iPhone XS Max Weak 5GHz WIFI Reception

Don’t forget, you have a limited time to return your device, but you have forever to purchase it again, when this is worked out! And judging from the number of people returning and exchanging, there will be oodles sold at reduced refurb prices!

Also adding my iPhone XS Max to the list. Sent it back for a refund as the wifi was okay after a reset then went right back to not loading web pages, photos etc. Not worth the $1300 I had paid. My iPhone 7 plus works way better. If they are able to fix it I might think of re-purchasing.

oh i'm sure i'm being lied to. trust me on that!

they want me to bring my phone and my wife's phone in but can't find a time that is suitable for me. they haven't seen this issue before. i said, isn't it odd that two new phones would have the same issue when the previous iphone 8plus did not?

karam_A15 wrote:

Well, if there is some sort of announcement regarding this then I would like to know from this conversation.

No. And Apple rarely, if ever makes a statement about an issue they are working on. It doesn't mean they aren't working on it, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any official statement.

too funny they won't even have me do that. they just want me to take it in, but there are no times on saturday. so i can walk in, or i can go in sunday late afternoon, when i can't. which i told them.

The XS Max that I tested was not switching to 2.4Ghz at all. That was not the problem. I use separate SSID names.

In certain areas of a house, the XS Max simply couldn't connect to 5Ghz while other iPhones in this household did.

Full iPhone resets did not help.

Rebooting router did nothing, of course (that only helps if the router is faulty).

"What can be said definitively is the iPhone XS and XS Max exhibit lab tested RF performance for antenna gain and radiated power output (EIRP) that almost invariably measures lower than the same metrics on 2017 iPhone variants and other recent, comparable handsets."

https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/antennagate-2018-youre-getting-my.html

If they have called you or sent you an email then you have a way to contact them. The most helpful thing they are doing is having people install logging profiles on the devices and then after a time submitting the logs to them. I’ve had phone calls and emails from two different senior advisors and was told they were attempting to reach out to everyone posting here and have those with significant issues to install the profiles. I have the phone numbers and email addresses of both people. I don’t think at this time taking the phones into the store would be that helpful unless they’re completely non functional and then they would give you a replacement.

Even though it seems as if my WiFi reception is weaker compared to an iPhone 7 that I currently use, with a second line, I don’t lose that connection nor my cell connection. So they thought a logging profile on my phone wouldn’t be that helpful.

i totally agree with you, but the person i spoke with over chat said four times there is no known issue for this. the apple forums are not official apple. people on forums often don't own the phone.

my main concern now is what happens once i reach 14 days? i agree going to the store will most likely be for naught. but if that's what Peta says to do, I will do it.

_g89_ wrote:

My pre-ordered 512GB arrives 10/10. I'm likely going to refuse the shipment. I'll re-order once Apple acknowledges and fix the wifi AND LTE issues with the Xs Max

You can do that. But you're expecting to have an issue when there's only a percentage of users having issues. This is not universal to all users. There's absolutely nothing wrong with my iPhone XS Max. No cellular issues. No Wifi issues. None.

Out of curiosity, how are you quantifying "WiFi issues?"

For example, on my XS Max, I don't see signal strength issues per se, but I do see speed issues, and that's because there definitely does seem to be an issue where if an AP offers both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz service (in my case an 802.11ac Time Capsule) the device will prefer the 2.4 GHz connection even if the AP it's five feet away from offers nice clean 80 MHz wide 5 GHz channels it could connect to, thus limiting overall speed.

I haven't run into any LTE/cellular issues; I see similar signal strength to my X, and anywhere I have issues with signal I had the same issues with my X.

Returned mine and my husbands today too many call fails didn’t want to get stuck for a year. I’ll stick with my 8 Plus until they get the kinks out. I did want it to work I had the XS Max it was so nice.

I do wonder about this because if anything by XS Max offers better reception on AT&T LTE than my X and older phones I owned did; I can now carry on conversations through notorious "dead zones" where I could count on losing a call.

William Kucharski wrote:

Out of curiosity, how are you quantifying "WiFi issues?"

For example, on my XS Max, I don't see signal strength issues per se, but I do see speed issues, and that's because there definitely does seem to be an issue where if an AP offers both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz service (in my case an 802.11ac Time Capsule) the device will prefer the 2.4 GHz connection even if the AP it's five feet away from offers nice clean 80 MHz wide 5 GHz channels it could connect to, thus limiting overall speed.

I haven't run into any LTE/cellular issues; I see similar signal strength to my X, and anywhere I have issues with signal I had the same issues with my X.

I'm the same, I don't see "signal strength" issues but my Xs Max prefers to use the 2.4ghz band instead of the 5ghz, even when its only a meter or so away from the AP, I'm using a Unifi UAC-AP-Pro. All my other Apple devices, including the X before it, prefer the 5ghz band. The lower wifi speeds will likely be attributed to the fact the phone is on the 2.4ghz band as opposed to 5ghz

You can reset your network settings, and it'll temporarily start connecting at 5ghz again but after awhile the phone drops back to 2.4ghz. If you reset network settings, don't forget to uncheck iCloud Keychain first otherwise you'll lose all your saved wifi passwords.

Like you, I don't have any 4G/cellular problems.

If Apple Support want to reach out to me I'd be happy to install logging profiles to assist.

If you haven't actually had a phone call or an email then you haven't communicated with a senior advisor. My first contact came from a post I made on Twitter. I highly recommend that route. And then after posting here I got my second phone call from another advisor with AppleCare. I am not exactly thrilled with what appears to be a weaker wifi reception on the device but it has not led to any functional issues for me. If it had I would then have to make a decision about returning for a replacement. But I do feel that if you can reach a tolerable state and can wait for them to do something officially they will take care of this, one way or another. These are their premier devices and they're not going let some widespread issue smear the debut of these phones. The fact that two separate individuals called and emailed me, and I don't have the issue others are reporting, heartens me.

William Kucharski wrote:

Out of curiosity, how are you quantifying "WiFi issues?"

For example, on my XS Max, I don't see signal strength issues per se, but I do see speed issues, and that's because there definitely does seem to be an issue where if an AP offers both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz service (in my case an 802.11ac Time Capsule) the device will prefer the 2.4 GHz connection even if the AP it's five feet away from offers nice clean 80 MHz wide 5 GHz channels it could connect to, thus limiting overall speed.

I haven't run into any LTE/cellular issues; I see similar signal strength to my X, and anywhere I have issues with signal I had the same issues with my X.

Just my observation, but in keeping up with this thread, many of the "factual" data people are offering are results from speed tests, which are not often super accurate. We're seeing as usual when an issue becomes discussed over and over a lot of couch engineering going on.

So, here's how I can say I'm not having any issues. My LTE is better with my XS Max than my X. I sometimes had calls drop on my X. I've yet to have a call drop on my XS Max. If I can make and receive phone calls without issue, it's working for my needs. As to Wifi, I'm not that bothered about running speed tests. I've had my devices forget the 2.4ghz band since I got my X. So at home, my phone ONLY connects to the 5ghz band. I've had no issues streaming from music (Pandora), video (Netflix and YouTube), updating apps, surfing the net or doing anything that I did on my X. In fact, I've found the actual use to be faster/zippier (if that's a reasonable adjective). I don't need a speed test to tell me my phone is operating well, because my phone IS operating well.

The bottom line is, thus far, I'm experience a great experience on my iPhone XS Max. That's really all that matters to me. Does it do what I want it to do when I want it to do it. So far, it's exceeded my expectations.

If other's aren't having the same experience, I can certainly understand the disappointment. I would ask some who are running speed tests over and over, if they couldn't run one and just could use their phone normally, would they even know they had a problem. Those with dropped calls and poor internet connections would say something's wrong and they should. But for some others I wonder if they aren't having dropped calls and are having acceptable online performance, why they are concerned?