slow as molasses. Now it's to the point where it's rock solid, but sometimes quite slow. Their network in NYC is fine for me a few days a year when I got into the city, usually on weekends when it's slightly less insanely busy, but if I were in NYC, I'd be on Verizon. Period.
It's definitely due in part to the Intel model. I would attribute the slow re-connection to LTE after being in a building or subway tunnel to Intel, the weaker signals are more due to the antenna design of the Xs series. The problem is that they make each other worse, as weaker antennas are more likely to drop the signal, and then the Intel radio is slower to recover. With something like the S9 series, they have great RF and recover quickly.
And a totally different method of building out infrastructure, laws for citing sites, economics of building a cell network, etc. Even Canada has way more ubiquitous and better service than the US in and around cities and towns. Of course most of Canada has no coverage by land area mass, versus Verizon at about 80% of the land area of the CONUS, so pick your battles I guess.
More “evidence” to support the thought that Apple won’t address the issue. Not even a peep from Apple (officially). They’ll just look the other way until the XI comes out next year.
I've said it before: there is nothing to address, unfortunately! It's a bad combo of the weaker antenna and the Intel modem that is slow at reconnecting after losing reception. It's not apparent in areas with decent and strong signal. Some people might never experience any issues at all, hence Apple will get away with it. Once again!