I was looking at the owners manual for a 2008 MINI with nav. It showed a cell phone signal strength indicator on the nav screen, for certain phones.

Has anyone found a phone which does this? This is a very nice feature. I don't remember ever seeing it for 2007.

 

Yes, mine does. I have a Motorola W490, and a 2007 Mini.

But now that you mention it I have never seen the indicator show less than full-strength; It will disappear completely if I get to someplace with no cell coverage but I've never noticed any medium or low readings.

Keith

 

It can only be shown by phones that actually send this data via bluetooth and there are very very very few phones that actually transmit the signal strength. Most only transmit if there is a signal or not a signal.

I do not remember this ever being discussed before here.

Also with digital phones now the actual signal strength does not matter as much as it did on analog phones

 

When my phone pairs with my laptop, it displays both signal strength and battery level, so the data is being transmitted by bluetooth.

There are two different symbols in the manual, one looks like an antenna, which I get when the phone is paired. The other is five bars, which I have never seen. It is interesting that kyounger gets the bars, but not varying levels of them.

 

Has anyone seen this signal strength symbol with anything other than a Motorola W490?

 

I saw the signal strength symbol with the original Razr I had. Later when that phone was destroyed, the replacement Razr didn't show the symbol, just the normal antenna looking one.

The symbol wasn't an indication of the actual signal strength (ie, always full unless there was zero signal). It was only to indicate the car was paired to a phone with any sort of cell signal.