HTC

[bibs]

Had my Sensation for 2 weeks now and as a heavy WiFi user it's really not fit for purpose due to the WiFi constantly cutting out or signal strength dropping hugely. It happens particularly often when the phone is in landscape and held at each end, also with the palm at the back as per some of the sensation "grip of death" youtube videos. But even when held in portrait or just flat on a table the wifi cuts out every few minutes.

Obviously I have gone into the advanced WiFi settings and set Wi-Fi sleep policy to Never and ticked best wifi performance. Although the cell strength is not great i haven't noticed problems so much with that, as some have reported, but I use it more for wifi than calls. Never had any similar problem with my HTC Desire. Really frustating and even though I signed a two year contract with vodafone and I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of the phone.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd be glad to hear it.

[Mr_H]

I found the wifi on my Desire S is only affected if I hold a specific part of the phone. For my phone, it's one half of the upper plastic area that houses the camera lense and rear speaker (I'll post a pic later if I remember)

If I cover that specific part of the back with just two fingertips I can nearly kill the wifi, but now I know exactly where it is, I have modified my grip slightly to avoid it. It generally doesn't bother me now

I know that's not the point, as we shouldn't have to suffer with these problems But apart from this the Desire S is absolutely outstanding device, so I put up with it on the rare occasion it does bother me. I'm sure the Sensation is an even better one, so it might be worth seeing if you can find exactly where triggers the death grip and seeing if you can avoid it comfortably (if you're covering different areas of the phone to try to narrow down where it is, hold your hand/fingers there for a couple of seconds to give the signal strength icon time to refresh)

HTC's running on stock Gingerbread deem wifi signals too weak sooner than those on Froyo, so the GB phones drop stronger "weak" signals (I'm assuming to save battery life?). Also the original Desire gets very good wifi signal compared to the aluminum unibody HTC phones. Combined these two factors mean the wifi worked much better on the old Desire. Even if they look & feel great, it's a bit of a backwards step in my opinion

[danski]

I`ve been having issues with rubbish reception when at home - my Desire HD used to be fine.

Good luck if you try ringing Vodafone though. I spent a whole hour at lunch trying to get somewhere, 4 people spoken to, not one of them listened to what I told them about it being a bad design and they wanted to send it off for repair.

As I`ve had it over 7 days I`m pretty much stuck with it, Voda dont recognise that theres a problem, so they wont exchange it for a different phone /model.

I`m going to get it unlocked and sell it, going back to my Desire HD.

Now I remember why I stay away from contracts, thankfully I`m only tied into a 12 month, but never again.

Dont even bother emailing HTC, their response was to send it back to Voda as its within 28 days for an exchange...which isnt what Voda told me, they will only send it for repair.

Waste of time.

[cjm1979]

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danski wrote:

I`ve been having issues with rubbish reception when at home - my Desire HD used to be fine.

Good luck if you try ringing Vodafone though. I spent a whole hour at lunch trying to get somewhere, 4 people spoken to, not one of them listened to what I told them about it being a bad design and they wanted to send it off for repair.

As I`ve had it over 7 days I`m pretty much stuck with it, Voda dont recognise that theres a problem, so they wont exchange it for a different phone /model.

I`m going to get it unlocked and sell it, going back to my Desire HD.

Now I remember why I stay away from contracts, thankfully I`m only tied into a 12 month, but never again.

Dont even bother emailing HTC, their response was to send it back to Voda as its within 28 days for an exchange...which isnt what Voda told me, they will only send it for repair.

Waste of time.

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 If you got it from Voda on contract it will be network unlocked anyway. I wouldnt sell it just yet and wait for at least the first update which may have a new radio to help with the reception issues.

[Mr_H]

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/htc-responds-to-sensation-death-grip-claims-9...

[chrisdibben]

If I cover the aerials the signal drops. Not enough to loose my wifi connection though. I can make a weak cellular signal drop by covering the aerial with both hands, indoors, and shielding the phone with my legs as well - not exactly normal use for someone who wants their phone to stay connected. Any radio device will loose some signal strength when the aerial is coming covered, I'm sure I could dig out any of my old handsets and find a way to hold them that blocks the reception. We spend more time looking at our smart phones now, so we notice when a signal drops, I'd suggest its nothing particularly new.

[bibs]

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chrisdibben wrote:
I'd suggest its nothing particularly new.

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It certainly is new to me. My old phone was the HTC Desire which /i used for 12 months previously in the same positions and on the same wifi networks and I don't recall the WiFi dropping once. On the Sensation it happens almost every few minutes in certain rooms.

[Mr_H]

If you wrap your hand round the top back of your old Desire it does lower the signal., but the Desire on Eclair/Froyo is very good with wifi, so you just don't notice it.

Use wifi analyzer & try it yourself: 

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

I've done a comparative test for wifi death grips on the original Desire & Desire S, see the PDF attached to this post for details: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/HTC-Devices/Any-HTC-Phone-Gingerbread-Wifi-Bad/m-p/732453#M73535

From what I've gathered the Sensation has a better wifi experience than the Desire S, but worse than the Desire. Maybe you're unlucky Bibs and your Sensation is worse than most because you have a faulty aerial, you could try HTC/Vodafone repair I guess. It'd be a shame to can a phone that is otherwise so good

[snowy2]

I was looking to get the HTC sensation recently (my contract is up for renewal) and contacted a good friend who works for Vodafone technical to see if he could get me a better deal......when he asked for my choices of hndsets and i said the sensation he said "DO NOT BUY ONE" the problem rate with them is almost 100%, they loose the wifi , bluetooth and 3G signals when held making them almost unusable......he also said that there is talk of vodafone withdrawing it from their approved list as they are so bad!