Any improvement in BT range between Watch 4 and 7?

[userodFsN4lzjk]

Greetings,

Struggling with BT range on a Watch 4.  I swear it used to be better, but now I lose connection to the phone in the next room.  It's possible the phone, or watch is just starting to fail, and it's also possible that one of the many updates has caused this.  In any case, is there any reason to believe that upgrading from a 4 to a 7 for my watch would improved the situation?  The phone is an S21, but I'm more than willing to go to an S24 if that's the problem. 

Thanks,

Rusty

[SirKaiton]

Sounds like your watch is failing. Watch 5 pro paired to s23 ultra= good range 3 rooms away and won't disconnect.

[realaud]

Bluetooth, by it's nature has very short signal.  You must be within 50  feet of your BT device before your signal degrades and disconnects.  This is by design.  The distance may be shortened by walls or other interference.  To keep your watch connected when moving in and out of range of your phone, turn on remote connection.  Your phone and your watch will remain connected via network connectivity.  The phone and watch do not have to be on the same network or even the same type of network (one can be mobile and the other wi-fi), they just have to both be logged into the same Google account, since it utilizes Google Cloud Services. This also means you can leave your phone at home and have your watch remain connected if you are across town, as long as your watch is connected to a network. Watches are incompatible with public wi-fi hotspots, but if you have an LTE device, keeping the mobile signal on will keep you connected.  If you have a BT only device, the watch will  have to be connected to a configured private wi-fi network.  

So, if you are losing connectivity in your home, make sure your watch has your home wi-fi network configured on it and keep the wi-fi on (it doesn't connect to wi-fi until it needs it), and turn on remote connection.  Remote connection uses slightly more battery power, but it's not an issue.

You can also run a diagnostic on both your watch and phone to see if there is anything amiss with the BT or battery.  Diagnostics can be found in Device Care settings.

[userodFsN4lzjk]

Thanks for the reply.  As I mentioned, I already have the watch working on WiFi when it loses connection.  The problem is that it's constantly switching back and forth as I move around, and it seems to take minutes for it so make each switch. 

The real question is- what has changed.  With the phone in the same location, and no new RF interference, I now lose signal in the next room sitting on the couch.  The same watch and phone used to work fine in the same locations. 

I haven't tried any diagnostics, but I'd be surprised if they could determine a partial loss of signal power.   I have thought about testing the the range with a pair of headphones in an open area.  That might be an interesting test.    

The BT specs change, and there are always slightly newer standards, though it's unlikely they'll make much difference in range.   Of course with the Watch 8 likely to be announce in a couple weeks, my 4 is getting pretty long in the tooth.  Might be time to upgrade anyway.  

[realaud]

The diagnostics can detect if there is a problem, although it won't say what the problem is.  You can run diagnostics on both the phone and the watch to see if either have a fault in the antenna. Are you sure there is no new RF interference?  Not from your TV, a neighbor, microwave, equipment outside?  You can try resetting your network connections  on both the watch and the phone.  My suggestion was actually to forgo BT entirely in favor of the remote connection for the time being, that way it won't connect/disconnect all the time.  The Galaxy Watch 4 is an aging device, so it would not be uncommon for some components to have degraded performance.  I upgraded from the 4 to the 7.  Although, I never had a problem with BT connectivity on either watch, so I can't say if the range would be any better.  I believe they both use the same BT standard.  You do, however also have an aging S21, so if there is no other issue with the watch, you may want to consider upgrading your phone first.

[userodFsN4lzjk]

I've had the BT turned off on the watch for the last couple days at home, and it works pretty well.  It did lose connection once and didn't automatically reconnect for some reason.  There's a bit of a delay due to the trip to the cloud and back, so that's not ideal.  I might just come up with a test of BT range for the phone, and compare my S21 with another S21, and an S24 that I have.  If those are similar, I'll plan to upgrade the watch to see if that might help.  I was going to buy a 6 classic since I light the physical bezel, but now that there are rumors of an 8 classic, I'll probably hold off for more news.  If nothing else, the 8 will make the 6 cheaper. Thanks. 

[realaud]

You can only pair the watch with one phone, so I hope you know that comparing it on another phone means you have to unpair it from one phone and pair it with the other.  If you are using Samsung Pay on the watch, you will have to reconfigure all your cards (if you are not using Samsung Pay, it doesn't matter).  

As I said, even though the diagnostics are all showing fine, does not mean that your components aren't suffering age fatigue.  My Watch 4's battery was coming up fine, even though it was losing a charge for no discernable reason for a long time. Then, one day, the diagnostics came up with a problem.  Just like a regular alkaline battery in a computer mouse - everything is fine, until it isn't.  This is to say that your range can also be affected by the battery.  Both your S21 and your Watch 4 have aging batteries.  If you download DevCheck from the Play store, you can see how many charge cycles your phone has been through. Unfortunately, there's no similar app for the watch. I don't know how many charge cycles the battery is expected to live through, but it is not infinite.  The higher the number of charge cycles, the more likely your battery is to be weakening.

[userodFsN4lzjk]

Forgot to mention that diags were all fine as expected. 

[userodFsN4lzjk]

I should probably have mentioned that I'm a tech support guy with RF experience.   I often tell customers that everything works until it doesn't.   It's certainly possible range is being limited by aging electronics.  I'd suspect the watch before the phone since the S21 was new old stock when I started using it about a year ago, so it doesn't have years of charge cycles on it.  

My idea for range testing would be to take a pair of BT headphones and pair it with my S21, and maybe the S24 I got recently.  In an open area I could walk away from the phone and see when the signal is lost, then compare the range.  I could do the same with the watch, but I'd have nothing to compare it to, and I would expect the watch range to be lower due to power limitations.   

It doesn't sound like there have been any earth shattering improvements in BT range in the more recent devices, so I'm probably just looking at degrading hardware.   Cheers, Rusty 

[realaud]

I'd suspect the watch, as well, given my experience with an aging battery.  I think it's a possibility that the range is being shortened by the battery not being able to supply/sustain enough power to the BT antenna.