Cellular strength and throughput

[captaingowa]

Everything I see about ZTE phones are really mixed however, the CDMA users(Verizon, Sprint) and the GSM network (At&t, T-mobile) users are where is see the largest difference in the United States.
It seems the GSM network users are really having a bad experience with reception.
This is really bad considering the less signal bars = the phone uses more power to maintain the signal... Which consequently equals a greater SAR . (aka Radiation from the phone to your body).

I have researched the FCC reports for ZTE phones and surprisingly the FCC does not actually test ZTE phones.
Rather an independent company in China does the testing and simply sends the results to the FCC.
Read the reports, you wont want to carry the phone in your pocket anymore, as a matter of fact ZTE specifically warns you not to, it's in the included information packet with the phone.

 

[strifej]

Everything I see about ZTE phones are really mixed however, the CDMA users(Verizon, Sprint) and the GSM network (At&t, T-mobile) users are where is see the largest difference in the United States.
It seems the GSM network users are really having a bad experience with reception.
This is really bad considering the less signal bars = the phone uses more power to maintain the signal... Which consequently equals a greater SAR . (aka Radiation from the phone to your body).

I have researched the FCC reports for ZTE phones and surprisingly the FCC does not actually test ZTE phones.
Rather an independent company in China does the testing and simply sends the results to the FCC.
Read the reports, you wont want to carry the phone in your pocket anymore, as a matter of fact ZTE specifically warns you not to, it's in the included information packet with the phone.

I haven't read any of the included packets, but you're saying ZTE is telling their customers they shouldn't carry their phones in their pockets? Can cell phones even generate ionizing radiation?

 

[ludovicien]

Oh dear. They better improve the signal by Oct 14 or I'm out.
I've been sitting in a city park for half an hour and this flipping phone is switching between strong LTE, strong Edge and weak HSPA+ with a definite preference for Edge. As a 4G phone, this makes it unfit for purpose under EU consumer law, however long you've had it.
I'll send this with the screenshots as soon as it feels like drifting back to LTE

 

[obladi64]

Oh dear. They better improve the signal by Oct 14 or I'm out.
I've been sitting in a city park for half an hour and this flipping phone is switching between strong LTE, strong Edge and weak HSPA+ with a definite preference for Edge. As a 4G phone, this makes it unfit for purpose under EU consumer law, however long you've had it.
I'll send this with the screenshots as soon as it feels like drifting back to LTE

I have used a few Samsung and LG phone and all was able to behave in this way. I don't get you.

 

[ludovicien]

Ok, I'll put it this way, I'm sitting with two people, one with a Nexus 5x and one with a Galaxy S6. Both have been on LTE with solid 4 bars for the last hour while I flit between Edge and unusable 3G.

Meaning the A7 has rubbish reception.

There's nothing I like more than sitting in a park and listening to internet radio. Can't do that.

 

[obladi64]

Everything I see about ZTE phones are really mixed however, the CDMA users(Verizon, Sprint) and the GSM network (At&t, T-mobile) users are where is see the largest difference in the United States.
It seems the GSM network users are really having a bad experience with reception.
This is really bad considering the less signal bars = the phone uses more power to maintain the signal... Which consequently equals a greater SAR . (aka Radiation from the phone to your body).

I have researched the FCC reports for ZTE phones and surprisingly the FCC does not actually test ZTE phones.
Rather an independent company in China does the testing and simply sends the results to the FCC.
Read the reports, you wont want to carry the phone in your pocket anymore, as a matter of fact ZTE specifically warns you not to, it's in the included information packet with the phone.

Radiation is generated on the antenna and it depends on efficient power of the antenna. If one phone needs more power for same signal it doesn't effect the radiation in your pocket. It effects only battery drain. All phones use same SOCs and chips. Does anybody belive that factories can build quite different phones using same chips even if a few are not fit exactly to FCC? If not.

"Pocket rule". It has been a general good advice for 20 years if not more. Probably ZTE is not the only one who mention it in their user guide. I remember that I read it several times in past 20 years.

 

[benjmiester]

Does there seem to be any variation between early purchasers and new ones for signal strength? I'm wondering if there was some sort of antenna flaw that could have been fixed with newer ones. I'm seeing a few ppl say thiers gets good signal, but mostly bad reports. I'm having a tough time trying to decide to buy one or not. Anyone in Dallas area on T-Mobile or at least U.S. T-Mobile LTE having problems? Any diff between single and dual sim use?

Sent from my XT1575 using XDA-Developers mobile app

 

[huntnyc]

Had 2 phones for a week on TMobile in NYC and no cellular reception issues so far.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[bordxda3]

Would replacing the backplate with a cheap plastic case from ebay solve the antenna strength issue? What I mean is remove the back cover ala LG4 and just use the plastic case as protection?

 

[seenary]

Does there seem to be any variation between early purchasers and new ones for signal strength? I'm wondering if there was some sort of antenna flaw that could have been fixed with newer ones. I'm seeing a few ppl say thiers gets good signal, but mostly bad reports. I'm having a tough time trying to decide to buy one or not. Anyone in Dallas area on T-Mobile or at least U.S. T-Mobile LTE having problems? Any diff between single and dual sim use?


Hey sorry for the late reply. Yea I am in Dallas on T-mobile and reception/data speeds are not as consistent or fast as they were on my Galaxy S5. Multiple dropped calls even when in Uptown/Downtown. I didn't even mess with dual sim testing because the service was so crappy.

 

[Amanoo]

I call bull**** on the whole "adding more radiation to your body" thing. It's a mobile phone, not a nuclear power plant or a medical x-ray device. It's just some battery powered radiowaves that are being sent out. A battery of 10Wh or something. People have been working next to big ass radio stations, and they're not any more likely to get cancer. Surely a small phone can't do much harm. If the radiation did that much harm, I'd expect the average radio broadcaster guy to be filled with tumours.

 

[methcat]

I have researched the FCC reports for ZTE phones and surprisingly the FCC does not actually test ZTE phones.
Rather an independent company in China does the testing and simply sends the results to the FCC.
Read the reports, you wont want to carry the phone in your pocket anymore, as a matter of fact ZTE specifically warns you not to, it's in the included information packet with the phone.

For realsies?

 

[benjmiester]

Hey sorry for the late reply. Yea I am in Dallas on T-mobile and reception/data speeds are not as consistent or fast as they were on my Galaxy S5. Multiple dropped calls even when in Uptown/Downtown. I didn't even mess with dual sim testing because the service was so crappy.[/QUOTE]

No problem. That sucks to hear. I'm not quite as concerned about calls so much as data. I work at amazon doing package deliver and use navigation the whole time and also have to scan the package barcodes so weak data or slow data are a big problem. My moto X Pure isn't the best at signal either though. I guess I'll have to order an A7 and check it out, return it if it's not working out.

Have you done update they launched about a week ago? Improved any? I feel like this is most likely a hardware issue and an update is not really going to help.

---------- Post added at 05:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:32 AM ----------

I call bull**** on the whole "adding more radiation to your body" thing. It's a mobile phone, not a nuclear power plant or a medical x-ray device. It's just some battery powered radiowaves that are being sent out. A battery of 10Wh or something. People have been working next to big ass radio stations, and they're not any more likely to get cancer. Surely a small phone can't do much harm. If the radiation did that much harm, I'd expect the average radio broadcaster guy to be filled with tumours.

I agree. I don't really think it's much of a problem either. Or at least there are worse things giving off more radiation than the occasional dose from the phone. The sun is hitting us with much more for starters. Also microwave ovens, watches, TVs (even new ones), appliances, smoke detectors, anything electronic really. The worse one is probably that green electric box out by the curb... you know, the one that creepily buzzes all night long. There's radiowaves coming from all sorts of stuff, even some naturally occuring ones. As far as the radio theory goes, my dad's been a DJ at various stations since the 1970s. He's now 70 and retired. No problems to speak of as well as several colleagues that worked there as well. Kind of anecdotal though.

 

[Zuber]

Sorry to say mine is going back. Difference between my Note 3 and Axon 7 on 3 network is just too big. Several times I've been caught our with no reception in both ee and three Sims where I normally would have just hastily picked up and made a call on the Note.

Apart from that, I really loved the phone...

Will hold out for the uk release and next software update to see if it improves for uk networks. UI wasn't to my taste, but nova launcher fixed that.

 

[blair287]

Sorry to say mine is going back. Difference between my Note 3 and Axon 7 on 3 network is just too big. Several times I've been caught our with no reception in both ee and three Sims where I normally would have just hastily picked up and made a call on the Note.

Apart from that, I really loved the phone...

Will hold out for the uk release and next software update to see if it improves for uk networks. UI wasn't to my taste, but nova launcher fixed that.

I think this is a hardware flaw and sadly will never be fixed so there fore ruining what could have been the best phone ever I too sent mine back for this issue.

 

[Dian Z]

4G data speed for the skeptics among you ^^
https://goo.gl/photos/MWQFPaW9nFdmwPev8

 

[ludovicien]

4G data speed for the skeptics among you ^^
https://goo.gl/photos/MWQFPaW9nFdmwPev8

It's not scepticism. I can get around 60Mbps when can persuade the Axon to spend a little time on LTE but not when the phone can only connect on Edge or 3G and neither could you.

It's a new phone, I think there are some lemons. If you don't have a lemon, it's not helpful to claim they don't exist.

 

[MrWilsonxD]

So b27 update made signal WAY better for me!

 

[KUSOsan]

Seriously interested in this phone and curious to know if the latest firmware still has quality and reception issues?? Anyone on T-Mobile in South Florida using this phone right now??? That's one of the biggest issues keeping me from buying the axon 7 so far.

I've been keeping tabs on it and so far the latest update which I believe is B27 currently has been reported to really smooth out the connection issues from what I've read

 

[cubanghost]

I am in Tmobile here in south florida, i can tell you signal on this phone suxs, as long as you are outside or hear a window you are ok, the moment you step inside a building the bars do a Houdini and disappear.