Antennagate 2: HTC responds to the HD7 antenna death grip

The iPhone 4 isn't the only smartphone suffering from bad reception indeed. We already reported, that the HTC HD7 is among the other affected too. And here's what HTC has to say about the issue: "it's perfectly normal".

First it was Apple and its iPhone 4 who took part in an antennagate and now it's HTC HD7's turn to see how it feels to be a signal loser. As we reported in our recently published HD7 review, when held in a certain way, the WP7-running smartphone has some reception issues caused by its antenna design.

However, truth be told, things look way better that they sound. Even when wrapping our hands all over the HTC HD7 we couldn't make it completely lose the signal. We only managed to knock off two out of the five available bars.

Still, since it could happen even when you hold the device normally too, the death grip issues are something to watch out for in areas of poor network coverage.

Up until now HTC was mum on that matter but now the company has finally responded to the death grip claims (sort of):

"Quality in industrial design is of key importance to HTC. To ensure the best possible signal strength, antennas are placed in the area least likely to be covered by a person's face or hands while the phone is in use.

However, it is inevitable that a phone's signal strength will weaken a little when covered in its entirety by a user's palm or fingers. We test all of our phones extensively and are confident that under normal circumstances reception strength and performance will be more than sufficient for the operation of the phone when network coverage is also adequate."

Luckily, HTC didn't start blaming other companies, like you-know-who.

Source