nexus 5 antenna issue

[akmsr]

we all experienced somewhat weaker signal on our phone. it seems unless you have strong LTE in your location, its a hit or miss with the signal. even here we have some (including me) disappointed about this.
i was browsing and landed on this complaint thread about this in google forums https://productforums.google.com/forum/?_escaped_fragment_=topic/nexus/7s7DsI4DUYo
at the bottom of this someone posted a pic with antenna location
http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/FETUQwRrQSxGBXOG.huge
the silver tracings are the antenna.
also someone else made a youtube video about it testing that if your hand covers the bottom half signal falls off.
Antenna problem on Nexus 5 - YouTube
his video is somewhat unclear so i decided to try it myself carefully. i made sure i stayed in exact position and kept the phone at exact elevation when i changed my hand holding the phone. i held it exactly for one minute at each position.

holding at top half -87 to -93 dbm 15 to 11 asu
holding at bottom half -99 to -105 dbm 9 to 4 asu

it is expected as my hand covers the antenna. poorly executed as iphone 4. so we can kiss a firmware solution goodbye.
maybe someone senior at google will pull a steve jobs and tell us that we are holding the phone wrong.
arty:

 

[Rukbat]

You are - didn't you notice the "hold phone here" label at the top, or did yours peel off?

j/k - maybe the people who design things should be forced to actually use them under real world conditions, so that they can see how bad their design is. Although there's probably another problem there too. My usual LTE signal at home is about -106dbm and I never have a problem. I don't get 100mbps downloads, but the phone (not an N5) is perfectly usable. Your receiver may be a bit deaf too.)

 

[Rxpert83]

I notice nothing significant in the dBm moving my hand to the bottom or top.

That is so say no more variation than the phone has on its own just sitting somewhere.

Apple was getting knocked for the phones losing signal altogether, I don't see this being an issue of that magnitude.

 

[akmsr]

this is specifically a nexus 5 problem. really cheap hardware used by LG if all the complaints are to be believed. users using same sim card on the same location with a different phone sees signal drop off.
not that big of a deal if you have good signal to begin with. unfortunately its people like me who live in a fringe notices this. at my location every dbm counts

 

[Omar Days]

My signal is great no matter where I hold the phone

 

[chukka63]

My favourite subject.I noticed a definate drop of signal bars while holding the phone at the bottom.
What amazes me is the amount of air in the phone that could house a bigger/better antenna,or is this too simple of a solution.
I took my phone apart and although i can't confirm this but i'm pretty sure the top connection was not connected properly,after pushing it back on tight my signal did seem to improve,only 1 lost/dropped call since.
Is there not some way of boosting the antenna with additional wiring/tin foil or anything.