[thinkythought]

I have an X on tmobile and it's abjectly terrible. I had a 6S+ before it. In the same location, on the same network, it will drop signal or become unusable and gets lower reception almost everywhere.

This is nearly as bad as the issues reported with the essential phone, honestly. It's a night and day difference you can compare side by side if you have two devices.

With good signal it's fine, and the speeds are plenty fast. I have no complaints about battery life. It's entirely when the signal is marginal that it's garbage.

I've considered selling it and buying the verizon or unlocked qualcomm model multiple times.

[joecool1029]

When signal is poor it's likely locking to the band 12 layer (700mhz) which is only 5mhz x 5mhz worth of bandwidth. It congests easier than band4 which is typically 20x20. For whatever reason iphones seem to be a bit stickier to this band, probably due to weaker antennas or firmware that kicks it off the beefier bands faster.

[thinkythought]

There's something to this theory, as switching airplane mode off and on usually results in a usable connection. This is still completely unacceptable behavior though, and i haven't been able to replicate it on multiple other devices i have handy(including other iphones, including ones with band 12 support)

[joecool1029]

My experience with the SE has been that it goes to band 12 first or if its moving fast within a cell. Then it ‘settles’ into band 4 or 2 on tmobile after about a minute.

My old modem phone I purposefully got without band 12 because it saturates so easy, now I just lock bands and speedtest until I find most reliable with the current.

[reticulated]

My experience with the X is very different. It's entirely possible you're experiencing duff hardware. Have you approached Apple with your concerns? Remember you may have consumer rights depending on your location...

[thinkythought]

Yup, and it's "working as normal". This poor reception is shared by friends who have the intel X