Huawei Ability to Aquire Weak Signal

[thinkbig11]

Here is my situation. Where I work, there is no wifi and cellular signal is pretty weak. My current phone is a OnePlus One which really struggles to stay latched on to a cellular signal.

I'm considering trying a new phone. Has anyone had experience with other Huawei phones in weak signal situations? If so, how do they rate compared to other phones?

I know Motorola has always been known to have some of the best radios, so the Moto X play could be an option.

I would really like a better camera too from my OPO. I'm surprised so many newer phones, including these two, are forgoing OIS. The biggest thing for me, having kids, is being able to take a decent indoor picture spur of the moment. While I get OIS isn't necessary to take a good photo, it can certainly help in real world life moments where you don't always have an optimal preparation to get a great photo. The more tools available to make it easier to capture a good picture the better in my opinion. That said, the larger pixels in the new Nexuses do seem to do pretty well in indoor lighting even without OIS.

 

[Rxpert83]

Two questions here:

1) Radio signal. I'm coming from the nexus 6, which as you mentioned does GREAT at holding and maintaining a signal. Its the first moto phone I've had so it was really a difference for me. This is a concern I have as well. Hopefully someone else with Huawei experience can chime in.

2) Part of the reasoning they went without OIS is because the 1.55 micron pixels. The larger the pixels, the more light the sensor can collect, and allows for shorter exposure times. The idea being you don't need OIS because the exposure is short enough that the shaking isnt getting captured. Its basically a digital camera sensor in a mobile phone. You're probably saying yeah that sounds great and all, but does it really work? We'll have to wait and see how it is in action.

You can hear Google talk about it here: (15:50 is where they talk about the camera)

 

[mogelijk]

The questions about Huawei's antennas got me curious and so I tried a Google search. I found this, which tests the Huawei P8 against the LG G4 and the Samsung S6. While I wish they would have included a Motorola phone, it is encouraging that the Huawei appeared to win every test; including Network Switching, Antenna Strength, and LTE Speed tests.

 

[thinkbig11]

Thanks for that link. Even though it's just one phone, at least it's slightly promising knowing they are capable of good mobile radios/antennas.

 

[Jdub251]

The questions about Huawei's antennas got me curious and so I tried a Google search. I found this, which tests the Huawei P8 against the LG G4 and the Samsung S6. While I wish they would have included a Motorola phone, it is encouraging that the Huawei appeared to win every test; including Network Switching, Antenna Strength, and LTE Speed tests.

While this is good good news for Huawei, and us, Samsung isn't the best for connectivity, in my own personal experience. I would've liked to see an iPhone or Motorola myself.

 

[darkcyber]

I can speak from experience having gone from Motorola phones to Samsung phones. I live about 4 miles from a Verizon tower, but due to trees I get a horrible signal. The Motorola phones I have had in the past hands down crushed the Samsung phones. I am still on the Note 3 right now and looking to jump to the Nexus 6P, but had concerns also about their radios and receptions. I definitely don't want a phone with a worse radio.

 

[Rxpert83]

Android police covered this in their 6P review:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/10/26/nexus-6p-review/

Since I'm a Project Fi subscriber (you can read about my experience here), my experience may not be very diagnostic for those who plan to use the 6P on one carrier. That said, everything has gone swimmingly so far. In the basement of my apartment building, where I get no signal with the Nexus 6, I have 3G with the 6P! WiFi has been great so far, and to tell the truth I've used WiFi for most of my phone calls with the 6P. WiFi or otherwise though, call quality has been consistently good, and I haven't experienced anything out of the ordinary like dropped calls or other hassles.

Inside my apartment the 6P gets about -95dBm for those who like stats.

So take from that what you will, but it appears for at least that 1 user in that 1 location reception is better on the 6P than for the 6

 

[thinkbig11]

Android police covered this in their 6P review:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/10/26/nexus-6p-review/



So take from that what you will, but it appears for at least that 1 user in that 1 location reception is better on the 6P than for the 6

I seem to remember reading the first nexus 6 had reception issues. I'm not sure if it was a result of subpar antennas being used by Motorola in the nexus 6 or maybe it was a software issue which was resolved. In any case I'm still going to err on the side of caution with limited feedback on signal strength.

 

[Unforgiven]

I have multiple Huawei devices, though not the 6P. I've found the reception to be very good with them. Even on the IMO entry level P8 Lite of which I have four. And I've had many Moto's to compare with. I will offer the caveat that my Moto's were on Verizon versus my Huawei's being on AT&T.