Holding phone and signal drop

[haus]

Just an observation. If I hold my Evo Shift clasped in my right hand, signal drops about 3-4 bars.

Clasped:


Palm open:


I always hold the phone in my right hand and press buttons with my left, so could be an issue.

[dreds71]

huh, I've had issues with bluetooth: I get an intermittent popping sound.

[darren.wlsn1]

i dont notice mine dropping but i did have a nib epic with same issue and i opened the back up and antenna was barely connected so i finished samsungs job and all is good now. just a thought

[emkorial]

Originally Posted by darren.wlsn1

i dont notice mine dropping but i did have a nib epic with same issue and i opened the back up and antenna was barely connected so i finished samsungs job and all is good now. just a thought

HOw did you open it up? Or ho do you opena shift up? I was able to replicate issue, although call quality has never been a problem.

[NthgToFear]

I just tried it on mine and didn't notice a change...

[HTCotta]

I'm so sick of this shit. EVERY PHONE will lose signal when you block the antenna and you will block the antenna when you "clasp" any phone, it's physics and it cannot be avoided. This isn't even the problem that the iPhone had (that was stupid design), it just made everyone try to make their signal drop and guess what, you can do it with every phone.

[haus]

Originally Posted by HTCotta

I'm so sick of this shit. EVERY PHONE will lose signal when you block the antenna and you will block the antenna when you "clasp" any phone, it's physics and it cannot be avoided. This isn't even the problem that the iPhone had (that was stupid design), it just made everyone try to make their signal drop and guess what, you can do it with every phone.

Same to you. This is the first phone I've ever owned that loses signal when I hold it the way I normally do. I knew someone would march in on their high horse and say I was dishing on the phone. I'm simply showing what happens when I hold it. If that bothers you, sorry to have offended you. I thought others might want to know.

My TP2 (a phone your status still indicates you own) did not lose signal unless I "clasped" it in a very odd way - something that would never happen under normal use. Guess what? 99% of the time when I hold my Shift, I hold it the way I pictured above. I consider that a usability issue, and I think the TP2 was better designed in that regard.

[HTCotta]

Alright, fair enough. I apologize for the tone of my previous post, it was typed hastily and at a frustrating point in my day/week. I happen to know a lot of people who think their phones are broken because when they wrap their hand around the entire device, the signal drops. It's slightly amazing to me that they don't get what's happening, especially as they're supposed to be engineers. Basically the way Apple tried to play off their little issue permanently pissed me off on the subject as the general public (read: iPhone users) believes anything they say. Every phone I've owned has dropped 1-2 "bars" when I hold it as shown in your photo. I haven't had any signal issues with my Shift, agree to disagree? *offers hand for web shake*

Also, thanks for alerting me that I need to change my phone info, I would have left it indefinitely.

[rangie]

The antenna is at the bottom of the Evo Shift. All my winmo phones have had it at the top. It' harder not to cover it with your hand.

[haus]

Originally Posted by HTCotta

Alright, fair enough. I apologize for the tone of my previous post, it was typed hastily and at a frustrating point in my day/week. I happen to know a lot of people who think their phones are broken because when they wrap their hand around the entire device, the signal drops. It's slightly amazing to me that they don't get what's happening, especially as they're supposed to be engineers. Basically the way Apple tried to play off their little issue permanently pissed me off on the subject as the general public (read: iPhone users) believes anything they say. Every phone I've owned has dropped 1-2 "bars" when I hold it as shown in your photo. I haven't had any signal issues with my Shift, agree to disagree? *offers hand for web shake*

Thanks. As Rangie said, the antenna is on the bottom. Though I seem to be the only Shift owner who experiences this, my photos show that signal is dropping. Let's say the call doesn't drop, but the signal gets weaker and the phone has to work a bit harder, eating more battery life.

The thing that irks me is that I'm not gripping the phone unusually in that photo. You can clearly see that two of my fingers aren't even around the body of the phone - this isn't a death grip on the device. This is how I would hold it walking down the street or in my house.

Now to be fair, since I didn't buy TEP, maybe I'm clasping my new $500+ phone more tightly than my TP2 which can probably be replaced for a song on Ebay now. Maybe over time I will treat it with less respect and toss it around more in the open air. I also have big hands.

But thinking back to my phone history: Motorola Timeport P270, Motorola V710, SonyEricsson T608, HTC Apache, Treo 700wx, Treo 800w, Moto Q, Samsung Intrepid, Touch Pro, Touch Pro 2 - to name a few since I switched from GSM - I've never seen signal drop from what I would consider "normal" holding of a phone.

I think we all saw the TP2 thread where you had to cup your hand over the top of the phone to make a signal drop. I would pretty much never hold a phone that way and to me that made a lot of sense.

The Shift - ok, my Shift - loses signal when I hold it the way I think I'm supposed to hold it (waiting for a "hold different" directive from HTC on this, preferably with a visual aid!). Just seems unusual to me and a strange design choice from a company that has been doing this for awhile.

If nobody else in here reports the same thing, maybe my antenna is broken or loose, though calls certainly seem to work fine (I never go below 2 bars anywhere I've tried the phone so far).