Anyone have iPhone on sprint?

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
I've had it for a few days now and the data just drops for no reason. I can still send text and make phone calls, but I can't do anything data related. Sometimes rebooting the phone fixes it, but it is just a matter of time before data disappears.

It even acts funny on wifi sometimes, although it is usually a lot better. I'm not sure if I should attribute this to iPhone frenzy and wait it out or return the thing.

There are a lot of complaints of slow speed, but I'm getting 0 speed maybe 15-20% of the time. Very annoying.
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
For whatever reason Sprints phones are getting horrible user reviews. I'm still thinking there is something up with the dual antennas on the 4S. The reception seems quite a bit worse than my previous Droid.(VZW)
 

Fingolfin269

Lifer
Feb 28, 2003
17,948
34
91
I have the same data drop issue on the EVO so I'm sure it's a Sprint thing. As much as I enjoy the luxury of having unlimited everything, this lack of reliability is why I'll be a VZW subscriber as of tonight.
 

Merad

Platinum Member
May 31, 2010
2,586
19
81
I have a 4S in sprint and before it had a Pre for 2 years. Haven't really had any problems so far with the iPhone. On Pre occasionally the data connection would seem to hang and I would need to turn airplane mode on and off to reset the radio and get it working. But that wasn't common, maybe once a month or so.
 

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
Love my 4s on AT&T. No data problems.

Wouldn't touch sprint. All the über tech people who use 20gb a month probably went to sprint and that's why the network is slow
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
I don't really have reception issues, but the data definitely just drops. It dropped on me last night and this morning when I used the phone, the data still wasn't working so I turned airplane mode on then off again and the data started working. I never had this problem on my blackberry, but there weren't all these things to play with either, I usually just sat and waited for emails to come in which is why I got it in the first place.

I definitely like the 4s way better but if I can't use it all the time like I should be able to, what is the point?

Btw, if you have the iPhone on Sprint, the easy way to tell you're having this issue is to go to one of your iMessages that is to another iPhone. The send button will be green instead of blue.

EDIT:

If the data just had a glitch and came back on it's own, I wouldn't mind so much. But for example yesterday morning, until 1130 or so I had 100% battery and no notifications. I thought great this thing gets sweet battery life. I tried to use the internet, wasn't working. Rebooted the phone and about 13 e-mails came in. So obviously when it has this data issue, you gotta keep resetting it til it works, because it doesn't always work right away either on its own, or after a reset.
 
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Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
Have you tried resetting Network Settings?

No, where do I do this?

EDIT:

Nvm I found it. All it says it does is that it sets settings to default.

EDIT EDIT:

Well I did it anyway and it did some serious stuff. Enough to reboot my phone lol. I will report back if it is any better, but I'm out of town starting tomorrow until Friday so we'll see if I get some time for AT.
 
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secretanchitman

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
9,352
23
91
have a sprint 4S and the first thing that bothered me was the battery life. swapped out the phone twice (2nd phone had a dead pixel and now this 3rd one i have is perfect) and finally got one that will last me a day (for the record, my iphone 4 on at&t lasted at least 30+ hours with moderate to heavy usage).

for your data randomly dropping out issue OP, ive never seen that happen. sometimes its slow to switch from 1xRTT back to EVDO (takes a few minutes sometimes), but other then that its never totally dropped data. for the 3G speeds, at first, they were really terrible during the first weekend and half of the week. i was getting around 200-350kbps download. i dont know whether or not sprint was bogged down during day 1, but now i get around 800-1.3mbps in my area, and my upload speeds are about half as fast at most. also, this is my 3rd phone so it could have either been the network and/or the previous phones i had.

wifi performance is very good for me, although i am on a 802.11n 2.4ghz network most of the time. safari is extremely fast, but that also might be because my previous iphone 4 was at 4.1 and i never bothered to update it to 4.3.3 where the safari nitro engine was introduced. i also have yet to see the "checkerboard" come up while scrolling in safari. that might be due to the A5 inside speeding everything up.

http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=225037 - i also updated my phones radio just the other day and i was one of the few who saw a huge speed increase after doing the update. half of the people in that thread are reporting even slower speeds that normal, but are also saying that their specific tower is overloaded. who knows quite honestly.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
Speed wise I don't mind if it's a little slow. It is the dropping of data that bugs the crap out Of me.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126
Sprint and Apple working on fixing slow data speeds, Apple Store glitches

The Next Web is reporting that an internal email has been going around that both Sprint and Apple are working on a fix to the slow data speeds that are plaguing Sprint iPhone 4S owners. Sprint customers with an iPhone 4S have been experiencing slow data speeds since the iPhone 4S landed on the Sprint network October 14th. Ironically, many customers switched to Sprint for the fast unlimited data plan.

One possible temporary solution, as Don Southard points out, is a free AirRave 3G Airvana offered by Sprint to help with data speeds on the device.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
Well since resetting the network settings I haven't had the issue, first full day of no issues. Hoping it's not just a fluke.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
Follow up on day 2 - No issues. Data has been slow at times and taken a second to kick in, but has not failed me yet. And even better its been faster that other 80% of the time it works.

I may be getting ahead of myself, but I believe resetting the network settings has fixed my issue. I get my e-mails on time now even on 3g. Before they were delayed anywhere from 8-15 minutes, now it is near instant on 3g.

Either resetting the network settings did the trick or my phone figured out how to use 3g after a few days.

Only hiccup that occurs is Siri doesn't work on occasion even though I have data, but it is WAY less frequent.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
I thought I'd check in since it's been a few more days - no issues! Thanks for the suggestion and I now consider this a resolved issue.
 

badb0y

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2010
4,015
30
91
Personally, I feel the iPhone 4S antenna is miles better than iPhone 4. I have't had a dropped call yet and I am on At&t in freaking New York City. With the iPhone 4 I had at least 1 dropped call per day.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
Well it just happened to me again. The only thing I did was turn on "accept all cookies" last nIght because anandtech kept alerting me about it's mobile apps. Sigh.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
Well something fishy is going on because I decided to try wiping my network settings again but it kept asking me for my pass code (and failing). I know my passcode so I kept entering it. Shortly after it started timing when I could enter my pass code.

So what I ended up doing is logging into my iCloud and hitting "Lock phone with current pass code". I unlocked the phone after and tried to reset network settings again...

Voila it worked.

Should I get rid of this phone asap or you guys think it is software? The phone seems to operate fine most of the time, I'm not sure why it is doing this. I'm hoping it is a 5.0 bug that just needs some fixing - not sure how to research that others are having this same issue.
 
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Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
Have you tried a hard reset? Or a restore?

Haven't tried a restore.

Apple's claim "it just works" is bollocks. The iCloud definitely hasn't worked right since day 1 (which honestly isn't too shocking since it is new tech for them), all these network issues, etc.

I honestly can see why it doesn't get done right on the first try, but people that make these statements must not use the product that much.
 

Wonderful Pork

Golden Member
Jul 24, 2005
1,531
1
81
Haven't tried a restore.

Apple's claim "it just works" is bollocks. The iCloud definitely hasn't worked right since day 1 (which honestly isn't too shocking since it is new tech for them), all these network issues, etc.

I honestly can see why it doesn't get done right on the first try, but people that make these statements must not use the product that much.

iCloud has worked just fine for me and my friends since day one. They were even able to transfer all their settings to their new iPhone 4S when it came out by doing an iCloud sync after syncing the old phone with iCloud.

There are some minor issues with iOS 5 (like battery drain, etc) but iCloud has been working very well IMHO. I don't have a 4S so I can't comment on Siri or anything.
 

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
Haven't tried a restore.

Apple's claim "it just works" is bollocks. The iCloud definitely hasn't worked right since day 1 (which honestly isn't too shocking since it is new tech for them), all these network issues, etc.

I honestly can see why it doesn't get done right on the first try, but people that make these statements must not use the product that much.


first week imessage was a bit flaky along with siri but icloud works. took my kid to the museum yesterday and all the photos i took appeared on my ipad at home within minutes. my in laws came over and my wife was showing them the photos as i took them and texting me which ones she liked
 

swanysto

Golden Member
May 8, 2005
1,949
9
81
My gf absolutely loves her 4S on sprint. She doesn't exactly surf the net a lot, but she uses a ton of apps and watches youtube.
 

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
few months ago i took my son to the american museum of natural history and it was a PITA getting around with a paper map. then i found that the official app has a map that uses the museum wifi to help get you around and even provides directions. then i found there is no android version. good thing ATT let my upgrade after only 6 months