Phone performance shoot-out; Kite vs ZTE T83 and T84

So, last Sunday we did a trip up the Brisbane Valley to do a rekkie for the Yarraman to Wulkuraka bike ride that Brisbane WICEN will be assisting in at the end of next month.

The area is known to be quite patchy where phone reception is concerned, with Linville shown to be highly unreliable… Telstra recommends external antennas are required to get any sort of service.  So it seemed a good place to take the Kite and try it out in a weak signal area.

3G coverage in Linville, with external antenna.

4G coverage in Linville, with external antenna.

4GX coverage in Linville, with external antenna.

Sadly, I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked to perform these tests, and it would have been great to compare against a few others… but I was able to take some screenshots on the way up of the three phones, all on the same network (Telstra), using their internal antennas (and the small whip in the case of the Kite).  However, we got there in the afternoon, and there were clouds gathering, so we had to get to Moore.

In any case, Telstra seems to have pulled their socks up since those maps were updated… as I found I was getting reasonable coverage on the T83.  The Kite was in the car at the time, I didn’t want it getting damaged if I came off the bike or if the heavens opened up.

I did manage to take some screenshots on the three phones on the way up.

This is not that scientific, and a bit crude since I couldn’t take the screenshots at exactly the same moment.  Plus, we were travelling at 100km/hr for much of the run.  There was one point where we stopped for breakfast at Fernvale, I can’t recall exactly what time that was or whether I got a screenshot from all three phones at that time.

The T84 is the only phone out of the three that can do the 4GX 700MHz band.

Time ZTE T83 ZTE T84 iSquare Mobility Kite v1 Notes
2018-06-10T06:08:16 t83 at 2018-06-10T06:08:16 Leaving Brisbane
2018-06-10T06:09:24 kite at 2018-06-10T06:09:24
2018-06-10T06:09:33 t83 at 2018-06-10T06:09:33
2018-06-10T06:26:17 t83 at 2018-06-10T06:26:17
2018-06-10T06:26:25 kite at 2018-06-10T06:26:25
2018-06-10T07:30:27 t84 at 2018-06-10T07:30:27 A rare moment where the T84 beats the others.  My guess is this is a 4GX (700MHz) cell.
2018-06-10T07:30:34 kite at 2018-06-10T07:30:34
2018-06-10T07:30:39 t83 at 2018-06-10T07:30:39
2018-06-10T07:41:48 kite at 2018-06-10T07:41:48
2018-06-10T07:41:54 t84 at 2018-06-10T07:41:54 HSPA coverage… one of the few times we see the T84 drop back to 3G.
2018-06-10T07:42:01 t83 at 2018-06-10T07:42:01
2018-06-10T07:51:34 t83 at 2018-06-10T07:51:34 Patchy coverage at times en route to Moore.
2018-06-10T07:51:45 kite at 2018-06-10T07:51:45
2018-06-10T08:24:57 kite at 2018-06-10T08:24:57 For grins, trying out Optus coverage on the Kite at Moore.  There’s a tower at Benarkin, not sure if there’s one closer to Moore.
2018-06-10T08:25:39 kite at 2018-06-10T08:25:39
2018-06-10T08:54:28 t84 at 2018-06-10T08:54:28
2018-06-10T08:54:35 kite at 2018-06-10T08:54:35 En route to Benarkin, we lose contact with Telstra on all three devices.
2018-06-10T08:54:39 t83 at 2018-06-10T08:54:39
2018-06-10T09:35:14 kite at 2018-06-10T09:35:14 In Benarkin.
2018-06-10T09:35:22 t83 at 2018-06-10T09:35:22
2018-06-10T10:25:27 kite at 2018-06-10T10:25:27
2018-06-10T10:25:48 t83 at 2018-06-10T10:25:48

So what does the above show?  Well, for starters, it is apparent that the T83 gets left in the dust by both devices.  This is interesting as my T83 definitely was the more reliable on our last trip into the Snowy Mountains, regularly getting a signal in places where the T84 failed.

Two spots I’d love to take the Kite would be Dumboy Creek (4km outside Delungra on the Gwydir Highway) and Sawpit Creek (just outside Jindabyne), but both are a bit far for a day trip!  It’s unlikely I’ll be venturing that far south again this year.

On this trip up the Brisbane Valley though, I observed that when the signal got weak, the Kite was more willing to drop back to 3G, whereas the two ZTE phones hung onto that little scrap of 4G.  Yes, 4G might give clearer call quality and faster speeds in ideal conditions, but these conditions are not ideal, we’re in fringe coverage.

The 4G standards use much more dense forms of modulation (QPSK, 16-QAM or 64-QAM) than 3G (QPSK only) trading off spectral efficiency for signal-to-noise performance, thus lean more heavily on forward error correction to achieve communications in adverse conditions.  When a symbol is corrupted, more data is lost with these standards.  3G might be slower, but sometimes slow and steady wins the race, fast and flaky is a recipe of frustration.

A more scientific experiment, where we are stationary, and can let each device “settle” before taking a reading, would be worthwhile.  Without a doubt, the Kite runs rings around the T83.  The T84 is less clear: the T84 and the Kite both run the same chipset; the Qualcomm MSM8916.  The T83 runs the older MSM8930.

By rights, the T84 and Kite should perform nearly identical, with the Kite having the advantage of a high-gain whip antenna instead of a more conventional patch panel antenna.  The only edge the T84 has, is the 700MHz band, which isn’t that heavily deployed here in Australia right now.

The T83 and T84 can take an external antenna, but the socket is designed for cradle use and isn’t as rugged or durable as the SMA connector used on the Kite.  It’s soldered to the PCB, and when a cable is plugged in, it disconnects the internal antenna.

Thus damage to this connector can render these phones useless.  The SMA connector on the Kite however is a pigtail to an IPX socket inside … a readily available off-the-shelf (mail-order) part.  People may not like the whip sticking out though.

The Kite does ship with a patch antenna, which is about 75% efficient; so maybe 0dBi at best, however I think making the case another 10mm longer and incorporating the whip into the top of the phone so the antenna can tuck away when not needed, is a better plan.  It would not be hard to make the case accommodate it so it’s invisible and can fold out, or be replaced with a coax connection to an external antenna.

If there’s time, I’ll try to get some more conclusive tests done, but there’s no guarantees on that.