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Help HTC Sensation suffers from death grip??

B

bibs

Lurker
Got my Sensation on Monday and very happy with it, except that if you put your finger anyway near the power button area the wireless signal strength drops significantly. It's possible to demonstrate this quite clearly with the wifi analyzer app. With such a large phone it's natural to hold it in landscape mode with fingers at each side. Very annoying as if the signal is not that strong to begin with it constantly disconnects. Never had this problem with my previous HTC Desire. I guess HTC just put the antenna in a bad place :(
 
The Desire S is known to have this issue as well and I have tested it on my mates... It really is pretty annoying. But I had no idea the Sensation had this problem too.
 
I don't think it will help here because the antenna is internal and it is Wi-Fi... The iPhone was the cell signal and the whole edge of the phone is an external antenna.
 
TheSuper said:
Can't believe it! I was all set to get the phone at the end of the month and now this happens! :mad:

Following article from GSMArena saying HTC Sensation suffers from death grip, affecting Bluetooth and WiFi.

HTC Sensation suffers from death grip, iPhone 4 caught snickering - GSMArena.com news
Click to expand...

Hah you beat me to this! Saw this article just a short while ago.

I'm currently using an iphone 3GS and as my contract is ending soon I was planning on moving to the Sensation (yes another iphone defector, seems you get a good few on this forum :P ) and as nice this phone looks, I doubt I'd switch if it had issues with signal strength while holding it during a phone call. Can anyone comment if you've experienced this with their Sensations?
 
I've not seen a problem with signal. Although I don't hold my phone flat on the palm of my hand... infact, I don't know anyone that does... (must be awkward using your phone like that... you'd havd to tilt your head, press your face against the phone then lift your head up so the phone doesn't slide off the palm of your hand to the ground...)
 
Good to hear :) and thought I'd just throw the question out there, dont want any nasty suprises when I upgrade! Just looked again at where the antennas are on the phone and think the only time I'd cover them is if I was holding my phone landscape with 2 hands (not sure when I'd have to do that though...)
 
PaulC said:
I've not seen a problem with signal. Although I don't hold my phone flat on the palm of my hand... infact, I don't know anyone that does... (must be awkward using your phone like that... you'd havd to tilt your head, press your face against the phone then lift your head up so the phone doesn't slide off the palm of your hand to the ground...)
Click to expand...

That's irrelevant and actually makes it worse. The phone laying flat on a hand, not being grabbed traditionally and you get results like that?? Not so good.
 
Got mine Thursday and tested this death grip thing.

If you hand it in landscape mode in the palm of your hand you can clearly notice bars going down on signal strength.
 
bulanfan said:
Got mine Thursday and tested this death grip thing.

If you hand it in landscape mode in the palm of your hand you can clearly notice bars going down on signal strength.
Click to expand...

Been reading about this over in XDA HTC Sensation forum and they're saying this only happens when holding your phone in a certain way that no normal person ever would hold/use in that way.

Maybe it's an over-exaggeration and not much of a real-world problem?
 
Is that the sound of Mr Jobs sniggering?

Very bad news if this turns out to be true as the tech (and possibly mass) media are bound to jump on it as they did with the iPhone problem.
 
I gave it a test and no matter how hard I gripped I couldn't get the reception to drop one bar, however it was easy to get the wifi signal to drop significantly. Fortunately that means it will never affect a phone call, and getting the wifi signal to drop significantly required me covering it almost completely, tightly, not exactly a natural way of holding the phone.

Still slightly annoying it would drop at all, but until i'd read this I hadn't noticed it, so it's hardly the end of the world.
 
every phone loses some signal strength when you cover the areas where the antennas are; whether or not it poses a problem depends on where the antennas are and which directions they rely on to send/receive (ie. how likely you are to cover the significant areas in normal usage)

and since everyone and their mother is comparing this to the iphone4 debacle, i just wanna point out that the problem there was (or is, rather) totally different - it wasn't/isn't your hand blocking the signal, it was/is your hand bridging the external antennas
 
mrqs said:
and since everyone and their mother is comparing this to the iphone4 debacle, i just wanna point out that the problem there was (or is, rather) totally different - it wasn't/isn't your hand blocking the signal, it was/is your hand bridging the external antennas
Click to expand...

Never thought of the hand bridging it that was causing the signal drop, Guess I was worrying bout nothing :D
 
Seems to be a variety of hand positions/movements cause it the wifi to drop. It even happens sometimes when it's flat on a table or being held in portrait nowhere near the top. Maybe I just have a faulty device but since I posted this more reports are coming out. I think HTC are going to replace it so i will let you know how it plays out but I would have to say at present this phone is not fit for purpose for me and if you're thinking of getting one, if WiFi connectivity is important to you I would hold back.
 
TheSuper said:
Can anyone confirm what GSMArena are saying? Is it that bad?
Click to expand...
It certainly is that bad for me, but some users on xda have said they're having no problems at all. Maybe the fault is more prevalent on some devices (or wifi networks) than others.
 
DC E1G said:
They mention it happens when holding it sideways, but that's not in the video. What they show in the video is someone holding the phone in quite an unnatural way.
Click to expand...

all he's doing is covering up the top and bottom of the phone, which is where you'd naturally hold if it was in landscape mode. Before I saw this vid and heard about the Death Grip problem I wondered why they would make the cover outta metal and place all the antenna contacts right there. This is what stopped me from buying an aluminum back cover for my Vibrant cause people were talking about losing signal with the metal back.

This reallys sucks cause I was hoping that this phone was going to be the replacement for my Vibrant since I don't know whats going on with the SGS 2
 
jree said:
all he's doing is covering up the top and bottom of the phone, which is where you'd naturally hold if it was in landscape mode.
Click to expand...

i don't know how you hold a phone in landscape, but i have two fingers (index and middle) from each hand touching the phone, plus thumbs on the front
what the guy on the videos does is cup the whole thing as much as he can with both hands
 
I've gone back to my DHD, I'm not impressed. Just waiting for vodafone to send me an unlock code and its off to ebay with it.
 
mrqs said:
i don't know how you hold a phone in landscape, but i have two fingers (index and middle) from each hand touching the phone, plus thumbs on the front
what the guy on the videos does is cup the whole thing as much as he can with both hands
Click to expand...

Maybe it is just me but when I hold my phone in landscape, I use my left hand, resting the back of the phone in my palm, middle, and ring finger while gripping the top of it with my pointer and the bottom with my pinkie. I use my right hand to scroll and sometimes my left thumb. Thats the only reason I could see this phone being a problem for me with signal issues.

I'm still gonna check it out though cause Samsung isnt giving us tmobile customers any hope(what a surprise) and the LG just turned out to be such a disappointment for me. I really hope this is a non-issue cause after the Apple debacle and my GPS problems that samsung wants to ignore, I have no faith in a phone company telling me the truth.
 
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