VX-10 Poor RF performance?

[Mooby]

Hi all, I picked up a VX-10 yesterday because I was getting tired of the marginal RF performance of my A310(it left alot to be desired compared to my older T300). Anyhow, I'm noticing that the VX-10 doesn't seem to get a very strong signal for me either. At times it'll hit 6 bars and then for no reason drop all the way to two or one bar all while in the same place. Also, I found an area where I didn't get service where I'm fairly certain is well covered. Lastly, today I brought my a310 with me while at a car dealership. The A310 was getting full signal while the VX-10 was getting between 3-4 out of six bars. Now, I know alot of people say the bars don't really mean anything, especially when you're comparing two different brands. However, I find this test to be somewhat of a good indicator of the phone's RF performance. I've read people rave about the VX-10(and LG phones in general) ability to get good signal strentgh. I've also read a few reports of people getting LG's that are terrible at holding signal but upon swapping it for another as is well. I'm not sure if the problem is the phone or perhaps Verizon in my area at the moment, but given the fact that my A310 seems to be getting better strentgh at the moment, I'm thinking it may be the phone. Does anyone know any way to get to the debug screen of the VX10 so I can compare the signals of the it and the A310 in DB? I really want to like the phone. I've got beyond complaining about the poor menus or lack of voice support but this signal issue could be a deal breaker.

[larry39110]

Dave,
Hi, this doesn't really answer your question but here is my experience. I switched to the VX10 last week and I love it. Sure there are some things I don't really like, but overal I couldn't be more happy. I had been using a Nokia 3585 and since I switched I've noticed that my signal strength indicator is always much higher than the Nokia ever was. I am a happy camper with the phone.

[Mooby]

Larry,
That's why I'm wondering if I got a bad one. Out of all the user reviews of the VX-10 I've read, only a few of them mentioned poor signal. I'm thinking it is probably the phone. I'm still within my 15 days for full refund but honestly I think if I could figure out why it's getting such wild fluctuation in signal strentgh I'd be completely satisfied with it. Hopefully somone can shed some light on the subject.
I figured out how to get the debug screen but I can't figure out which number is the one to read in terms of signal strentgh.

[Flyer00]

Mooby,

I had the VX10 before I got the VX4400 and I thought it was the best phone I ever had as far as holding a signal. It was better than the v60 and FAR better than the T720. I noticed at times mine did that too-- go from 6 bars down to 1. My VX4400 does that too. I also noticed the T720 did it as well. However, if you make a call when it's like that, it quickly jumps back up to full strength. Perhaps it's some power saving technique in 3G phones? I am completely guessing here, but based on what I've seen, 2G phones did not exhibit this behavior. Also, most of the early 3G phones seemed to have that issue where they'd switch to analog out of the blue every once in a while.

My advice would be to use it a lot during your trial period. If it drops a lot of calls or you get voicemails without the phone ever ringing, then maybe take it back and try another. But as far as not dropping calls (no matter what the signal meter is reading), I've never had a phone better than the VX10. The VX4400 is a very close 2nd though.

[GoodmanR]

I would say you did just get a bad one. Verizon is pretty good about replacing handsets, just go to the store and theyll transfer your numbers etc....The VX-10 is a good phone for RF performance, but not the easiest to navigate menus on in my opinion.

[Mooby]

If I go back to the store and ask them to swap it for another VX-10, do I lose any of my ability to return it for a complete refund during the rest of the 15 days? I've actually noticed my Samsung A310 gets about the same if not better signal strentgh most of the time compared to the Vx-10 that I have. If I swap it for another and it doesn't seem to perform any better, I'll just stick with my A310.

[Flyer00]

Mooby,

You can take the VX10 back and swap it for another phone and still bring it back before the 15 days for a refund. It's part of their worry free guarantee. Also, from my experience with them, every time you swap the phone you get a new full 15 days.

[Mooby]

I think I'll head over to the Verizon store and exchange the VX-10 for another one. I've heard great things about the VX-4400 but I just can't justify spending 280 bucks on a cell phone. Hopefully the other VX-10 will get better strentgh, if not I guess I'll just go back to my A310, which never gave me any real problems but I just wanted to get something that pulled signal a bit better.

[Steve0]

Mooby,

I'm not sure where you are in CT, but I guess it really doesn't matter. I am also from CT, just south of Hartford.

I have the a310 and my wife has the vx10. We just recently switched from Cingular to Verizon(about 2 weeks ago). The reception for both of our phones is excellent. They both have coverage/reception in the same areas. I do not see that one performs better than the other. I would definitely say return the vx10 for another one. Probably is just a bad phone.

Good luck. Please post back to let us know if a new phone helped.

-Steve

[AnthroMatt]

Originally posted by: Flyer00
Mooby,

You can take the VX10 back and swap it for another phone and still bring it back before the 15 days for a refund. It's part of their worry free guarantee. Also, from my experience with them, every time you swap the phone you get a new full 15 days.

Not exactly true. Returns for defects do not count against your one exchange, but if the phone is not defective you only get one swap during your first 15 days. If you do your exchange on day 14 that gives you 1 day of trial time with the new phone before you are locked into a contract. Flyer is correct that if you do an exchange you can still cancel the service as long as it has not been more than 15 days since you signed up. You only get one exchange, so if you switch to a different model and find you like your old phone better, you are out of luck unless you want to pay full price. Your 15 days will not restart with each exchange.

[Mooby]

Matt,
I already did pay "Full Retail" since I'm a freeup customer. For some reason they only offer some phones at FreeUp prices. You can get and activate any phone they sell on Freeup but only a few are discounted, which was one of the reasons I got the A310 in the first place.
SteveO,
I'm located in the Avon/Simsbury area. With my two previous Verizon phones(Kyocera 2135 and Samsung T300) my signal at my house was full bars 99% of the time, or atleast that's what I swear remembering. With the A310 it's about 65% of the time and with my current VX-10 it's about 15% of the time.
I've not had real problems with the A310 but I did notice that while in the Apple Store at Westfarms, when I pulled my A310 out of my pocket I was greeted by a "Entering Service Area" meaning it had no signal while in my pocket at this particular location, which isn't a huge deal but I saw other people recieving calls without issue. If the second VX-10 proves to be the same, I'll just stick with the A310 unless it proves to be a big problem or until whenever it is that I find I use my phone enough to justify signing up for a contract.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally posted by: Mooby
Matt,
I already did pay "Full Retail" since I'm a freeup customer. For some reason they only offer some phones at FreeUp prices. You can get and activate any phone they sell on Freeup but only a few are discounted, which was one of the reasons I got the A310 in the first place.

Yeah, that policy always bugged me. They discount a really crappy phone in the v120 and a high-end (and in the opinion of many, really crappy) phone like the T720. There is nothing in between for FreeUP cusotmers. There should be something in between the two ends of the spectrum. I don't like the argument that they don't give as many discounts because you aren't signing a contract either, if that were the case there would be no discounts at all.

eBay is the best option in my opinion if you don't want one of the 2 phones Verizon will offer a discount on for FreeUP customers.

[Airb330]

Mooby, I feel bad...I steered you towards the 10. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] You got to get into the test screen on the phones! Both of my LG's are freaking odd with their bars. It can go from -90 to -88 and it is a 2 bar difference! Example that will help you, my stepdads 2135 will get a full 4/4 signal with a -88 reading, while that is only 4-5 bars on an LG. So, you can see...the bars are a poor judge. However, that 6 to 1 bar thing is alarming. For the VX10 I think to get to the menu it is Menu-0-000000 then find field mode, usually 2 then 1. That is how it is on my 4400. I am not sure on the Samsung...you better look it up. The field tests are the only true way you will know.

[Mooby]

Airb,
I've been able to get into the debug screen of both phones but I'm not sure which numbers I am comparing.
I got a new VX-10 today and the signal seems to be a bit better than the first but still not great. Similar things occur with the phones on my desk, the VX-10 will pull 5-6 bars and then drop to 2-3, sometimes down to 1 and then will go back up again after a while. The samsung very rarely drops below 3. I also did some more real world tests in my friend's basement, which is terrible for cell reception. The VX-10 would alternate between 1 bar of digital and no service. The A310 would show zero bars but would retain the digital signal and was perfectly clear. With the antenna's extended the VX-10 would occasionally go to 2 bars but would usually hover around 1. The A310 would jump all the way up to 2 bars digital(from showing none). I need to compare the DB strentghs but atleast in my real world tests, it seems I must have an A310 that gets great RF performance(that or two VX-10s with crappy RF). If so, I'll just stick with my A310 and save myself the money and hastle. I'll let you guys know what the DB comparisons are.
Edit-Ok I think I figured out which numbers to compare. There were a few on the A310 so I'm not sure which is the right one, but One number was -63 then there was one that was usually in the low 80's and another one in the single digits after it.
The number on the VX-10 was always around -90 or higher. So as far as I can tell unless I'm mistaken, the A310 is getting better signal by the bars, by the debug screen, and in the real world tests I've tried.
I've already tried two of them and I'm not gonna try another. At this point, I'm gonna save myself some money and hastle and just keep my A310. Oh well, it was worth a shot [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Hawkes]

Mooby,
Sorry to hear you didn't like the VX10. I also live in CT, New Haven, and noticed the same signal fluctuation at home. The bars will be at 2 or 3 when the phone is in standby, but the signal will increase to 4 when I make a call. Must be a New England thing, like the weather. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

I'm still very happy with my VX10. Of course, the phone I used to have was a piece of <blank> so anything would be an improvement.

[Mooby]

Hawkes,
I'll still reccomend the VX-10 to folks looking for a cheap flip with analog backup, but after seeing at how much of a bad rap the A310 gets, I was really suprised to find that my particular A310 performed better than 2 VX-10s. The folks at the Verizon store were generally very helpful too, though at first when I was exchanging the first VX-10 they made me have a tech update the roaming list(I was struggling to not say "I already did that!" [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] ). Yesterday though, they noticed a glitch in their computer system and intially they thought my account had been deleted and my number reassigned, as my info didn't show up when they entered in the number. I'd have been pissed to lose $80+ in minutes and my number. However, when they entered in the ESN my info came right up. So they refunded my 200 bucks and reactivated my A310 and now everything is back to normal. So, I saved myself some cash, ended up with a phone that seems to get better signal, and has a design/interface that I prefer. So in the end, I'm happy. Glad I decided to try the VX-10 though, otherwise I'd always be wondering how it would perform.
On a sidenote, to the detractors of analog, I had one of the few experiences last night where it was analog or nothing. I was travelling through Barkhamstead and Winstead, where Verizon has no coverage. I was able to get an analog roaming signal though. It's pretty deserted out there so if you have car trouble you want a signal, whether it be analog roaming or whatever. My friend was with me and his cingular phone had a decent digital signal, so I guess there's one part of the state where Cingular beats verizon [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Airb330]

Glad it is working out! I too would prefer the A310 over the VX10, because of the blue mostly lol. If the 310 had GIN/Bitpim capability then I would have went with it probably. The -80 some signal was probably the right one on your 310. So now you can go compare things with db's now! Trust me, when you get bored, you will! I have noticed you and I have went through more phones than people on contract (well I am on contract now) and you are on FREEUP and I was. March 04 is new phone time for me, unless I switch companies, then it is May 04.

[Mooby]

Airb,
Yeah I've had my fair share of phones [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] What alot of folks don't realize is that if they buy a new phone, even at full retail, they can usually sell their old one for a decent amount to subsidize the cost of the new one. For example, my A310 had a Freeup price of $130(I was really suprised that they had a freeup discount on the A310). Anyhow, I sold my trusty T300, which had a vibrate mode that was getting very weak from use, for $70 on ebay, so it only cost me about $60 to upgrade. When I initially thinking of getting the VX-10, I looked on ebay at auctions for A310s. Some were going for as high as $150-180; more than I paid for mine new!
Atleast in my experience, prepaid has been cheaper both in terms of monthly cost, and also very reasonable in terms of equipment costs.

[Hawkes]

Originally posted by: Mooby
Airb,
Yeah I've had my fair share of phones [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] What alot of folks don't realize is that if they buy a new phone, even at full retail, they can usually sell their old one for a decent amount to subsidize the cost of the new one.

Thanks Mooby. I never thought of that. :-) I'll definitely keep eBay in mind.

I do think the VX10 is a good, solid phone (so far) at a decent price for those who don't want or need the extra features. I certainly didn't want to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a phone with features I'll never use.

[MadDogMike]

Originally posted by: Mooby
I think I'll head over to the Verizon store and exchange the VX-10 for another one. I've heard great things about the VX-4400 but I just can't justify spending 280 bucks on a cell phone.

$280 for the VX-4400? The Verizon website shows it at $99, which is 10 bucks cheaper than the VX-10

[AnthroMatt]

Mooby is a FreeUP customer, so he can't get the phone for that price, he has to pay full retail.

[Hawkes]

Has anyone ever heard of a Titanium Booster Antenna? Does it really work? It's supposed to be compatible with LG - VX1 VX-1 VX1 VX-10 TM-520 phones, and claims it can increase reception-guaranteed in all areas.