Anyone having SIgnal Strength issues with Lumia 950 XL?

[sschevy010]

I just got the Dual SIM 950 XL last month and been experiencing low signal or no service more often compared to previous phone i had which was Lumia 1520.

There were times I would watch it go from 1 bar up to 4 instantly then back to 3.. and sometimes back to 1. I sometimes wondered if this was an issue or the radios on this thing is defective.

Anyone else out there having this same issue?

 

[PGrey]

Yes, but not consistently, mine was more like 3-5, until recently, when I'm 1-3.
I checked my providers' signal-notify app though (AT&T), and they say there's an issue at my location, tower-wise. I'm not entirely convinced the app wouldn't say this from a dozen locations in a radius, if I drove around, but I'm holding for now.
I went from a really solid data connection to a very iffy/almost-no-existant one, so it was really evident, I had to turn on WiFi to get regular email and other updates...

 

[sschevy010]

Originally posted by PGrey
Yes, but not consistently, mine was more like 3-5, until recently, when I'm 1-3.
I checked my providers' signal-notify app though (AT&T), and they say there's an issue at my location, tower-wise. I'm not entirely convinced the app wouldn't say this from a dozen locations in a radius, if I drove around, but I'm holding for now.
I went from a really solid data connection to a very iffy/almost-no-existant one, so it was really evident, I had to turn on WiFi to get regular email and other updates...

I been under 3 different towers, not any different between each one and no one else is replying for which must be phone hardware is defective..

 

[tsax6010]

I have noticed this as well (AT&T, NE Ohio, 950XL NAM Dual SIM). Sometime in the last few OS updates my signal strength is down 1-2 bars consistently. I have also had numerous dropped calls while driving home when I never used to (clear, sunny days so no weather related issues). Yesterday my phone dropped a call and then for good measure randomly rebooted while driving home.

 

[PGrey]

Yeah, I got a message yesterday, saying my tower problems was fixed, but my phone is still suffering the same situation you describe.
Definitely seems to have come along around the .494 build, or close, I don't recall it on .420 at all.

I had a random reboot two days back too, my second ever, but annoying, and my calls are dropping more frequently too. Makes me wonder what they did, given that the firmware update is yet to come...
If you open a feedback, let me know and I'll "upvote" it.

 

[sschevy010]

Originally posted by PGrey
Yeah, I got a message yesterday, saying my tower problems was fixed, but my phone is still suffering the same situation you describe.
Definitely seems to have come along around the .494 build, or close, I don't recall it on .420 at all.

I had a random reboot two days back too, my second ever, but annoying, and my calls are dropping more frequently too. Makes me wonder what they did, given that the firmware update is yet to come...
If you open a feedback, let me know and I'll "upvote" it.

Well... I have the firmware update on mine and is no difference... I did it through the device recovery tool for which I rolled back from real buggy 14388... So I stayed in release candidate lol

 

[sschevy010]

I also had random multi screen freeze up a couple times but nothing else other than blank screen from time to time until I reboot device.

 

[anthonyng]

Have you tried other sims? You need to try to isolate that first. When my 3G/4G radios somehow died, I was able to demostrate by plugging other known working sims.

 

[sschevy010]

Originally posted by anthonyng
Have you tried other sims? You need to try to isolate that first. When my 3G/4G radios somehow died, I was able to demostrate by plugging other known working sims.

Just fyi, I did mention that I came from Lumia 1520 for which I just moved the SIM card around from phone to phone. Even switched back to make sure it wasn't that. Which I didn't mention that in original post but just moving from 1520.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Interesting thing about this thread and others in the forum is where signal losses only seem to happen with users in the USA rly:

 

[PJL99]

Interesting thing about this thread and others in the forum is where signal losses only seem to happen with users in the USA rly:

That would be AT&T in the U.S. I believe adaptive power management is happening. I just checked and had one bar. Then I initiated a call. It immediately jumped to five bars. I terminated the call and it dropped back to one bar within about ten seconds. I believe this is normal behavior for adaptive power management. It's a smart feature to conserve battery life. A receiver set to full power is not necessary unless it is actively being used.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

That would be AT&T in the U.S. I believe adaptive power management is happening. I just checked and had one bar. Then I initiated a call. It immediately jumped to five bars. I terminated the call and it dropped back to one bar within about ten seconds. I believe this is normal behavior for adaptive power management. It's a smart feature to conserve battery life. A receiver set to full power is not necessary unless it is actively being used.

that's an interesting theory but I haven't seen that anywhere else. One of our local carriers has the opposite behaviour - it shows full strength but when you initiate a call, the bars go to1 or even 0 and into emergency calls only :grincry:

 

[PJL99]

that's an interesting theory but I haven't seen that anywhere else. One of our local carriers has the opposite behaviour - it shows full strength but when you initiate a call, the bars go to1 or even 0 and into emergency calls only :grincry:

What I described is not a theory. It is actual, observed behavior. Do you have an alternative explanation for the varying signal strength that is repeatable and precisely related to initiating and terminating a call? I would be interested in hearing it. I might have missed something.

 

[PGrey]

That would be AT&T in the U.S. I believe adaptive power management is happening. I just checked and had one bar. Then I initiated a call. It immediately jumped to five bars. I terminated the call and it dropped back to one bar within about ten seconds. I believe this is normal behavior for adaptive power management. It's a smart feature to conserve battery life. A receiver set to full power is not necessary unless it is actively being used.

This is what happens to me too, with AT&T, it's almost 100% repro-able.
Part of it is that when you have AT&T though, you drop/change from LTE to 4G, when making the call, since AT&T won't support (not can't, won't) VoLTE on non-branded phones here.
Since you're essentially switching radio connections (dropping LTE, picking up 4G), I'm not sure this is a very valid test, power or other adaptive mechanisms aside?
I think if you could force your phone into 4G to start with, then it would be interesting. I can force 3G, but don't see a 4G option.

BTW: the data speed issues I was seeing have more or less resolved, with the firmware update, or maybe it was a tower update, although I got "tower fixed" message from AT&T the day before I did my update, and my speeds were still really abysmal. I'm back up to reasonable now.

 

[PJL99]

This is what happens to me too, with AT&T, it's almost 100% repro-able.
Part of it is that when you have AT&T though, you drop/change from LTE to 4G, when making the call, since AT&T won't support (not can't, won't) VoLTE on non-branded phones here.
Since you're essentially switching radio connections (dropping LTE, picking up 4G), I'm not sure this is a very valid test, power or other adaptive mechanisms aside?
I think if you could force your phone into 4G to start with, then it would be interesting. I can force 3G, but don't see a 4G option.

BTW: the data speed issues I was seeing have more or less resolved, with the firmware update, or maybe it was a tower update, although I got "tower fixed" message from AT&T the day before I did my update, and my speeds were still really abysmal. I'm back up to reasonable now.

Hmmm...different behavior here. I just paid close attention to what network showed (LTE or 4G). Before, during and after a test call I believe the network remained LTE. So there was no network switch for me. You experience varies from mine clearly. Or I could be wrong...

 

[PGrey]

If you're on LTE, it will 100% switch, unless you have the AT&T branded 950?

AT&T will not provision VoLTE on non-branded phones, period. I've tried six different ways to get it done, no luck, they refuse to even put the 950XL into their DB, which would be the first step. Other than that, the phone would "just work" in VoLTE, it's already working on the 950, and the 950XL works on some EU providers.

Last I checked, T-Mobile was the same, so as far as I know, any US carrier will switch in/out of LTE/4G, when you place a call, it's just a fact.

If you're elsewhere in the world, with a provider that provisions extended LTE, then your experience could be all LTE...

So, the question is, which provider? If you have AT&T, this is about a 3-5 second test, you'll see it go to 4G, every-single-time...

 

[PJL99]

Like I said, I could be wrong.

 

[PGrey]

Like I said, I could be wrong.

If you get a chance to test it, let us know, I'm curious; particularly if you're in the US, and can make a call on LTE (not as interested if you have an AT&T branded 950 though, that's a given).

 

[PJL99]

I have two 950 XLs.