iPhone XS Max Weak 5GHz WIFI Reception

New 256 iPhone XS on Verizon purchased from the Apple Store yesterday. Same issue as everyone else. The XS has problems connecting to my 5 GHz network and when it does it gets 2 bars in the spots that my 10.5 in iPad is getting 5 bars. The XS gets 5 bars on the 2 GHz network pretty much everywhere in the house. I am also getting really poor LTE performance with Verizon and pretty much never get to 4 bars. Seems to hover around 2 and on my commute Siri was unable to establish a network connection even though the phone indicated it had 2 bars of LTE. Very frustrating. Seems like taking it back for a new phone isn’t going to guarantee a fix.

The chances that everyone in this forum having these problems due to out of date firmware on their modems is slim to none. I had an Xfinity issued modem and in the last couple days have purchased a new Motorola modem, and I’m not seeing any improvement. Modems issues by ISP’s usually lock down any firmware updates anyway.

Well I've tried disabling my 2.4GHz band so that only 5GHz is available, and in places at my home where I'd never had any problems in the past, my wifi is cutting out and failing over to a very weak LTE signal, which eventually fails over to a strong 4G signal.

Also, a number of us have been contacted by Apple Support because we have in fact open up cases with them, they've gather logs and more info, etc..

Sinthea1013 wrote:

I have since returned mine and my husbands XS Max he stayed with his 7 Plus and I’m with my 8Plus which I never had a problem. A very strange thing happened don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not when I returned my XS Max they took out the SIM card and gave it to me when I went to Verizon and happened to mentioned I had the SIM card they just removed, he said great I’ll pop that one in. So now since they replaced my SIM card with the one that was in the XS Max I have been dropping calls and having call fail on my 8 Plus so I’m wondering did it have something to do with the SIM card or purely by coincidence. Curious what anyone thinks but I am going to go to Verizon today and ask them to replace the SIM card in my 8 Plus.

While the issue you experienced is not isolated to Verizon, it's been widely reported by reputable sources, iDrop News, Cult of Max, etc., that Verizon users are more affected than other users. It could have been something with your Sim to begin with on the XS Max.

I’ve fully wiped it out by erasing all content and data. Factory restored from device. Not iTunes. But it should still be the same thing if the phone has nothing in it then setting up as new. No success either.

If there’s a new one, launching About will bring it up. I activated my Max the Friday it was released and one was either installed then(att) or the next day. Then on Monday 33.2 popped up. That one seemed to fix my cellular issue. Hasn’t been another one since

It worked for some, as for some are having these widespread issues. I myself am affected. I’ve had 3 replacements and nothing worked. I lived with it for 2 weeks until yesterday 12.0.1. It worked on WiFi for speeds and range but not for cellular. LTE is still a struggle. I believe that this will be fixed because we all doubted the WiFi gate and it worked (for most). Those with WiFi issues may not have LTE issues and vice versa. Not every device has these issues but more than enough to fill up dozens of forums for the same issues. There’s many more updates in the works, be patient and I’m sure that will be fixed hopefully soon.

Many of the mesh router systems do that automatically. The Ubiquiti Amplifi router is one that by default connects to your devices on the 5 band and if that connection weakens with distance will switch to 2.4. I’ve been looking at that one if I need to replace my current router in the near future.

papjo wrote:

Many of the mesh router systems do that automatically. The Ubiquiti Amplifi router is one that by default connects to your devices on the 5 band and if that connection weakens with distance will switch to 2.4. I’ve been looking at that one if I need to replace my current router in the near future.

FWIW, the modification to mine was done with software!

People keep guessing whether this hardware or software. I don't see any reason to assume it's hardware. The problem is the Wifi radio in your new phone is the newest standard. It may not play as well with some routers out there and there are SO MANY different routers out there. This is an issue that can't all be Apple. It can't be all ISP. It is a combination of both. And the Apple Engineers are without a doubt burning the midnight oil to determine where the issue is.

Not sure if this helps anybody, but when I check field test mode on my iPhone XS Max, I’m seeing rsrp0 as being -120. It’s my understanding that the lower that number the better, like -120 is not good but -89 would be good. This is on iOS 12.0.1 that just came out. I’m not seeing any change in this signal after the update.

If you’d look back at page 3 or 4 of this forum you’d see my initial posts about how my phone is dropping off of my SSID’s 5GHz band over to the 2.4GHz band (same SSID name for both connections, and no mesh system in place. I’ve since disconnected mine). And the many comments after that from people that only have a 5GHz connection, and that’s failing over to a weak LTE connection, or in some cases, a good 4G connection. I’d say “my” issue is a lot more closely related to the initial poster than the people going on about the wireless charging issues in their car... IMO

It’s definitely a real world problem. Even though I don’t seem to be having a functional issue, my Max only connects to the 5 band of my network, but it doesn’t seem to get as strong a connection to it as my iPhone 7. And that’s part of the problem. A device that costs this much is at best no better with WiFi than a much cheaper device, and at worst is considerably worse than the cheaper device. Spending upwards of $1500 on something that’s not noticeably better than your older devices can be frustrating.

It does seem as if the software is designed to have the device drop more quickly to another band, or network, when that signal starts to weaken. So for some the phone drops back to 2.4 or, if even that connection is weak, to the cell network much quicker than other devices. Or the hardware just has weaker reception from the beginning causing this effect. I doubt that it’s a hardware issue but it can give that impression. I can’t equivocally state that 12.0.1 improved any WiFi function for me as it seems to have done for some, but it did fix the HDR function of my Max’s camera. Smart HDR/HDR didn’t function at all previously. And that is disappointing that a device this expensive didn’t even work with one of its most touted features out of the box. My guess is that just as it wasn’t until iOS 11.1 that the software functioned properly, it’s going to be the release of 12.1 that gets this mostly back to normal. I hope!

I'm pretty sure the reason more people aren't adding there names here is because they're either seeing all of the other folks reporting a Problem here, they're possibly a part of another forum on another site, or they've read this and just filed a radar with Apple. HOPEFULLY at least it's been reported at all, though.

I for one am Definitely seeing poor signal on my 5GHz band at home after the recent iOS 12.0.1 update. I was going to try restoring and setting up as new, but I'm not very optimistic. I'm about to go back to my iPhone X at this point.

And it's not just slow speeds, at least from what I'm seeing. my iPhone XS Max is almost behaving as though it's not connected to the internet at all, and THEN seems to fail over to the 2.4GHz band here instead. When I'm at work and we only have a 5GHz connection, I'm seeing it fail over to a very weak LTE connection which then fails over to a really solid 4G connection.. It's possible that people are reading these comments and saying, "Hey! That's what's happening to me! I'll just wait until an update comes out to address the issue..." Maybe.

I had my XS Max replaced last Tuesday! Network is working better but WiFi connection still disconnect randomly! I tried on different WiFi at different locations! My 6 plus performs way better without being disconnected...

So much for $1,600...Seriously they got billions of dollars and tons of workers! You would think than in a year they tested their flagship phone properly. Even more when they didn’t have to work on much things since the XS and XS Max are the exact copy of their X...