Note from EM - want this as a separate thread, may merge later into http://androidforums.com/htc-one/690750-antenna-includes-gps-reception-discussion.html

I have had this phone for 5 days, coming from HTC EVO 4G. I really like HTC One and enjoy the new features. There are only two negative feedback on this phone:

1. The 3G signal strength can drop 20dB if one holds the bottom of the phone. Sprint does not have LTE in my area yet. The antenna for 3G is around the lower white stripe in the back of the phone. By gripping the white strip area, it seems to block the 3G reception. This is similar to the iPhone "death grip" problem a few years ago. When it occurs, the voice quality degrades tremendously.

2. I get my Yahoo mail using HTC One's stock mail app. For each email, I have to press a "Display Images" icon to see the graphics. My HTC Evo 4G does not have this problem. I can't seem to find a solution for it.

I think I will keep the phone.

 

WiFi and LTE have two antennas. But 3G CDMA only has one antenna. Do a search on "HTC One death grip". You'll find others have the same issue.

 

Thanks for the info. There is no LTE in my home area yet. So maybe I have a defective phone. I can demonstrate the issue 100% of the time at home.

I just contacted Sprint chat support. The guy looked up their database and said it is not a known issue. He also suggested that I should get a replacement.

I appreciate your input! Cheers! I went to get a replacement HTC One. The new one has the exact problem. Death grip....

What should I do about it?

Edit: Found a YouTube clip showing the Sprint HTC One's death grip problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KlAt7CKHsNY

 

I did that on the replacement phone and found 20-25dB loss with one hand gripping the bottom of the phone.

 

I don't use a case. I'll contact Sprint using email and save it as a record. Thanks for the suggestion.

BTW, I live in a metro area with good reception. According to Sprint's coverage map, my area has the "Best" coverage. On my replacement HTC One, it measures between -85dbm to -80dbm.

Follow up :

I'd like to provide an update of my issue. I have contacted Sprint, BestBuy, and HTC. The status is as follows:

Sprint rep thinks that I might got my HTC One phones from a bad batch of phone. She is going to get a Device Care Manager contact me within 24 hours.

BestBuy rep also thinks that my two HTC One phones are from a bad batch of phones. She suggested I go to another BestBuy store to exchange it.

HTC rep, on the other hand, suggested that I might want to change how I grip the phone. He thinks it is normal to have some signal variation if the antenna is covered, even after I told him the loss was up to 25dB! In his email, he asked me to provide serial number and software version on a HTC link. When I clicked the link, I only found my case was closed and I couldn't enter any information.

 

Sprint called me back. The agent checked my HTC One's signal strength remotely and said the signal was strong. Then she checked the nearby cell towers and said no problems had been reported. She concluded that it was a bad HTC One I got. She recommended that I could take it to a nearby Sprint Store to have it checked.

Are you using LTE mode or CDMA mode? Just out of curiosity, I took my HTC One to an area with Sprint LTE coverage. I then gripped the phone at the bottom and, interestingly, the signal only dropped a little. So I changed the phone from LTE/CDMA mode to CDMA Only mode and repeated the test. Sure enough, the signal dropped substantially.

My finding so far indicats that my HTC One's death grip problem is only with the CDMA mode. SolApathy, can you please clarify how you tried to replicate the issue? Thanks.

 

Thanks! Good answer too. It is good to know that some HTC One phones work well with CDMA. So I still have hope.

I'll go back to a different BestBuy store to exchange for another HTC One.

----

Something very interesting happened this morning. I got a Sprint Zone message requesting a software upgrade. It did not specify what the upgrade would do. But since it was from Sprint Zone, I clicked "ok". Then amazingly, I found the death grip problem went away!

Draw your own conclusion. Thanks all for the help.

 

I would like to provide an update. The software upgrade from Sprint Zone has not reliably fixed the death grip issue. I could not consistently reproduce the death grip problem after the software upgrade though. In other words, the signal sometimes would drop substantially and sometimes just drop a little.

So I took the phone to a Sprint store. The guy at the Sprint store had the same phone. So we compared our phones side by side. When he gripped his phone at its bottom, the signal would drop but then went up quickly. My phone, on the other hand, stayed low. Since I bought my phone at Best Buy, the Sprint store couldn't do anything for me, according to the guy I talked to at Sprint Store.

Best Buy offers a 14-day exchange/return policy. So I went back to a Best Buy store in a different city last night, and got my 3rd HTC One. I was hoping that it would come from a different batch.

I am sad to report that this 3rd HTC One phone has the same problem. It is similar to the 2nd phone in that the problem is inconsistent. Both 2nd and 3rd phones got Sprint Zone update while the 1st phone did not. With the 1st HTC One phone, I could reliably reproduce the problem 100% of the time.

I can't believe that I have gone through this much trouble.....

 

Death grip does not mean one holding the phone really tight. The term was made popular by iphone 4's death of signal problem by gripping the phone in a certain way. Mr. Jobs offered free cases to people having the problem back then.

Maybe you can take your HTC One out of the Otterbox and see if you have the same problem. The YouTube video I quoted earlier would show you how to try to reproduce the problem:

Sprint HTC One death grip problem - YouTube

Please post your finding. Thank you.

 

Let me try to understand what you are saying. It seems that you are stating a different behavior. Are you saying that the signal level would go up after you remove the case and touch the upper antenna area?

Does anyone know if Apple has fixed the death grip problem of their iphone 4?