iPhone 5 RF Performance

[spotmeterf64]

I'm currently using a Galaxy Nexus, which is well known for crappy RF Performance and poor battery life.

 

I am ready to sell this phone back to Sprint, not only for it's poor RF performance and battery life, but also for it's idiosyncrasies of stock Android (it doesn't split long texts, no visual voicemail to name a few).

 

Been missing iOS. Had an iPhone 4 and iPad, loved the OS and more than that the apps. But, if I am going to do this the phone has to be better than the Nexus.

 

Battery life I presume will be good; the Nexus will get me to Noon with the stock battery with medium usage, I presume the iPhone 5 will get me to the end of the day, if it's in any way similar to the iPhone 4 (maybe even through to the next day). This is one thing that Apple has figured out.

 

One thing that a lot of reviewers don't mention is RF performance. How well does the phone hold a signal, and is it capable of making calls successfully in poor signal areas?

 

Thanks for any insight regarding this. I realize I can buy the phone and try it for 14 days, which I will more than likely do in the near future, but in the meantime I'd like to hear it from people that have used the phone for a while.

[digiblur]

Two bytes... S3

 

All I am saying and I am out.

 

Sent from my little Note2

[WiWavelength]

Two bytes... S3

 

"S3" could be expressed as 7-bit ASCII. So, that would be two bits short of two bytes.

 

 

AJ

[spotmeterf64]

I appreciate your input, digiblur, but I posted in the iOS forum because I want experiences from iPhone 5 owners. I am not currently considering the S3 and your two bytes will not change my mind.

[WiWavelength]

Since the iPhone 4 redesign, the iPhone has used an external antenna. Absent iPhone 4 "antenna-gate," RF performance has been measurably very good. That is the least of your worries.

 

AJ

[spotmeterf64]

I completely understand what I give up and what I gain by choosing iOS over Android. Thanks for reassuring me with the RF performance. I figured it would be good, but wanted to be sure before I bought one.

[nahum365]

Don't worry about RF performance. It's great.

Can't say the same for battery life. I'm a heavy user, and I'm currently at 6%. What's so bad about that? Well it's been in Airplane mode from 8AM to 4PM. But I've been using it abnormally heavily since Monday because of the jailbreak.

 

TLDR: Signal is not a problem, I would worry a bit about battery though.

[digiblur]

I appreciate your input, digiblur, but I posted in the iOS forum because I want experiences from iPhone 5 owners. I am not currently considering the S3 and your two bytes will not change my mind.

 

I don't browse by forum just by new posts.

 

Just my recommendation on a great phone with good RF characteristics and works very well for contributing to the Sensorly effort as well.

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

 

[spotmeterf64]

I don't browse by forum just by new posts.

 

Just my recommendation on a great phone with good RF characteristics and works very well for contributing to the Sensorly effort as well.

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

I understand, but you should also understand that a member posting in an iPhone category expects recommendations pertaining to that question. If I posted in a Ford forum asking for experiences with the 2013 F-150, forgive me for being nonplussed if someone recommends a Silverado instead.

[Boosted20V]

If you look towards the bottom of the page there is a similar thread. 2 phones on my account are iPhone 5's and both are excellent RF performers. I agree with the battery life comment, that is my only gripe. Check out the iPhone5 antenna thread below.

[MacinJosh]

The new Mophie will be shipping late next week for the iPhone 5. It increases the battery life to almost on par with Sprint's current flagship phones.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

[nobius]

Don't worry about RF performance. It's great.

Can't say the same for battery life. I'm a heavy user, and I'm currently at 6%. What's so bad about that? Well it's been in Airplane mode from 8AM to 4PM. But I've been using it abnormally heavily since Monday because of the jailbreak.

 

TLDR: Signal is not a problem, I would worry a bit about battery though.

 

I get pretty great battery life from my iPhone 5 unless I'm streaming a lot or mapping signal with RootMetrics.

[strumgewr]

Battery life has been superb on my iPhone 5. I stream about an hour of music, at least an hour of browsing a day, some texts, and I can get throughout than a full day. In fact, sometimes I get more than 24 hours from a single charge, I'll just charge my phone before leaving for work in the morning. All while connected to LTE 99% of the time.

[NiteSnow]

Battery life has been superb on my iPhone 5. I stream about an hour of music, at least an hour of browsing a day, some texts, and I can get throughout than a full day. In fact, sometimes I get more than 24 hours from a single charge, I'll just charge my phone before leaving for work in the morning. All while connected to LTE 99% of the time.

 

LTE... Ohio... Elaborate please?

[strumgewr]

On at&t, sorry I didn't specify. Patently waiting for sprint to get things going here.

[Deval]

I've had no issues with battery life on my iPhone 5, in fact, I've found the battery lasts longer than my GS3 in daily usage.

 

As for coverage, I've found that the iPhone seems to roam faster, which makes me a happy camper when I'm inbuildings in NYC, etc.

[Kaixor]

The RF on the iPhone 5 is pretty good. As for battery life if you're the "normal" user (text often, check mail occasionally, play a few games, etc) then it should easily last you till the end of the day. Though if you're a heavy user like me (even more so recently because of the jailbreak) then expect about 6~7 hours of battery life

[xenadu]

Don't worry about RF performance. It's great.

Can't say the same for battery life. I'm a heavy user, and I'm currently at 6%. What's so bad about that? Well it's been in Airplane mode from 8AM to 4PM. But I've been using it abnormally heavily since Monday because of the jailbreak.

 

TLDR: Signal is not a problem, I would worry a bit about battery though.

 

I haven't had battery issues; after an update it uses high battery for a bit as it updates iCloud backups, etc but then it settles down.

 

However you can't jailbreak then complain about battery life! Some of the restrictions are explicitly to ensure high battery life! Switch back to stock iOS then compare battery life. If it still has issues then you can complain.

 

For reference mine easily lasts all day. If I switch to airplane mode I don't even lose 10% overnight, and that's playing a podcast in Downcast.

[aliensporebomb]

RF performance has been excellent with the iPhone5.

 

I went on a cross country trip in October with the iPhone 5, a friend who had an Android phone (also on Sprint) and his work Blackberry (on Verizon I believe).

 

The phone that had the best "you're in the middle of nowhere, you should know better than to expect good phone performance out there" was the iPhone5. In spots where the android couldn't get anything at all the iPhone5 did fine.

 

It was a slightly older Android though - it wasn't anything like an SIII. Running Gingerbread if I recall correctly.

 

I have found that some iPhone5 cases have acted a little like a faraday cage though - I was in a restaurant and the signal strength was in a bad area for Sprint and I was consistently seeing -119 dBm signal on my phone with the case on but removing the case it popped up to -98 dBm and was noticeably better performer.

 

My case is pretty thick so......

[Kaixor]

http://s8.postimage.org/hvfi7wfb9/image.jpg

 

The iPhone 5 tried very hard to maintain its LTE signal when it gets it

[Gab2012]

I'm currently using a Galaxy Nexus, which is well known for crappy RF Performance and poor battery life.

 

I am ready to sell this phone back to Sprint, not only for it's poor RF performance and battery life, but also for it's idiosyncrasies of stock Android (it doesn't split long texts, no visual voicemail to name a few).

 

Been missing iOS. Had an iPhone 4 and iPad, loved the OS and more than that the apps. But, if I am going to do this the phone has to be better than the Nexus.

 

Battery life I presume will be good; the Nexus will get me to Noon with the stock battery with medium usage, I presume the iPhone 5 will get me to the end of the day, if it's in any way similar to the iPhone 4 (maybe even through to the next day). This is one thing that Apple has figured out.

 

One thing that a lot of reviewers don't mention is RF performance. How well does the phone hold a signal, and is it capable of making calls successfully in poor signal areas?

 

Thanks for any insight regarding this. I realize I can buy the phone and try it for 14 days, which I will more than likely do in the near future, but in the meantime I'd like to hear it from people that have used the phone for a while.

 

I went through 5 replacements galaxy nexus phones. Bought an s3 out of my pocket and it was amazing compared to the nexus. Then a buddy sold me his iPhone 5 when he switched carriers for cheap.

 

I currently go back and forth on both phones and I think they're both solid performers rf wise. I like the 5 more because its simple and the battery lasts quite a while more in my experience.

 

 

[MacinJosh]

My RF experience is the iPhone 5 is great. Just wish I could compare it to a flagship device in normal usage. I love my battery life. I get 18+ hours on any given day. I love it! One thing I have noticed is that where I live my phone switches sectors a lot. kinda strange if you ask me, but I guess I'm right in the middle of 2 sectors. Oh well. Doesn't affect me much.

[compuwizz]

I also find that its hard for my iPhone 5 to keep ahold of a Sprint LTE signal. I don't know if Sprint isn't using full power or what yet, but it'll fade very fast where the 3G signal stays strong. When I'm signal hunting and looking at sensorly maps, I see I should be getting at least 3 bars, but usually its around 1. I tend to have to be really close to the tower to get 4 or 5 bars. It'll also jump ship back to 3G in a heartbeat. Then toggling to airplane mode and back and its back on LTE.

 

Friends with iPhones on other Verizon and AT&T seem to lock on and stay locked to LTE even in low signal areas.

[NaNa_Ch!LL]

I also find that its hard for my iPhone 5 to keep ahold of a Sprint LTE signal. I don't know if Sprint isn't using full power or what yet, but it'll fade very fast where the 3G signal stays strong. When I'm signal hunting and looking at sensorly maps, I see I should be getting at least 3 bars, but usually its around 1. I tend to have to be really close to the tower to get 4 or 5 bars. It'll also jump ship back to 3G in a heartbeat. Then toggling to airplane mode and back and its back on LTE.

 

Friends with iPhones on other Verizon and AT&T seem to lock on and stay locked to LTE even in low signal areas.

 

My iPhone seems to lock onto LTE very well even if the signal is weak (100-114 decibels. Signal still amazingly works sometimes but it's like slow 3G). However my phone tends to do this a lot and eats my battery.

 

As for AT&T and Verizon, it may have to do with the fact that their LTE network on on the 700mhz spectrum.

 

Btw my prl just changed from 55012 to 51095. O.o

[MacinJosh]

My iPhone seems to lock onto LTE very well even if the signal is weak (100-114 decibels. Signal still amazingly works sometimes but it's like slow 3G). However my phone tends to do this a lot and eats my battery.

 

As for AT&T and Verizon, it may have to do with the fact that their LTE network on on the 700mhz spectrum.

 

Btw my prl just changed from 55012 to 51095. O.o

 

Mine just did too.