By 
We’ve received more than a few tips that users are experiencing signal issues with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I can’t personally verify the claims — I have yet to take my Nexus outside of a 4G zone — but based on a recent tweet from Verizon’s support account it does appear that something isn’t quite right. Users are reporting familiar sounding 4G issues, such as poor handling of the switch between 3G and 4G mode (toggling airplane mode tends to fix this) and lower-than-expected reception strength. Verizon says it is investigating the problem and developing a software update to address the problems, but a release timeframe is unknown. Our best guess is to expect any signal-enhancing tweaks to come bundled as part of the Android 4.0.3 update planned to arrive on Nexus handsets in the coming weeks.
[via DroidLife]
Looks like the same issues that dogged the Sprint Nexus S 4G, as well…
Mine’s been great! I keep it on CDMA only though. My city doesn’t even have 4G yet. Although I did pass through a city that had it and did a speed test just for the heck of it…29Mbps down…yeah.
verizon in general has been having signal issue. seems I lose my 3g every day in the last 2 weeks.
I’m glad I held off on this phone, hope the Razor Maxx comes out soon.
Motorola UI ftl
Fine for me. Great 4g signal, switches to 3g fine. I have had zero issues with this phone on Verizon.
Same here, it’s Verizon after all…but my Droid RAZR does provide significantly stronger signal strength and faster download/upload speeds…
Love my Nexus to death btw!!!
I get consistent 31mbps down when I have 4 bars of service, no issues here at all!
Same here…no problems with signal at all. In fact, the Nexus definitely has better signal strength than the Incredible I just retired.
I am in and out of the 4G and 3G all the time and have no problems with mine.
That sounds like a problem. You should be in 4G areas all the time. Verizon’s coverage (even for 4G) is pretty expansive…
Dont know where you live, but my closest 4G network is 4 hours away
After all those delays, wtf was the point?
In Tampa, Fl. And yes this is true. I average only 2 bars. And 4G towers are all around here. I hope there’s a fix.
I have noticed this myself. I can have 4 bars on my xoom and be in 3g on my nexus…..doh
I’ve owned two Samsung Android phones. This won’t be the first of Nexus’ issues. It sucks that Nexus owners are having problems, yet at the same time, I’m glad I ordered the Rezound when I did. Even in stock, non-rooted form, I’m completely happy with it. It makes and receives calls, first and foremost. Even during the national 4g outage, I was still able to use my phone on 1x.
The Rezound was definitely my close second choice!
Oh VNex… The fact that Verizon themselves are coming up with an update shows that this is not a pure Google experience :-(
It is a service issue… VZW is the service provider, Google isn’t. I would hope the service provider would properly fix a service issue.
So then what about the GSM Nexus, how come carriers don’t update those?
The GSM Nexus fix was a Google issue. It was across all phones due to a common timing issue. This appears to be an issue with the software that handles their specific radio equipment, not the phone in general.
Carriers don’t update the GSM version because they’re not having service issues. They’d have to if they did. The GSM version has a single modem. The Verizon version has two: one for CDMA and the other for LTE. You and everyone else that is complaining that this isn’t a “pure Google experience” are being silly. The lack of Google Wallet sucks, but beyond that, I would very much hope that Verizon ensures that their products have the very best combination of hardware and software.
Look, GO get the apk … it’s all over the friggin intardwebs about where to get it. It works. It does not require root and have a nice day. If you can.
He can’t. They never can.
Not completely true. I am getting weak signal in holland with the gsm version and im not the only one.
I’m getting terrible signal problems with my GSM version in the US. Also WiFi dropping.
And also bugs that make phantom touches on the phone’s screen – it will open apps, trigger features and jitter away for a minute at a time.
The Galaxy Nexus is a badly finished product.
I live near chicago and I’ve been having some problems where I will randomly lose it. I hope the fix comes soon…
Well I hope they can increase the antenna strength via software, I’m hoping that this will also help the phones battery life.. seems like this thing just chews up the battery with nothing running on the phone.. I get pretty low signal strength from 3g or 4g.. and even turning the device onto wifi / cdma doesn’t extend the life by much..
I look down at the screen to read an email and I can literally watch this thing count down the % on the battery :)
That MIGHT be growing pains due to Verizon’s expanding 4g network, or it might just be what the story is reporting: Loss of signal experienced by Nexus owners. When I had a Droid Charge, I experienced the same thing: loss of signal in both 3g and 4g. Since switching to the Rezound, I no longer lose 3g.
So I guess all that verizon quality control that delayed me getting it was definitely worth it…..
one thing i do like is how the nexus switches back to 4g so fast.. my thunderbolt would be stuck on 3g for awhile longer until it finally realized it was back in a 4g area
I can confirm that the signal strength is weaker then on my Droid incredible. Also when activating there was issue with the 4G/3G connection switch. Hope it is fixed soon. Other issue is the build quality. I don’t mind plastic vs metal at all. But the phone slid out of my pocked when sitting down and landed on a carpeted floor but hit edge of the chair and took a huge gouge out of the phone. I was shocked. it looks like a took a blade to the side of it. :(
This could be a real reason why a lot of ppl (including myself) have been getting less than stellar battery life (even for a 4g device)… With the phone constantly searching for signal instead of grabbing on to a constant one would definitely affect the battery.
Curious to see if there is a correlation
Had VERY serious problems with this with my Nexus. Many dropped calls and an inability to get signal for periods of up to 30 minutes. Exchanged that phone for a new one, and haven’t had dropped calls, but my email was delayed by 30 minutes this morning, and the wife told me I sounded “muddy” on the new new phone, but hadn’t on the old new phone.
More to come, I’m sure…
connection issues on my GSM version as well
I keep mine on cdma also but still had a full day of battery use when it was switching Its 1:00 in the afternoon and IM at 57% and my signal goes up and down big time but I havent had dropped calls. I am curious about the Razr maxx does anyone know anything?
well, 4g covered boston and near by cities, i will be fine… i hope.
question, I do not have 4G in my area and I am getting this phone in the mail today. If i do not have 4G am I going to experience 3G issues as well or is this a 4G only issue. Any answers appreciated. Thanks in advance.
You can turn the LTE off under settings and you will be fine with 3g.
There are several widgets such as “LTE Switch” which make turning the LTE off and on very simple. Basically, they set up a shortcut to your Data Networks screen.
Same toggling 3G – 4G issue with a Rezound in SB California. Went into Verizon and watched the same thing happen on all 4G handsets. Didn’t have the issue a month ago, when I first purchased. Steadily getting worse as user saturation continues. To quote the service agent “The 4G build out is no where near complete”.
On 4g works find at work (Downtown, Los Angeles). At home I only have 1 bar on 4g; I’ve notice when an individual was calling me, it went straight to v/m and my phone did not pick up any phone calls. the 4g will change to 3g every 4-5 minutes and it drains my battery quicker when doing this process.
I haven’t had any issues with my Nexus, granted I live in LA so there is a super saturation of 4g towers here. Overall I LOVE this phone, so much better than any phones I have had in the past. (OG Droid, Droid X, Thunderbolt, Bionic, back to Droid X).
Same.
4G hasn’t skipped a beat. Consistently, at least, 15 Mbps. Not dropping or missing any calls.
In Orlando, signal has been horrible. Came from a Rezound in the same spot at my desk signal on Rezoud 75 -dBm and Nexuz 110 -dBm. Also areas where the Rezound has full bars 4G Nexus only picks up 3G. WiFi signal at home is horrible with the Nexus areas around the house that ll of my wireless devices connect, Nexus searches for a signal. Sunday I switched back to the Rezound this is a business phone and I cannot afford to miss calls
Thanks for the clarification.
I haven’t had any issues with my SGN. I love the heck out of this thing!
Signal out in Tucson, AZ has been pretty meh. With mobile data turned off I tend to get 3-4 bars in my house, turning on 4G will take that to around 1 bar and occasionally make me lose full service. The transition to 3G is also sketch as it takes awhile, or doesn’t change. 3G seems to be the most consistent, at this point I just use 4G as a turbo boost for downloads hahahah. Service, in general, is weaker than my friends’ DINC and Thunderbolt in the same room or area.
ANTENNAGATE!!!!!!
How about radio gate? :) My TB had at least 9 radio updates from HTC between May 2011 and oh …. 2 days ago they released YET another. I bet a new flashable firmware for the radio might fix this. I also saw at least 100 people just at the VZW I went to who were buying it … multiply that across the country and I would bet VZW’s LTE network is a little overloaded. :D
the only issues I’ve had are software not being updated to accomodate ICS, most notably Dolphin Browser (which freezes and crashes on startup) and Handcent (which will not receive or send pictures and is much slower).
Dolphin issued a fix today that fixes that.
Anyone else having GPS issues? It’s taking forever to get a location (without assist).
Everybody is thinking it, i am going to say it. :)
Maybe they need to install CIQ so they can find out what issues causes the connection issues. :x
Completely agree, as long as it remains anonymous. I don’t see anything wrong with collecting data for the betterment of a product when they don’t even know who they are collecting it from.
Hey man that’s how THE MAN gets in!
Duuuuuuude
No Issues here either, these are the speeds I get with this thing when I have full signal.
http://i.imgur.com/QGKSv.jpg
Holy god-damn fuck those are crazy download speeds!!!
Lol I know right, its faster than my home internet. When I have 2 bars I get 10-12 down and 8-10 up. The slowest I’ve seen is 6 down and 3 up.
What area are you in? That’s quite impressive. I can push 17 and pull 5 and im in a very bad coverage area so I imagined speeds in full coverage zones would be insane.
Greenville, SC. I can’t imagine not having unlimited data, I’m almost at 1GB and it hasn’t even been a week.
This is after driving from Austin to Dallas round trip streaming music.
I’m in Simpsonville, SC, which is 10 miles south of Greenville on a very uncongested 4G network. Here are some speeds that I got the afternoon of release day.
In northern california. I do have issues with 4G reception but not constant. I’ve noticed an issue 2-3 times/day. Seemed more frequent over the weekend than last Friday. But since the phone is brand new I’m on it every 10 seconds so of course I am aware of more issues.
However, being an early adopter I fully expected issues so I will wait 1-3 months to see what happens. I’m not a phone diva. Besides asking me to deal with occasional issues for 27 mbps download as a tradeoff…yeah I can deal with it.
I can tell you right now it is Samsung. There signal quality on thier phones have always been horrible. This is the last one I will own.
Awful signal! I get 1 bar to no service in places my dinc 2 got a full strength signal.
Riviera Beach is bad also. My OD Driod has way better signal. I live in the so called 4G fringe area and I have yet to see 4G on my phone except for when I get close to the Verizon store in Palm Beach Gardens.
I experienced this at first, brought the Gnex back to VZW, they DOA’ed it and gave me a new Gnex. Smooth sailing ever since. I live in a strong 4g area too.
Working fine for me.
I had an issue this morning around 10-11am EST. Usually have full bars 4G, and had 0 bars. Had to reboot to get it to reconnect. Also having an issue with Gmail syncing properly. I had 3 unread emails when I logged in on my computer, but they were emails I had already read and even deleted some hours earlier…
No issues here. My Gnex gets the same 4G/3G reception as my Xoom 4G.
I read its not an actual signal issue its how the phone displays it, which must explain why i get 20mbps down with 1 or 4 bars
That was Apple’s response as well…. =)
Maybe you all can help me understand something. I’m new to phone dev stuff but I’ve been searching the crap out of the android sites and this is what I’ve come up with.
the galaxy nexus has;
Poor reception for a large amount of users
A very dim screen (my droid X was much much brighter even on auto brightness)
Very quiet ringer
Poor battery life (unless your on 3G, but then why buy a 4G phone)
Gets hot after about 30 minutes of use
Plastic case could be more durable
After all these issues, why is this phone still being regarded as the best thing since sliced bread? I’m in the market for a new phone and the Moto Razr seems to have had far less issues upon release. Any thoughts?
(and let’s keep this friendly, I love android phones, I’m just trying to figure out what I’m missing about this phone)
Thanks.
there is an app called volume+ to fix the sound issue. there are mods available to fix the dimness. reception is great for me. battery isnt an option and extended battery is cheap. never had a heat issue. plastic case is for thinness.
1. Ringer works fine or it does with MY .ogg files maybe not the default .ogg ringtones. But nonetheless works and is loud enough.
2. I regularly get -64 dBm to -80 dBm which is what my Thunderbolt got.
3. Screen brightness is just fine. There is a lot of black/blue in the UI .. looks dimmer but it isn’t when you have a bright wallpaper .. no dimmer then my D1, DX or TB.
4. 6% used for a 2 hour call and lots of data apps the rest of the night with an end result of 22% used during a 6 hour period. Better then my DX and WAY better then my TB.
5. Mine doesn’t get warm at all .. even after usage .. no warmer then the TB.
6. Case is just as durable as the DX or TB .. or my wife’s DInc. It ain’t carbon fibre or metal but WTF!? I mean seriously?
So .. after the nitpicks are picked .. it’s alllllll crap.
That’s interesting that it gets better battery than your DX. I played with my friends Nexus and after 20min of reading websites, the battery was down 12%…. My DX lasts 2 days without charging…..I haven’t heard anyone talk about battery lasting more than 8-12 hours at best…
Is there a setting to turn off all the background data?
I don’t even have 4G in my area but my 3G signal is much worse on my Nexus than my Droid X or Razr.
I don’t get how people are having problems. I have had no issues with 4g or 3g. My phone hasn’t gotten hot yet and battery life is bad on 4g but then so are all other 4g LTE phones. The technology is still new guys. Turn it off you don’t like it
YOU’RE ALL HOLDING IT WRONG!#%!#%!#$
duh.
What good is it to have awesome down speeds with Verizon if you cant really use it all with a limited data plan? Is this for browsing purposes only? Just wondering because I might need an excuse to jump over to Verizon from Sprint.
Typical Sammy.
HTC: I got a million ways to get it. Choose wisely. Aye…bring it back….
Now double ya money and make a stack
Google:
IM ON TO THE NEXUS
ON TO THE NEXUS
ON TO THE NEXUS
ON TO THE NEXUS
ON TO THE NEXUS
ON TO THE NEXUS
ON TO THE NEXUS
ON TO THE NEXUS
HTC: hold up..FREEZE
Somebody bring me back the money please!
Samsung:
Sammy on that new stuff, people like how come?
People want my old stuff, buy my old Samsung,
People stuck on stupid, I gotta keep it movin’,
Apple make the same stuff, me? I make the Nexus,
Came in the game, hopped out the last Gen,
Every year since, I been on that nexus,
Traded in my old S, for that new S2, now my new phone got em’ looking for a lawsuit,
You should rock a throwback, ballin’ on a corner,
Sammy’s with Android, Apple is a loner,
No I’m not a Jonas, brother ima grown up,
And no I’m not a lawyer, I use my cahonas,
I move on with, the only direction
Can’t be scared to fail, search and perfect it,
Gotta keep a backup, even when we make it,
But don’t be mad at me, when its ON TO THE NEXT ONE,
Jay Z would be proud.. :D
…or sue him
Maybe that what what in your butt Guy.
rap and Samsung dont mix….
you suck.
If you get your head out of your ass, you would be able to understand what I wrote
NO
That was horrible.
please stop
Signal has been fine, but I’m having more problems with the phone randomly shutting itself off. It’s happened at least three times right in the middle of using different applications.
I have had zero issues with my 4g or 3g. I don’t get how there are so many problems with others. My only issue is weak sound which I solved already. As for battery life ALL the verizon 4G LTE phones get bad battery life when on 4g. The technology is still new so obviously still gonna be some time before its perfected.
How did you fix the sound problem?
Volume+
Tried that didnt work for me. Am I doing something wrong?
I’m having the problems too. I’m also having charging issues. About 40% of my chargers won’t charge even with USB to computer no charging either
The Nexus charger is 1A, most others are in the 500-750mA range and a USB port less than that…they’re not powerful enough to charge the Nexus adequately.
think the razr and nexus combo are too much for verizon?
WOW this seems like a great phone launch!!
Way to go Verizon, Samsung, and Google!!
They reason the GSM nexus isn’t updated by carrier is because no carrier has released the GSM nexus yet in the us.
I had some huge issues today while taking it out for it’s first road trip to Fairfax, VA. it not only dropped GPS signal at one point while driving, it also just turned off completely! Still had 40% battery too. I thought that the point of barometer was too help it acquire and lock on to GPS easier? I may have a bad phone but I too have been seeing poor signal. The max I got on a 3 or 4 bar 4G signal was 16.5mbps down 13.2 up. Not getting anywhere near 20+ like I’ve seen others get. My area also shows great signal on their coverage chart. Might be taking it back to exchange for a new one and see what that does….if it doesn’t help I might be switching
I had the battery issue getting 3 hours Max. I found I had an app that was running in the background (earthquake) that doesn’t run on ics. It was transferred over during setup. Removed the app and I am at 12 hours use with 20% left. I was ready to take it back.
I thought i was the only one having issues…the lady on the phone was telling me that she thought that it was my device and i might have to take it back …but now that this report came out i know im not alone
this is why i dont understand why people wait in line to buy a cell phone the day it comes out. you should have learned by now that the cell phone is going to have problems, whether android or iphone,and its better to wait
This sounds exactly what I experience with my Droid Charge, which is also a Samsung 4G phone. I had an old Samsung flip phone on Verizon back in the day and it too never was able to maintain a steady signal lock. Samsung makes a hell of a screen, but the cell radio they use is trash.
There is NO signal prblems with the GNex..read this
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5254/investigating-the-galaxy-nexus-lte-signal-issue