"Grip of Death"

[David Edwards4]

Just a heads up to anyone looking to buy a Lumia 925: There is a problem with some handsets (on Vodafone at least, I haven't read any other carrier forums as of yet) where just holding the phone causes it to lose its signal.

Nokia Lumia 925 - Terrible as a Phone 2 - Grip of Death - YouTube

This isn't my video, but my 925 suffers the exact same problem when connected via EDGE (I didn't experience the problem at all when I was on HSPA+ at a friend's house, so hopefully it's a software issue.)

Anyway, maybe hold off until there more info available about this problem. As of yet, neither Nokia nor Vodafone have accepted that this is a fault, but I can tell you from my own personal experience that it most certainly is.

 

[gsquared]

Heh. Your getting too much Iron son. Stop eating red meat and issue will resolve itself.

 

[Musicman247]

To me it looked like he just had crap signal where he was. He starts with 2 bars, loses signal, then loses it completely with no hands on.

 

[mmar1974]

Agreed... instead of putting the phone on the table, just adjusting the hand a little should be enough to solve the problem right? additionally, probably a better test as well if you have a 4G 5Bar signal

 

[Musicman247]

I wonder if being plugged in has an effect on it as well. We never saw what it was plugged into, either.

If anybody else has experienced this on a consistent basis, please post here.

 

[original.woodster]

Is this Vodafone uk or elsewhere? On 3 network i don't have the option to chose between 2g and 3g, its constantly 3g like greyed out, unselectable.

 

[jp1024]

Is this Vodafone uk or elsewhere? On 3 network i don't have the option to chose between 2g and 3g, its constantly 3g like greyed out, unselectable.

3 doesnt have a 2G network any more, its just their own 3G one. IIRC Orange used to provide their 2G, but 3 stopped using it quite some time ago.

 

[iamstevie]

Seems to be Vodafone UK, there is a thread about it here: Nokia Lumia 925 Call Audio Quality Problem - Page 2 - Vodafone eForum

Does it not happen on your phone from 3 woodster? Very odd if it is isolated to a network provider, insinuates that Vodafones handsets are modified somehow (beyond just colour & storage...)

 

[David Edwards4]

It is Vodafone UK, and the problem isn't just a bad signal. I've had 5 bars go down to nothing just by picking the phone up. I don't think a 4G signal would be a better test because, as I wrote, it seems to only occur with a 2G signal. But the problem is solved if you balance the phone flat in the palm of your hand, it's just when you hold it like a phone that the signal loss occurs.

Further speculation welcome.

 

[original.woodster]

I can get 2/3 bars of H in my house on my 925, sometimes even H+ upstairs. When i use "grip of death" i don't get any changes, not even a dropped bar. Perhaps it is to do with the larger storage, maybe they moved the antenna or shrank it?

 

[jp1024]

Looking at the 925 manual, it seems to only have 1 antenna region, along the bottom edge, where as the 820 for example has 3, bottom edge, upper left and upper right edges.

 

[iamstevie]

Apparently the attenna is all the way around (not just the bottom), I remember Nokia making a big deal of how good it supposedly is - see here

Actually just saw this article from Phone Arena too. There's an interesting video where they appear to show the Vodafone version of the phone, without any death-grip effect (skip to 2m20secs):
Nokia Lumia 925 maintains full bars, antenna not plagued by "grip of death" issues

 

[jp1024]

Hmm, interesting. Wonder why the manual, page 7, suggests you avoid gripping just the bottom part when in use.

Perhaps gripping the bottom just makes things really bad, but in general normal gripping use the antennas work better.

 

[Huime]

from fcc filing alone you can see there is redundant antenna top and bottom. This video is made without that knowledge in mind.

 

[jp1024]

Its also worth remembering that the signal bars dont necessarily mean anything obvious, and dont necessarily relate to signal strength directly.

 

[mmar1974]

Back to this, I have my phone now and luckily I don't have the problem described on this thread....

 

[pinguinotime]

I just bought a 925 yesterday. In certain areas (most notably where I live in), there is absolutely NO signal.

I've asked my local service provider (Maxis in Malaysia) to check, they did some resets. It seemed OK for a while, but once I got home, the problem happened again. To confirm - I used the same SIM on my old Lumia 800, and there were no issues. Which would more or less confirm that it's a phone issue, not network

 

[CreepinJesus]

Just chipping in - I get this problem also on Vodafone UK. I usually only have an EDGE connection, and only 2-3 bars tops out where I live. If I hold the phone at the bottom with my hand wrapped around, I can sometimes lose signal all together.

 

[drbanks]

I work in a virtual faraday cage. Great signal outside, almost none inside.

Sitting on my desk, I get 1, maybe 2 bars, usually edge, sometimes hspa. As soon as I pick up the 925, it goes to no service and stays that way until I let go of it. No grip seems to change it, even the delicate tip-of-finger hold that I had to use with my iPhone 4.

By contrast, my 521 consistently shows one more bar, has a better lock on hspa+, and does not drop when I pick it up.

 

[Nguyenner]

Having this issue as well. It varies from no signal to just one bar. Though I'll sometimes have full bars, I've never had full bars once it's in my hand.
I wonder if there's any validity to attributing it to the frame that doubles as an antenna (which was initially marketed as assuring very good signal).

If it ends up being due to the construction of the phone, does that mean that no amount of firmware or software updates can really fix the issue? (not being negative, I'm legitimately asking)