iPhone Xs Max poor cell phone reception fix?

I have IPhone XS on Sprint carrier, I noticed a significant reduction in LTE service and wifi speed, I had moved from my samsung Galaxy S8, and that phone is two years old and had better reception... what is going !?

Hi,

I have recently purchased an Iphone XS Max. Here is the issues i have:

- Phone calls drops randomly either just after I dialled or after 20 sec or after 5 min.. This is extremely annoying an people thinks i'm rude.. Also if i have to make important call, i can be sure this basic phone call will work properly

- Wi-fi drops randomly or being extremely slow.. => Also very annoying.

Can you help me, please ?

I was really hoping regarding a $2000 AUD phone..

My Samsung was slower but at least i could call normally and internet was never being funny.

Same exact problem here.... 1600 dollars and my 6S Plus got better reception....I’m calling tomorrow and if a fix isn’t in place I’m returning it ....just bad business.... Hey Apple! how about testing these phones and not worrying so much about release deadlines . Just bad business.....

As always, if your wife is unhappy with her XS, that's why Apple has a return policy.

While some have had issues, the WiFi issues have been largely ameliorated by iOS 12.0.1, and cellular issues often are fixed by carrier updates.

If you have done both and are still having issues, you may just happen to have a situation in which the XS performs poorly for whatever reason.

If that's true, you can either hope it gets fixed in a future software release or return the device and purchase something else.

Update your carrier settings on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

My wife and I have the iphone 6s plus and since the new phone XS MAX we cant even login to FACEBOOK or even use the MARK THE SPOT by AT&T as it cant find a connection to report the issue.. What is going on here. I plugged my SIM into the iphone 6s PLUS and it works great. Went as far as resetting the phones back to factory to no avail.

By the way Apple support does not look at these forums. You all need to give feedback here

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

I am having the same issue. With my brand new iPhone XS Max my WiFi and Celluar reception is terrible. I have already called Apple multiple times and there seems to be no answer or fix. I have put my phone up against my old IPhone 6, 6s, and 8. The newer iPhone is much worse in speed. Most of the time I don’t even have LTE, instead 4G. When the other phones have 4 bars, my Max has only 2. Personally, I don’t know what to do. I like the phone but I will most likely return it. If it had just been my celluar speed, perhaps I’d been able to live with it, but my WiFi drops several times each hour and I can’t live with owning a 1,500 dollar device that I can’t use.

At work I always had bad reception - I needed to find a certain place on my work desk where I had reliable LTE or at least 3G connection. Developed a habit of placing my iPhone there. The iPhone XS Max is the first iPhone that isn't able to keep LTE or 3G there (or any other place around - I really tried) it just falls back to Edge - which is as good as NO connection in modern times.

So - dear apple - this is not just a matter of having 2 instead of 3 bars ... It's affecting all day usability.

I have the iPhone XS and I have the same connectivity issue with a very poor cell signal. I have 1 or 2 bar with the iPhone XS in places where I have 3-4 bar with the old iPhone 5. I have contacted Apple support and after testing the phone they said they don’t find any problem with the phone. They suggested an appointment to the store and will try to go to have it fixed. It’s a shame that such an expensive phone doesn’t perform as it should on the cell signal. In some place, the phone has no signal at all and the phone is therefore useles! this is not what I expected from Apple!!!

Prior to obtaining the iPhone max, I had the iPhone X. I always had 3 to 4 bars of signal strength. It wasn’t until I got the Max that I noticed my connectivity was lacking. Everyone else in my household have older iphones which continued to have strong connectivity. I contacted Apple who troubleshot the issue by having me reset my network options. When this failed, they forwarded me to my cellular provider. Everyone shares the same provider in my household and the only variable that has changed is my iPhone upgrade. With the only change in variables being my iPhone upgrade, Apple still saw fit to forward me to my cellular provider. I am very disappointed and Apple’s response.

It could very well be that the iPhone is locking on to a weaker band on the tower than the strong band. Each tower has multiple bands, ones that are stronger than the other ones on the same tower. If for some reason the phone is prioritizing the weaker band over the stronger band, that can be fixed with FW. So you really can't compare the amount of bars on one phone to another phone and say the one with the more amount of bars has a better modem or antenna. Too many variables to know for sure. But if the iPhone is indeed being directed by the FW, or even the carrier to prioritize the weaker band, we should be either getting a carrier or iOS update soon. My guess since it's happening on multiple carriers, it will have to come from Apple. It reminds me of old DOS computer language and the misuse of "if" in the string of commands. If/Or in the wrong order could create a mess.

People not having issues may be in an area that is not using the newest bands that the iPhone can connect with. The older bands may indeed be stronger and more reliable at this time, until the carriers get all the bugs worked out.

I’ve had similar cellular performance issues with my new Xs Max. Interestly, the performance in areas with a strong signal is vastly improved, while the performance in areas with a weak signal is vastly decreased. In the weak areas (like where my house is) the coverage has dropped from 2 bars to 1 to no bars at all. in the exact same chair in my house I get around 5Mbps on my 8Plus, I get .5mbps on my Xs! T Mobile btw...

The WiFiperformance was the same as the 8 Plus until I did a reset network settings and and it jumped up nicely from about 250mbps to 400mbps.

Same issue here. On my XS max I get 1-2 bars and the other phones have 2-3 bars. Also my Iphone x had no issues. It is not the bars but the reception and quality of the phone calls that are new with this phone that is the issue. Working with apple and still no answers

I'm having the same issue with my XS Max on AT&T. I called ATT and they said there wasn't any outages to contact apple. My 7 plus had way better service in the boonies that this XS Max. I'm within my 14 days so if i can't get this fixed I'm going to have to change to the dreadful Note 9 Android! At least it gets service!

I,am having all sorts of phone call problems with my iPhone XS Max, both on WiFi and LTE. Sometimes calls seem to connect, and then say "Call Failure". In same environment, my iPhone 7 Plus had none of the phone call problems.

F308 wrote:

I have the iPhone XS and I have the same connectivity issue with a very poor cell signal. I have 1 or 2 bar with the iPhone XS in places where I have 3-4 bar with the old iPhone 5.

Remember, bars are not an absolute measurement between devices, they are only to indicate relative strength on that particular device.

For example the same signal strength could be depicted as "full bars" on one phone could but could very well be displayed as two of four in strength on a different phone.

It's meant to display "how good is my signal on this device here?"