Hi Everyone,
I just received my Devilcase bumper yesterday, so I thought I'd share my signal quality test that I did. I'm not going to review the case itself, that's been done and you can search it on the net, instead I'm going to focus on the signal quality and see if there's any degradation when using this kind of aluminium bumper.
This is by no means a scientific test and of course your mileage may vary. But here's the test parameter.
Before we get started, here's couple of pics of the case with my black HTC. The color really compliment each other if I may say so myself . Sorry about the blurry pictures, they were taken in a rush between my wife taking a shower and my baby with his grandma.
The first result we're going to compare is the GSM signal test
You can see that there's signal quality degradation. It registered at -83 dbm without the case while it's at -87 dbm with the case or around 4.8% degradation. Also from the graphic you can see that with the case the signal is more fluctuative.
Second result is GSM Speedtest
Speedtest also indicates the same result, there's speed degradation when using the case at 6790 kbps vs 6531 kbps or 3.8% degradation
The third test is Wifi strength, Sorry about the slight discrepancy in screenshot, I simply forgot which one to take hahaha. Anyhow, for the without case please pay your attention on the right wifi one result.
Once again it's obvious that there's degradation in Wifi signal strength, a significant 27% between -44 dbm vs -56 dbm. Though what interesting is...
Third test, Wifi speed test
Turns out that the wifi speedtest shows that it is performing better with the case on even with lower signal strength. Of course an argument can be made here that due to the test performed at different time the result may not be valid as different time means different traffic hence different result, however what I can take note is that seems like the drop in signal strength has little effect on the actual bandwidth speed. This is soley based on my experience and I acknowledge that some is documenting different result.
Last test I performed was GPS signal test
I didn't get to clock on how much time it takes to get a locked position with and without the case, but I really didn't feel there was any significant difference, if anything I felt faster with the Devilcase on. The result is also virtually the same, merely 1 meter (approximately 3.3feet) apart in accuracy.
Conclusion :
Though this is hardly a scientific test but it clearly shows that there is some sort of signal degradation when using the Devilcase especially with GSM and Wifi. But having said that, life's full of compromise, you win some and you lose some. For me this is a worthy compromise as I don't really feel the impact of the degradation while the protection and overall awesomeness of the case is just blaringly obvious haha.
Disclaimer
This is all my personal opinion based on my limited experience with the case. YMMV
I just received my Devilcase bumper yesterday, so I thought I'd share my signal quality test that I did. I'm not going to review the case itself, that's been done and you can search it on the net, instead I'm going to focus on the signal quality and see if there's any degradation when using this kind of aluminium bumper.
This is by no means a scientific test and of course your mileage may vary. But here's the test parameter.
- The without case test was perform at around 19.00 while the with Devilcase test was performed at around 21.30. The reason for 2 hours different being my wife asked me out to dinner (told you this is no scientific test haha)
- Picture on the left is without case, picture on the right is with Devilcase.
- Network provider that I used is XL (Local Indonesian provider) with bandwidth of 7.2 Mbps
- I'm using a Wireless N TP Link wifi router with 5Mbps fiber optic provider
- For GSM and Wifi measurement I use network signal pro
- For GPS I use gps test
Before we get started, here's couple of pics of the case with my black HTC. The color really compliment each other if I may say so myself . Sorry about the blurry pictures, they were taken in a rush between my wife taking a shower and my baby with his grandma.
The first result we're going to compare is the GSM signal test
You can see that there's signal quality degradation. It registered at -83 dbm without the case while it's at -87 dbm with the case or around 4.8% degradation. Also from the graphic you can see that with the case the signal is more fluctuative.
Second result is GSM Speedtest
Speedtest also indicates the same result, there's speed degradation when using the case at 6790 kbps vs 6531 kbps or 3.8% degradation
The third test is Wifi strength, Sorry about the slight discrepancy in screenshot, I simply forgot which one to take hahaha. Anyhow, for the without case please pay your attention on the right wifi one result.
Once again it's obvious that there's degradation in Wifi signal strength, a significant 27% between -44 dbm vs -56 dbm. Though what interesting is...
Third test, Wifi speed test
Turns out that the wifi speedtest shows that it is performing better with the case on even with lower signal strength. Of course an argument can be made here that due to the test performed at different time the result may not be valid as different time means different traffic hence different result, however what I can take note is that seems like the drop in signal strength has little effect on the actual bandwidth speed. This is soley based on my experience and I acknowledge that some is documenting different result.
Last test I performed was GPS signal test
I didn't get to clock on how much time it takes to get a locked position with and without the case, but I really didn't feel there was any significant difference, if anything I felt faster with the Devilcase on. The result is also virtually the same, merely 1 meter (approximately 3.3feet) apart in accuracy.
Conclusion :
Though this is hardly a scientific test but it clearly shows that there is some sort of signal degradation when using the Devilcase especially with GSM and Wifi. But having said that, life's full of compromise, you win some and you lose some. For me this is a worthy compromise as I don't really feel the impact of the degradation while the protection and overall awesomeness of the case is just blaringly obvious haha.
Disclaimer
This is all my personal opinion based on my limited experience with the case. YMMV
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