[carnivalist]

I've just recently upgraded to the handset on Orange and TBH I'm finding it a bit of a trial to use.

Although I live in London, I'm currently in Exeter, where I spend a fair bit of time. Reception indoors has always been iffy in the section of the Exe Valley where I stay, presumably because of the higher frequency Orange use. (I travel around the country watching football and my personal experience is that Orange seem to have more issues indoors and on trains etc than O2 and Vodafone.)

I recently upgraded after (too) many years on an expensive old contract using a Sony Ericsson P910 (don't ask!). As I say, the reception in Exeter was patchy indoors with this phone, but fine outside.

To my very great surprise, the reception on the S3 seems noticeably worse. It is only occasionally getting full bars even outside - I was in the Town Centre the other day and even there it was often not showing full bars. I've spent a few days comparing it with the Sony Ericsson P910, which is now on an old Orange PAYG SIM. It is often the case that the S3 is showing significantly worse reception than the P910. For example, I was out in a field today and the S3 was fluctuating between one and three bars, where the P910 was full bars nearly all the time.

It crossed my mind that this might be due to the different calibration of the two phones' indicators, but it does seem to me that the S3 drops and breaks up more calls than the P910 in the indoor environment I mentioned earlier; i.e where there is a weak Orange Signal. That is not to say that the P910 doesn't struggle in those conditions as well, but it doesn't seem to happen as often.

Moreover the call quality of the S3 seems unpleasant and tiring to listen to. It sounds quite harsh to me - a little like listening to a walkie-talkie, if that makes sense. I have heard the odd complaint about the quality from people I call - someone said that I was briefly sounding like Metal Mickey at one point during a conversation.

This issue is worrying for me as I'm a little hard-of-hearing and sometimes the call quality is making conversations a little stressful. I have not really had this issue with the P910. It did strike me that the problem might be an indication of poor reception, although I don't know if this makes sense.

Another thing is the appalling battery life. I'm not even getting a day's use out of it. Perhaps this is due to the phone searching for signal?

I have been questioning whether I'm being too picky. I've sailed along on an old contract with an old phone with the comfort of familiarity that breeds over such a long time. My P910 has mostly been a dream to use apart form recent problems of age - it was near-perfect when it was first released and gave me no cause to question it. Consequently I'm out of my comfort zone as I loved the P910. I'm considering that maybe the call quality issues etc are commonplace in modern handsets.

I'm not really sure what to do now. I'm in the 14 day notice period, so I could hand the phone back and leave as I was originally considering. However Orange made me what I thought at the time was a decent upgrade offer - although I've been wondering whether it might be trumped over the time of the contract by one of the other operators unlimited internet deals. (Details of the offer can be found on a separate thread here

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...62&postcount=1

so as to not make this post even longer.) I do have an issue with misrepresentation though, as the Retentions assistant I spoke to told me that the S3 could switch between Orange and generic firmware, which isn't the case.

My S3 is astounding in every way, except for the issues mentioned above. If it was a tablet I would love it, so I would be disappointed to see it go, although I do have a sentimental attachment to my P910, which has served me well for eight years. I've been with Orange for nine years, so the prospect of leaping into unfamiliar territory with a new operator is somewhat daunting.

I thank all those who had the patience to read this in it's entirety. I'd be even more thankful if someone could guide me as to the best way forward.

[Stiggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnivalist

I've just recently upgraded to the handset on Orange and TBH I'm finding it a bit of a trial to use.

Although I live in London, I'm currently in Exeter, where I spend a fair bit of time. Reception indoors has always been iffy in the section of the Exe Valley where I stay, presumably because of the higher frequency Orange use. (I travel around the country watching football and my personal experience is that Orange seem to have more issues indoors and on trains etc than O2 and Vodafone.)

I recently upgraded after (too) many years on an expensive old contract using a Sony Ericsson P910 (don't ask!). As I say, the reception in Exeter was patchy indoors with this phone, but fine outside.

To my very great surprise, the reception on the S3 seems noticeably worse. It is only occasionally getting full bars even outside - I was in the Town Centre the other day and even there it was often not showing full bars. I've spent a few days comparing it with the Sony Ericsson P910, which is now on an old Orange PAYG SIM. It is often the case that the S3 is showing significantly worse reception than the P910. For example, I was out in a field today and the S3 was fluctuating between one and three bars, where the P910 was full bars nearly all the time.

It crossed my mind that this might be due to the different calibration of the two phones' indicators, but it does seem to me that the S3 drops and breaks up more calls than the P910 in the indoor environment I mentioned earlier; i.e where there is a weak Orange Signal. That is not to say that the P910 doesn't struggle in those conditions as well, but it doesn't seem to happen as often.

Moreover the call quality of the S3 seems unpleasant and tiring to listen to. It sounds quite harsh to me - a little like listening to a walkie-talkie, if that makes sense. I have heard the odd complaint about the quality from people I call - someone said that I was briefly sounding like Metal Mickey at one point during a conversation.

This issue is worrying for me as I'm a little hard-of-hearing and sometimes the call quality is making conversations a little stressful. I have not really had this issue with the P910. It did strike me that the problem might be an indication of poor reception, although I don't know if this makes sense.

Another thing is the appalling battery life. I'm not even getting a day's use out of it. Perhaps this is due to the phone searching for signal?

I have been questioning whether I'm being too picky. I've sailed along on an old contract with an old phone that was never any problem to use and was in fact near-perfect when it was first released and gave me no cause to question it. Consequently I'm out of my comfort zone as I loved the P910 and maybe the call quality issues etc are commonoplace in modern handsets.

I'm not really sure what to do now. I'm in the 14 day notice period, so I could hand the phone back and leave as I was originally considering. However Orange made me what I thought at the time was a decent upgrade offer - although I've been wondering whether it might be trumped over the time of the contract by one of the other operators unlimited internet deals. (Details of the offer can be found on a separate thread here so as to not make this post even longer.) I do have an issue with misrepresentation though, as the Retentions assistant I spoke to told me that the S3 could switch between Orange and generic firmware, which isn't the case.

My S3 is astounding in every way, except for the issues mentioned above. If it was a tablet I would love it, so I would be disappointed to see it go, although I do have a sentimental attachment to my P910, which has served me well for eight years. I've been with Orange for nine years, so the prospect of leaping into unfamiliar territory with a new operator is somewhat daunting.

I thank all those who had the patience to read this in it's entirety. I'd be even more thankful if someone could guide me as to the best way forward.

I'm not sure if you know but, the S3 hasa call equaliser to enhance the sound quality. Just press the setting button when in a call.

I think also Jelly Bean has a feature which will play tones and you click yes or no to whether you can hear them or not and it sets the tone that way. I'm sure i read that!

Anyway, try changing the equaliser and see how you get on.

[carnivalist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stiggles

I'm not sure if you know but, the S3 hasa call equaliser to enhance the sound quality. Just press the setting button when in a call.

I think also Jelly Bean has a feature which will play tones and you click yes or no to whether you can hear them or not and it sets the tone that way. I'm sure i read that!

Anyway, try changing the equaliser and see how you get on.

Sorry, do you mean the "SettingS button, or some other feature? Does this feature change the sound quality permanently, or do you have to reset it for every call?

The problem with the Jelly Bean upgrade is that presumably Orange will take their time releasing their version - and also the question of whether they tamper with it or not.

I'm assuming from your post that you're a (proud?) owner of the S3. Have you experienced anything like my apparent reception issues?

Thanks for your help.

[Tracey.l]

I don't have the S3 but this is not the first time I've heard of such problems with it. If you're with your 14 days maybe try to return it and get a more reliable phone?

[Stiggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnivalist

Sorry, do you mean the "SettingS button, or some other feature? Does this feature change the sound quality permanently, or do you have to reset it for every call?

The problem with the Jelly Bean upgrade is that presumably Orange will take their time releasing their version - and also the question of whether they tamper with it or not.

I'm assuming from your post that you're a (proud?) owner of the S3. Have you experienced anything like my apparent reception issues?

Thanks for your help.

Sorry, was watching telly as i was typing!

Yes, i own an S3 and love it! I mean the button on the bottom left. Press it while in call and it should have Call Equalizer or something. I've no idea if it changes it permanently or not though.

As for reception, no, haven't experienced any issues with mine on o2. Its better than my Iphone 4S was for reception anyway. Does it say 3G or H on the top where the signal is? If its either of them, then 1 or 2 bars is fine. If that signal drops you should then still get a full 2G signal. Your old phone will have only had a 2G signal i think.

[pi r squared]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stiggles

Does it say 3G or H on the top where the signal is? If its either of them, then 1 or 2 bars is fine. If that signal drops you should then still get a full 2G signal. Your old phone will have only had a 2G signal i think.

On a similar note, carnivalist, you may find your reception improves if you set your phone to permanently use 2G instead of 3G (Settings > Wireless & Networks > More... > Mobile Networks), although clearly this will severely limit the speed of your mobile internet connection - though if the 3G service is poor, it mightn't make all that much difference. The 3G/2G switch also has a massive affect on battery life, in my experience, though your battery should improve over the coming days anyway as it needs to go through a few cycles before becoming prime.

[carnivalist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracey.l

I don't have the S3 but this is not the first time I've heard of such problems with it. If you're with your 14 days maybe try to return it and get a more reliable phone?

Do you mean a different make, or a more reliable S3?

[Stiggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnivalist

Do you mean a different make, or a more reliable S3?

He means a different phone, but to be honest he seems to have a gripe with android phones so I would ignore that comment. Try what we have suggested first and see how you get on.

[pingu01]

You can check the signal strength in dBm by going to settings->about device->status. Look online to see what it means (generally 100+ is poor, under 100 is ok). There's free apps too such as "network signal info" which will display this info and more, as well as wifi signal info/strength. You can also force which radios are used/preferred in the system menu (dial *#*#4636#*#*) although the default is probably best.

I've been reading up on this over the weekend as I have a One x and an S3 and although I like them both, I'll probably end up keeping the One x as it gets better wifi and cell reception. If you look online it seems Samsung's seem to suffer from this in general compared to many other manufacturers.

[alanwarwic]

First off bars are irrelevant. Apple is infamous for its big bars policy.

The reason is almost surely 3G. Your old phone is 2G so simply set the smartphone to only use 2G.
Note that this facility was recently removed on competitor phones but it should be there.

Also note that no smartphones beat quality non smartphones for reception. When smartphones became popular phones calls were deemed of low importance. And anyway, no one dared blame the phone.

[Tracey.l]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnivalist

Do you mean a different make, or a more reliable S3?

If you liked the S3 I would say try another S3 first, its doubt full the second phone will have problems and it is a very powerful phone.

[DaveProudlock]

I'm disappointed with the cellular reception on the S3, nowhere near as good as my trusty N8, was monitoring the dBm values over the weekend, S3 always showing weakerr signal on 2G, when it comes to 3G, there's a huge difference, the S3 struggling to get one bar whilst the N8 is showing full bars. Guess Samsung haven't mastered antenna design yet.

[carnivalist]

For anyone who's interested, here are some pics of the problems. You can clearly see the reception comparison between the S3 and the battered SE P910, both on Orange.

Also note the battery indicator on the S3 - this is approximately 1 hour after an overnight charge, with power saving, auto display off set to a very short time and auto screen brightness on. There was zero use of the phone.


Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 Outdoors, Slighty Elevated Position, Exe Valley
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 - Kitchen, Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 - Living Room, Front of Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 - Hallway, Front of Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 Near Rear Window Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

[carnivalist]

I should have made that edit a new post as no-one looking at the front page will realise any pictures have been posted.

[alanwarwic]

You really need the DB readings and 2G and 3G readings.

If we all did that, manufacturers like Apple would be forced to make bigger bars come back.

[carnivalist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanwarwic

You really need the DB readings and 2G and 3G readings.

If we all did that, manufacturers like Apple would be forced to make bigger bars come back.

I believe there's something in the S3 settings which gives some information, but I can't do any of that for the SE P910.Therefore I wouldn't be able to establish that the S3 is the problem, as opposed to the network.

[pingu01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnivalist

For anyone who's interested, here are some pics of the problems. You can clearly see the reception comparison between the S3 and the battered SE P910, both on Orange.

Also note the battery indicator on the S3 - this is approximately 1 hour after an overnight charge, with power saving, auto display off set to a very short time and auto screen brightness on. There was zero use of the phone.


Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 Outdoors, Slighty Elevated Position, Exe Valley
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 - Kitchen, Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 - Living Room, Front of Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 - Hallway, Front of Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

Orange,T-Mobile Reception Samsung S3 v P910 Near Rear Window Exe Valley House
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...receptions.jpg

You need to make sure you're comparing like with like - check whether your SE is 2g only (I would have thought it was) If so then force your GS3 to go into 2g only (mobile network->network mode-> GSM only, then compare signal strength.

[carnivalist]

You guys know your stuff. There was an improvement in the bars on the S3 in GSM only. It was still slightly worse on the meter than the P910, but when testing by calling an answerphone and playing it back, the GS3 call seemed better, given that the Orange signal isn't great in the first place. I guessthat proves the FM who said bars mean little in comparing the reception of was right. Incidentally, shouldn't the phone switch from 3G to 2G if reception is poor?

If only there was some sort of national infrastructure for mobile phones and you could make a choice based on competing service plans, rather than so often being hamstrung by which operator has usable reception. After all, rail is privatised and we pay fortunes in taxes to underwrite the rail networks - and that isn't even a truly competitive market (i.e you can't really choose between different operators for the same journey in most cases). What if we had a situation where Virgin owned the track and charged FGW a fee to use it,forcing them to either put their prices up or cut certain routes?

Haven't mobile phones reached the position where the service could almost be described as vital? After all, there are fewer public payphones, to the extent where I'm sure I've heard the police advise lone women to carry a mobile phone on a journey late at night, or in sparsely populated area, or on a motorway journey. What if a woman were running from your friendly neighborhood axe-murderer, after breaking down in a remote location, only to find that they had no signal because 3 had made a commercial decision to abandon 2G in their area?