iPhone XS Max Weak 5GHz WIFI Reception

I am extremely happy with the response I have received and I know Apple is putting forth some great effort here. The concern some people are having relates to the 14 day return window that will be closing soon if they purchased on launch day. If it is a hardware or software issue that would be nice to know so that those decisions whether to return can be made.

I am curious, though, how you know you are not experiencing the WiFi issues for sure? In my case I know because I can directly compare my XS to my X and previous iPhones in the house which get max throughput from my ISP and maintain their WiFi connections. I can also see on my router that my XS is almost always connected to 2.4 GHz, whereas my other devices stay connected to 5 GHz band. And as an example, even when I am connected to 5 GHz I sometimes have weird connection issues such as no throughput

Mattdouglas96 wrote:

I have you also noticed a problem with the Bluetooth connection?

Many times in my car my Bluetooth breaks up when playing music or even when using my AirPods...

Not here my new Xs works as well as all my iPhones have with the bluetooth in my Mazda 6. I have had issues with bluetooth on several iPhones especially after updates to the iOS. I had to resync because the Xs was a new iPhone but not any problems since

They should just extend the 14 day warranty with all these issues. No way I want to be stuck with a phone that might be a possible hardware issue. I only run 5ghz frequency in my house because there are tons of 2.4 ssid's around me.

dino_russ wrote:

rbrylawski wrote:

MidwayFlux wrote:

"In a good and relatively close proximity to a 5ghz signal, the phone should do well."

Key Word here being "Should"... And it's not. using my iPhone XS Max right next to my iPhone X, and speeds are much slower, some web pages aren't loading at all..

Out of curiosity, did you get yours on Launch Day or after? Preorder? I'm still wondering if the initial preorder phones had issues in assembly or manufacturing that were worked out.. Might explain why some people are having issues and most are not. Also might explain why restores and resets don't work but some saying they've received replacements DO work..

My phone is a launch day delivered phone.

FYI to add to this: My phone is also launch day Xs. I can see my 5ghz nearly 20-25 feet away inside house and not line of site (walls are not that thick FYI). it has weaked from "full bars" whatever that means in signal strength down to 2 of three fluctuating to 1 some times but mostly in house I can get same speed (max of my ISP) even when signal bars less.

And that aptly illustrates the issues with being a couch engineer, relying on an app provided speed test to tell you there's an issue with your phone. If it works, who cares what an app generated, and often unreliable speed test says.

Now, if it doesn't work and some are saying so, that's definitely a problem. And one Apple will surely figure out why and via the magic of a software update fix.

rbrylawski wrote:

dino_russ wrote:

rbrylawski wrote:

MidwayFlux wrote:

"In a good and relatively close proximity to a 5ghz signal, the phone should do well."

Key Word here being "Should"... And it's not. using my iPhone XS Max right next to my iPhone X, and speeds are much slower, some web pages aren't loading at all..

Out of curiosity, did you get yours on Launch Day or after? Preorder? I'm still wondering if the initial preorder phones had issues in assembly or manufacturing that were worked out.. Might explain why some people are having issues and most are not. Also might explain why restores and resets don't work but some saying they've received replacements DO work..

My phone is a launch day delivered phone.

FYI to add to this: My phone is also launch day Xs. I can see my 5ghz nearly 20-25 feet away inside house and not line of site (walls are not that thick FYI). it has weaked from "full bars" whatever that means in signal strength down to 2 of three fluctuating to 1 some times but mostly in house I can get same speed (max of my ISP) even when signal bars less.

And that aptly illustrates the issues with being a couch engineer, relying on an app provided speed test to tell you there's an issue with your phone. If it works, who cares what an app generated, and often unreliable speed test says.

Now, if it doesn't work and some are saying so, that's definitely a problem. And one Apple will surely figure out why and via the magic of a software update fix.

Ha sure does, all us couch engineers so funny. Anyway I had not really paid much attention to my iPhones typically dropping from 5ghz to the stronger 2.4 as it still did what I wanted at home where my cell signals with AT&T have never been good (calls work fine though as does text with Cell -- or Wifi of course). Was fun to learn a bit more about my setup still using my AirPort Extreme (with another in box as backup) that does me fine. But I am a happy customer personally and now its been nearly 2 weeks. but your right some seem to be having worse issues than those of us who seem to be getting same things we always did.

You're absolutely correct that comparing iPad Pro to iPhone is not a reasonable comparison. The Wifi chip in the iPad is larger than it is in the iPhone. For the issues people are reporting, it should be a phone to phone comparison.

Looks like posting about today's iOS 12.1 beta update is a no no. Getting Unauthorized when trying to view those messages from the Emails I've received about this post. A shame. I'd love to know. I'm not going to beta update route right now in case I need to restore from a Backup to a new or replacement phone. That phone would come with the release software, and would need to be updated and THEN restore from a backup... It'd be great if the Apple Tech that reached out to me had any updates on this.

I am in Australia.

Got a XS Max 512GB on launch day - Returned for a refund due to wifi connectivity issues

Then got a XS 512GB returned after 2 days of use due to Bluetooth connectivity issues.

Lucky I kept my 7 Plus and it works perfectly.

Going to wait a while before purchasing another iPhone.

Today I turned off my 2.4GHz band on my router, leaving just 5GHz, and even in the same room as my router, my Wi-Fi connection is dropping off to LTE. I’m able to select it again and reconnect, but after picking my phone back up and unlocking it, it’s dropped the Wi-Fi connection completely and failed over to LTE. Terrible.

This is happening to me while in the same room as my wireless router/modem. About 4-5 feet away, actually. I set my phone down to charge it, and pick it up minutes later and it’s dropped the Wi-Fi connection to LTE. I think this is software related. It’s like waking from sleep but not connecting again?

Well I tried to wait it out but my return date (as many others) is tomorrow.

I returned the IPhone and not wanting to downgrade to an older model, I just went with a Note 9.

My previous Notes (I've had most of them) gave me no glaring issues.

My signal is much better but that is expected. This was my first IPhone and I would like to try again next year but I wont be preordering. I'll give it a month or two to see how everyone else is enjoying it.

The Note 9 is currently fast with all my speeds, and my signal is fairly better. Where the IPhone Xs Max routinely gave me around -112 dbm, the Note is giving me around -95.

Oh well, I wish everyone luck and that Apple pulls through on this one sooner or later.

That’s crazy cuz I’m having the same exact problem with my iPhone Xs max. The iPhone I had before this one was the 7 plus and never had a issue with connection. It’s sad. Smh. I hope apple fixes this issue soon.

My husband has an iPhone 7. Same carrier - Verizon. His signal seems to be much better than mine (in the same room). With no app crashes, no freezing. Especially Pokémongo. Spent $1500 to go from experiencing lagging on my 5s for more problems. What’s up Apple?

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.

I can say that I'm experience much of the same issues with my iPhone XS. From a WiFi performance standpoint, this has been the worst phone I have ever had. Dropped signal in my home practically every day, then sometimes will refuse to connect to my home network when every other device works just fine. I hope this is just software-related and Apple can fix it with an update, but this is just terrible. It's honestly making me want to get rid of the phone.