A Cape Cod conversion or raising the house 3m are other useful suggestions in the offering.
Satisfaction will come from future mobile phone reviews with performance on 4G and 5G on the 700-900MHz bands. Whether they work in the city is of lesser value. As the NBN says, always keep a charged mobile handy.
The same can be said for when our dodgy copper line is not working.
On the next update I would like to reiterate the importance of smartphone capabilities and performance for being phones, not just cameras. I was perusing a few review sites and came across one that tested phones against signal strength with 4 known towers.
Some phones were only usable on one tower, some two, some three, and very few all four – at least for those I looked at. Comments were made about chipsets that don’t perform well, and antenna design and placement in the phones.
This one is a good example for city, regional, and rural use; and this one is best kept in the city/suburbs where there are good signals. The point is not these mobiles, it is the test report. Hopefully Choice will incorporate more phone and less bells and whistles in future reviews, especially with the variable experiences with NBN that mobiles need to be competent at more than photography.
I still don’t have access to 5G … nobody does in this area, unless Telstra, Optus and Voda have updated their local APs with the appropriate gear in the last month. The problem then becomes what d you do when your phone is hunting for a 5G signal that doesnt exist, in spite of having 4G and 3G available. And thats why I no longer have the iPhone 12 Mini I had at the beginning of the year. All signals are weak as water at my house, no wifi calling yet on Woolies, It’s all hoohaa. I want my phone to work as a phone, everything else is icing on a cake.
A complication with 5G is it’s range and coverage.
Whistleout explains.
‘Telstra switches on low-band 5G for increased coverage | WhistleOut
5G will utilise 3 bands.
The lowest bands under 1GHz offer the greatest range and indoor penetration. In respect of speed
Low-band 5G has a much wider range than either mmWave or sub 6 5G, and is far more effective indoors. The trade-off, however, is speed. Based on what we’ve seen in the US, low-band 5G should offer performance similar to 4G, but a little bit better.
IE if your 4G signal is marginal 5G may not be an improvement?
I’ve noted the typical coverage maps for 5G provided by Telstra and Optus refer to coverage outdoors. The ability of 5G to deliver the high speeds often quoted by Telstra to customers indoors is unlikely for the reasons commented on by Whistleout.
The maps are also general over an area, not specific to any particular location. As most of us have experienced the signal can be strong where we sit or stand, and non-existent ‘just around the corner’. A phone that handles marginal signals better will be a better phone even if not the better camera.
nb, I use ‘camera’ as a proxy term for all of the features from camera, gaming, response, to videos and whatever, all unrelated to making and keeping calls in other than strong, reliable signal areas. ‘Tell me’ it works great as a phone with clarity, is durable and I am interested in the rest. YMMV.
One would hope so, but none of the towers local to me have 5G cells. Its just not there.
Did you misread?
I’m with @PhilT on what is most important for a mobile. It’s the ability to function as a device for making and receiving voice calls. If it does other things well, it’s a bonus.
SMS, mapping/nav, and some everyday Apps such as transport timetables are convenient and useful.
Has the phone replaced my camera? Not really. There is a considerable difference still in capabilities per dollar.
Do I wish my mobile device to become the keeper of all my financial access codes, apps and identity? I’m too old and apprehensive of the consequences of loosing, breaking or worse have the device stolen. I had my wallet stolen on holiday in Europe once. Holidays are for de-stressing, and not to be dis-stressing. The more a device provides the greater the effort required to protect the content that is lost and critically reset all.
If I were to rate a mobile phone device highly on more than it’s ability to connect reliably and at distance?
The integrity and security of the device against loss, as well as ability to resume normal life function with a replacement would rate as the second most important feature.
The latest in short term accommodation operators requiring digital checkin/checkout and security via NFC is a step too far. It in one instance required an App directed to by the accom provider to be down loaded and installed using a redirection from their conformation SMS or email. Assuming this is a trend it may be asking much of both the provider and the integrity of the mobile operating system.
LOL! YES!
The model numbers in the Choice review - 5.4 etc seem to be different from the ones listed by retailers like JB HiFi - C32, G22 etc. Makes it very difficult to compare
I moved your post into the main thread about Smart Phone Reviews as others may be similarly curious.
The 5.4 seems to be a current product offering although about 2 1/2 years old now (released in December 2020) and loaded with Android 10 and only upgradable to Android 12. Android 13 is current.
The issue is not so much different model numbers for the same product, it is the product lifetime from release vs the most current models on retailers shelves.
FWIW purchasing a new phone that does not come with or cannot be upgraded to the most current Android has downsides in that they will more quickly become obsolete because of lack of ongoing security patches and eventually app compatibility, so consider that as a data point.
The product lifetime of phones (and many electronics) tends to be 6 to 12 months these days prior to being superseded. Phone manufacturers take the position 2 years is ‘it’ even though we all know better and they usually last much longer.
You can find out release dates and other details from sites such as
A good site for critical phone reviews is Cybershack when they review something. While Choice focuses on features Cybershack also reports on how well a phone works as a phone.
Does that help clear it up?
Thanks Phil. I’ve got it sorted now.
Hi, in the latest smartphone review there seems to be no category for signal performance, i.e. how they perform in weak signal areas. Another issue related to weak signal performance relates to how a phone swaps between wi-fi calling and 5g or 4g. Many don’t pick the better of the signal sources.It seems one of the sources has to go away before the swap occurs and this often breaks the connection if on a call.
Hi @gtillett, your post has been moved as it is appropriate feedback for this topic. You will find suggestions in prior posts on shared observations.
I’ve first hand experience of some of the issues you relate with cell/Wifi calling handover, and dropped calls where the service tries to swap on answering between technologies. EG rings on 4G, but switches to 3G in answer and drops the call or leaves it connected but with no voice. I use an iPhone. It’s consistent across several models all on the Optus network.
That is what I deem a failure in Choice smartphone testing. I have raised it. Check Cybershack for far more competent phone tests including their ability to handle weak signals.
I was, reading a personal review online regarding Samsung galaxy s20 fe refurbished. They mentioned that they heard Samsung will no longer be providing updates. Im confused as you guys mention updstes, are still ongoing. This might be off topic regarding this article about battery performance
Hi Chris,
Samsung will be providing updates for the Galaxy S20 for a bit longer yet.
https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-android-updates-1148888/
https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-os-upgrade-one-ui-android-unpacked-2022/
Thank you for the information.
The latest Choice review of smart phones is out.
Unfortunately IMO Choice have maintained the history of avoiding how well a phone works as a phone! The reviews are valuable for those seeking cameras, using apps, looking at photos, and game playing. As a phone? An important part of any phone review should be something similar to (extracted from an unidentified Cybershack review).
… it has a good strong signal but only finds the closest tower. It is a phone for major city/suburbs use where there is good tower coverage.
@DenisGallagher why not up the game and accept consumers, at the end of the day, want a phone that is a reliable phone, even if not as their top priority? Why not collaborate if it is in the too hard basket?
Hi George
It was a question like this in 2006 that led to our first NextG test (in partnership with Kondinin’s Farming Ahead magazine) which became very popular for over 10 years.
Ultimately it became prohibitively expensive to test every year on any more than a dozen or so mobiles and CHOICE made the decision to continue our main batch testing of smartphones in partnership with our other consumer organisations Consumer Reports (US) Which (UK) and Consumer (NZ) with the combined research labs called International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT).
This shared testing means we contribute to a combined test allowing us to test more mobiles, more often. Unfortunately, reception testing for ICRT became an issue in applying scoring for mobiles in the Australian market as the bands used here are often not the same and in many cases completely different.
Which UK and Consumer Reports (US) haven’t published the reception results for their smartphones for many years, we dropped our reception tests several years ago.
However, as with all things, budget constraints (we depend on your membership to continue and are not a charity or government organisation) means we need to consider how we carry out this test as we need to do it properly or not at all.
We are looking into carrying out another test with Kondinin (Farming Ahead) later this year once I can work out a suitable time with their team, however it will be with a selection of the most popular dozen or so mobiles.
Regards
Denis
