Cell phones forum: Cell Phone Signal Strength

It's not the bar count as that's just the phone's software.

I was on a design team with some base station. The equipment we used was a few million and that was 10 years ago. As such I doubt any reviews could do any scientific measure.

What makes the most difference is the base stations in your area. I rarely find any company smaller than a few billion that could do this right.

Bob

Well how exactly do you think cell phones work then? In what magical realm do they not need to connect to some tower or base station that functions as a relay?

I'll let Bob answer for himself, but I think the point he was making is that coverage area depends entirely on the number of base stations you have for the network. Further, that constructing and maintaining these base stations is expensive.

I will agree that Cnet's reviews focus way too much on multi-media functions of phones, and gives very little time to how they function as a phone. I finally broke down and got my first ever cell phone (just arrived today), and I primarily want it as a phone. I don't care if it can play MP3s or much else. I want to know about the quality of the phone's construction and how well it functions as a phone. What is the sound quality like, did it seem to get pretty good reception, etc. Almost every place that isn't just rebranding the same Cnet review of phones covered that quite well, but then I already have very low expectations of Cnet. I really only use Cnet as a minor secondary source of information.

Sorry for leaving out that item. The company I did this for had the letter M and was famous for a flip phone.

Hi,
I posted the original question, thanks to everyone for continuing the discussion. It seems that I'm not alone in thinking that a cell phone should be a quality phone first before adding gadgets.
The number of phones on the market (even confined to a single carrier) make it difficult to sort through. Based on user reviews on several sites I found 2 that praise the signal strength; Motorola Razr V3xx is one but there were lots of complaints of failure centered around electronic (or programing) and a weak hinge causing breakage. The other that sounds promising having a high percentage of positive consumer reviews is the Motorola V365 which seems to have been underrated by Cnet. Sounds like an industrial strength phone with comments about superior reception and survivability when dropped from great heights, favored by contractors. Down side is it's size which is thick.
So......any comments about these 2 phones or any others available FROM AT&T?
Thanks again,
T

I bought two identical Nokias a couple of years ago. They performed exactly the same. Whether phones are consistent or not in signal strength would be useful information from users ratings, too. The consumer ratings could be done similarly to an auction site's feedback rating. Show the good and the bad and the neutral, with comments. People can draw their own conclusions.