Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
The_Chemist
Enthusiast - Level 2

I wanted to keep my unlimited data alive so I just purchased a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at full price at the Harrisburg Verizon store today. 

I had to stop in at the lab where I work on the way home to check on some samples I left running Friday afternoon.  I looked at my phone and saw I only had 1 bar of 4G LTE service inside the building.  I checked the signal strength and the N3 reported -118 dbm.  I tried a speed test with the speedtest.net app and received a network connection error part way through.  I'm sure this was due to the extremely low signal strength.  The phone then switched to 3G with 1 bar signal strength. 

My Motorola Droid Bionic, which I just replaced, used to get 2 to 3 bars 4G LTE at -105 to -89 dbm in the same areas of the building. 

I then drove home and checked my signal there as well.  It's not the good at all!  My Bionic used to get a much better signal.  I live in a suburb of Harrisburg PA where the Verizon signal isn't the strongest, but my Motorola Bionic did very well keeping a 4G LTE signal. 

I'm very upset that a phone that lists for $799 would have such a poor antenna or radio with such poor sensitivity like this. 

I'll try the N3 again tomorrow when I return to work and see what happens.  If the reception remains this bad, I'll have to return the phone and get something else - possibly the LG G2.  If anyone owns a G2 and would be kind enough to reply with their reception quality in low signal areas I would greatly appreciate it.

I would also  be interested to know how the reception quality is in low signal areas from other Samsung GN3 owners.

Thanks!

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
jeffrey_
Newbie

Mine isn't very good. It's device related because my previous phone HTC TB was always 4 bars 4G LTE here. There's another thread where someone said to change the network mode setting, which I did, (default seems to be "global" not CDMA/LGE). But it didn't seem to do much. Trying a reboot next.

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
jeffrey_
Newbie

Here is another good one:

https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/807590

Seems like a bad rollout issue for the Note 3.

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
jtown
Contributor - Level 3

Thanks for taking the time to post the numbers for your two phones.  I was considering replacing my old GNex with a phone that has a better radio.  Since the Note 2 got such rave reception reviews, I was hoping the Note 3 would also be good.  Looks like it's a bust all around.  Calls sound like garbage, Verizon seems to have authentication issues which create "dark zones" for some Note 3 users, and now it looks like Samsung used a crappy radio.  I don't need another crappy radio.  [bad_french_accent]I already got one![/bad_french_accent]

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
jeffrey_
Newbie

I tried something else, last night I disabled wifi altogether and about 20 minutes or so after doing this, I had a good, (not great) but good 4GLTE signal that has held through the night and now I'm at work and it's still holding a good useful signal. So, at least for me, disabling wifi worked for a while.

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
jeffrey_
Newbie

FYI, I'm getting 3 bars with a singal strength of -102 dBm 38 asu. I'm very curious about those numbers. Going to google them on my note 3...

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
The_Chemist
Enthusiast - Level 2

Your welcome.  I thought if I would post the dBm levels of both phones everyone could see the shocking difference. 

I was at work today and had abysmal RF performance from the GN3 where my Bionic used to shine.  Other Verizon customers near me were on 4G LTE and occasionally 3G while I had 1X or no service on my GN3.  Granted it isn't the best signal area, but my Bionic knew what to do with a poor signal.  The Samsung GN3 does not.  The radio must not be very sensitive or the antenna is of inadequate quality to hold and maintain the signal. 

Another Verizon customer across from me at the lunch table today had a Nokia Windows phone and was reading email and surfing the web while I had 1X or no service and was unable to do anything. 

I ended up having the privilege of donating $35 to Verizon for my return this evening.  I wanted to try the LG G2, but the sales person said the LG G2 most likely would not be any better than the GN3  She also said that for the best weak signal performance, Motorola phones do the best.  My Bionic proves that out!

I hated giving up that beautiful GN3, but it just couldn't cut it when the signal was low.  Reminded me of my old LG flip phone which was only good in a really strong signal area.  I replaced that with a Motorola e850 (I think that was the model number) and everywhere the LG wouldn't work, the Motorola did. 

I never thought getting a new phone was going to be this difficult!  I'm at a loss as to what to do at this point.

It's really unfortunate, but consumers are the new "Beta Testers" today.  These devices are rushed out to market before the manufacturer even knows if they work properly or not.  Maybe the manufacturers do know the flaws and defects  - they just don't care!  Very disheartening 

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
The_Chemist
Enthusiast - Level 2

That's not too bad of a signal.  My Bionic gets really usable upload and download speeds at that level.  Are you close to a cell tower?

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
jeffrey_
Newbie

Don't know how to tell how close to a tower I am. Right now at work, I'm getting 3 bars with a -100 dBm and 40 asu, (astronomical unit ?) signal.

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Re: Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
jeffrey_
Newbie

The thing is, using speed test, the bar signl drops to 2 immediately when loaded and I can't get more than 6 down and 2 up, (uncorrelated) over a series of tests on different servers.

From this location, it's never been all that great even with previous handsets.

From home, the absolute best I've seen is ~18 down and 13 up.

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