
Ask HN: Smart phone with GREAT reception - beezle
In the market for a mid&#x2F;lower end smart phone for my mid 80&#x27;s father. His current is a Windows phone by Samsung that needs to be replaced.<p>Though my father is in a major metro area, his town has restricted towers and he is in a very poor reception zone.His Samsung gets zero bars in and around his home. One bar if he is lucky out walking.  My LG G2 gets one bar most of the time with the occasional zip or two.<p>What I need is user input&#x2F;opinion on call reception quality, I can handle the rest of it. Unfortunately, nobody seems to mention weak signal reception in reviews anymore.
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tshtf
You have several things to consider here:

1) Making sure the phone matches the bands offered by his mobile provider in
his area. For example, T-Mobile has greatly expanded their band 12 coverage
over the past year, but most mobile phones don't have band 12 coverage.

2) The actual RF qualities of the radios on the mobile phones.

3) Many mobile providers offer Wi-Fi calling, so this can be an alternative in
a poorly covered area. However Wi-Fi calling is dependent on device support.

4) Many mobile providers offer free or cheap repeaters that connect into your
cable modem or DSL routers. These emulate LTE or 3G base stations and can be
used to make calls in poorly covered areas. This too works well in homes, and
with any devices.

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beezle
Thanks on pt 1 and 2. He's actually a pre-paid tmo customer. Unfortunately the
wifi and repeaters seem only for post-paid customers

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chrisBob
Could he move to post-paid? WiFi calling is amazing in areas with bad
reception. In the basement at my work, WiFi is the only way to go.

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beezle
He spends at most $50 a year on pre-paid so economically does not make sense.

~~~
chrisBob
Republic wireless (on the Sprint network) would be a relatively low cost
option to try another provider and add WiFi calling. Their fee is $10/month
plus data. That would be more than the $50 you pay now, but still manageable.

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brudgers
My experience, as an end user in the US, is that reception correlates more
strongly with carrier than with phone model. Comparing carriers at your
father's matters more than online reviews, I suspect.

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Someone1234
I'd suggest you head on over to:

[http://opensignal.com/coverage-maps/US/](http://opensignal.com/coverage-
maps/US/)

And look at signal strength from the major networks. Most smartphones use "off
the shelf" cell radios with "off the shelf" antennas. Phone shell materials
make a little difference (metal Vs. plastic/glass) in particular if they're
poorly grounded[0][1]. But overall I'd say look at network coverage first and
foremost, and then look into if you can get a femtocell from the carrier to
install in your house.

[0] [http://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-loses-reception-
when-a...](http://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-antenna-
band-is-touched-firmware-issue/) [1]
[http://www.pcworld.com/article/202371/smartphone_antenna_tes...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/202371/smartphone_antenna_test.html)

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Gustomaximus
Rather than focus on the phone, could you look into getting a femto cell
installed?

In my country some of our providers support these and you can buy/install them
legally. You could contact your networks to see if they support this.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell)

I had an old Nokia candy bar that used to get great reception. If he's just
making calls this could be good, plus in a low reception environment batteries
drain quickly too so the candybar would be suitable.

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OopsCriticality
Grossly simplifying and considering brands with all else being equal, Motorola
has historically had great RF engineering, Nokia is good, LG and HTC would be
good to average, and Samsung and Apple would be average to mediocre. This is
truly a gross simplification, as all else is not equal: it depends on the
specific model of phone (sometimes differing greatly between carrier), the
bands used in an area, etc.

Ultimately, the only sure option is a "live fire exercise". Apart from that,
maybe try a reddit subforum for where your father lives and see if they have
good, local advice?

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LarryMade2
Ask some of your fathers neighbors what phones they use and how their
reception is.

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beezle
That's a good idea, though I think I'll probably get a lot of grumbling. I
know one person who has both an iphone and a samsung (and previously a
crackberry) that has had the same issues with both tmo and att. His experience
is slightly better in that he gets some reception but suffers a good amount of
drops.

Prior to using the Samsung Focus my father had a moto feature phone and
generally was able to make calls over tmo.

