It's the antenna location, kids...

[hankhenry87]

That's great and all but there's no option during testing that calls out minimum percentage of time up against your head. You could make the same argument having an airbag in your steering wheel. It's not like you have a head-on collision on a daily basis. They designed the phone to meet the SAR limits in the extreme cases: up against your head and next to your body, not in your hand, on your desk or downstairs on the coffee table. Also, having the antenna near your chin vs at your ear and next to your brain vastly makes a difference in exposure based on the source point for detection.

Let's not get hung up on antenna location. My Razr had excellent reception with its antenna down by the mic.

1. Explain to me how you could have the phone next to your head, but not in your hand.
2. Are you really saying they didnt design the device to be held? Its a flipping phone
3. Yes lets get hung up on antenna location, just like all my calls. Its obviously a problem. Im not going to bury my head in the sand and pretend like the phone is working when its clearly not

 

[hankhenry87]

Oh Who cares, It is what it is folks. If your not happy get rid of the dam phone. Im so sick of these signal threads already.

A lot of people who are having major issues care. Clearly your not, so shut up and stop posting in here. If you dont have signal problems, dont read the damn thread, its that simple. I paid a lot for the phone and expect it to work. You people piss me off, we have problems and your only solution is to return the phone. Thats not a solution what so ever. Honestly, SHUT UP everyone is sick of hearing you guys bitch that were having problems. Thats what the forum is hear for, if your phone is working perfectly GOOD FOR YOU. Either give up a solution, or SHUT UP
Anyone else agree?

 

[Steel36]

I have to say I'm pretty surprised that any of you are registering zero change in the grip location test. It makes me wonder if you are waiting the necessary 5-10 seconds for the signal status to actually update.

 

[gener1c]

My Signal varies. At work and at my desk its -70 to -60. While outside at my work my signal is -55 to -44. Completely rocks when im here. But the Second I get home and around my house my signal drops to about -82 to -95. All these are from the center city in Philly or about a 2 mile difference.

 

[Ric WRX]

Mine shows 80 with no bars

 

[NiteRider]

Mine jumps from -63 to -70

 

[Incredible_Senor]

I'm usually -50 to -65 all the time. This technique you mentioned did not seem to alter it in anyway.

 

[answerman]

Here you go... Internal / External Cell Phone Antenna Booster - As Seen On T.V.

LOL @ that... they still sell those? Right next to the DVD rewinders?

Seriously though, in the Product Safety & Warranty Brochure... picture that goes along with it shows about a half inch wide area along the bottom of the phone that is the antenna.

Good to know, I was actually going to research exactly where the antenna is. I need to know because I do have a Cyfre booster amp and roof mounted antenna that I use at our cabin (no electricity, about 12 miles from the nearest tower at the bottom of a hill). The amp worked great with my PPC-6800, which had an actual RF jack, so I could plug the amp directly into the phone. Took me from bouncing between no service and very marginal service to a strong -70dB signal with no issues whatsoever.

The Incredible, like my Touch Pro, doesn't have an RF jack so I have an inductive velcro adapter that needs to be stuck to the phone over the antenna. Haven't tried it yet, partially because I needed to figure out where the Incredible's antenna is. The inductive adapter probably won't work as well as the direct wired connection, but hopefully it will be good enough.

 

[jlb0305]

in my office i have 1 bar...

in palm-> -96 to -98 db
on desk-> -91 to -92 db
held pinching at top left/ bottom left goes to -80 db

holy crap!... although i usually don't have call problems.

 

[dt_]

that's so weird >_> anyone else have any reports about this?

 

[tonytownsend]

Mine is never really below 85dbm. What Is the problem. A bad phone, the software or Verizon thats whats driving me nuts!

 

[svwilbur]

90-99 in right hand palm
-77 to -80 in lower right corner pinch
-74 to -75 in lower left
-75 to -78 in left palm!
-92 in right palm

I am holding the phone in the exact same place in 3D space. Just wraping my left or right hand around it in a palm hold in virticle position with thumb up along the side and finger wrapped around teh back to the other side. palm pretty mch covering things on the back. I have large hands.

Good think I normally hold it in left hand and answer phone and listen in left ear!

Pretty wierd. Probably designed that way. Most of us are right handed and would hold it with left hand and punch buttons with right hand or both hands.



Just laying on the counter it is at -82

 

[Mr. Spontaneous]

I went from -71 to -69.

 

[barrister89]

The shape of the phone has nothing to do with reception capabilities, IMO. My LG Dare, although smaller, shares the same basic form factor as the Inc and has great reception any place around town and even way out in the rural areas. In a year and a half of having the Dare, I can count on one hand the number of dropped calls and the sound is never garbled or tinny.

I am a little skeptical of those stating that signal strength does not change depending on how you hold the phone. I think it has been confirmed that if you hold the phone tight to your palm signal strength decreases substantially.

It's possible that because of the design of the phone and size/location of the antenna, signal strength cannot be improved unless VZ releases an Incredible II. The only hope is the unsubstantiated theory that VZ may be able to increase the power of the radio by a software update.

Regarding this issue, it would be more helpful to me to hear from business users such as myself who intend to use the phone for business and do some traveling around.