I've been plagued by weak signal strength and call quality for a while, and I thought it was because my area had bad coverage until I looked at the signal strength from another phone when I held them side-by-side. The signal strength of my iPhone 5S is consistently weaker than that of the iPhone 4S one of my family members has.
When I hold both phones side by side, the 5S consistently shows 2-3 bars (around -105 dB) and the 4S consistently shows around 4-5 bars (around -80dB). Additionally, when I use apps like "CoverageMap" it shows that the call quality of the 5S is "fair," which I can confirm from real-life experience (sometimes the other person can't understand me, or sometimes I don't get calls/texts!) , and then it shows the call quality of the 4S as "good."
-Both Verizon
-Both iOS 7.1
-Both have cellular data turned off.
-Both plugged in, 100%
-Both Wifi on.
-Both have no cases
Potential Solutions I have tried:
-Turn on air plane mode, wait 10 seconds, turn off airplane mode
-Reset network settings
-Turn phone off, then on
-Completely reset iPhone
-Remove and re-insert SIM card
-Turn iMessage off, then turn iMessage on.
None have done anything - my iPhone 5S still shows 2-3 bars (sometimes 1!) bars when the iPhone 4S still shows (4-5) bars when held side-by-side.
I would like to know if there are any ways to resolve this? Or just get a new phone? Looking around the web, I've noticed quite a few iPhone 5S users have this same issue. 