Poor Signal Strength - Any way to improve?

[dunksmomma]

I have enjoyed playing around with apps on the Inspire and it works great when I'm using my wifi, but I've tried two different services with the unlocked phone and both have given very poor to no signal. I'm currently using straight talk and it is an unlocked at&t phone with an at&t sim card. After trying with little success I put the sim card into my old at&t phone and it works great, with excellent signal strength so I know it's not a service issue and is instead the phone. I can get very little signal - maybe 2 bars if I'm in a busier area such as a shopping center outside, so I know there isn't something causing the phone to not accept service, which is what straight talk suggested to me AFTER I explained the issue and before I discovered that Straight Talk works great with my old, non smart phone.

Is there anything I can do to improve the signal strength or do I just need to call it a loss and find a different android phone? Thanks for any help or suggestions

 

[ZeRoseDev]

I used the info from this post to greatly improve my signal (with tinfoil)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1863590&page=3

A few posts down on page 3 there is a photo of how to put the tin foil or copper tape on. (Again, I used tin foil)

I was shocked to find that, in this case, more is not better. When I used more, my signal went down instead of up. If you just put the amount as shown in the photo, hopefully you will see results.

I went from a spotty one bar signal in my house, to 3-4 bars. The antenna is on the bottom of the phone too, so when I use it, I hold it at the top, so my hand does not block the signal.


Hope it helps you too.

-Ze