Difference between new phone reception and old phone reception?

I currently have a 6310i (3-4 years old) and on Cingular's GSM network, but get really bad reception. If I get a new phone (like a V3i) will it make any difference in my reception?

Depends. The best thing to do is to see about borrowing the phone in question and seeing if it's reception is any better in the areas you normally use your phone, to see if reception is any better.

My roommate and I made sure that all our phones had good reception inside the apartment we moved to, when our old place went condo. He has T-mobile and I have Cingular. There were several nice places that were ruled out, mainly because of no signal inside the apartments, even near a window.

Since we both already knew our phones worked great, where we work, driving, hiking and all we need really was to test reception where we would end up living.

You can go the pre-paid route with a newer phone to see if reception is much better or about the same for your normal routes. Or try a new phone of your choice and buy it outright (so you don't get stuck with a new contract), try it for a few days, and if it works for you great, if not take it back and see about trying another one.

It might help to let the rep know this is what you want to do from the start and ask about how many returns will be allowed in the 30days trial period. As the answer may help narrow down your choices, and may bring up other options for testing phones.

Here's my semi-technical answer to your question......

When a phone is first released, the software on the phone is close to being 100% in sync with the network software. As time goes by, the carrier updates the software on the network & as that happens, the phone becomes less in sync with the network. Generally, carriers advise customers that it is a good idea for them to upgrade their phone after having it for 3 years. That recommendation is made based on the belief that the customer has kept their phone in good condition.

So, basically after 3 years, the software on the phone & the carrier's software will be approximately 40% in sync.

I hope this kind of answers your questions!

I see that your current phone has an internal antenna. You might want to try a stub antenna on your next phone, although it is highly debated whether they are any better or not. Basically, with an internal antenna the vast majority of people ar holding their phone in such a way that covers the "intenna" with their hand, and this interferes with reception. I hold my phone from the bottom to keep my hand as far away from the intenna as possible.

I also put one of those little gold antenna booster things under my battery, and I believe it made a slight difference in my reception, I say slight because it seems to give me an extra bar inside my house but it's about the same as before everywhere else I go. All of these are things to consider, if you go with an intenna on your next phone, practice holding it away from the back and top of the phone and your reception will be a little better than if you cup your hand over the intenna's area.

Hope this helps

Brad,

I saw a while ago that a group or geeks (from a local computer mag) did tests on several of those antenna booster things, and found that the "Gold" was nothing more than gold ink, printed on plastic film. They found nothing in the ink that might make the signal better (like some sort of metal or wire).

But as to do they work or are some of them a film of metal or not? Who knows.

Mine has got to be made of some kind of metal because before I put it in, my phone would roam in the middle of my house, and now I can walk all the way through and stay on a Sprint tower.

Also, I was about to come back here and mention that when I am in a poor reception area, I plug in my headset and that helps with the reception because my head is not in the way...

LOL funny but true.

Thanks for the info. So you think Cingular might have advanced the GSM network beyond what the 6310i is best to handle?

Well, the phone I was looking at was the new V3i or V3x, whenever that comes out. They both have internal antenna's, so.......

Just keep in mind what I said about holding your phone away from the internal antenna. I think the intenna is probably as good as the traditional antenna as long as you hold your phone properly. This has made a huge difference for me, because when I was cupping the phone in my hand, I would get a lot of dropped calls when I was halfway between two towers, and I thought either the phone or my provider were at fault.

But since I began holding the phone near the bottom and away from the internal antenna, my reception has improved and I haven't dropped a call in quite a while. Also like I said, when I am in an area that I know gets poor reception, I plug my headset in, hold the phone away from my body (I kind of pinch the phone between my thumb and forefinger, over the microphone area), and my reception is much better than if the phone were between my head and my hand.

Basically, don't let me discourage you from getting the internal antenna, just keep in mind that how you hold it will affect your reception more than if you were using a traditional stub antenna, and it takes a bit of practice to hold the phone a different way from what you are accustomed to.

Chances are its the overall reception. Id take the above advice, borrow a friends phone and see how it works. Try getting someone with the same service provider, see how that goes and then try using another phone from another service provider. That should narrow it down a bit for you..

Also, Brad is right about holding the antenna.. On a majority of new phones, there is a sticker on the back of the battery pack that you can peel off, which says "holding the phone's antenna can disrupt/drop calls, so dont hold antenna. ( If its an intenna, you might want to do what Brad said and hold the bottom of the phone, I found that his method is actually right )

To answer your question, yes the v3i will definetely give better RF and overall performance and no the v3x will not work for you because the new 3g UMTS network has not been deployed nationaly here in the US.