S21 Ultra Signal Issues

[Anonymous User]

Recently bought S21 Ultra direct from Samsung.

It's ability to pick up a mobile signal is shockingly bad. Areas I used to get 4g on Huawei P30 Pro, now I'm lucky to get a poor H+ if that.

I've changed no end of settings with Vodafone's help to no avail. 

I've wiped partition cache.

All updates downloaded.

Samsung Customer Service are about as useful as a chocolate tea cup, saying that I have to return the device for replacement but because it is a customised colour/memory, no device for up to 2 months. (not happening).

Any ideas lovely people?

[Anonymous User]

Hoog

Have you updated to September Update and Carrier Settings?

If you are UK based, you can prove the device is faulty so can, under the Consumer Directive 2015, return the device within the first 6 months. You'll have to fight for it mind because most customer service staff don't understand it. Be persistent.

[Anonymous User]

Hi @Hoog

Samsung released an update early September which had a second August 2021 Security Update.

As soon as installed, signal was far better (but does still default to H+ in areas I know have 4g).

I wont be buying a Samsung device again. This experience has been truly awful and explains why Samsung are struggling with sales for the S Series.

[Raaj21]

HI Team, 

I tried something today on my samsung S21 Ultra and changed the APN settings. This has improved the mobile data significantly. 

Please go to the APN setting of your provider and set the Bearer option to LTE. 

Let me know if this works. 

Best Regards, 

Raaj

[Anonymous User]

Hi @Raaj21

Thank you for your input

I followed your suggestion, speedtest came in about half that of the wap settings one that the device defaults to.

Presumably by setting the Bearer as LTE, only a 4g connection would work?

[Raaj21]

Hi Nic, 

I have this issue where the default shows 4g and full bar but no mobile data when scrolling fb youtube etc. 

after making this change, the connection on my 4g was constantly connected and i didnt lose data and was able to take a video call on the move. This was impossible before and i was able to play online games on the go when previously i had to get a secure wifi spot to do this. 

Test it out for a day, im guessing the network providers do not have an optimised APN setting for S21 ultra. 

Let me know. 

Regards, 

[Anonymous User]

Hi @Raaj21

Thank you.

I tried it as you suggested but unfortunately it didn't make much difference (4g is ok but h+ stronger in many places round here - a bit rural)).

The phone also kept defaulting back to wap settings when the LTE version couldn't get a signal.

[Raaj21]

Hey Guys, 

I believe the issue is with the dual sim, do you guys have 2 sims in your sim tray?

I removed 1 sim and my network data is back to normal. I could browse all day and things work fine and all my apps. I"ve tested it for 1 day so far and its all good. 

I also saw a different post where it could help if the second sim network mode is set to 3g/2g so that the LTE focuses on the main sim (sim1). Have not tested this yet but let me know if these methods work for you guys. 

Best Regards,

[Anonymous User]

Hi @Raaj21

I have just the one SIM in the device.

Network is still poor, Vodafone UK have done huge amounts of work and we are now confident the issue is with the device.

[Raaj21]

Hey Nic, 

Thats bad, and can you confirm you started having the issue after the software update in June/July? if it is i guess its a software issue Samsung had to fix. 

I bought the phone in April and also noticed the issue post update of June/July

[Arbaaz_Khan09]

I have the same problem. I bought the phone from official samsung Australia (Exynos chipset). I did network reset, swap the physical sim with an esim, wiped cache, Software updates (currently on Nov security patch) still cant connect to 4g. Whereas, if i insert the same sim on my last device(oneplus 5t) i get 40-50 mb download speed on the same network (default settings) however on S21 Ultra 5g (lol more like 3G) i get 2-3 mb download speed. Although this issue wasn't there, when i bought this device so hoping its a software issue. Will perform a factory reset if i can't solve this issue through settings. Hopefully samsung get awerness for this issue and provide  a software update soon.