W995 abnormal signal strength

[daaceking]

Hello,

my phone's signal seems suspicious. every phone i have had, has excellent network coverage, with the signal bar show perfect/almost perfect signal. the w995 show 3 bars on average and reduces to the red section. when in a call, the bars reach full 5. i have tried 3 and o2. i know for a fact that 3 should be much better. any ideas? Is the antenna in an awkward place like the iphone 4?

thanks,

[Uliwooly]

do you have another phone with the same carrier that you can test side by side?

because if this is something recent then it could be a network issue, some 3G towers down, etc

[Dr_Chris]

Yes, I have noticed the difference in signal strength between the W995 and the W595, using the same SIM card (Virgin), the W595 giving a stronger signal overall.There have been complaints about this on various forums and it has been blamed on the phone's antenna being in the wrong place, but personally I haven't had any problems with calls or texts on the W995, despite this apparent drop in signal strength, in comparison to the W595 anyway.

[Dr_Chris]

http://www.ezlan.net/wbars.html Just a bit of info explaining why a higher number of signal bars doesn't necessarily translate into a higher signal strength or better reception.

[daaceking]

i'll read it in a while. thanks,

ok, i did some tests. sagem x5-2 (old colour phone, basic) vs w995 (the clown in a businessman's suit)

x5-2 is connected to gprs at four bars. the w995 connects to H, which i think is hsdpa, a level above 3g at full 5 bars if left alone. and deteriorates a lot, when picked up. what i noticed was that the bars drop, then it goes to 3g, and full bars, then the bars drop and go to normal mode with full bars, then drop further to about 3-1 but never loses signal. i don't think the w995 likes me.:smileyplain: i did mention that if i was in a call, there were 5 bars throughout. i'm not sure how hsdpa would do if i was connect to network's internet.

where is the antenna? is this normal? i'm thinking it is the same as iphone 4. sony ericsson, stand up and give as free signal booster cases!

[Dr_Chris]

HSDPA on my W995 actually works very well in my area on Virgin, although it tends to alternate between H and 3G quite a lot, something which is most probably down to being at the "cusp", so to speak, between the two services of my network.The internet speed itself on 3G and H can vary between 1.5 and 4Mb/s (using mobilespeed.com), which isn't bad considering the max quoted download speed is supposed to be 7.2Mb/s for this phone, again this being dependent on the specific carrier.As for the signal bars,these,as I mentioned earlier, can be a poor indicator of signal strength, due to the signal to noise ratio.I have read that the antenna on the W995 is towards the bottom end of the phone, so I don't know if this is the same as it is on the iphone 4.

[daaceking]

my understanding of what the page said, was that it measures both noise and signal and determines on that and less bars with no noise is better. correct me if i'm wrong but that is what i understood just skim read. also, it is difficult to actually determine actual signal from noise. i don't think the w995 is so advanced as to be able to determine signal strength from noise. newer phones such as nokia 5230 can't appear to do it. i don't think the w995 is showing actual signal. my 5230's antenna is at the bottom and goes to 3g at it's worst.

[Dr_Chris]

Yes, you understood correctly, and the signal bars on mobile phones don't distinguish between the actual signal and the noise, they just give you the total at that particular frequency mentioned in the link I posted.What you would need is an instrument that measures the signal to noise ratio (SNR), the higher the SNR the better the actual signal strength.When you compare the signal bars between different mobiles, you have the extra complication of differences in the aerials (design, position in the phone, etc) between manufacturers and/or phone models.

[daaceking]

i agree. so are you saying this is normal of the w995? you said you had similar issues.

thanks,

[Dr_Chris · Accepted solution]

Yes, I think it is, because despite the fluctuations in the number of signal bars such as you mentioned, I've never had any problems with actual reception.However, I suspect that there are differences in reception between different batches of the W995, because there are some reviewers that praise the phone for its good reception and others that are not so impressed.