• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Antenna (includes GPS), reception discussion

Had my curiosity piqued by the nice video - and didn't believe some of the claims there, guess what -

AnandTech - Hands on and Impressions from the HTC One - Formerly M7

The choice of the HTC One name really emphasizes how much this launch means to HTC — this is the canonical One. This is the fullest expression of HTC’s view for what the One lineup should mean, this is their flagship. The One is a clear evolution of the industrial design first begun with the Butterfly and DNA, except instead of plastic the One is machined from a single solid block of aluminum. There are over 200 minutes of CNC machine cuts per device, which is a unibody construction. Plastic is injected into the aluminum block after certain cuts are made for the back case, which then gets machined into the final form. The One uses the top and bottom aluminum strips for antennas, both of which are actively tuned to mitigate unintended attenuation from being held. There’s a plastic insulative strip in-between the two antennas and the main body. In spite of being aluminum, the One also includes NFC, whose active area surrounds the camera region. There’s no wireless charging from Qi or WPC, however.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hadron
Upvote 0
I can't see how this antenna design is really much different than the iPhone antenna blunders.

I worked with RF for a really long time... and still do here and there in my hobby projects... seen a lot of attempts at this and none work well.
If you come into close proximity of the antenna you will detune it and cause attenuation - but I think we all get that.

Call me a party pooper but I think this has fail written all over it.
This is the issue with phones now.. they typically put the antennas for the cell radio(s) on the bottom and gps/wifi and friends at the top.

I like the phone a lot.. but I can't help but think this is iPhone all over again where it's about the form not the function.
 
Upvote 0
The iP4 didn't coat the antennas, so touching them could short them, that was pretty serious.

First thing I did when I read the AnandTech statement was review how I held my phone - I manage to grab from top to bottom, so not sure here.

I've done RF on the job as well - exactly why I raised the questions here.

I don't know what to make of the active tuning thing.

Almost anything in proximity to an antenna changes it. That said, my other phones have been fine being held, the overall design ought to allow for that.

The first field reviews should prove quite interesting.

I'd like to say that no one can be that stupid in design but then again - iPhone 4.
 
Upvote 0
It probably uses an active tuner like we use with our ham rigs, uses a r/c network to keep the swr optimal no matter how you hold it so that there's no unwanted attenuation involved. I definitely agree with Hadron, can't wait to see the FCC filing on this bad boy. :p
OB

I can see that being possible.. it would have to learn.
Modern tuners do store what they have learned and try those first to speed up matching.

At the power levels we are talking about here you can effectively load up the track on the circuit board and radiate virtually no power while keeping the transmitter happy.

In the end the handset may be able to hear the BTS but what if the BTS can't hear the handset?

The FCC filings will be interesting, but I want to see the iFixit teardown more than the FCC filing myself.
If it works I want to see how it works :)
 
Upvote 0
Only problem with FCC filings is that they show transmission power but don't fully characterize sensitivity, yeah? Or I am mis-remembering that?

Mine would end up in a case anyway, but I still wonder if there's an insulating poly coating on that aluminum or not.

For sure, RF does funny things when in close proximity with anything, but I'm with Early on this one: My (un)coordination makes it almost mandatory I have a decent case (TPU at least). Folks had problems with the Palm Pre's "oreo-ing" - I dropped mine so much, I had double-stuff! :eek:
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0
I was watching a Vid a few days ago that was talking about the design and if it will affect the antena...A La,,,antena gate?

And from what they were saying those lines in the rear part of the device, specifically the colored ones (white on the Silver aluminum One) are to help with the antena.

In light of what one poster said...I cant imagine a company not learning from the past and making a mistake as big as Apple did a few years ago.
 
Upvote 0
Looks like your talking about the U.S. Varient because the Euro GNex didn't have recep issues like the U.S. VZW model did. Either way, nobody has handled the LTE Variant yet so we'll have to wait and see if that's the version your looking to find out about. Alot of us are interested in the same question as this will also impact battery life on the LTE model.
 
Upvote 0
Upvote 0
I got my pre-order in so I have been looking at the antennas in the teardowns posted in this thread:
http://androidforums.com/htc-one/704385-dismantling-htc-one-can-difficult-diy-repairs.html

Is that an NFC antenna around the camera?
I see several lengths of coax running around in there but I am having a hard time spotting the actual antennas on the back cover.

Anyone else see them on there?

NFC antenna isn't show on the FCC diagram, so not sure from the pictures there.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones