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July 20, 2010

The Death Grip Test on Antenna Signal

Steve Jobs said all smartphones have this problem — hold it in a certain way and your phone signal goes down. Was curious so I wanted to try this one several of the phones I have here – the Galaxy S, Xperia X10 and Desire.

So I tried holding these 3 phones in every possible way to see if I could somehow affect the signal strength.

Fortunately, all the 3 Android phones have this built-in “Signal Strength” monitor which is measured in -dBm (an abbreviation for the power ratio in decibels). If you have an Android phone, you can see this by going to Settings -> Status -> Signal Strength.

The typical range of wireless received signal power over a network is somewhere between −60 to −80dBm which has a power of 10 pico-watts to 1,000 pico-watts. So as you can see, the phones we have below are in the -80dBM range.

We started out with the Samsung Galaxy S i9000 at -81dBm. When you clasp your hand at the bottom back part of the phone, the signal drops to -97dBm. Holding it just on the side did not affect the signal, just the back part (below the battery compartment)

Next one is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 which started out around -87dBm. It drops slightly to -93dBm if you clasp the bottom back end of the phone, just like the Galaxy S above.

With the HTC Desire, I could get a nice -75dBM signal hands-free but can easily drop it to -103dBm when you clasp the phone with both hands tightly — and bringing down the signal bar from 3/4 to 2/4.

So it’s really true that holding a phone in some way will affect its signal strength though it may vary from phone to phone.

Updated: Here’s a closer shot of the signal loss on the HTC Desire and Xperia X10:

Written by yuga

Abe is the founder and publisher of YugaTech. You Can follow him on Twitter @abeolandres.

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112 Responses to “The Death Grip Test on Antenna Signal”

  1. Efren Sy says:

    tinatawagan ko yung number mo di mo masagot duwag saksak mo sa baga mo lahat ng sinasabi mo wala kang balls

  2. Efren Sy says:

    Ano hanggang dito ka nalang?
    ala na talaga?

  3. Efren Sy says:

    09176640006

    yan number naka post sa multiply site ni mr. bogus ala naman sumasagot puro comment dito

    hay talagang empty words

    wimp

  4. mr. bogus says:

    nag away si efren at yung cloner ko hahahaha… LMAO

  5. mr. bogus says:

    hahaha. oo nga, tinatawagan ung number ng poser

    bobo! di gamitin ang IQ.

  6. mr. bogus says:

    bobo ka tlga efren, bat d mo pa kc ako chupaeng para magkaayos na tau

  7. Adrian says:

    Steve Jobs is the master.

  8. ed
    Twitter:
    says:

    @mr. bogus
    Correct! Sana magkaroon ulit ng test si yuga same phones with normal grip.

  9. android_fanboi says:

    nauwi sa mainit na balitaktakkan to ah whehehe, nakakatawa — iba talaga pag me kinalaman sa Apple (or iDevices) ang topic hot na hot talaga

    hindi talaga perfect yang iPhone 4 gayun din naman lahat ng Smartphones -lahatin ko na…meron ba????

    iOS4 and Android OS users here :)

  10. Efren Sy says:

    tuloy mo lang

  11. mr. bogus says:

    @Efren

    Chupaeng mo muna ako

  12. hahah says:

    panay kau dada.. suntukan nlng kau..

  13. winner says:

    very provocative talaga ang mga apple products ha

  14. mr. bogus says:

    @ ed: cguro yan din reason kaya napahiya si steve jobs sa wwdc 2010 nang i launch ang iphone nang pumalya ang internet!!!! dahil din sa death grip.. sure ako antenna problem yun at hindi over load ng wifi o sa at&t

    @android: ehh kung hindi ba naman utox2 si efren pumatol sa cloner LMAO

    eto my last say sa lahat ng blog ko sa yuga tech: kahit may puna ako sa iphone4 dahil sa antenna at no flash

    iphone still the best smartphone in the market 2nd is the android, 3rd nokia cellphone, maemo man o symbian

    @efren: alam na nga cloner nagpa uto pa… tama yan kung non sense sasabihin mo just shut your mouth… marami ka satsat sa ginawa mo sino squatter at nasa internet shop???? respect mr. olandres blog..

  15. Efren Sy says:

    read what you are posting then see who’s disrespectful

  16. Efren Sy says:

    sino ba ang nag mura sa ating dalawa ?

    sino ba ang nag provoke dahil sa pag mura at pag post ng halatang pambabastos dito

    ikaw ang malaki ang problema

    hinahamon kita magharap tayo kung matapang ka,

    aminin mo mali mo dahil ikaw ang nag umpisa dahil sa pagmumura mo

    kapal ng mukha mo pati kapatid ko binabastos mo

  17. android_fanboi says:

    i love yugatech blog…whehehe

  18. mr. bogus says:

    @efren: this is my last… (hmmm kaw ba yan?? wala link sa nick mo ata…???) anyway this is my stand i repeat may cloner ako so hindi ako yung may link ang nick… the argument is between 2 of us only!!!

    nasabi ko yun ng patulan mo si bea na blogger dahil hindi tama na pumatol ang lalake sa babae tama man sya o mali….. to call you on the phone is useless.. mind your own!!!

    so nxt time remember the phrase “respect others opinion” yan tuloy sinapol ka nung cloner! kayo ang magtawagan!!!! bahala kayo sa buhay nyo…

    CIAO!

  19. Whatif says:

    Si steve jobs yang si efren sy… Nag aral mag tagalog…

    iLemmings lol

  20. Whatif says:

    Kuha popcorn… Nood mode..

  21. lolipown says:

    The internets is serious business. Can you guys feel the rage too?

  22. Apple Sucks says:

    Opinyon ko lang to.
    Madami nagsasabi bakit daw puro reklamo ang mga tao na bumili ng iphone 4 e pwede naman daw ibalik.
    Ang sagot ko dyan. Kung magbigay sya ng Bumper, ayusin man nya, refund o recall nya ang iphone 4 d na magbabago ang kasiraan nya.
    bakit nya binenta ang isang phone na alam nya na may problema na to. bakit ko nasabi na alam nya?
    1. dahil ngayon lang gumawa ng case si steve jobs para sa iphone.
    2. bakit nung may nag email sa kanya ng tungkol sa problema ay kaagad nya sinagot na “Avoid holding it that way.” ng hindi niya kinunsulta sa kanya mga alipores. mukhang alam nya ang solution sa pagkawala ng signal.
    3. bakit nya tinangal ang isang application na nagchecheck ng signal in db.

    Yan ay nagpapatunay ng panloloko.

    nung press con sinabi nya na tao lang sya at d sya perfect. bakit? kailangan mo ba maging perfect para nde mo malaman na ang antenna pag nahahawakan e nde nagbibigay ng tamang signal.
    kesyo iphone 4 changes everything kuno. e bakit nung may problema na ang iphone 4 nya e hinambing na nya sa ibang phone? so walang changes.

    isa pang paninira ni Steve na magpasalamat daw ang mga kano dahil kano daw ang naghahari ng cellphone sa bansa nila at nde korean (Samsung).
    bakit? ang A4 na cpu ng iphone 4 nde ba gawa ng korean? hahahhaha.
    nde ko alam kung gaano sinakal ni steve jobs ang nokia phone para mapabagsak ang signal na nde ko magawa sa phone ko. e sa iphone 4 kiliti lang sa tagiliran e wala ng signal.

    napatunayan ko na na maraming tao na sa itsura lang ng bagay tinitignan ang ganda. kahit na wala na ang basic phone na phone call palang d na pwede e binibili pa. tingin ni steve jobs ang napakaganda ng mga gadget nya. kahit anong ganda ng gadget mo kung pangit ang pr at customer support ng kumpanya pangit pa rin ang produkto mo.
    pero para sa akin pangit pa rin ang produkto ng apple. ipod palang nga nya may mga dead pixel na.
    panong d papangit ang produkto nya e mga workers nya sa china may mga minor at pinapatrabaho ng 30 oras at walang overtime pay.

  23. Apple Sucks says:

    pahabol.
    magaling lang sa advertising ang apple.
    kaya nila imarket ang isang produkto na ang multitasking, copy/paste, video chat saka video recording na parang sila ang nakaimbento.

  24. IC DeaDPiPoL says:

    recent post from Engadget has a press release from Samsung:

    “The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone, while iPhone’s antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna. We have fully conducted field tests before the rollout of smartphones. Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future.”

    http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/samsung-joins-the-crowd-rejects-apples-omnia-2-antenna-claims/

  25. Fleeb says:

    Wow, ad hominems flying all over.

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