Effect of cover on phone signal

[Goekhan]

Hey people,

I recently bought the transparent cover for my FP2 (finally! Looks super awesome 8). Up to now, I was using the indigo one. Not sure if it’s my imagination but to me it seems that the signal of my phone improved considerably with the new cover.

At my working place I generally had a bad signal. I have to leave the building or go close to the windows to have a 3G connection. Now it seems that I have the 3G signal at the place where I’m working.

The bad signal performance was bothering me for a long time, since it caused a pretty fast draining of the battery since the phone is always searching for the signal.

So did anyone else notice such a behaviour?

[JeroenH]

I really doubt it is the cover.

Please consider this guide:

Bad radio performance caused by oxidation and scratchmarks on display module backside contact pads

Over the past months I noticed that the radio performance of my FP2 got worse and worse. I often got “no service” or “emergency calls only” despite the phone showing full signal for a few minutes when switching flightmode on and off again. I read posts reporting similar problems in this forum and quite often the antenna connector was mentioned. When I opened my FP2 I discovered another source for radio problems: For shielding and grounding purposes the back side of the display module is connec…

[BertG]

I have my reservations as well.
Still there is the fact, that the transparent covers are made from a different material, not using recycled materials.
Should that really improve reception, that would be good to know.
Maybe FP already has measured it? If not, maybe the could do so? @Monica.Ciovica, do you happen to have any info on that behalf?
If I am right, this might be a cause for higher battery consumption as well, as a low signal is countered by more energy for getting a signal. Or am I wrong there?

Edit:
Just added the question for info directed at FP.

[JeroenH]

@BertG

If I am right, this might be a cause for higher battery consumption as well, as a low signal is countered by more energy for getting a signal. Or am I wrong there?

You are right.

You can verify it at the battery consumption in Android. If the signal is red there, then its a cause of higher battery consumption. I have this issue, but I live pretty much between 3 4G towers. So I have bad reception indoors, at home. I just disable 4G whilst at home. There’s an Automate flow for that, though Automate Premium doesn’t work outside Play Services. I actually had completely lost 4G signal at home with the weaker SIM card (other one is a diff provider but small plan), and in general. Only once I cleaned the contacts and SIM cards (dunno if it was one or the other) I had a good reception once again.

[Goekhan]

I just tried to quantify the influence but the built-in signal strength values (about -79 dB) are kind of strange. The value is lower with a case compared to without.

Will have a look at the oxidation of the contact pads though, thanks!

[Stefan]

Which values do you get exactly, when you compare with and without cover?

[Goekhan]

Here the values for the signal I’ve got with the built-in function (roughly):

• Without cover: 75-79 dBm
• With indigo cover: 81-89 dBm
• With transparent cover: 79-85 dBm

Guess the difference which I’ve mentioned earlier (value with cover better than without) was due to some stablizing effect or something similar.

The value fluctuates a lot though. An app for recording and averaging the value would be helpful.

[BertG]

Just tried wlan without cover to the same effect. Less networks available than with the red cover. And those available showed lower signal strength. Sorry, no measures, though.

[JeroenH]

Need multiple tests, without humans around (water is bad for signal), and without yourself around ideally (camera or walk away and read log)