Well after a month of reading threads and trying to get info on receiving signal strength on the new iphones, I finally broke down yesterday and purchased an iphone mini.
I've been very curious about that signal strength, and I have read all kinds of conflicting reports based mainly on the bars on the phone and the download speeds (neither of which are true indicators of signal strength). Using an app on my 2 Android phones and using field test mode on the iphone (there is no signal strength iphone app), I have done many comparisons over the past day and a half and found that, the iphone mini (at least the one I have) is not doing very well as far as reception is concerned. It's unbelievably inconsistent too.
Anything below -90dBm is a good signal. Anything below -70dBm is a very good signal. In an area where my Androids always get between -70 and -80, the iphone in the same location occasionally comes close but is usually more likely to be between 8 and 15dBm worse than either Android. This is actually as bad as any iphone I have ever done this comparison with. What's even more interesting is that the differences can range anywhere from a couple of dBm to more than 15dBm difference at any given time. It almost looks as if the iphone is constantly trying out different cell sites, even the poor ones to get a signal to hold onto.
Interestingly, the bars on the phone rarely go below 4, and the download speeds are very good. It seems as though Apple (or my carrier, T-Mobile) has gotten very liberal in the bar display, keeping them higher for a given signal than they used to, thus giving a false impression of great signal. What's a much better indicator is the dBm measurements, and they are not very convincing.
Not sure if I just purchased a dud, but I can certainly see why so many people have had issues holding onto signals with these phones. I've owned many iphones in the past and none have shown as good results as the Androids but they have all been better than this. An Xr that I had was actually very close showing maybe only 3 or 4dBm lower than any Android I've owned. But this one? Being routinely 15dBM worse? I really was hoping that the switch back to Qualcomm may have helped these phones, and it did as far as download speed is concerned, but I honestly think that as far as signal strength goes, they may actually be worse than the Intel modems used in the iphone 11 series. My results with this mini have certainly shown this to be the case.
I do have ios 14.2.1 installed and have not had one bit of trouble with the touch screen or anything else for that matter. The screen was a bit yellow at first, but it's stabilized in the past day and actually looks pretty good. By the way, turn off true tone and it won't look as yellow. But this signal strength issue just may be a deal breaker for me.
I'm not giving up yet though as I do like the size of this phone more than anything. If anyone is interested, I'll report back as I am not in a position to return it till after the holiday anyway.
I've been very curious about that signal strength, and I have read all kinds of conflicting reports based mainly on the bars on the phone and the download speeds (neither of which are true indicators of signal strength). Using an app on my 2 Android phones and using field test mode on the iphone (there is no signal strength iphone app), I have done many comparisons over the past day and a half and found that, the iphone mini (at least the one I have) is not doing very well as far as reception is concerned. It's unbelievably inconsistent too.
Anything below -90dBm is a good signal. Anything below -70dBm is a very good signal. In an area where my Androids always get between -70 and -80, the iphone in the same location occasionally comes close but is usually more likely to be between 8 and 15dBm worse than either Android. This is actually as bad as any iphone I have ever done this comparison with. What's even more interesting is that the differences can range anywhere from a couple of dBm to more than 15dBm difference at any given time. It almost looks as if the iphone is constantly trying out different cell sites, even the poor ones to get a signal to hold onto.
Interestingly, the bars on the phone rarely go below 4, and the download speeds are very good. It seems as though Apple (or my carrier, T-Mobile) has gotten very liberal in the bar display, keeping them higher for a given signal than they used to, thus giving a false impression of great signal. What's a much better indicator is the dBm measurements, and they are not very convincing.
Not sure if I just purchased a dud, but I can certainly see why so many people have had issues holding onto signals with these phones. I've owned many iphones in the past and none have shown as good results as the Androids but they have all been better than this. An Xr that I had was actually very close showing maybe only 3 or 4dBm lower than any Android I've owned. But this one? Being routinely 15dBM worse? I really was hoping that the switch back to Qualcomm may have helped these phones, and it did as far as download speed is concerned, but I honestly think that as far as signal strength goes, they may actually be worse than the Intel modems used in the iphone 11 series. My results with this mini have certainly shown this to be the case.
I do have ios 14.2.1 installed and have not had one bit of trouble with the touch screen or anything else for that matter. The screen was a bit yellow at first, but it's stabilized in the past day and actually looks pretty good. By the way, turn off true tone and it won't look as yellow. But this signal strength issue just may be a deal breaker for me.
I'm not giving up yet though as I do like the size of this phone more than anything. If anyone is interested, I'll report back as I am not in a position to return it till after the holiday anyway.
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