Nokia: 'we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict'
By Chris Ziegler 
posted July 16th 2010 4:36PM
posted July 16th 2010 4:36PM
"Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.
Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.
In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That's why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design."
@AVMax
The reason cell phone makers place the antennas at the bottom is not that it is a requirement, but rather that it gives advantages in the FCC testing.
Quite specifically it's the SAR test. For some reason the FCC measures the SAR levels(AKA cell radiation) at the ear, making the bottom the place to put your antenna if you want it to have the least effect on the test. This means that a bottom antenna can use a stronger signal than a top antenna and still get a better SAR result.
If I was a cell phone maker I would also be tempted to put the better antenna at the bottom, than placing a lower strength one at the top, even considering that the top one would be less likely to get blocked.
At least someone does.
Apple iPhone 4 is the best smartphone, and boo hoo if you need to hold it a bit differently. Oh wait! We needed to hold the communicator, camcorders, kins, alcatels, ericcsons differently, oh no! what about the big block motorolas? we couldn't even hold those before. You have to be nuts to give up using the most advanced and complete smartphone if holding it slightly differently is your problem. smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, robust OS, cloud service, no other company gives you a cohesive package that works like apple does.
I've got a Motorola Krzr and have signal issues. I'm not an Apple fanboy having never owned any of their products but I'll be keeping an eye out for the new Ipod Touch 32gb when it comes out.
Come to think of it I've had Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones with reception probs too, back when phones had a visible antenna.
Pleeeeease let this turn into some kind of boost for Nokia, any kind! I rode that stock into the flucking toilet! You guys were supposed to be the champs goddamnit!
Everyone wants to take shots at the top dog (Apple) to make their $hit look better. Nokia was the top dog and has fallen to an all time low & can't take the heat for their non-selling phones. If anything, Nokia needs to shut up and put out something people will actually buy.
@codepink
Apple is the one taking shots at other companies, based on unproven claims in dubious experiments with competitors phones, after they built a dud, a phone that has trouble calling, which has been verified. They are just trying to make this huge mistake look smaller than it is.
@JFH huh! did you read yourself before post this? ...don‘t think so
Too bad they don't give a shit about their UIs.
RIM released a statement, too..
http://bit.ly/9HhdaE
The really shocking thing is that they prioritize market share over profit. That's how they end up with the largest cell phone market share yet are constantly shuffling top management. What a joke.
@Perspective Actually, they don't prioritize anything over profit. They rake in the money from the very low end up.
Nokia please STFU!!!!! please
Yes, now I want to buy a Nokia after they've admitted that their phones are ugly…
Does anyone else think Nokia is awesome for saying this?
I officially can't stand apple and their arrogant selves. They think they are perfect in every way, and they think everything the make is perfect because of Steve Jobs
This is hilarious coming from Nokia, the maker of the worst high-end phones on the market. The antenna performance is so poor in weak signal areas I hold my Nseries up in the air away from my body just to answer a phone call.
RIM has a point. Nokia is just blowing hot air.
Dear Engadget,
You guys are awesome, and don't enough credit for you do. I couldn't appreciate you guys enough for it. All this Apple coverage and Nokia (and others) bashing is kind of uncalled for. Let's face it, these companies have invested MILLIONS of dollars into their phones, from R&D to sales. So when Apple takes a piss on them to hide themselves from a DISASTER, try to be a little more accommodating for the KIND responses these companies hand out in return. Apple is lucky it is not being slapped with lawsuits here. To bash RIM and Nokia like that just makes you like a bunch of arse burnt nitwits that don't know anything about the market. Let's keep it fair and balanced yeah? I know you guys don't like Nokia or RIM, or HTC or Samsung, really anything outside of Apple, but PLEASE, keep that to yourselves and try not to sound like a bunch of spoiled iCRY BABIES. Thank you and Rock on!
PS - If you censor this, you prove my point. If you deactivate my account, you again, prove my point. I respect you guys, but consider this tough love from a VERY loyal reader.
am loving nokia as a phone and ipod touch for games and apps.
but no thanks, no iphone 4. i rather buy nokia e72 and maybe the nu ipod touch
This is actually true.. I've got a Nokia 5730. I've tried gripping it with both hands, all over, with just a gap so I can see the 3G reception bar..
In my brick house, I go from full bars on Optus 3G, to one-less than full bars. When I put it back on my desk, it goes back to full reception.
Shame the handset itself sucks massive balls.. stupid Symbian..
*Points at Apple and laughs* ahhhh hahahahhaaha
erm i'm using this Nokia E63, everytime i take it out from my pocket (pants) i saw the antenna bar is zero. then after a minute or so, it will grow back to 4-5 bars... its the same everywhere i go... sometimes i just held it in my hand while walking afraid of losing any call... anyway, every smart phone has it's flaw, cheers :)
@michelleyeow
According to Engadget readers, you're probably lying or working for Apple because any other manufactures other than Apple are perfect.
@pika2000
Nope, but other manufacturers dont make antenna mistakes that are as bad as this one. Signal attenuation is a fact of life, dropping calls is not.
@JFH So is your iPhone 4 dropping calls? My AT&T N1 has dropped calls too, and so is my Nokia E51 under AT&T. Obviously when there's no/low signal, a call can be dropped by any phones. You're delusional thinking no other phones drop calls.
@pika2000
You are right, any phone can drop a call when it has no reception. I was trying to say the signal attenuation is much worse on the Iphone, and more prone to dropping calls. So, its a fact of life that attenuation occurs, but it is not necessary to design a device that performs worse than the competition in this respect, and even the previous iteration of the Iphone. Its a better antenna but it drops more calls than the previous ones. Arguably, with a better ATT network in the meantime. In my book that is not a better antenna.
which is why my Nokia comes with a list of at least 6 different ways not to hold it to avoid 'the death grip' issue.
Maybe Nokia should focus on design a little
More because I'm sorry buy it's true-their phones are the 'Quazimodo' of the Smartphone world. Fugly.
To be honest, if they started to put a little more emphasis on design and style, I'd be more tempted to try them again. But since they're still settling on a solid UI and their designs look like a crappy re-hashes of other phones/ iPhones.. Nope, I'm not sold.
I'd rather have a good looking phone that doesn't work 100% than an ugly one that works ok. But that's just me-you don't have to agree..
@Twoleaf... there's no need to display the fact that nokia is just as crap as the rest for reception,
All I need to do is pick it up & the bars start dropping
Blackberry's don't have an antenna problem, the stupid things crash so you can't make a call(& lose all your data) instead
As to HTC phones I didn't owned one long enough to bother about the reception issues - I'd just class them as high trash content.
Time to switch to an iPhone I think, at least they look good & work ( even if they have some problems)
@alienfulla
Dude, you are insane. Completely lost in the RDF, you are.
@JFH
I guess the RDF could explain why I had to send 4 Blackberry's back before we gave up on them... & why we replaced that & the HTC with fugly nokia's & now carry our laptops if we want access to data..
Back on topic though.....
Someone should ask Nokia if their $Billions in antenna investment are currently floating in the Caribbean because they aren't in any of the phone we have
@alienfulla Considerable portion of this investment is realized as patents that are licensed between radio equipment manufacturers. If all research would be such that it could be realized as own products of the company, cellular market would be very different indeed. Only companies able to practically build own hardware would be Nokia and Ericsson, and even they would have had to invest billions to develop such technologies as CPUs, memory and displays from the scratch.
World isn't that a trivial place to live in that Uncle Steve wants you to think, not to mention that he consistently fails to mention when his own products are largely built on top of others' research and development divisions' long-term work.
@alienfulla
Again, you are either very unlucky or full of shit. Nokia devices have excellent reception. Dont count the bars, test the db's. (not pronounced "the deee - bee's")
Judging by how their phones look, must be a lot of conflicts.
I have that phone in the picture, the E63, and after reading of Apple's press conference yesterday i managed to get my signal to drop from full to ~20% by holding it with my hand touching as much of the side as possible
Don't forget what Verizon reminded everyone of, that the new Droid X has "dual antenna design."
@codepink
¿Who would buy a complex phone?.
Someone who wants to make phone calls with it.
I'm kidding, just kidding :p. we're talking software, now. But keep in mind, apple's "user experience" comes with a price. iPhone is, indeed, a very easy of use device...as long as you use it the way apple wants you to use it. Beyond that, it's not complex, it's plain impossible.
As an example, it's very easy to put music in your iPhone. But you can only use iTunes for that. You're not allowed to use any other method.
(with the "more complex" Nokias, you don't even need to install any software on your PC, drag'n drop from the windows explorer will do; you could also use either nokia's software or Windows Media if you wanted to).
¿What about other files? with the iPhone, it's so easy...again, as long as iTunes allows it. If the file type is not supported, there's simply no way to store it in your iPhone. (again, the more complex nokias will allow you to store any file you want in their memory regardless of whether the phone itself can read it or not, which is great for using your phone as an improvised USB drive).
App Store. So easy to use. so great the apps...as long as Apple accepted them. (¿joikuspot for iPhone? you could have had thethering through wifi two years ago, but Apple and AT&T didn't want you to, so you haven't)
I know all of these examples are kind of moot, and very arguable, but what i'm trying to say is that those "more complex" mobile Os's (such as symbian) also give the users more freedom about the ways they can use their phone.
To summarize it, i'll say this: for a first gen iPhone user, it probably took less than five minutes to figure out every single feature on his iPhone. It is truly that brilliant.
But it also took him two years to get video recording.
Personally, i'll take freedom of usage over ease of use every day. Because being allowed to use the device the way i want is also part of the user experience.
Yeah.. apple did admit that there was a problem with their phone but drag the other manufacturer in the process. I can hear a label suit coming... lols..
http://www.teknisyan.net/2010/07/free-bumpers-from-apple.html
I tried to slap a case on my Nokia to see if it helped with signal loss. Would anyone like to harbor a guess at that result?
Going by Apple's workaround, I am imploring every phone maker to send us a free case. I mean, covering my phone up with a case will solve all my problems, right? Right?
I say Apple has a different problem but are just trying to snake their way around it by drawing attention to a different problem inherent in all phones.
that is why Nokias phones are so ugly!
E71? blech!
That's why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. - lmao!
First off, I am an American. I love Nokia phones for what they can do (not all of us are dumb). I've had many phones in the past and if you understand how Symbian works it is a great OS. It's comparable to Windows XP vs. Vista (or maybe even Mac OSX). People can call XP 'ugly' but it is still the most used OS right now! Why, cause it can do things for everyone (from the programmer to the baby boomers). My dad still refuses to upgrade to Win 7 for that reason. Americans just can't get it in their head that Symbian has better 'functionality' than almost all other OS's out there. It's only going to get better (USB OTG, etc).
I have many friends and family who don't understand why I would stick with my 5800. Here's the main reason. My friend was standing on a bench and trying to get a good picture of a tennis game. He dropped it from at least 8 feet on to asphalt. I am still using that phone a year later. So, there you go. No problems, nada! If that were the iTurd, it would've been a goner.
My iPhone is half way through this month's billing cycle. I checked my usage today. I've used 60% of my data plan megabytes so I'll need to slow down a little to make it through the month. I've used a grand total of two minutes talk time on the telephone in just over two weeks.
What this points out is that the telephone is such a minor application that it's almost irrelevant. These antenna issues are bull.
looks like they have these conflicts often...
Admittedly, the attenna on my N97 mini is working, The last time I checked. But that is about all that is working. Nokia needs to step down it's pedestal and make a phone that does not crash, has a useable battery life, and a coherent user interface.
@pika2000 Don't simply call someone a liar. I AM REALLY using a Nokia E63 currently and it's doing it now with the antenna bars, did I said anything about dropped calls? And I did said EVERY SMART PHONE has it flaws... I'd think u work for Nokia and just simply flame anyone who make Nokia look bad, did i said apple iphone is any good? my god i am in love with apple iphone 4 but I didn't said it was good...and don't call me a liar you insinuating jerk.