Its a little trick that you can use to change your signal strength dotted bar to display in numerical format without Jailbreaking your iDevice. Thats correct, no jailbreak is needed for this trick to work. Also if you dont like it you can always revert back to its default settings just by repeating the same steps that you’re going to perform in a while.
Basically what this trick does is it launches a hidden app called Field Test Mode from your Device and lists out bunch of options like SIM info and all. But dont worry about those options, you just need to concentrate on your signal bar. As you must be able to see numerical values already.
To get this into your phone just open Phone app and dial ” *3001#12345#* ” without quotation marks but include * and # and then tap ” CALL “. As I said earlier, its going to present you with bunch of options but just ignore them. Now once you get into the Field Test Mode Follow the instructions given below :
- You need to hold down the power button untill you see the slide to power off slider.
- Once you see that, just hold your home button for about 5 seconds or until the Field Test Mode disappears automatically.
Now you should be able to see your signal’s 5 dots should be replaced by cool looking numerical signal strength. But remmember if you do not press the powere button and hold the home button as mentioned then the numerical signal values wont be displayed. That’s it! It’s that simple to accomplish this little trick.
But at some point you might not like the numerical values and want to revert back to its original settings. So to get back to original settings, all you need to do is just dial those numbers again ” *3001#12345#* ” and press ” CALL ” and then lastly just press home button and close the Field Test Mode screen. Now it will automatically revert back to its original settings with 5 dots in the top-left corner.
To get arround with the numerical values, here are few instructions about what values means good signal strength and what means bad or no signal at all.
Firstly, if you are in an area with no any obstacles for signals to pass by, you will most probably notice a full signal strength of around -45 to -55, its always in negatives. The signal strengths can range from -40 to -115 where -50 or any valuse closer to 0 would be the strongest strength and values ranging arround -110 to -115 would be considered as the lowest or no signal zone. As for me its always arround -75 for medium signal and -112 for low signal strength. That should be enough for you to explain and showoff your new trick to your friends .
