Does Buying A High Priced Mobile Phone Mean Better Signal Reception ?

[ThaiLife]

I have a selection of mobile phones ranging from an old Sony Ericsson K790i to a ZTE Android blade , I know the area where my house is does not have a good signal reception coverage for most mobile phone carriers . I decided to try out all my mobile phones ( 5 ) using my normal GSM Dtac SIM card , each phone was placed in the same exact position on my computer desk top , and switched on. To my amazement the oldest phone the Sony Ericsson K790i showed the best signal reception ( 4 out of 5 signal bars ) and the rest , even my newer ZTE Blade all showed fewer signal bars . I am looking at replacing my ZTE Blade, but now wonder why does my older SE k790i have a better signal reception than all the rest of my newer phones, and if I do replace my ZTE blade how do I know if the new replacement mobile phone will all so have poor signal reception . Am I correct in thinking that if I buy a brand new up to date mobile phone , that has the latest mobile technology , I will get a phone that will provide the best signal reception .

[phl]

i do not think you are correct in thinking that.

the latest toys have more features, but does not mean have better reception

i wish i knew an answer, but i do not

[bobl]

The short answer is no.

The long answer is a bit complicated. It shouldn't be too hard to imagine that if you go and buy a $10 phone, your mileage will vary somewhat. It might work great, or not at all.

Once you get above a certain price point however, pretty much a phone's a phone and the higher prices are based on feature set / "latest" releases and of course, simply the brand. When you're on the "edge" of a reception area you might find your mileage varies a little bit - where one phone will work and another won't - but that would be more down to which handset has the slightly better antenna and/or engineering, and that in turn would be very little to do with the price.

Incidentally, comparing how many bars there are on different phones... Those signal strength bars are like using an axe to do brain surgery. They're about as accurate as a fuel gauge in a car. if you can get into the diagnostics on each phone you should be able to see the RSSI and/or ASU numbers. Those are a much better indication of what signal levels your phones are seeing.

[wana]

you might get a better reception on a 600thb nokia than a 24,500 thb iphone 4s or a 20,000 thb top level android phone

i have a samsung galazy s2 and i dont think the call quality are as good as lower end phones ive owned in the past

but i couldnt go back to those after getting adjusted to the feature set of the sgs2

[lomatopo]

I don't think you'll be able to evaluate a phone until you have it exactly where you want to evaluate it? Unless you can borrow one? Are you talking about GSM? Voice? Data? 3G? What evaluation criteria are you using, beside number of bars?

The sub-systems: hardware, firmware, baseband, software, antenna, all have to work together for optimal performance. Many sacrifices are made to accommodate svelte designs, power consumption, cost as it is assumed there will be blanket coverage. I guess you can troll the various forums to see which phones perform best in remote areas? I think the iPhone 4/4S is generally recognized as having the best performing antenna sub-systems? I think the SGS2 (i9100 version, not the i9100T version), has a pretty good antenna sub-system? The baseband version can make all the difference in call quality, clarity, 3G, GPS. It has taken me quite a long time to get the best baseband for my model/provider/location, out of close to one hundred versions.

There are Android apps. which may allow you to determine signal strength, reception et al. And, you may be able to get into the service menu of the phone to get similar details?

Edited May 14, 2012 by lomatopo