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Samsung Captivate Death Grip Issue (similar to iPhone 4)

E

emuneee

Android Enthusiast
Has anyone seen this article?

Samsung Vibrant And Captivate Suffer 'Death Grip' Too -- InformationWeek

I have both a Samsung Vibrant and Captivate on hand for testing purposes. In both phones, the internal antenna is apparently located on the back of the phone, towards the very bottom edge. When gripped around the bottom of the phone (with either hand) the signal strength drops almost immediately. The Vibrant went from three bars to zero bars in about five seconds, and the Captivate went from four bars to zero bars in about six seconds. When I let go, the signal returns immediately.
Click to expand...
:confused:

Anyone with the Captivate able to reproduce?
 
judging by the tone of the article, it is an angry iSheep spreading potentially false rumors. A comment to his "news" item says that someone is not able to reproduce the issue.
As an engineer I agree that the closer your skin is to the antenna (even an insulated or internal antenna), the worse the signal is.
Even if the issue is there on SGS, it will never be as bad as iPhone, because there is no skin contact with the antenna.
However I vaguely remember reading something about the Captivate that stated that the metallic back cover is connected to the antenna and becomes a part of the antenna. But I did not get worried, as it is ONE antenna the back cover is connected to, no shorting of two or more antennas is possible like on the iPhone. I am not 100% sure I am correct on the fact that i read the above somewhere, memory is not good.
 
Donaldkbart said:
I put my hand all over the phone and it only dropped one bar for a brief second and went back to 4 on captivate
Click to expand...
ya the guy states in the begging of the video that even if you hold it lightly it will lose signal which is false.. in my experience i have to apply extra force in order for the phone to lose signal.
 
This is nothing like the coupling problem with the iphone. Anytime you cover a phone with your hand, put it in your armpit, or any other place where you physically block the signal, of COURSE it will lose bars. But this particular phone has no physical problems with antenna coupling.
 
The only way I've found to drop bars on the Captivate is to hold your entire hand flat against the back of the phone, covering every part of it. Using that method, I went from 5 bars to 3. That was it.
 
From what I remember from the Android Central review of the Captivate, the battery cover is part of the antenna.

BUT... the problem with the iPhony was that how most people hold phones shorts two different antennas together. The only exposed antenna on the Captivate is the main one... all of the other antennas are behind plastic. So while you can attenuate the signal somewhat if you cover the battery lid with your hand, it's impossible for you to short it out against the bluetooth or wifi antennas.
 
Most people with the iPhone 4 are also unable to reproduce the issue including me. Most of the stuff you read online is unchecked info from bloggers who often do not check their sources before they post stuff. Rumor has it the Nexus One also suffers from this issue and I can't replicate it there either.....
 
So all I believe is that there may be a slight problem (I truly hope there isn't but) but it obviously isn't as drastic or large as the iPhones. Numerous sites review the phone and say that there is little or no static and the call quality is really good. So obviously there isn't a major problem with the antennas like the iPhones.
 
t-readyroc said:
Jobs is saying it's not a big deal right now in their press conference. He also pointed out 3 other phones that do the same thing.
Click to expand...
Regarding the "other phones" (i.e. Bold 9700 shown), I thought this audience question was interesting:

Q: I can't get my Bold to drop right now, maybe you can show me how to do it?
Steve: You may not see it in certain areas.

Nice...
 
500x_steve-jobs-full-bars.jpg
 
yay basically no recall.. and even possibly no free bumper cases for customers...

apple says that other phones drop calls... ok great... 3 other phones... and how akwardly you'd have to hold them for the signal to drop to 2 bars...

apple says iphone4 has less dropped calls than the 3gs... well thats because there are far more 3gs out there in the world....

apple blames att for dropped calls...

*facepalm*

at least this is what i got from some of the conference...
 
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