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I tested the Droid X's reception against a Droid. Here's what I found ...

jroc

Android Expert
Apr 10, 2010
2,610
355
I have a Droid. I loaded the leaked Froyo on it. I work in a bad reception area on the 3rd floor of a 6 floor building. (6th floor has the best reception in the building.) The middle of the building is open on my floor, it has ceiling windows.

Froyo came with 2 baseband updates. The first baseband update gave me better reception so I stuck with that. The Froyo baseband I was using gave me better reception at work. Before, on 2.1, I would have to be next to windows in the hall on my floor to make calls and download at 3G, the middle of the building didnt work good. With the Froyo baseband, I could be a few feet from windows and make calls and download at 3G, middle of the building worked better too. Ok, improvement.

The X.....I can walk the halls away from the middle of the building and use the phone where windows to outside are present..calls dont fade in or out :) I couldnt do that on my Droid with that Froyo baseband. But when there are no windows to outside, I lose service on the X in the halls.

I can use the X in the 3rd floor breakroom that has no windows, but it has a glass door/entry area. Standing near the breakroom door, I can get service, but I have to keep trying tho to get it. No calls fading in or out once I get service. I also found out my speakerphone works fine by trying it in the breakroom. On my Droid with the Froyo baseband, I couldnt make calls, and I couldnt download in that same breakroom.

At my desk I get 1x; I also got that on my Droid running Froyo and that baseband. But calls dont fade in or out on the X. It did on my Droid with the Froyo baseband. The office I work in is away from outside windows. Once a call start ringing, I have a clear connection on the X unless I leave my desk, move around.

I know some ppl are questioning the Diversity Antennas on the X cuz side by side with another phone the decibels are similar or the same. To really test the X reception, or any phone's reception use it in a bad reception area, especially an area where another phone had reception issues. I forgot a member on here who was one of the first to get an X mentioned it worked better where his Inc had reception issues.

Reception was the one thing that was gonna help me decide if I was gonna keep it or not. Better reception than the Droid with an updated baseband that most ppl havent even used yet? Its a keeper. Now, I feel really good about my purchase. And I find out my speaker is loud, might not be as loud as the Droid's but it is loud. Loud and clear. I was going by dialing volume, but once someone speaks on the other end, its loud.

So, in my testing the X has better reception than a stock Droid running 2.1, even a rooted Droid using an updated Froyo baseband. And the X gets an updated baseband with the OTA coming soon. I hope it makes it have even better reception. Cuz from what I seen, the baseband updates can go either way for some ppl. They can give u better or worse reception... or no change at all.
 
that seems like a pretty decent test.

I'll know this weekend if my X works any better than my Droid.
At home I get excellent reception so it's not a good test.
but at my parents place, my droid could not get any data (3G or 1X) connection, and the voice is usually 1 bar. I'm able to make/receive calls 90% of the time, but I do get fade in/out and dropped calls.

I'm going to their house this weekend, so I'll be able to see if the X does any better. I'm going to bring both phones so I can have them side by side for comparison.
 
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