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The best phone for signal strength?


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Old 17-05-2015, 19:42
magicdesign
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I'll bite, just using a handset and then having an opinion does not constitute "research" it just shows a personal experience.

Research would indicate a systematic approach, say using 10 of the same handsets, from the same location at the same time and comparing the average results against multiples of tens of the other handsets being tested at the same time and place.

When you said you "did a fair amount of research", I doubt you did that, did you?
Again, I suggest you check the definition of research, but over the course of 6 months, tested the same sim in a range of handsets to evaluate signal strength and the ability to hold onto signal.

Unfortunately, I was only trying to help and offer genuine first hand experience. Instead, the general feedback is that I shouldn't have bothered.
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Old 17-05-2015, 20:55
mupet0000
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Personal experience or research, doesn't matter Any input is appreciated.

Today I had a Galaxy S6, Galaxy S4 and Moto G all on EE and decided to test the signals, seen as the Moto G I had can't do 4G, I set all the phones to 3G only. I saw some interesting results.

In a poor signal location (downstairs in my house), the Moto G came out ahead consistently, showing between 5-10dBm better signal compared to the S4&S6. The S4&S6 were very similar and I couldn't find a clear winner/loser out of those 2. Seeing the Moto G with -97dBm next to the S4&S6 with -107dBm was disappointing. Two Samsung flagships can't compete with the signal from the Moto G.

In a great signal location (upstairs in my house), I found all 3 phones held around the same signal strength. The Moto G had the best signal most of the time though, but only about -2dBm lower.

My house is covered by 3 MBNL masts in a triangle. I found that even though the phones were sitting in the same place, they would hop about onto different masts independently. I guess that's down to the radios in the phones and the network load balancing. It was funny to see that upstairs (where I get great coverage), each phone was connected to a different mast with almost the same signal.

It's not such an accurate test when the phones are connecting to different masts, I would be better off doing this kind of test in a location where they can only connect to one mast.

It was also interesting to see that the S6 using 3G was significantly better than when on 4G.

If only I could find a random iPhone 6 to test
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Old 17-05-2015, 22:10
old bill2
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I can only speak as I find. At the moment i am sat in my kitchen, which is not a great spot for EE signal. I have a IPhone 6+ and Moto Nexus 6 (both on EE 3G). Both phones are lying on the table and the IPhone 6+ is reading -93dbm and the Nexus 6 is reading between -89dbm and -91dbm. If I pick them up the iPhone shows -99dbm and the Nexus -93 dbm. IMO which admit is not very scientific . The Moto has the slight edge in signal strength.
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Old 17-05-2015, 22:22
old bill2
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Now upstairs where the signal is better. iPhone showing -85dbm and the Nexus 6 is -81dbm. To be fair the Nexus can bounce slightly between -81 and -83. But on the whole sticks at -81. The iPhone is static at -85
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Old 17-05-2015, 22:31
d123
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Again, I suggest you check the definition of research,
LOL

The definition of the word "research" (from the Oxford Dictionary) is in my post, did you miss it?
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Old 18-05-2015, 18:16
Gigabit
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What has happened to this thread.
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Old 18-05-2015, 18:58
dabotsonline
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It would be interesting to see to what extent cases - particularly the waterproof cases for the iPhone 6 devices - affect signal reception.
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Old 18-05-2015, 20:31
Redcoat
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I've no experience of seeing the iPhone 6 in action so I don't know exactly how good (or bad) they are for weak signal holding.

The best way to test how well a mobile phone does in this scenario is not so much by checking signal levels on different phones in fair-good signal areas, but in areas which are right on the fringe of reception and see which one can hold a signal, even just one bar on a scale, where others can't or keep cutting in & out.

I'd also be wary of relying totally on dbmV levels reported by different phones. I once used a ZTE V970 dual-sim as my main phone that seemed to give roughly 4-6db better signal reception than other Andriod phones I had. However I noticed that while it performed very well on 2G on this point, 3G was erratic, with a signal bar level of 2/4 bars or less making it difficult to make phone calls and use data. At least 3 bars was needed. In some places, cell breathing could be a described cause but in isolated areas where a 3G signal was still available this problem would also occur. My current phone, a Moto G 2014 Dual Sim, does not seem to suffer from this problem - so some phones themselves can have different problems on different platforms.

In the 00's, I would generally have sworn by Nokia phones for people in places where 2G signals were weak, though I also had a Sagem MyX-6 that performed equally well in this regard. Samsung tended to perform poorly in fringe places and it seems to me they haven't improved much in this regard years later. It was around this time that mobile phones started to have their aerials hidden in their shape of the phone rather than be partially visible as a stub, and that connection sockets for the likes of hands-free kits also disappeared from view being replaced by (not as good) induction coupling.

Another factor is having the mobile phone try and cope with a range of different frequencies spread out far and wide now across the world from 700 to 3500 MHz. Even allowing for software defined radios in mobiles being adaptable to many different frequency ranges, the physical aerial itself has to have many compromises met. The days where a simple 2G phone say like the Nokia 3210 being a "dual band" 900/1800MHz phone was relatively easy especially as simple aerials could resonate on both bands reasonably well with electronic circuitry dealing with impedance differences - even 3G didn't stress this too much more, with only one additional band of significance (2100MHz) if the pre-existing four GSM bands weren't put in use, like 900MHz outside North America and 850MHz in many places outside of Europe Now, the band plans for LTE networks are an absolute soup of different frequency allocations that in some parts of the world have regional conformity like the EU 800MHz or the Asia-Pacific 700MHz bands (the latter I would bet to be put in place in Europe once 700MHz services start to be available), but the only "international" band that seems like it will have global acceptance at present looks like the 2600MHz band, wherever FDD or TDD.
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Old 19-05-2015, 09:00
Richard_Wilson
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Nokia 3310. Worked anywhere, and virtually indestructible.
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Old 19-05-2015, 21:04
DaveProudlock
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One of the problems with today's phones is the cellular antenna is located at the bottom. Hands/fingers are pretty good at blocking radio signals. It's not unusual to lose 10-20dBm when you pick your phone up.

The best phone for reception (with an internal antenna) I had was the Nokia 3250 closely followed by the N95 8Gb.
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Old 19-05-2015, 21:54
ozz
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Best phone for signal I had was a Sony Ericsson K850i . Currently on an iPhone 6 Plus which gives a decent signal if you hold it away from the bottom portion of the phone.
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Old 23-05-2015, 21:26
mupet0000
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So I managed to compare my S6 against a friends iPhone 6 and the results were surprising from what I've read here. Side by side both on EE, the S6 was mostly the same if not 1-2dBm better. Driving around with them, we found the iPhone 6 go to no service from 4G in a low signal area where the Galaxy S6 dropped 4G and went down to 1-2 bars of H. Other than that, they held about the same signal most of the time.

My friend who owns the iPhone 6 says he doesn't really see the phone drop to 3G, it's either got 4G or it's down to no service. We did see it drop down to 3G once at the same time the S6 did. The area we were driving around is completely covered in double speed 4G but also has a lot of still active Orange sites.

Maybe it's down to the specific device, as in, all devices are not created equally. Maybe the antennas aren't always going to give the same signal in every single device even though it's the same model.

I also did some more testing with the S6 Vs the Moto G both on EE's 3G. In good signal areas I see the Moto G consistently with a 5-10dBm better signal. The S6 decided for some reason to latch onto an Orange 3G site with no bars of signal while I could literally see the antennas of an MBNL site right infront of me, the Moto G was at -69dBm to the MBNL site. The S6 eventually switched, but it seems completely stupid that it even connected to some random Orange 3G site with a terrible signal instead of the MBNL site I was about 50 yards away from.

Underground with the S6 and the Moto G, there's an EE booster in their shop that gets underground and also an old Orange 3G site but only the GPRS from it gets underground. The Moto G hangs onto the 3G booster at around -105dBm whereas the S6 was at -113dBm for a while until it decided to switch to the GPRS and never switch back. The Moto G hung onto the 3G with no problems. I also had a friend with an iPhone 5S and the signal was the same as my S6 with it connected to GPRS underground.

It's clear to me that Motorola has the edge when it comes to signal. I am definitely interested in testing some more, but I don't really have the money to buy all the flagships just to try out the signal.

I am sending off my S6 to Samsung for repair, they accepted the repair request over the phone based on the fact that the S6 signal isn't as good as the S4, so we will see if I get a replacement device if it's any better, or if Samsung even deem it faulty at all.

Overall the differences in signal between these devices are not something that the vast majority of people would notice. In reviews you don't really see signal being mentioned, it's more that it's taken for granted. At the end of the day, a better antenna can make a huge difference in poor signal areas, 4G instead of 3G or no bars of 3G instead of no service.

Sorry for the long post, feel free to share any signal experiences you have with different devices
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Old 24-05-2015, 17:40
ihatemarmite
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anyone tested the S5 with the S6?
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Old 28-05-2015, 12:16
carnivalist
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Anyone know what Huawei and Asus are like?
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Old 09-06-2015, 18:21
old bill2
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This arrival makes interesting reading.
http://www.androidauthority.com/best...v-lg-g4-612827
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Old 09-06-2015, 18:44
d123
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Anyone know what Huawei and Asus are like?
I've just started using an Asus ZenFone 2, it seems to hold a poor Three 4G signal better than any of the recent phones I have had that sim in (Moto 4G, HTC one M7, Samsung S4, Note 2 and Note 3). Not just by the signal bars, but in actual phone use and checking the dBm level via LTE Discovery.
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Old 09-06-2015, 19:46
mupet0000
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Great find, you can see how awful the S6 is at holding a signal. My S6 is in repair still due to this issue, I somehow doubt it can be fixed, Samsung just suck.

When I get it back I'll be sure to sell it and get something else. It's a shame because I really like the phone. It's just poor design. Form over function and 99% of people have no idea.

Seen as Samsung decided to replace my S6s screen for no apparent reason, I've been using a Galaxy S3 and a HTC One M8 temporarily. Both phones have a similar signal, not quite as good as my S4 but better than the S6 easily.
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Old 09-06-2015, 20:08
matty1000kk
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Something doesn't look right here. Not sure how the p8 can have an average signal strength of -62dBm that's a very very very strong signal for LTE is it not?
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Old 09-06-2015, 21:05
Gigabit
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Something doesn't look right here. Not sure how the p8 can have an average signal strength of -62dBm that's a very very very strong signal for LTE is it not?
It's confusing as they talk about LTE voice calls but as we all know, LTE doesn't support voice calls yet.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding?
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Old 05-09-2015, 00:56
mupet0000
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So I posted here about my awful experience with the Galaxy S6 for signal strength, I've now owned a Nexus 6 for a few months and it's so much better for signal.

The Nexus 6 holds onto LTE in my whole house, the S6 can barely get it upstairs and forget about it downstairs. The Nexus signal for 4G and 3G is *always* better, this means that in poor signal areas the S6 can be at no signal or really poor unusable signal and the Nexus works just fine.

On Three the S6 would hold onto a poor 3G signal, or drop to no service. But on EE, the S6 would drop to EDGE in poor signal areas while the Nexus 6 stuck to 3G no problem.

The device you use can make a massive difference to the signal you get. It's a shame that signal/antenna performance doesn't have any measure by the manufacturer and hardly anyone checks signal in reviews.
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Old 01-06-2016, 17:07
Gigabit
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Sorry for the revival but the Nexus 6P is I think the best phone I've used for signal, lately.
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Old 01-06-2016, 18:23
hammy_y
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Best phone I've had for signal is the Sony Xperia SP. Hopefully other Sony phones are like this. My iPhone 6s is pretty good as well, I'd say about average or slightly above average. My Samsung Galaxy Alpha is definitely the worst - the signal was actually one of the reasons I upgraded to my iPhone. Hopefully other Samsung phones are better though - my friends S5 performs similarly to my Xperia SP so that's very good.
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Old 01-06-2016, 22:12
DaveProudlock
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The best phone I had recently was the Motorola X Force, was really impressed with the antenna performance, sadly the screen was terrible so it had to go.
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Old 02-06-2016, 09:03
M1kos
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My Xperia z5 is very good also. In fact all my xperias have been. When anyone upgrades the first thing you should do is compare your new handset with the old. Put them side by side and compare signals in different bands use an app that shows dbm I got a used Z to replace a dodgy charging S3 and it was notably better. Then I upgraded to a Z2 but it was 5db weaker on 4G so I returned it the replacement was still weaker about 2db down but I accepted it. A year later and I got a Z5 to my pleasure it its is 3db better than the z2 and 1db better than the already good Z so I'm a happy bunny!
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Old 03-06-2016, 13:05
daveyfs
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Any opinions on what the Samsung Galaxy S7 is like for hanging onto signal? I briefly had an S6 Edge, and one of the reasons I changed was that the signal was so bad compared to previous phones - it would lose 4G regularly and keep dropping down to 2G in places I'd never had that happen before (EE).

Now got a Z5, and as a previous poster said, it hangs on to signal very well.
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