yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] jhs39:
It's an open secret in the developer community that the coding on One Plus phones is almost ludicrously bad. After Marshmallow One Plus fired the European development team responsible for Oxygen and transferred it to the Hydrogen team in China to save money. After that the quality of the coding went downhill very quickly.

Programmers in China analyzed the Oxygen version of Oreo and found that it was filled with Nougat code that should not have been there. They also concluded that the coding in Oxygen was sloppy and unprofessional.

The poor coding in Oxygen frequently breaks third party apps and requires regular bug fixes. One month an Oxygen update broke all third party camera apps. Another month an Oxygen update broke third party launchers. When I had an OP5 at various times YouTube, Snapchat, Google Maps, Netflix, Google Assistant and Telegram all stopped functioning properly.

Another problem I encountered with Oxygen was that my phone required a factory reset after pretty much every OTA update to eliminate massive battery drain. After every update there was some system wake lock or another that would prevent the phone from sleeping. The only way to fix it was a factory reset.

The coding in Oxygen was so inept that the only way to safely use TWRP was to decrypt the memory on the OP5 and permanently run the phone with no encryption. That's because OnePlus kept screwing up their own decryption keys. After an Oxygen update TWRP would lose the ability to decrypt the phone memory (removing your pin or other screen lock didn't matter). When that happened there was no way to boot the phone back into the OS.. All you could do was format the data on the phone and flash everything from scratch. Anything you didn't back up was lost.

The OP5 was not only easily the worst experience I ever had with a phone but the resale value was so bad that when I sold my OP5 and Nexus 6P at the same time on Ebay I got more money for the older, cheaper and borderline obsolete 6P.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] p51d007:
I searched and found THIS thread because in my Mate 9, the signal is full bar, but in the PH-1, it's sometimes 1/2 to 1/4 and sometimes shows the little x.

Same sim, one phone shows full the Essential 1/2...not good. Oh well, it's just a "backup" phone anyway since I got it

for less than 300 bucks.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] km8j:
Mine is already set to that. It correlates to what is selected in the settings menu.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
I am not sure what the problem is but it is making the phone unsuable. I am still not sure what is happening.

The interesting thing is that I drove 3 hours streaming music and using waze and did not notice a single drop out during this time. The phone was plugged in charging the whole time with screen on.

Could it be related to some power saving mode or something kicking in. The reason I say this is it seems to drop service when I just staring at the screen but not necessarily running an app or using the phone. Almost like right before it goes into standby it seems to drop signal. Then when I start to interact with the phone it seems to come back. I could be imagining this but what do others notice.

I had to switch back to my mate 9 pro for the weekend since I need something reliable for the weekend.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
I did drop a Verizon SIM in from my work phone into it and it does not seem to have the same issue but I did not test it for very long.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] Walkamo:
I am in San Diego for the next 10 days. And service has been really good. I am getting LTE+ with insane download speeds (Over 100mbps).
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] acridity:
Give it some time guys. I was having the same issue when I first put in my TMobile sim card but after like 7-8 hours my signal strength is back on track. I think it might be from TMobile side since it's a new phone that might not be registering correctly from their side. Just my guess though.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
This is an example of what I am talking about in the course of 2 minutes you can see the signal strength go all over the place even loosing service. This is sitting on a table with a cheap LG k10 I think sitting next to it for reference.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] &roid:
That is scary...it can't keep up with a cheap phone. I hope that fix that for T-Mob, or they might have an angry one.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] quazimodem:
tmobile coverage can be spotty and weak in some areas where I live. But it seems even worse with Essential. I really hope things improve in the next few days...
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] km8j:
Nothing is going to improve. There is no settling time. Start messaging essential or going to the blogs to get coverage on the coverage issue
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] worldsoutro:
Hey you never know. Support might all of a sudden be there and fix this issue really quick!!!! ok maybe not lol
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] quazimodem:
You may be right. People have reported Essential working fine on Tmobile Service in areas that have better coverage. Like I said, I know my home has spotty Tmobile coverage (inside/outside) even before I had the Essential. Having poor signal at home isn't that much of a "deal" breaker for me... I've only had this phone for 24 hours and haven't used it much to know if the phone is a keeper or not. I'm getting my 360 cam this thursday so we'll see how that works out.

After contacting Tmobile (I was using Essential to make the call)... they told me they'll have their engineers look at the towers in my area to see if anything can be improved. It seems I don't have issues making/receiving calls, its looks to be more cellular data issues. They said if their engineers cannot resolve anything on their end (outside of adding more towers), they will send me a signal booster. I like that they are committed to helping their customers get better coverage in spotty areas.

I have 4 iphones at home with TMO and they can run Sensory speedtests. My phone cannot. It does bother me... but I'm hoping Essential can do something about it.

I created a generic tmo APN profile using this link https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2090. And now it looks like I'm getting LTE+ connections and cellular data seems to be working now. Comparing with the Tmobile APNs it autocreated.. it looks like the only difference is with the APN type.... the one the phone auto-detected and used as the APN type "Internet+MMS" but in the tmo support documentation... I put "default,supl,mms" and that seems to be working now. Will see how things go from here...
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] cb474:
I wonder if somehow the antennas could just not be connected right. It does seem like, from reading around, that Essential has some random quality control issues (things just not being put together correctly). You should get Essential to exchange it and see if you have the same problems. Someone else emailed Essential about having issues with the phone and they said right away they'd replace it.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
I have reached out to essential we with these pictures we will see what they say.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] graffixnyc:
It's not just a TMO thing. I'm getting a pretty bad signal with AT&T. Much worse than I get in the same location (my house) with other phones. It's pretty bad.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
I posted a poll about signal strength issues and how it was prior to this device. I want to see how this looks over the four carriers. The last thing I want to do return this phone
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
I dropped by T-Mobile and they were less than helpful. I felt like I knew 5 million times more than they did in the smart phone department. I wonder if this is isolated to the GSM antennas. People with Verizon are stating they don't have a noticeable difference.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] Ghost_1:
I have a few lines with T-Mobile and carried my Pixel XL and PH-1 with me today and yesterday. All the while I was using an app to check dbm, I can say that the PH-1 was always a few dbm higher and the signal strength was usually lower than the Pixel XL.

For instance at home I usually get -86 to -96dbm on my Pixel XL. depending what room I'm in, the PH-1 was always something like -89 to 98dbm.

There is a difference but not enough in stronger signal areas to make a difference. However when I was at a local mall that I usually get pretty good signal with the Pixel XL, the PH-1 was doing pretty badly inside. I think the Pixel XL was running at like -100 to 110dbm but pulling don webpages pretty fast, where the same webpages on the PH-1 were pretty slow and the signaled was at -105 to 118dbm. It was fairly noticable.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
I wonder why the dbm numbers don't vary that big but the inside strength is horrible... Also, I am wondering if the issue would be as bad on a non GSM service
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] bestlands:
Yea im just wondering but has anyone tried my thread https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/...lte-faster-and-fixes-all-your-problems.77304/
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
The info in that thread lines up with most ofy settings except the APN type. I did update to what the thread had and still had the same behaviour of dropping signal completely.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
The only thing different in my settings is:

APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6

APN roaming protocol: IPv4 <<<<<<< I have this as IPv4/IPv6

---------- Post added at 10:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:38 AM ----------

I'm going to use it for the rest of today and if it's still jacked up I will have to switch back to my S8 until I figure out how to fix the PH-1
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
I am almost positive its the signal pull from this phone. I have tried a Verizon sim in the phone and it worked great. I tried a sprint sim and it still pulled something. I even went to tmobile and got a new sim and had them set it up in the store, still crappy service
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] quazimodem:
I am seeing this too. I have other mobile devices on TMO and generally, Essential seems to have a slightly higher dBm. Ever since I made the change for the APN type, at least the phone reception is satisfactory to me with no major issues now. So I'm ok with this so far. Right now... just enjoying the phone overall... time to look at other Essential threads. I still have open support ticket on this so if they give me any meaningful changes outside of what I've done, I'll post it here.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
I am not sure about this phone, my phone becomes unusable when this happens
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] km8j:
Me as well.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
I'm going to go back to the S8 for a bit. Hopefully they come out with an update for it that helps. I remember another device that had similar issues but was fixed with an update
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
I emailed essential support about the issue and have not heard back. From looking at other forums it seems this issue is cropping up for others it is just hit or miss.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
it IS? just hit or miss? I'm sorry, did you mean to say its hit or miss or its more wide spread?
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
Yikes, I need more sleep. I think it is Hit or Miss. It does not seem to be impacting everyone. Though I am still not sure if it is a software issue or hardware issue. It seems some people are having trouble getting data back after connecting to WiFi. If I do a network settings reset and never turn on WiFi I hold signal seemingly better. Once I turn on Wifi then I start to get dropping of signal. It could just be my imagination. I have not had time to do controlled experiments.

It could also be an antenna issue or hardware issue but not clue. Still have not heard back from Essential but by phone is useless.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] parusia:
I'm with T-Mobile and my signal, data speeds are very good. Are much better than the signal and data speeds with my HTC international version.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] hal3146:
I heard back from essential and their response was to point me to T-Mobile webpage on how to configure APN.

I responded back and asked for next steps as my phone was already configured that way with no luck.

Will see what next steps are.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
Same with me, like to the "T". I also emailed them back with a similar response
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
got a response from my response. They are forwarding my request to the people that handle exchanges
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
Well they escalated my ticket up to Poonum and she said she reviewed my history and it is not the device that is defective but rather a weak signal in my area. She did advise me that I had 15 days to return the device. Here is my response:

Ma'am,

The device is not getting the proper signal strength. I promise you, I have tried my Sim card in several phones and all get great signal except my PH-1. There are several isolated incidents where this is happening with other people as well. Please don't think that all of us effected aren't talking because that is ignorant. I am asking for an exchange as my phone is the problem. Please advise what's next, I would prefer you send me a working device. Thank you.

Eric
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] &roid:
Poonum doesn't know...
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
I ended up selling my device today for what I paid for it. Maybe the PH-2 will be better......
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] sabbotage:
I was just testing mine again on AT&T. I have a weboost booster in my house so I have full signal everywhere. I popped my sim in the essential phone and fired up Network Cell Info. I watched the phone sit on band 17 for like a minute and then it switched to band 2 with hardly any signal (-124dBm) and then to band 4 with hardly any signal too (-118dBm) and then back to band 17 with decent signal (-80dBm). My pixel XL locks on band 12 in my house and has full signal everywhere and never fluctuates or switches bands. I'm honestly wondering if it's the software and how the radio in the phone is controlled. It shouldn't be bouncing all over the place like that and switching bands so much. I know I'm on AT&T and not T-Mobile but this is probably the same similar thing that's going on.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] &roid:
Makes perfect sense to me. I'm really trying to love this thing, but support sucks! This is after receiving the device even though I requested multiple times to cancel before it was shipped. If I don't get a magical update addressing this issue, I'm going to fight like hell and put up a major $#1tfest to get my money back. Even the worst phones I have get a better and more constant signal than my PH-1. It works fine in support strong network areas, but doesn't connect at all in weaker ones, in all the same areas other phones work fine.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
For what it’s worth, my phone sold in about ten mins after posting for sale.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] Ghost_1:
Anyone see any difference with the NMI64C update? I just downloaded it and will post results if I see/get any.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] Ghost_1:
As quick update after the upgrade to NMI64C, my PH-1 is very similar to my Pixel XL now, it doesn't switch to get signals as fast but when it does it's pretty close like 1-5 dbm close ASU is still all over the place.

When I say switching signals I mean when I walk into a building I noticed my PH-1 struggles for a second to grab a signal where as my Pixel is pretty quick.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] eakrish:
so still the same issues?
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] Ghost_1:
I'm giving it a few days, especially since the update is "fresh". However I can't say it's exactly the same... better but still not there yet is probably the best way to put it. :)

---------------UPDATE-------------------------

So after a few days with the NMI64C update here's what I've seen:

1. More switching, my Pixel doesn't switch to Band 12 where the Essential phone does in some parts of my condo. Strange but data speeds are pretty consistant either way.

2. While the Pixel still gets better signal it isn't by much anymore, still a few dBm off but nothing to take notice like before.

3. I think my results aren't a great indicator, there are very few places I travel to that I don't have LTE with Tmobile and usually at -88dBm to -110dBm. Hopefully someone else has been keeping an eye on this.

Overall it's is a little better than before but there is room for improvement.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] verve50:
I contacted Essential on the bad T-Mobile signal, and here was their response.

Melissa (Essential Products, Inc.)

Sep 25, 15:41 MST

Hi there,

We are working diligently to improve network stability in upcoming software updates. I have escalated this for you, and will keep you updated in the process.

In the meantime, it may be worth troubleshooting your network settings directly with T-Mobile.

Thank you for your patience and support, and have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Melissa

Essential Customer Experience Team
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] flakko86:
Yeah I pmed my inferior reception issues on Reddit and they asked me which band I was mainly on. At least it seems like they are working on getting to the bottom of this.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] phonefixdfw:
i can't send mms on tmobile. Data and everything work, i get mms but fails to send. driving me nuts
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
Same issue here on my essential phone. I just got it last week and absolutely love this phone but due to this I'm forced to sell it. I'm thinking giving it a few more days but dont want to depend on them fixing it. Just to add I used to have these exact same issues a while back on OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 and they never got fixed.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] gqukyo:
They are aware of the cellular reception issues, at least in the emails they responded to me with. I'm waiting for my replacement which they claim shouldn't have those issues along with the correct speaker grille. Claimed 2 weeks ago, that last week is when they will receive the new batch of phones but that hasn't happened and now they are hoping this week... bet next week they'll say the same... lol
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
I'm trying to determine if I should hang on to this phone or not, I love the phone but the reception issue is a problem
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] flakko86:
If you don't mind waiting a week or two, i think next software update will be coming with the October security patch
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
Ya but we dont know the software update will fix reception.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] flakko86:
This is true, but if it does fix all is good in the hood?
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
True that, I guess I just don't have my hopes up that it will fix anything from my previous experience with a couple phones that have had the same issue. :(
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] gqukyo:
It probably won't which is why they claim they waiting for the new hardware before they send it out to me. That or they just didn't have anything in stock... Lol
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
They replied to me saying this:

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you at this time but I have escalated to our technical team to find a resolution. As you said, these are known issues that other people have also experienced. We are working diligently to find a resolution to these issues and appreciate you taking the time to let us know.*

Sent from my Essential Phone
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] gqukyo:
No surprise, rarely are all reps at any company on the same page. However, this company should still be small enough right now to at least be consistent with their responses lol
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] flakko86:
I'm gonna ask what's up during the AMA tomorrow. They've been collecting data about this issue for like a month so if it's really a hardware problem, would be nice to know lol
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
AMA, when is that and where?
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] flakko86:
Here ya go!

https://www.reddit.com/r/essential/comments/743sto/biweekly_ama_with_essential_team_wednesday_121pm/
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
Did you ask I think I missed it.

---------- Post added at 03:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:55 PM ----------

Any updates, I just got a ota update but not sure that will do anything, I'm updating now.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] Ghost_1:
As far as signal reception they didn't say much. I have a feeling it's not going to get better anytime soon but I am really hoping for those with signal issues that it does get fixed soon!

You can go to Essential Bi-Weekly Reddit AMA from today and read the comments.

I think the highlights were (not in any order and if there is spelling or grammer errors sorry):

Today's OTA NMI81C fixes some of the freezing issues that people were having

Fingerprint reader gestures are in progress and should be coming soon, possibly the next OTA

Night mode (blue light filter) will come probably around the Android O release for the phone, probably be out with Android O

Double tap to wake is not being worked on "right now"

360 Camera and skins don't like each other, see the Reddit link for further information

Lag/screen stuttering is an identified issue with Qualcomm and will be patched within one of the next OTA's

Essential Services app is an app that collect high-level statistics to improve the user experience

White is ready to be shipped but China is on holiday so shipping will be a little later, maybe a few days? Depends on the Chinese holiday/shipping.

Android O is in the early stages of testing at Essential, the hope is to have an Open Beta ready in a few weeks.

Samsung Gear issue, still not able to get it working because Essential cannot pinpoint the issue on Android N, however the early tests with Android O appear to fix the issue.

Kernal Source/System Image is still not available however Essential is working to get this to us ASAP...whatever that is worth...lol

All RMA's should be out by now so you should see something coming soon if you RMA'd

SnapChat issue is being worked on with the Devs

360 Camera live streaming is being worked on and is expected to be part of the Fall OTA, starting with testing going on right now with FB and Periscope

360 Camera doesn't support external audio input for recording

Android Auto issues with 2016 VW Jetta has been added to the list of reports of Android Auto issues

Working on adding compression level changing for the 360 Camera

Essential is planning on releasing the SDK for the rear connectors (the one for the 360 camera, dock, etc.) but no word on dates yet.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] dkotoric:
So nothing on reception

Sent from my Essential Phone
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] KnightWatchman:
[MENTION=330966]phonefixdfw[/MENTION] [MENTION=523951]dkotoric[/MENTION] Have you tried the settings from https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-28990?? In particular if you don't have MMSC set to "http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc" you'll have issues with mms.
[Essential Phone Questions & Answers] flakko86:
The OTA fixed a decent amount of issues mainly the randomly lockups and freezes people were having.

I did ask but they just gave me this generic answer of "we are working closely with our cell service providers" or somthing like that haha nothing of real substance. Through this OTA seems to be 1 of 2 this month. There should be another one within a couple weeks with the OCT security update.