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Galaxy S9 Series user thread


SturgeonGeneral

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Starting to think this phone simply isn't getting it. But, when I use LTE calling on this S9, the call quality is horrendous. I'd rather not use it and keep legacy 800 CDMA. Voice over LTE will never be even close to as reliable, at least from my experience here in Atlanta when using LTE calling vs CDMA. The difference is staggering.

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Starting to think this phone simply isn't getting it. But, when I use LTE calling on this S9, the call quality is horrendous. I'd rather not use it and keep legacy 800 CDMA. Voice over LTE will never be even close to as reliable, at least from my experience here in Atlanta when using LTE calling vs CDMA. The difference is staggering.
Voice over LTE has minimum GBR as part of its QOS. Calling Plus does not.


There is a world of difference between the two implementations and the voice quality.

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I hope so because I've been using this LTE calling in beta as a proxy for how voice over LTE will function (without further optimization).  If that were the case, Sprint's well respected call quality would quickly evaporate into the ether of the past. Glad to hear that's not necessarily the case. 

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I hope so because I've been using this LTE calling in beta as a proxy for how voice over LTE will function (without further optimization).  If that were the case, Sprint's well respected call quality would quickly evaporate into the ether of the past. Glad to hear that's not necessarily the case. 
Calling+ is not a good proxy for VoLTE. It's night and day difference. VoLTE will never suffer from congestion. Calling+ is impacted severely by it. If you're moving (such as in a car), I've noticed the network will move you to B26 to minimize handoffs and cutouts while on a VoLTE call (remember, congestion doesn't affect VoLTE. It's as though B26 is unloaded). The network doesn't know you're on a Calling+ call, so you'll get stuck with B41 unusual upload, etc, and the call will cut out.

As an example, I was in a subway station waiting for a train. There was a DAS with B25 and B26 only. Data was literally unusable. I couldn't even send a message in a chat. 0 throughput. Yet a VoLTE call I did was crystal clear.

Read my wall post if you want a technical breakdown of the difference https://s4gru.com/entry/439-sprints-casting-call-of-voice-over-actors-an-in-depth-analysis-of-volte-calling-and-vowifi/

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Calling+ is not a good proxy for VoLTE. It's night and day difference. VoLTE will never suffer from congestion. Calling+ is impacted severely by it. If you're moving (such as in a car), I've noticed the network will move you to B26 to minimize handoffs and cutouts while on a VoLTE call (remember, congestion doesn't affect VoLTE. It's as though B26 is unloaded). The network doesn't know you're on a Calling+ call, so you'll get stuck with B41 unusual upload, etc, and the call will cut out.

As an example, I was in a subway station waiting for a train. There was a DAS with B25 and B26 only. Data was literally unusable. I couldn't even send a message in a chat. 0 throughput. Yet a VoLTE call I did was crystal clear.

Read my wall post if you want a technical breakdown of the difference https://s4gru.com/entry/439-sprints-casting-call-of-voice-over-actors-an-in-depth-analysis-of-volte-calling-and-vowifi/

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I remember when every carrier had VoLTE but Sprint everyone was saying how it wasnt needed, then after calling plus came they raved about how great it was and later when VoLTE came now calling plus is crap.

What's weird is I had calling plus and watched the quality degrade to the point where Sprint stopped offering it with the Note 9. Point is VoLTE I hope is not being over hyped. At least in my area VoLTE clarity and reliability is better than Calling plus but honestly not by much. Especially if it's a VoLTE to Non VoLTE call.

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16 hours ago, ingenium said:

Calling+ is not a good proxy for VoLTE. It's night and day difference. VoLTE will never suffer from congestion. Calling+ is impacted severely by it. If you're moving (such as in a car), I've noticed the network will move you to B26 to minimize handoffs and cutouts while on a VoLTE call (remember, congestion doesn't affect VoLTE. It's as though B26 is unloaded). The network doesn't know you're on a Calling+ call, so you'll get stuck with B41 unusual upload, etc, and the call will cut out.

As an example, I was in a subway station waiting for a train. There was a DAS with B25 and B26 only. Data was literally unusable. I couldn't even send a message in a chat. 0 throughput. Yet a VoLTE call I did was crystal clear.

Read my wall post if you want a technical breakdown of the difference https://s4gru.com/entry/439-sprints-casting-call-of-voice-over-actors-an-in-depth-analysis-of-volte-calling-and-vowifi/

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
 

That was my whole point. That I was admittedly wrong. I thought that was obvious in my response. That said I'll definitely revisit your article. Thanks for the great information!

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Don't waste the effort asking. It'll be BIG news at this point if it EVER hits and I suspect there will be rumors before it happens. As long as it is quiet and as long as there isn't a second follow up screen shot almost immediately you can safely assume there is no news. Even when it does finally hit it will be a disappointment in some way I'm sure.

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2 hours ago, Terrell352 said:


I’m tired of asking the same question but let us know if VoLTE is finally in this one.


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Just installed the update on my S9.  No VOLTE unless they hid it somewhere.  Also, no improved Carrier aggregation either.The last two updates done NOTHING that is visible to me.  This is really starting to tweak me.  WHY is the s9 being treated so badly?  Is there some type of fatal design flaw with these phones that can not be overcome?   VOLTE is available almost everywhere, but why not on the S9 which is still fairly new?    No new aggregation options.  It really needs the 25 &41 aggregation that is talked about but never appears.

    Due to improvements probably at the cell sites, I am getting locked onto band 41 much more frequently. But it is not usable because of the poor upload from the phone.  I actually have LTE+ in my home at levels of -111 to -128.  But at those levels, I get absolutely NO upload.  No wonder people say Sprint Sucks and leave for another carrier.  I do use Wi-Fi at home and that solves the issue at home, but waling into another building somewhere causes the DATA to freeze at these levels.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The September update for the unlocked version is available today if you manually check for it.

I have it installed.  No option to turn on VOLTE.   No new carrier aggregation options.  This is getting old. Reporting this same news month after month.  I have had about 8 or 9 monthly updates to this UNLOCKED S9 since it was new and I am not seeing any improvements to it.     Why would a S9 be getting ignored? 

My CDMA 1x service works fine and I really am not suffering because I lack VOLTE.  But it just is the bungling and fumbling on getting VOLTE active and it is for no apparent reason. 

  Then they allow band 41 to take over about everything and keep me on it almost everywhere when upload does not work well on band 41.  This upload issue was known before they even launched B-41. Being connected to B-41 on LTE+ at levels of -110 to -130 is a disaster.  And it just continues and continues. No upload at all and the phone stays on the unusable B-41.

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The September update for the unlocked version is available today if you manually check for it.
I have it installed.  No option to turn on VOLTE.   No new carrier aggregation options.  This is getting old. Reporting this same news month after month.  I have had about 8 or 9 monthly updates to this UNLOCKED S9 since it was new and I am not seeing any improvements to it.     Why would a S9 be getting ignored? 
My CDMA 1x service works fine and I really am not suffering because I lack VOLTE.  But it just is the bungling and fumbling on getting VOLTE active and it is for no apparent reason. 
  Then they allow band 41 to take over about everything and keep me on it almost everywhere when upload does not work well on band 41.  This upload issue was known before they even launched B-41. Being connected to B-41 on LTE+ at levels of -110 to -130 is a disaster.  And it just continues and continues. No upload at all and the phone stays on the unusable B-41.

This is why interband CA is so important. How the Sprint executive network doesn’t know that is beyond me. It’s software and doesn’t cost them much to get this rolling. I just don’t understand. Also the S9 radio is just really good at b41 it’s not the network. As soon as I switched to the S10 5G I thought it was a worse network performer but in reality it was just switching bands better even if the bands it switched to was congested and slow but that’s really Sprints fault for not using interband CA.


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2 minutes ago, Terrell352 said:


This is why interband CA is so important. How the Sprint executive network doesn’t know that is beyond me. It’s software and doesn’t cost them much to get this rolling. I just don’t understand. Also the S9 radio is just really good at b41 it’s not the network. As soon as I switched to the S10 5G I thought it was a worse network performer but in reality it was just switching bands better even if the bands it switched to was congested and slow but that’s really Sprints fault for not using interband CA.


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The s9 is good at receiving Band 41, but not transmitting to the cell site.  My question is --- why don't they fix this?  Kick the s9 off band 41 when it struggles to upload to band 41 and can't do it.    Or better yet, get band 25 upload going with band 41 download.   Do something.  Just fix it and yesterday.

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The s9 is good at receiving Band 41, but not transmitting to the cell site.  My question is --- why don't they fix this?  Kick the s9 off band 41 when it struggles to upload to band 41 and can't do it.    Or better yet, get band 25 upload going with band 41 download.   Do something.  Just fix it and yesterday.
Band 25 primary with b41 secondary is called interband CA. That's what I was saying. Sprint is the only carrier not using it. Hell the other 3 carriers also use intraband CA just like Sprint. John Saw let's go get it right.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/5/2019 at 5:39 PM, Jeff68005 said:

I am having problems with Samsung Pay on my Galaxy S9.  Where on that phone model is the NFC antenna?  Any tips on how to make Samsung Pay work more reliably?

The NFC antenna and wireless charging coil are roughly in the same place in the middle of the back of the phone. The MST antenna is around the top portion of the phone, around the camera.

Basically, for MST tap the camera to the magstripe reader and for NFC tap the back-middle of the phone to the NFC reader.

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