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Microsoft's Lumia 640 might not be the foremost powerful or feature-packed smartphone, however a study has found it is the best entertainer underneath a weak network signal.

The study, conducted by Aalborgs University in Danmark and commissioned by medium authorities in Sverige, Denmark, Suomi and Norge, assesses however sensible twenty six smartphone models square measure at providing a association once operated on weak mobile signals.

Samsung's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were dose the magnifier aboard Apple's iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S and, and iPhone SE, Google's Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X, moreover as Microsoft's Lumia 950, Lumia 650, and Lumia 640.

Surprisingly, once it involves information services on a weak signal, Microsoft's Lumia 640 tiptop the sector underneath the LTE 800MHz band. It conjointly achieves respectable ends up in the LTE one,800MHz and LTE two,600MHz bands. In second, third and fourth place square measure Samsung's Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S7 Edge, and Galaxy S7.

None of Apple's iPhone models fare well within the study. within the 800MHz band, Apple's iPhone SE is that the best entertainer however ranks eleventh, behind the Lumia 950, Huawei P9, and Nexus 5X. The iPhone half dozen and iPhone 6S path at thirteenth and fourteenth place severally, prior iPhone 6S and in seventeenth spot.

The study conjointly appearance at every model's voice performance once control in either the proper or mitt, and hands-free mode. HTC's need 626 tiptop the right-hand take a look at, whereas the DORO PhoneEasy 530X comes in high for the left-hand take a look at. the highest iPhone within the right-hand take a look at is that the 6S and, that ranks twelfth, whereas all four iPhone models occupy all-time low four spots in left-hand tests.

Unfortunately for iPhone S6 and house owners, their device is additionally the worst entertainer in an exceedingly take a look at that measures devices in action while not the interference created by a head or hands within the low frequency GSM900 band.

The study queries however way makers square measure taking into thought however folks hold phones once planning antennas.

"The performance variation between left-hand and right-hand usage is for many phones terribly massive," it notes. "This shows that for a few phones the antenna style doesn't take body loss in numerous usage positions into consideration. A well-designed antenna resolution contains a low body loss in each right- and left-hand usages."

To indicate every device's information performance, the study measured the overall identical Sensitivity (TIS) earned in every waveband. The TIS may be a negative range measured in decibel-milliwatts or dBm. thus Microsoft's -93.1dBm indicates it had been higher at receiving information in weak signal areas than the Galaxy S7 Edge's -92.2dBm or the iPhone 6's -89.1dBm.

Small variations within the dBm activity may result in an exceedingly massive distinction between information speeds. As associate example, the study points out that "with low signal strength, a 7dB reduction in TIS ends up in a discount within the data-rate from, eg, 1Mbps to 0.2 Mbps".

In alternative words, the poor-performing phone can intermit times longer to transfer from the network than a good-performing phone. Also, 1Mbps suffices for many information services whereas zero.2Mbps doesn't.

Sweden's telecoms authority PTS concludes from the study that phones work best in hands-free mode and worse once control to the pinnacle.