iPhone XS and XS Max bad cell and WiFi signal strength: reports

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• Owners of Apple’s new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, officially released on Friday, are reporting poor WiFi and cell signal strength.
• A report from a wireless technology blog seems to confirm that the new iPhones demonstrate less signal strength than last year’s iPhones in lab testing.
• The issues might be growing pains for new iPhone owners, as Apple can potentially fix the issues with software updates, after gathering a bunch of real-world data. 

Early adopters of Apple’s new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are reporting poor WiFi and cell signal strength on their new smartphones. 

Some are reporting that their older iPhones like the iPhone 7 and iPhone X had better reception strength than their new iPhones — or, simply, that the new iPhones don’t impress with their wireless reception. Business Insider has reached out to Apple for comment and will update if we hear back. 

Reports from Reddit users suggest that the signal strength issues no matter which carrier the user is on. iPhone XS owners on MacRumors and Apple’s support forums have also reported poor signal strength on their new devices.

A report from wireless technology blog WiWavelength seemingly confirms the suspicions of lower signal strength on new iPhones, demonstrating in a laboratory environment how the signal strength on the iPhone XS is significantly weaker than it was with last year’s iPhone 8 and iPhone X devices. 

The reports come at a bit of a surprise, considering the new iPhones have one more antenna band than last year’s phones, placed along the bottom edges of the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. 

With all this said, it’s possible that the signal strength issues on the new iPhones are simply the growing pains that come with a new generation of devices. These new iPhones have only just begun to roll out into the real world, and Apple could potentially fix the signal strength issues with a software update after gathering user data. Something similar happened once before, with the iPhone 7, and Apple was able to successfully fix it with a patch.