Q: Poor wifi reception on new iPad

You did check to make sure that cellular data is enabled? If it is and your account is active you may have a bad unit or you SIM may just need to be reseated. Check the SIM first. If after you reseat it and it still won't work it must be bad. This will be the first one I've heard of with bad cellular if it is. In the event it is bad just return it for another device. Gook luck!!

I was at the Apple store today.  I tried the "death grip" on all of the sample models, and every single one dropped one WiFi bar while being held with the buttons facing down.  That's six of them.  In spite of the issues I'm having, my wife really wanted one because of the better screen, so I bought one while there.  When I got it home, it had the same WiFi issue as mine.  The month of manufacture on mine is March.  The month of manufacture on hers is January.

But hers doesn't have any other issues.  The screen is much nicer than mine.  Very uniform without any yellowing.  It stays pretty cool.

I have posted on this once today but after reading more posts I am seeing people suggest this may be an issue for wifi that isn't real close to your location. Well I Have to say that this new iPad has dropped my home wifi both inside (10 feet away line of sight) and out on my front deck that my iPad 1', iPhone 3GS & 4 all have no issue with.

Further after changing the default channel (removing automatic setting) due to articles showing two or more locations where WIFI signals cross from the second location reduce both networks performance, I still have a reduced signal. Further I have reset passwords for my wifi 3 times after not being able to Logan from 10 feet away after an hour.

I'm taking mine into the San Francisco store's genius bar on Tuesday morning.  At my appt, what should I expect?  Will they have replacements on hand?  Do they wipe the one being returned or should I do that prior?  My wifi on this ones just too flaky. Even not holding the dean grip, it can't typically find or stay connected to any of my 3 access points (2x2.4ghz n and 1x5ghz n).

My other Apple devices all work fine: 2x iphone4, 2x iPod touch gen2, iPad1, iPod touch gen4, 2x AppleTV (original and new 1080p), iMac, 2x MacbookPro (latest gen 13" and 15"), MacBook Air (latest 13").  I also have ~30 other wifi devices having no issues (Sonos zones and controllers, win7 laptops, game consoles, Tivos, yamaha disklavier grand piano, etc.)  My snazzy iPad 3 is only device with issues.  I'm formerly CIO for a midsize company and know a fair amount about networking.  My home network is more like a decent sized office network than the typical him network,  I'm pretty sure something is up with my ipad3 - either HW or SW.  Whatever it is, it's frustrating, and I'd like one that works correctly.  I'll try a replacement, and if issue persists, I'll struggle with it until Apple figures it out.

Thanks for the help from this forum!

I've done this twice.  Test it in the store after you purchase it.  My first trip was unsuccessful, the replacement was no better.  They tried three successively.  The second trip, a different store this past Saturday, the iPad worked properly.

The first time I forgot to wipe it. 

The second time I remembered, and did it in the store, it only takes a second. 

@ stlsteve: On your home network have you tried changing the QoS setting of your router to disabled?

You got a bad device. Return it for a new one.

Leave like it is so they can see it. Take it in and try a replacement but ask them  to let you compare your old one with the new in the store before you take it. Try it in several places n the store, not just at the counter where the swap out occurs. Good luck.

And yet another one with the same issue. I got mine in Europe and when applying the "death grip" about 10 meters away from the router, wifi connection drops from 22Mb to a ridiculous 0,01Mb. I called a friend of mine who bought another iPad at the same store and asked to do the same test with same result. So I suppose, in fact all devices out there are affected by this problem but it is only apparent when forcing the grip. Normally in layout mode you hold the device resting on some place as it weighs too much and in this way the wifi drop (in my case) is not so noticeable. I'm not sure if I should return mine though.

Adding to this ever growing forum...I live in a two story house. Downstairs near my router, speed is fine. Upstairs where the signal is only slightly weaker, where my laptop and Andrid tablet get fine reception, my new iPad 3 slows to an interminable crawl and/or times out altogether. This is a real problem and I will have to see if I need to return this unit or if Apple will have a fix in a timely manner.

I hope that if we all yell loudly Apple will respond.

I have something to report on WiFi drop out. (See my moan somewhere above). After trying everything I could think of, including replacing my router, in desperation I connected my i-pad to my PC and using I-tunes, I wiped it clean and resored it to factory settings. HOWEVER, a message came up telling me that some software fixes were being downloaded. They gave a list of fixes, but no mention of WiFi patch. I went ahead and reset my i-pad and loaded up my apps and music again.

It is now 2 days since I did this and I have not had a single drop-out of WiFi in this time. Before, it was loosing connection 5/6 times a day! 
I don't know if what I did had anything to do with this dramatic improvement - I see the signal still goes a little weak at odd times - but at least I can now use my i-pad without wanting to kill some one. I am now happy, whereas before, I had the box out of the garage and was ready to take it back to the shop.

I hope this helps if you decide to do it. P.S. I backed up everything on I-cloud before I did this.

Buks.five,

I'm glad your iPad seems to be doing better.

Could provide us some more details on the message that you saw telling you about 'some software fixes'? It was a message within iTunes? Was there a version number attached to it.

It may be a lot to ask but would you mind reproducing it and prehaps copying the text of the message or better yet taking a screenshot and posting it here.

Thanks.

Like I said before, I own two new iPads and we have a huge house with three levels and I have ZERO problems with WiFi reception.

Before you start wasting Apple's time (and money), please check your WiFi router and make sure you use the latest firmware. During a skiing trip, I was unable to use WiFi with my iPad 2 in our hotel because the they used an outdated firmware for their access points and the technician wasn't available at that time. My Macbook Air worked just fine.

If you have the latest firmware, make sure your WiFi AP or router isn't too old. Some older routers and/or access points have issues with the iPad.

Also make sure that you do not use a backup to install your stuff on the new iPad. If you have issues, do a full recovery from scratch and do not use any backup. I know this takes a lot of time but this method makes sure that you won't have any issues anymore.

If this doesn't help, then go to your local Apple store and talk to the Geniuses there.

Just make sure you don't waste their time for nothing.

Btw: Both my new iPads get hot when playing games at 100% display brightness, this seems to be normal. Charging time is also a pain in the a.. with both, up to 8 hours. Charging during usage is almost impossible. Both facts are very unfortunate but all iPads have these issues. The fact that some users don't experience it just means that they aren't using 100% display brightness and/or they don't use apps which max out the CPU/GPU.

I don't say I am happy with the situation but the WiFi issues are surely easy to solve and the charging issues could be solved by offering a quickcharger. Maybe Apple reads this...

Yes, the message came up after I clicked the reset to factory setting (or whatever the wording is) button. It listed about 8 fixes that would be downloaded, none of them relating to WiFi. I forget what they did relate to...nothing I was particularly concerned about.

You start up i-tunes, then  connect your i-pad and the option to clear comes up.

I chose to clear and reset to factory settings. I presume the i-pad was then cleared.

The message then came up about the fixes.

The i-pad was rebuilt and then I uploaded my google docs, aps, etc.
Its been going pretty good since.

You will forgive me for declining to repeat the exercise. I am terrified the problem may come back. Let sleeping dogs lie! My i-pad was almost unuseabel before, and I don't want to risk it.

If it helps, I bought the i-pad one week ago.

Regards,

Buks.

Adding my name to the pile as having this issue. I have a new iPad 64GB and 32GB. Router is downstairs, but iPads loose signal it certain parts of the second floor where my iPad 1, iPhones, MacBooks, etc have no issues.