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Samsung Galaxy S21 Poor Signal Strength

  • 10 December 2021
  • 10 replies
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M
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I've just moved to iD having upgraded to the Samsung S21 5G handset from the S10. The issue is that signal reception (wifi calling or phone) round the house is patchy . When outside the house the reception is between patchy to non-existent. I put the new iD sim card into my old 4G S10 and phone/data reception in the house and outside were good, so clearly not network related.

I can see a number of people reporting the same issue online with the S21 and 5G and am wondering if it is a known issue and what the resolution is? 

My postcode area is DE3.

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Best answer by WelshPaul 18 December 2021, 16:12

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WelshPaul
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Have a read of this:

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s21-series/s21-poor-signal-strength/m-p/2951550#M13195

M
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@WelshPaul , thanks for the link but this is one of the threads I have seen and it confirms that there is an issue with Samsung 5G phones and poor reception. I have also seen that many users gave up and contacted their network provider for a refund.,

 

My question was around whether is something iD are aware of? If so, what are they offering customers who cannot access 5G?

 

 

WelshPaul
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If you are within the cooling off period then send it back. If not, the phone will need to be sent to Samsung for a warranty repair or replacement.

Will
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Hi @M Lane,

 

Like @WelshPaul says, if you’re within your returns period, you can bring it back and we’ll cancel it for you. If not, we can offer a repair service for you.

 

Will

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M
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@Will, given that this is clearly a known issue with S21 models in the Samsung Community, per my question above, is poor reception something iD is aware of? If so, what are they offering customers who cannot access 5G?

Will
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Hi @M Lane,

 

When you say “clearly a known issue”, do you mean it’s something you’ve seen others talk about on the internet, or are you speaking about Samsung releasing a statement calling handsets back, because as far as I’m aware, no such statement has been released.

 

Will

I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
M
Rank

@Will  there are a number of threads both within this iD community as well as the wider Samsung Community forums where network comms employees have suggested returning handsets for ‘repair’ where poor reception/reception issues have been reported with the S21 models, so I am surprised  this is news to you.

Only those end users have had exactly the same issues with handsets 2 (& 3). If poor 5G reception with the S21 models is something iD are not aware, comments on this forum would suggest otherwise. So per my original question, given that many parts of the country (including mine) do not have a 5G signal, what are iD offering customers who cannot access 5G?

Thanks

WelshPaul
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While it is true (Samsung will never admit it) that the Samsung handsets receive poor signal (my S21 Ultra is the same) compared to other brands, 5G signal is always going to be problematic because it has such a short coverage area when compared to 2G, 3G and 4G. Obstacles also hamper 5G coverage compared to 2G, 3G and 4G. 

In my experience a Samsung device will have 1, maybe 2 bars less signal than other brands. It has been like that since the Note 9 I believe. However, this isn’t just a 5G issue as 4G signal is also affected. Many won’t know or notice the issue as they won’t have another handset to compare signal against. Even if they did, I doubt it would have a negative effect on their service. Well, unless they live in a poor coverage area to start with where they would normally get about 1 or 2 bars of coverage! If they lived in an area like that then it’s likely the Samsung would display no signal.

Some have chosen to send their phones off for repair and they have followed up saying that their replacement handsets have improved signal. It’s possible that Samsung have tweaked or replaced internal hardware and fixed the issue in later production models? Anyway, you should send yours off under warranty and get it looked at first before asking or expecting ID Mobile to do something different.

Good Luck

M
Rank

 @WelshPaul, thanks for confirming my own findings! :blush: 

Samsung have clearly traded off increased battery life for shorter antennae in its newer models. 

I guess it was a bit hopefully, expecting iD to acknowledge that there may be an issue with reception on the newer Samsung phones. Personally, I have found that by manually downgrading band selector to ‘LTE’ from ‘5G’, I at least have a reasonable working service, Not as good as my old 4G S10 but hopefully there will be a firmware update in the future, which will fix the issue.

Many thanks for your help! 

WelshPaul
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I get two bars on my S21 Ultra on both 5G and 4G with Vodafone here. Put my Vodafone SIM card in a Pixel 6, Oppo or Huawei and I get 3 or 4 bars of 5G/4G! My S21 ultra does have full bars on both 3G and 2G networks (expected). I purchased my handset SIM free from Samsung - It is what it is. I think it’s hardware related to be honest (hope i’m wrong) as I have had like 16 firmware updates and no improvement for me! 

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