Want better phone signal? Try swapping hands
A new study suggests you might be blocking your phone's antenna without realising it
You know the drill.
You need to make an important call, but you've only got one fleeting bar of signal. Which is why you're currently balancing on an office chair, leaning out of a window, counterbalancing yourself with a desk fan extension cord.
Turns out you're being a bit of an idiot. At least, according to Professor Gert Pedersen of Aalborg University, who thinks that all you really need to do is try swapping your phone from one hand to the other.
Pedersen led a study looking at weak radio signals in mobile phones. His team discovered that most models of popular smartphone transmitters perform notably better when held in one hand, due to the alignment of the antenna in the phone's case relative to your sweaty palm and big old skull.
These are the most popular handsets to perform better in your left hand:
- Samsung Galaxy S6 & S7 Edge
- Xiamoi Mi5
- Microsoft Lumia 640
- Huawei P9
And these are these handsets perform better in your right hand:
- iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
- HTC Desire 626
- Nexus 6P
- LG G5
Pedersen would like to see smartphone manufacturers provide standardised antenna ratings, similar to energy efficiency ratings that large white goods have to display.
His pro tip for getting the best signal? Go hands free. If you're able to plug a microphone and headphones in for a call, it reduces the amount of obstruction you put around your handset when making a call, drastically improving its call quality.
That, or you could just send a WhatsApp message instead. Because you can't send emoji over voice chat, right?
[Via: BBC]
