iPhone XS Max Weak 5GHz WIFI Reception

I did the same thing. After replacing 7 iPhone XS’s..... I just got my 8th XS this past Friday and no. No improvement. Even after 3 newer updates. The first 7 iPhones were from launch. I figured I’d wait a bit (like anything would change) and try it again. Speeds, numbers, mean really nothing. Yes, the xs is half the speed of my x but loading is identical in speeds. My xs gets 80-120 mbps and my x gets 200+... same loading speed. Now if I push it’s limit, I’ll go far away from my router (5ghz) and hold both phones in my hand and see which one connects first after being to far from my router. And the x gets connected first (about a half mile). Then as I walk closer to my home, xs has troubles finding my router then connects. I seriously think it’s hardware because signals have a hard time making its way to the xs. Lte or wifi.

If anyone is interested in reading the iDrop News article, here it is:

Full Restore Said to Fix LTE and Wi-Fi Issues on iPhone XS Devices

I just talked to Apple support about it and they are internally having the same problems and said they are working on a patch for it in future update.

I updated to iOS 12.1 and seen drastic improvements in range.

On Sun, Oct 7, 2018 at 10:39 PM Apple Support Communities <

Do a hard reset after installing the patch.

Tap up volume, then down volume and then hold right button in for approx. 10 seconds until the apple logo appears.

Worked for me!!

thedobe wrote:

Take a look at this. It isn’t the modem. It’s the antenna. https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/iphone-xs-and-xs-max-mostly-fail-to.html?m= 1

I tend to think this is a hardware issue as well which I'm not sure if any firmware upgrade is going to be able to solve easily. I'm considering returning the phone and waiting for the whole thing to clear up.

Well, you now know Apple typically doesn't discuss issues. And knowing you have a full year of warranty, you can certainly return your phone, but that might be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

At a minimum, you can go to your Apple Store and get a replacement phone as the performance of your current phone isn't acceptable.

Motyoj wrote:

I got a iPhone XS Max today for my wife. I noticed that the 5ghz signal was fast the first time I tried a speedtest. It dropped the next time and subsequently. I reset the network settings and got the speed I should have (over 200mbps). This degraded on the next try. Reset network settings again. Same thing; great speed first try, poor on subsequent attempts. This tells me it's a bug because the handset is capable of receiving the same as all the other devices, which all get 200+. Anyway, I hope they roll out a fix. Couldn't get the sim to activate. Apple wasn't much help, so I put the old one in and it worked immediately. Not what I was expecting from a brand spanking new phone.

I also had an issue with the SIM card not activating. I had to put my old one in and everything seemed to have worked. However, a number of hours later and my phone started freaking out about not being activated again. I had to get Verizon to straighten it out.

For me though, it's not that it's falling over to the 2.4 band... when I'm on the 5 ghz band, my wifi is amazing when I'm beside my router or any other router... it's as soon as I get away from the router that the 5 ghz band just drops completely to the point where a speed test fails on upload. My iPhone X and iPhone 7 are both still getting great speeds with no drop off... the radios on the new iPhones are brutal... and that actually makes me angry when I blew a couple of grand on an upgrade.

I did a quick test over lunch. I went to the local Apple store with my work provided iPhone 7 and my iPhone Xs Max. I connected both to the stores free WiFi and tested. Inside the store, the iPhone Xs Max was very fast (around 120 Mbps)... faster than the iPhone 7 (around 68 Mbps). Outside the store (still connected to the Apple free WiFi) the iPhone 7 had great connectivity and about 40 Mbps down, the iPhone Xs Max had 2.1 Mbps on the first attempt and failed to connect on the second attempt. When it comes to LTE performance, the Max barely makes it over 3 Mbps pretty much anywhere I go. It's literally awful.

I can't wait to get home and try out the second one... if it's the same, I will be returning both and going back to my 'old' iPhone X.

I’ve long had our devices forget our 2.4 network, Apple Time Capsule. We have the 2.4 and 5 named separately. Download speed is always going to be better on a 5 network, especially in urban areas with a multitude of 2.4 networks to provide interference. But the 2.4 can be detected and joined far away from our residence which would cause our devices to pick it up if we hadn’t made them forget it. And once they join that network they don’t let go so returning to our home we would then see impaired download performance.

The drawback is that a 5 network does not have the range so even in our condo apartment there is one spot in particular where the reception is bad for the phones. Somewhat worse for the Max than my iphone 7. My 12.9 iPad Pro has no problem and has far better reception than either phone. Perhaps that’s due to the size of the device or the antenna placement. So even in our apartment I can see that if we had both networks named the same and/or allowed them to connect to the 2.4 there would be issues with them switching from one to the other. And with the 2.4 being so much stronger that’s what the devices would connect to. Which would then become noticeable in diminished download performance.

Given my my experience and that of many others with no functional issue, I don’t drop any connections or calls, I’m guessing the problem is more software related rather than defective hardware. Time will tell. After all if I were to judge my phones by what I experience with my iPad than all phones are defective. That 12.9 iPad is a beast when it comes to WiFi connections.

Most routers have a setting to enable 5GHz. It’s there that you can name it differently from the 2.4. For those that have Apple routers Airport Utility app makes this easy. Once you have set up a separate name, connect to the name you established for the 5. And then tap on the “i“ for your other network and just set it to forget. That way it will always connect to your 5. Your range won’t be as far but your speeds will almost always be considerably faster.

I have been looking at some of the mesh routers and I’ve seen some feedback that you can’t name the 2 bands separately so this may not be possible with them. Apparently they will always connect you to the stronger signal which unfortunately is usually going to be that much slower 2.4. That would pose a problem for me. Hopefully my Apple Time Capsule doesn’t give up the ghost anytime soon.

LTE and 5GHz do have a frequency in common, yes? 4G and 2.4GHz also have a frequency in common, right? The issue appears to be with the 5GHz frequency, which affects LTE and dual band WiFi.

Antenna designs can fairly easily be tuned to pick up both. But if something changes at the last minute in surrounding metal or a matching circuit or a filter due to EMC issues, it may become impossible to get 2.4 and 5 both below -30db S parameter. This is easy to see happening from an antenna design perspective.

If the dB goes below the chip’s requirement spec then you don’t get the communication / connection efficiency. If it’s bad enough you can show 2 bars and still not have enough power to meet the chip spec.

It all depends on that matching circuit.

There's a huge difference between "not having great range with 5ghz wifi" and not having any kind of range whatsoever. My XS Max will only stay on 5ghz wifi if I'm sitting at my desk with my router 3 feet away. As soon as I walk to the kitchen (line of sight to the router, approx 15 feet away) it stutters and eventually drops back to 2.4ghz network. My incoming internet speed from ISP is 400+ Mbps and other devices, including my previous iPhone 7 plus, are able to access nearly all of that in most areas of my home. My XS Max was getting 14Mbps in the kitchen this morning. That's a problem.

Yeah I agree. I’m on my 3rd replacement and same thing..... I strongly believe it’s an antenna issue that can’t be fixed through software updates. I drop wifi 30-50 feet from my router. My 8 and X stay connected. LTE is 70-80 mbps on all my iPhones except the XS (10-15 mbps)..... I hate to send it back and stick with my X but I’m also not waiting for a “fix”...... according to everyone I know, including Verizon, issue is known, but kept a secret.