WiFi Reception should be part of phone reviews!

[Anonymous]

Have just returned from a mini-break in Spain with Mrs phillpark. Whilst there I turned my data off, so was reliant on WiFi to Kik/Whatsapp the kids etc. I noticed that Mrs phillpark's Nokia Lumia had far far superior WiFi pick-up thn my HTC One X. In every bar/cafe/shop we went in with free WiFi she invariably picked up a stronger, more reliable WiFi signal than me.

This became quite frustrating when we had to decide where to sit in a bar based on my pi$$-poor WiFi reception and not where the sun was!

Why don't reviewers test the WiFi reception as part of the phone reviews? Would be very useful info in today's WiFi filled world!

[Anonymous]

Did she wind you up that hers was better than yours ! (Phone model)

Their does seem to be a big difference on how phones behave on wifi. I'm not sure if there's a benchmark for how they should perform.

[MI5]

Interesting you should say that and some of it is down to how the signal is displayed, ie my Ativ appears to hold a stronger wifi signal than the SP does.... Ultimately though they both fail to deal with data around the same distance from the router....

[Anonymous]

In every place we went into, she picked up the signal first, and it didn't drop out till long after mine had: A couple of places we went to my phone had lost the signal completely ("out of range") and she was still happily surfing away.

I know it would be hard to have an 'industry standard', but some kind of layman's idea as to how it performs prior to purchase would be good!

[MI5]

Good point but would be difficult to quantify as it is controlled by the modem which is likely too change between firmware updates....

[Toby]

Hey Phil,

Great point about Wi-fi connectivity. I'm passing this on to the device team now to see if we can do anything within O2. I'm also talking to them about potentially reviewing devices from a community perspective on certain pages

[aldaweb]

Any tests would have to be performed under standardised conditions in order to give an accurate comparison.

[MI5]

It's virtually impossible to do with any accuracy and consistency which is most likely why it's not done already.

[jonsie]

I can't see how this would work given that wifi signals are affected in the same way as any other signal and would vary in different conditions and locations. Admittedly strength varies from phone to phone but unless they standardise phone wifi antennae then I'm not sure you would get an accurate review of wifi reception and connection.