Who makes better cell radios, Motorola or HTC?

[Astrodroid]

Still floating here in my mental Bionic vs. Thunderbolt dance, I just remembered reading some Engadget review of some Motorola phone from a while back that noted just as an aside that Motorola makes great cell radios - the thing that's actually communicating with the towers.

Is that true? Are they known for making cell radios that work better than those made by other manufacturers? Those of you who have been through lots of phones by different makers, have you ever noticed a pattern of any sort in that regard? Do you get better reception or performance using a Motorola phone than if you used a different one in the same spot? (i.e. the signal strength was the same)

Does HTC have a particularly good or bad reputation regarding the cell radios it makes or uses?

I would think at this point that there wouldn't be much difference, but since I'm in a horrible area for coverage, I want to figure out whether this is some small Moto advantage to factor into my comparison of features.

 

[realitydigg]

There really are a lot of factors. The design of the antenna, software, tranceiver chips etc. Neither company makes a cell radio, it is the combination of everything, really it is the whole design. CDMA, LTE and GSM etc. etc. all will make this different . The only way for you to know is to try the phone....

 

[zenit#AC]

isnt the radio chip identical on all of hte phones? that baseband qualcomm chip for CDMA.

As for reception, in my experience HTC and Motorola were identical (had OG droid, then incredible). Both were vastly superior to CDMA iPhone, which could not get signal in large parts of my building, while Moto and HTC had no problems.

 

[htowngator]

isnt the radio chip identical on all of hte phones? that baseband qualcomm chip for CDMA.

As for reception, in my experience HTC and Motorola were identical (had OG droid, then incredible). Both were vastly superior to CDMA iPhone, which could not get signal in large parts of my building, while Moto and HTC had no problems.

I think the radio chip is the same, but as you mentioned that's only part of the battle. The actual antenna design, placement, and power matters.

 

[Mapex]

isnt the radio chip identical on all of hte phones? that baseband qualcomm chip for CDMA.

As for reception, in my experience HTC and Motorola were identical (had OG droid, then incredible). Both were vastly superior to CDMA iPhone, which could not get signal in large parts of my building, while Moto and HTC had no problems.

SHHHH! Don't mention to @VerizonWireless that their iPhone 4 drops signals! They won't give us a Thunderbolt if we let this news peep out!

*shudder*

 

[pheatton]

I must admit that every Moto phone that I have ever had was very good at holding a signal and calls were very clear.

The first DROID was great a holding a signal and great call quality.

 

[anon(149276)]

I must admit that every Moto phone that I have ever had was very good at holding a signal and calls were very clear.

The first DROID was great a holding a signal and great call quality.

After having my original droid for over a year now, I just had my second dropped call the other day. And I think it was because I got a text the same second I tried to place the call. So the call didn't even initiate. Hit call again and went straight through

 

[fire n ice]

In my own experience, the best reception I've had was moto, followed by lg, then samsung at the bottom. Based on my wifes Dinc, I would put HTC on par with LG.

Sent from my SCH-I500

 

[bstmstrxellos]

From what I've seen and heard, when it comes to CDMA, Motorola is the best. I can't confirm this, but I thought someone told me one time that Motorola helped Qualcomm develop CDMA as a way to combat the European standard of GSM. So if I'm right, Motorola has the most experence with CDMA and can do the best job with it. So I have no doubt the Bionic will have a superior CDMA radio over the Thunderbolt, but as far as the LTE radio is concerned that will remain to be seen.

 

[swamp]

The radios are now just components that are part of the single "CPU". These "CPUs" are more accurately called systems on chips or SoC since they do so many different functions on the same "chip", CPU, GPU, GPS, DSP, wireless "radio", etc. As to the actual question and who makes a better one I'm not sure. As far as the peceived quality of the wireless system the antennas are as important as the SoC itself.

 

[Droid800]

The radios are now just components that are part of the single "CPU". These "CPUs" are more accurately called systems on chips or SoC since they do so many different functions on the same "chip", CPU, GPU, GPS, DSP, wireless "radio", etc. As to the actual question and who makes a better one I'm not sure. As far as the peceived quality of the wireless system the antennas are as important as the SoC itself.

Not on LTE phones they're not. All of Verizon's LTE phones (with MAYBE the Samsung as an exception, but not likely) will use the same LTE chipset from Qualcomm.