I've got an iphone 11 Pro I bought secondhand a couple of years back. It felt like a massive step up at the time from the previous 6s+. Its been well used by me, and as its supposed to be IP67 waterproof I tend to just chuck it in a trouser/jersey pocket when I'm riding, meaning it gets wet and/or sweaty pretty often.
The last few months it feels like its ability to pick up signal has been getting worse. Especially if I'm travelling on the train - maybe only 25% of my trip to London I have signal, whereas everyone around me seems to be happily doomscrolling away. (Phone can connect to train wifi, but train wifi is never connected to outside world). Quite often if I turn airplane mode on & off, it'll suddenly find signal for a bit. Even at home, I sometimes struggle to get wifi, despite a pretty solid mesh system. Ipad will be fine; iphone next to it - not. (and I'm assuming its different aerials for 4g & wifi too!)
So is this just life, or is the aerial or something similar corroding away inside, or maybe some kind of firmware issue?
Thanks!
No idea, but given it's an Apple it's probably some sort of preprogrammed obsalence to make it gradually worse until you buy another one. I'm sure there was something where they got caught doing that (don't think it was signal, but maybe they've just not been caught yet)
No idea, but given it's an Apple it's probably some sort of preprogrammed obsalence to make it gradually worse until you buy another one. I'm sure there was something where they got caught doing that (don't think it was signal, but maybe they've just not been caught yet)
I think that was battery endurance... Once the battery lost x percent efficiency the software would artificially nerf the performance.
Sounds unlikely. Maybe it’s your service provider just being poor.
No idea, but given it's an Apple it's probably some sort of preprogrammed obsalence to make it gradually worse until you buy another one. I'm sure there was something where they got caught doing that (don't think it was signal, but maybe they've just not been caught yet)
Rubbish. I was using iPhones that were five or six years old, with no performance issues.
Phone batteries, in fact every battery will lose performance after a period of time, yes, Apple did allow software to alter the performance once the battery life dropped below a given level, which can vary from phone to phone; the only thing they were found guilty of was not making it clear to customers, the majority of whom wouldn’t even realise or care, apart from those who will start up a class action suit in the vain hope of getting a fat payout from Apple.
Would you go to court because your car battery life drops below a certain level and prevents you from starting it when it gets cold? I believe it’s recommended that car batteries should be replaced every five years, about the same as anything with a battery in it.
Which is why I won’t spend hundreds of pounds on wireless headphones, when I can have studio specification wired ‘phones that cost just over a hundred quid, and will play Lossless music.
The problem, as someone has said, is that some network providers are cutting down on the number of masts available, O2 being one - there’s a mast less than 100 metres away from me, that was O2, it’s now Vodaphone, and the nearest 5G available to me is either Bristol or Swindon on O2. Reception in Bath is woeful.
And my phone, for reference, is a six month old 16 Pro Max.
Just checked, the iP11 is now nearly six years old, and the OP’s was second hand, so while it’s still a highly regarded phone, it might be worth going into settings and checking the battery life, and see about replacing the battery, there’s plenty of places that can do it for a reasonable price, which could get a few more years out of it.
My contract allows me to upgrade at no extra cost any time I want, so I change my phone every time a new one is available, last time I got £50 back because the phone is absolutely immaculate, the bloke in the O2 store actually asked if I ever used it! It’s in a case with screen protectors, and used multiple times a day.
Which is why I won’t spend hundreds of pounds on wireless headphones, when I can have studio specification wired ‘phones that cost just over a hundred quid, and will play Lossless music.
Are there headphones which can't play lossless music?
Which is why I won’t spend hundreds of pounds on wireless headphones, when I can have studio specification wired ‘phones that cost just over a hundred quid, and will play Lossless music.
Are there headphones which can't play lossless music?
Nope... headphones are basically passive in this context... they are just very small speakers.
'lossless' generally refers to digital audio formats that don't use any file compression, hence 'no loss' from the origonal source material.
Edit- But if the origonal source is bad quality, you can still make it lossless, it will just be a perfect lossless copy of a crappy recording, so it will still sound a bit rubbish.
For example, I could hook my old kenwood tape deck to my PC, and make a 'lossless' recording from a tape casette, and it will still sound like pants. But it would be digitally perfect lossless pants in horrific detail 😀
I am in the same boat, oldish Iphone that cannot get reception through parts of sw london and waterloo station when on the train. Fine when I cycle through the same areas (listening to Digital Radio). I made up a theory about Phone companies replacing existing 4g with 5g transmitters. 5g is a shorter wavelength and therefore cannot pass through solid structures (this bit is true).
Will be binning EE at the end of my contract in about 6 months. Cannot be bothered to have an argument now because when I ever I use their issue with the network feature, it always claims good service.
One point about being on the train... you lucky Southerners keep getting new trains (unlike the rest of us who still have to sit on rusty junk built in the 1980s.
Unfortunately the new trains tend to suffer with poor signal internally- a sort of Faraday cage effect - inc. the glazing on new trains contributes to that, due to things like anti-solar coatings onnthe glass (+ generally there's is more metal and wider thicker pillars between each window,smaller windows etc.). It's certainly a known problem in the industry with no easy solution.
As for the onboard WiFi- it fails, it doesn't get fixed right away (non-critical) etc + also some operators cheap out and put minimum numbers of SIM cards in, don't have multiple network SIMs etc (cheaper, remember the DfT has been holding the purse strings - and keeping them tightly shut - since Covid.
I had a five year old Samsung phone that suddenly started to struggle with picking up signal on the GiffGaff ( O2j network at home and elsewhere. The same sim in an older phone worked well so I believed it to be a phone issue so perhaps it might be the same for the OP.
I can’t explain the issues with wifi but i suspect the issue with the network is that the 11 was the last iPhone without 5g. So it’s possible that as the network is reconfigured for the 3g turn off you are hitting coverage gaps.
I’d say that it’s unlikely damp has caused the problem. A friend uses her iPhone in the swimmimg pool with no case. My 12 died due to water damage. But prior to that it did 10 days on a verge in the rain and then was run over by a lawn mover. I taped it up and it did nearly a year. Then divided into a rut full of water. I think the phone sat in a very wet pocket for the rest of the ride
The OP was not the clearest, but they seemed to saying the train scenario was a WiFi thing, and the siting at home also WiFi, so not sure that networks/3G/4G/5G come into it.
Nope... headphones are basically passive in this context... they are just very small speakers.
'lossless' generally refers to digital audio formats that don't use any file compression, hence 'no loss' from the origonal source material.
Exactly why I asked, it seemed an odd claim.
I made up a theory about Phone companies replacing existing 4g with 5g transmitters. 5g is a shorter wavelength and therefore cannot pass through solid structures (this bit is true).
Are you confusing 5G mobile networks with 5GHz Wi-Fi?
I made up a theory about Phone companies replacing existing 4g with 5g transmitters. 5g is a shorter wavelength and therefore cannot pass through solid structures (this bit is true).
Actually, most 5G are on similar frequency bands as 4G (which is part of the reason that the headline rates that you may have seen for 5G are never actually obtained).
The OP was not the clearest, but they seemed to saying the train scenario was a WiFi thing, and the siting at home also WiFi, so not sure that networks/3G/4G/5G come into it.
Ahh - ok. I may have misunderstood.
My point about on-train WiFi is that the train-to-outside world link is often either shite, or broken. Often both. Even when working as intended the bandwidth is poor when 200 people (maybe 500 people on crowded trains !) Are all trying to access the Internet via one or two shite low capacity SIM cards. Add on the patchy coverage (the trains are trying to connect to the same patchy network as passengers are, albeit with a better anntena on the roof) then it's pretty rubbish.
I know a few years ago Eurostar chose to use Orange / Three SIMs for the UK part of the route, despite being told by people who know that Orange had hopeless coverage along most of the HS1 route. Result... hopeless on train WiFi until in France !
Rubbish. I was using iPhones that were five or six years old, with no performance issues.
Phone batteries, in fact every battery will lose performance after a period of time, yes, Apple did allow software to alter the performance once the battery life dropped below a given level, which can vary from phone to phone; the only thing they were found guilty of was not making it clear to customers, the majority of whom wouldn’t even realise or care, apart from those who will start up a class action suit in the vain hope of getting a fat payout from Apple.
That's certainly one way of looking at it.
Another way is that they deliberately didn't tell the users because for £60-£80 they could have a device that works like new, which would have made it less likely they'd upgrade to the latest device for £700+
I usually buy second hand phones and have lived in homes with poor mobile reception, sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. Apparently I have noticed after a few years with s particular phone they seem to give up the search for signal until rebooted (that's not to say they weren't rebooted for a few years until then btw). That is the pattern witnessed but not scientifically observed or recorded. Seem to need to do this every few months (especially if waiting for a auth code via SMS).
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
The last few months it feels like its ability to pick up signal has been getting worse. Especially if I'm travelling on the train - maybe only 25% of my trip to London I have signal, whereas everyone around me seems to be happily doomscrolling away. (Phone can connect to train wifi, but train wifi is never connected to outside world).
I assumed this refereed to mobile reception
