The DROID 2 has been in the hands of the public for less than a week and reports of antenna reception problems and poor battery life are surfacing from users and reviewers alike. The first report appeared last week over at Mobile Crunch in a post that surveyed the early Droid 2 reviews. More than one review reported poor signal quality and fluctuation in coverage:
Engadget, in its DROID 2 review, noted that its four review handsets show:
a wildly fluctuating meter while the phone’s sitting still, weak or no reception in places where you’re usually fine on Verizon, and a complete lack of data service (which was actually how we noticed the problem the first time).
Mobile Crunch had two review units which exhibit a similar problem:
The signal on one of the two units we received is all over the board, dipping from full signal down to nearly none whilst sitting in the same spot (and no, we’re not holding it wrong).
Folks following-up in the comments and on forums are also reporting antenna problems including the aforementioned signal fluctuation and poor coverage in areas that are known to have coverage. Other folks are reporting poor battery life but some of this may stem from the antenna problem. Most smartphone owners know that when a phone is straining to get a signal, battery life will go down the tubes.
While a vocal crowd of owners are speaking out about this signal issue, many are reporting absolutely no problems with their handset. With these contradictory reports, it is difficult to discern whether this issue is a limited hardware problem affecting early production run handsets or a more widespread issue stemming from a firmware glitch that degrades the antenna’s performance. Hopefully, the underlying problem is the latter and can be easily addressed via an OTA firmware upgrade from Motorola and Verizon.
So DROID 2 owners, it’s your turn to chime in. Is your handest performing as well as expected or is it plagued by this troubling antenna problem?
[Via Mobile Crunch and Phone Arena]