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Thunderbolt WiFi Anntenuation

Has anyone else noticed the drop in WiFi signal when you cup the phone in your hand? Put the phone in your left hand so your palm is on the left side with your fingers on the right. Watch the WiFi signal tank.
It's not a big deal nor do I know if it affects anything - just a funny observation.

Just confirmed this with WIFI Analyzer. I would lose about ~10 db whenever I cupped the bottom and the second I released it went back to normal. Must mean that the WIFI antenna is on the bottom of the device. Not that it matters much as 10 db is a minimal drop.
Very interesting, when not cupping the device returns to normal. This was with my case off. The second I put my case on my WIFI signal plummeted while not even touching it. I use a silicon case that just wraps around the device. After removing the case the signal shoots back up.

Weird, huh? Mine will drop from four WiFi bars down to one.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

That's crazy. Works everytime without fail. Lucky for me I never hold it like that.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

I experience the same thing, but does not seem to affect performance.
-sent via 1.21 giggawatts of android.

It's not happening for me. Weird.

I know that the antennas on the TB run through the back cover. If you open the Battery/SD/SIM compartment cover, you will notice some contacts that are in different spots and corresponding contacts on the cover. These are antenna extensions. Thusly, covering the back of the phone will drop your signal pretty good. Try holding it in a gapped grip (fingertips only instead of cupping) or hold it at the bottom (near the kickstand) and it will alleviate it.
Why it attenuates so much when you have a silicon cover on boggles my mind. I have a soft interior and hard edge silicone/plastic two piece case on and maybe a small attenuation of WiFi and Cell signal. One bar max, a few DB in stats. Dropping from full bars to one is crazy for just the cover.

You think cell phone manufacturers would have learned from Apple....

the desire s has this issue really bad. my nexus one does it too. i've been able to cup my phone and drop cellular AND wifi bars on pretty much every phone i've owned, nokia n95, n97, etc. some just have it worse than others so you may not notice it on certain devices. but its always existed.
if you are standing next to your router, than the signal will over power any attenuation you try to impose on the device. so in the same room you wont notice, but far away with weaker signal and you will attenuate for sure.

Breezer23 said:
You think cell phone manufacturers would have learned from Apple....
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Apple wasnt the first and wont be the last...

moosez3 said:
Apple wasnt the first and wont be the last...
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Though they did make one of the biggest errors.

That's true but Apple made Antennuation a household term.... Kinda lol.

Apple had a problem with signal? AT&T, aka A Fee & Fee, had users too dumb to know they were using too much data? It was an iBlame issue. My daily rant quota.
Seriously, though, with internal antennas, this can be an issue. I have not verified if my signal attenuated or not, nor has it affected call quality or data transmission that I am aware of.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

ryocoon said:
Why it attenuates so much when you have a silicon cover on boggles my mind.
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Silicone cover made in china and full of lead????

kendive said:
Silicone cover made in china and full of lead????
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Click to collapse
lol. But do not make too much fun of them, they may cash in our country's debt..real trouble then.

Holding phone in landscape causes wifi reception drop?

Now granted this is something that I'm not greatly concerned but as I have been able to replicate it over and over with my phone...
If you hold the phone sideways so the hard-keys are towards your right hand. Now I say the following because people have different grips for their phonez but to emphasize my point that it is possible (the way I held the phone did) to actively see wifi drop. So just as a demonstration while holding the phone in your right hand when you have full wifi bars and 'palm' the 3.5mm jack side in your left hand emphasizing pressure on corner with the audio jack. (Make sure you have full bars when testing)
Now I understand the easy solution would be to flip the phone horizontally the other way. But I'm just curious if someone else had noticed this already?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

lol made me lose two full bars. Good find. It is happening as I type in landscape right now.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

Never fear. It's called attenuation and happens on all phones. They have to put the antennas somewhere, and your body attenuates antenna reception.

strung said:
Never fear. It's called attenuation and happens on all phones. They have to put the antennas somewhere, and your body attenuates antenna reception.
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Pfffft I knew that
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

...
strung said:
Never fear. It's called attenuation and happens on all phones. They have to put the antennas somewhere, and your body attenuates antenna reception.
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Click to collapse
Yea... I figured that it had to go somewhere lol, but I realized this after getting so damn comfortable with how I held the phone that way. Even which hand the hard-key side of the phone settled in, haha. =X

Agree, it doesn't happen close to the wifi but the weaker the signal yes it will..
But that's expected and happens on all devices and imo doesn't need a thread.

smashpunks said:
Agree, it doesn't happen close to the wifi but the weaker the signal yes it will..
But that's expected and happens on all devices and imo doesn't need a thread.
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You learn a little at a time, I guess. Sorry for the apparent redundancy of this thread...

Solving Sensation's Death Grip Issue

Ok after the previous journey with hd2's thermal problems and since i got a new htc sensation, i found myself a little bored until either devs or htc gives us some s-off for our phones. So i've heard of this death grip issue and want to give it a try to find a hardware fix for it. Some of you may know me for the geeky technical approaches, so i'll try to get some stuff working here.
Anyway, i have the Sensation from about 4-5 days. I'm yet to determine the seriousness of this issue and how much wireless transmissions are affected.
After inspecting the device construction, it's simple to assume that the reason for the death grip is an interference between the antenna emissions and the EM interference from the human body (hand).
I'll be conducting a series of measurements using some hardware tools to find out the exact cause. Only after this i can begin to work for a fix.
So far this future fix must comply with these conditions:
1. NOT to void the warranty. The fix have to be removable and the phone brought to it's original condition.
2. More easier and safe then my hd2 reheating thread . The solution must be clear, simple and must make use of generic household materials.
3. The death grip issue must be solved in a satisfactory way so that the fix itself is worth the trouble.
This is the start of a new project, it may take a while for some real results to come and the first thing to be determined is if the issue is really user solvable.
So, wish me luck.. i guess i'll be starting tomorrow and post some pictures/things i find during the process.

Good luck, I'm also tempted to start some experiments. BTW it might be worth having a extra Back cover to due testing with. You can get one from HTC.

well, that's the idea. the method must be non invasive for that back cover and must also present no risk in damaging it.

I was so annoyed by the touchscreen issue I never got round to this one :\
I wanted to test if the problem could be "reduced" by simply adding a strip of aluminium foil along the cover... You can probably come up with something better
Thank you for helping!

Thanks! If you can even slightly improve things, you'd be a god. I love this phone, but the WiFi dying (in landscape) is the one issue that constantly nags. [:
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

Xlythe said:
Thanks! If you can even slightly improve things, you'd be a god. I love this phone, but the WiFi dying (in landscape) is the one issue that constantly nags. [:
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That's funny, mine doesn't die on any orientation about the wifi.

2003evo8 said:
That's funny, mine doesn't die on any orientation about the wifi.
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I've yet to experience this also...
Sent from my Htcclay's SuperCM7 G2 using XDA App

Ditto...I haven't experienced this either. *knocks on wood*

2003evo8 said:
That's funny, mine doesn't die on any orientation about the wifi.
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Well it really depends on where your router is and how strong is the signal... I've tested mine with wall between it dropped significantly and even disconnects, while next to it only a bar or more but return to normal state after a few moments. But it shouldn't do that, and I've got asus wl520-gc router.

MerLinh said:
Well it really depends on where your router is and how strong is the signal... I've tested mine with wall between it dropped significantly and even disconnects, while next to it only a bar or more but return to normal state after a few moments. But it shouldn't do that, and I've got asus wl520-gc router.
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That's true but he was saying he looses it in landscape mode.

FOTA reduced the death grip issues for me..

i will be making some physical measurements on how the phone's transceiver produces and handles 2.43 Ghz ISM type signals. At this moment i haven't tested my device for the death grip but like i've said, i have some spare time and want to help on this.
By using an oscilloscope i will try see what's happening to the signal level in real time.

2003evo8 said:
That's true but he was saying he looses it in landscape mode.
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It's my hand touching the top of the phone when I hold it in landscape. Sorry if there was confusion. Light touches cause dramatic losses in signal on my phone.
Edit: WiFi only.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

Looking forward to results. Godspeed.

I hate to sound like an Apple fanboy but I was not able to replicate this "accidentally."
Now it might have to do with the different frequencies of the Bell verison of phone, or my signal strength.
I watched a video of someone placing the phone flat on their hand and the signal strength completely dropping off. While I was able to drop a bar of cellular signal, it was far from the video.
I did not get any noticeable drop in wifi.

I went to 3 different tmobile stores and had 3 replacement phones. They all had death grip.
also don't think its EM. I lose wifi signal by covering with single sheet of paper.

joon82 said:
I lose wifi signal by covering with single sheet of paper.
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Cover what with a single sheet of paper, the back of the phone? You lost the wifi signal completely? I get no effect by putting a piece of paper on my phone. Never heard of lead paper.

any updates ?
is it possible to solve it with hard cover... i read smowhere that with a silicone one won't solve it.

Xlythe said:
It's my hand touching the top of the phone when I hold it in landscape. Sorry if there was confusion. Light touches cause dramatic losses in signal on my phone.
Edit: WiFi only.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
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i have the same problem

[Q] Few hardware issues! are they normal?

I love this phone, but I'have noticed two problems and I like to have your opinion and advice.
1. When i touch the right area of the screen a "tic" (sound) and a little movement happened. I try to understand the reason inspecting the back cover and the battery without success.
Is this a normal issue with the Sensation?
May I send my device to ask the replacement (warranty)?
2. When I grub my device in landscape mod with both hands I loose almost all my wifi coverage, but i think this is due to the position of the antenna and the unibody cover.
Are there any kind of workaround (special cover, mod, ...)?
Sorry for my bad English, I tried!

In the "Get the white frame for your sensation" thread in Accessories, a lot of people said the Wifi Deathgrip issues went away, plenty of people have had that issue.
As for the ticking, that's very weird. The only ticks you should ever hear or feel are haptic feedback on the 4 capacitive keys (if you have that enabled under Settings > Sound) or the camera shutter when you enter/exit the camera.

Hold the upper part of the phone = wifi signal drop greatly
Its one, may be the only design failure of Sensation

aelael said:
I love this phone, but I'have noticed two problems and I like to have your opinion and advice.
1. When i touch the right area of the screen a "tic" (sound) and a little movement happened. I try to understand the reason inspecting the back cover and the battery without success.
Is this a normal issue with the Sensation?
May I send my device to ask the replacement (warranty)?
2. When I grub my device in landscape mod with both hands I loose almost all my wifi coverage, but i think this is due to the position of the antenna and the unibody cover.
Are there any kind of workaround (special cover, mod, ...)?
Sorry for my bad English, I tried!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the movement in the right side if the device, my device had the same exact thing but I put a small piece of paper between the battery cover and the device on the bottom right side and it has stopped.

thanks, i'll try. But mine problem seems to remain also without battery.

Far from the only hardware issues... The creaking can be fixed with paper under the battery, or a bigger battery.
And the wifi death grip is indeed normal, unfortunately...

Yup the deathgrip wifi issue does exist. You can try experimenting with different grips when using wifi on landscape.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

[Q] Nexus S external WiFi antenna?

Tried searching the forums, but came up empty. Is there a way to add an external WiFi antenna to the Nexus S? Is just as simple as getting an antenna with the proper connector and plugging it into the port on the back of the phone (under the two back plates)?

If you're talking about the small connector right on the side of the top-right corner of the battery, I think it's a connector for GSM antennas, does anybody knows it's for something else?
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app

ozone89 said:
If you're talking about the small connector right on the side of the top-right corner of the battery, I think it's a connector for GSM antennas, does anybody knows it's for something else?
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app
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Yep, that is the exact one I was talking about (can be seen below in this ifixit.com picture). OK, that stinks, I thought that it might have been for wifi testing. The trace for that connector seems to run to the bottom of the board to those metal tabs, which seem to run to something in the case (which I assumed was the stock WiFi antenna) right at the bottom of the phone. If that is GSM (which is entirely possible), where is the stock WiFi antenna, because the only other antenna I could ID was the NFC antenna in the center of the outer case (sitting roughly over the batter).
<<edit>>
OK, I don't have enough posts to add a link to the picture, but if you go to ifixit's website and type in Nexus S, click on the first link that comes up, click on motherboard, and the scroll to the second page, you can see it in the third picture down.

I'll add some more spare infos to my answer
That connector is an SMC one, and it's been used since, uh... maybe always
In most cases it's hidden under a little round cover, which pops out by levering it with a needle.
Noticeable example of such a concealing are the old SonyEricsson phones, where it's also used as a mirror if a front camera is present (see w810i) and LG cookie K500
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app

ozone89 said:
I'll add some more spare infos to my answer
That connector is an SMC one, and it's been used since, uh... maybe always
In most cases it's hidden under a little round cover, which pops out by levering it with a needle.
Noticeable example of such a concealing are the old SonyEricsson phones, where it's also used as a mirror if a front camera is present (see w810i) and LG cookie K500
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app
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OK, thanks for the info. SO the money is on it being for the GSM rather than the wifi, right?

Yup.
It's also the most logical thing to do.
On a phone, gsm is way more important than accessories like BT or wifi
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app