GSM Cell Phone Reception Quality?

A not-so-anonymous reader asks: "I am about to buy a new cell phone and my primary focus is on good reception quality, as I have bad network coverage at home. I made some tests using some phones I have access to and got a subjective rating of T610 < K500i < 6520 < V600i, where T610 means 'nearly no service' and V600i gives 'service even in the wine cellar'. Googling around did not give any useful hints. Has anyone compared the reception quality of current GSM phones via simple locations testing, or better yet with commercial GSM testing equipment?"

Comments

Forum

[non-poster]

Go to Howard Forums and search/re-post your question. I'm pretty sure it's been discussed a quadrillion times.

Simple rules of thumb

[jodonoghue]

I assume that you're in the United States.

A few simple rules of thumb should see you clear:

1) You should try to get a phone which supports the 850 band, as this gives far better in-building coverage than 1900.
2) The network you choose probably makes more difference than the phone you choose. Choose the network with the best coverage in your area, if you're in a poor service location.
3) There's not that much difference between the sensitivity of different GSM phones - they all have to meet the same RF specifications, and few beat them by very much. However, an external (stubby) antenna, while possibly causing an unsightly bulge in your trousers, will probably give silghtly better reception in practice than one with an internal patch antenna, if only because you won't get the attenuation from your hand while you're holding it.
4) Please, please don't use the signal strength meter as a guide. A true story: some years back I was working for a manufacturer whose new phone was slated by a magazine for "poor sensitivity". We tested the review phone when it came back and it was working very well. We loaded some new software which showed full signal strength for a relatively poor signal (about -97dBm, IIRC), and sent it (exactly the same phone) back. In the next issue the magazine printed a note to say that they had since tested a new sample of our phone which was much more sensitive...
5) If you're really still looking at marginal differences, Motorola phones often have slightly better sensitivity than average in the 1900MHz band. Alternatively (may not be what you're looking for as UMTS, not GSM), phones with the Qualcomm chipsets can be tuned to turn in very good performance. I have an LG U880 which pulls a signal when most others fail. I must admit an interest here, as a Qualcomm employee, but our GSM/GPRS implementation really is among the best around.

I guess I have to weigh in

[thedave]

I normally don't participate in these discussions, because some Radio Engineer will tell you about dB and wattage, and yet another guy will talk to sound quality with the golden ear of an orchestra conductor.

I on the other hand have the leaden ear of an engineer and the engineering skills of an orchestra conductor. But, I use cell phones a lot. I use my phone around 3500 prime time minutes a month, and I don't have any idea how many non-prime I use. I charge my phone nightly, and it usually needs it. I send over 1000 text messages a month. And, all I care about is how well they work. I don't care about the camera, I don't care about the video games, and I don't care about the lifestyle accessories.

All cellular systems suffer from the flaw that structure, geography and EM interference separate you from their network. That aside, you then look at the robustness of the protocols, the length of talk time, how well they work in noisy environments, what they make your voice sound like on the other end, whether or not you can hear the ring tone, how easy is it to place a call, how easy is it to add a number to the address book.

The really important thing to ask is how well does a given phone and network perform in the places where I need to use it? For me, it's the office, my house, my car and in large international cities. I need a reasonably up to date phone that supports all the network features.

Given these criteria, a GSM world phone is the only phone for me.

The most trying environments for my phone seems to be switching cells in rush hour traffic, my brother's house and a 150 yard stretch between my San Francisco apartment and I-80.

That said, I have settled on T-Mobile, because with them I get the talk time and text message count I need, and their international support is very good (after all my first T-mobile account was in the UK).

Now, onto the question asked. Assuming GSM and T-mobile, my history has led me to the Nokia 6230i.

I have used Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony within these parameters and my conclusions are as follow:

• Motorola - Motorola makes by far the best radio. Motorola definitely has two lines of phone: the toy phone, and the serious phone. The toy phones are flimsy pieces of crap. But, their serious phones are rugged workhorses. If all you care about it making calls, they are the best phone out there. Especially their phones with external antennas. The sound quality in noisy environments is good, and the sound quality in quiet environments is excellent. The battery life is good, and their displays are easy to read. But, the displays typically don't tell you much. And the menus and contact management features are almost useless.
• Nokia - They are my preferred phone brand. Don't mess with their low end consumer models, and be prepared to shell out the cash from an unlocked phone. But, most of their phones in the 6200, 8000 and 9000 lines are exceptional communication devices. They place and receive calls intuitively. They seem to roam through crowded cells very well. The menu system is designed for a phone not a PDA. The contact management and synchronization tools for windows are pretty good. The sound quality in noisy environments is fair, but reliable. Their sound reproduction in quiet environments is excellent. And, their support is excellent.
• Samsung - Of all the brands, I have the least experience with Samsung. I had one as a temporary replacement while I was on vacation. It was small, light and pretty. It received the few calls I needed without any problems, but I did not place many calls. Under normal conditions I had no problems with sound quality, and had no dropped calls. But, again, conditions for that phone were almost ideal. My impression was that it would not have the staying power to survive my usage. But, I have friends who contradict me on this.
• Sony - The undisputed king of consumer electronics makes terrible pho