Anyone else having poor RF signal reception on Samsung Galaxy Note 3?

[The_Chemist]

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!

[metsnfins]

mine got so much worse after 4.4 update

this is my 2nd note 3 i dont know what to do

dropped calls, no recption for 15 minutes at a time

im so frustrated

[rwhit823]

I see now that it truly is an issue with the Note 3. My kids have the S5 with no issues in my house, but my Note 3 is the worse. I had no problems with the Note 2. Come on Verizon, this is ridiculous!

[jtown]

To be fair, it's not Verizon's fault that Samsung built a phone with terrible reception.  I suppose Verizon could have refused to sell a marginal product but they didn't make it.  Or maybe they couldn't refuse.  Samsung probably has a contract with Verizon that requires Verizon to market and sell the phone since there's no other outlet for CDMA products.  I'm just glad I was out in the sticks when it was released and the reviews were in before I got back to civilization.  I waited for the S5 and, after turning off the "stay awake when plugged in" setting, I'm pretty happy with it.

[longhorn95]

Yes!  I used to get decent service inside my house and excellent service around town (Houston, TX) but ever since I made the mistake of upgrading to 4.4.2, my service has been terrible.  I am unable to get service in my house and when I do, the call almost always drops EVEN if I do not move the phone.  I have been with Verizon for 5 years and could count on 1 hand the number of dropped calls I had in those 5 years.   Now, I would be lucky if I go the full day without 5 or more dropped calls.  Absolutely ridiculous.  Yes, I hae hard rest the phone, removed the SIM, blah, blah , blah.  My wife with her crApple 5s has not noticed any change in service whatsoever.  I decided to switch back to my S4 and see if VZW & Samsung can get it together and fix this problem.

[blaide]

I started this thread and everything was finally working great until about 3 weeks ago when I got the update. Now I have little to know reception, constantly dropping calls, hard time connecting to wifi and very weak signal. I've seen plenty of other people all reporting the same thing and Verizon has offered MO solutios other than 1. Reset phone. 2. Pull battery and sim card. 3. Clear cach. I tried all of these as others have with no change. I loved my note 3 when it was finally working properly but niw I'm missing important business calls and I've actually lost 2 jobs because the customers said I never returned their calls. Their messages came 4 days later and the phone never rang when they did call! VERIZON HAS BEEN US LED'S IN THIS SITUATION. We need to roll back to the previous version of android. C ' mon Verizon, your pissing off hundreds if not thousands of note 3 owners! Fix the problem and stop offering useless suggestions and finger pointing at samsung.

[mormandy3]

My note 3 is going on eBay very soon. HAD IT with -100 db or worse reception.  Back to moto. If you can, get rid of yours ASAP. Junk!

[bigstevef150]

Yeah it sucks when I have to use my wifes moto hd in a store because her reception is twice as good as my note 3.

[FirefighterBgRG]

I also have had many more dropped calls recently. I also have experienced text messages that have come in many hours late. I can't pin point exactly when this began, but it seems like it was after the latest update. I see many note 3 verizon owners are having similar issues.

[AlonzoW]

I have the same issue with my note 3. My husband and I are on the same plan but different phones. We could be standing next to each other and he will have full strength but I have nothing. Lately I would have bars but when trying to make a call, they all drop to no signal.  I've already had the sim card replaced. I think it's time to go to another carrier.