Determining RF Performance

[Trip]

Is there any way of determining what a phone's RF performance is short of buying it?  I always see specs on battery life and processor performance, but never RF performance.  I ask because I know my LG G6, for example, has far worse RF performance than the Moto E5 Plays even on the same network.  Given how much time I spend in rural areas, I really need to make sure my next phone is a better performer in weak signal conditions.

- Trip

[mdob07]

Some people can interpret the FCC certs and predict how a phone should perform, AJ used to do write ups on flagship phones years ago. From my experience LG seems to be subpar to Samsung, but they're about the only two manufacturers I've played around with recently.  I went from an LG v20 to a Galaxy S9+ when I came back to Sprint and the difference was night and day. My LG phone would constantly drop to 3G just riding in a car. 

[Trip]

The FCC certifications are designed to deal with RF exposure/output and determine if the device is safe to use.  While a lower EIRP from the phone could indicate reduced RF performance, that's not necessarily the case.

I need to figure out if other phones have a feature like LG's "Knock On" and contemplate those as I look at new devices.

- Trip

[greenbastard]

On 2/17/2020 at 7:35 AM, Trip said:

Is there any way of determining what a phone's RF performance is short of buying it? 

Every phone reviewer I've seen doesn't care to review RF performance. And every blue moon when someone attempts to review RF performance, they do it completely wrong. I have just about given up looking for info myself since there is no way to say which phone is good and which is not. Even FCC data doesn't tell us much (the Note 2 proved that).

All I do now is just keep an eye out on forums to see if there are known signal issues on new phones. I've been pretty satisfied with OnePlus. Better than the iPhone series IMO.