By . Last updated Feb 9, 2017.
The ReviewGist pick for the cellphone with the best WiFi Reception for early 2017 is the Samsung Galaxy S7. The Samsung Galaxy S7 supports the latest WiFi standard, 802.11 ac, delivering data speeds of upto 1 Gbps. Also supported is dual-band wifi capability to utilize both the older 2.4 GHz and the newer 5 GHz band thereby maximizing data throughput to support demanding applications like WiFi calling and media streaming.
WiFi is a feature available in most modern smartphones. It is based on the hardware of the phone and is carrier independent. It is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting the smartphone to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point (or hotspot) has a range of about 20 meters (65 ft) indoors and a greater range outdoors. Hotspots are often found at restaurants, train stations, airports, libraries, hospitals, coffee shops and various other public establishments throughout the US.
The WiFi capability of most modern smartphones is contingent upon the underlying WiFi standard supported. The latest standards include the 802.11ac, 802.11n and 802.11g. The most recent 802.11ac standard can potentially support speeds of around 1Gbps. We say potentially, because 1 Gbps is possible only when the smartphone is able to utilize both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
The ability to utilize both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands is known as dual-channel capability and is a must to support demanding applications like WiFi calling. The older WiFi standards worked on the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band can only be utilized by 802.11g and 802.11ac standards. Consequently, in areas where a lot of people are using WiFi, the easiest way to maximize WiFi reception is by using the relatively uncongested 5 GHz band.
The first thing we did was limited our selection to only those smartphones released over 2017, 2016 and 2015 which support both the 802.11ac standard and provide for dual-band capability. This gave us a set of around 37 smartphones.
CellPhones with 802.11ac and Dual Band »
Next we poured over more than a hundred reviews from all the expert sources around the internet to look for how reviewers rated the WiFi capability of these cellphones. What we found was the most reviewers did not specifically comment on the individual WiFi capability of most cellphones in our list, but rather commented only if they found the WiFi speeds lacking. For example two reviewers, PocketLint and KnowYourMobile negatively rated their WiFi experience with the HTC 10, even though HTC 10 supports both dual-channel capability and 802.11ac :
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Note that the speed of the Wi-Fi connection depends on many factors including:
Normally, the download speeds can vary from 1mbps to 8 mbps or more when connected to a broadband router.
Another feature supported by new smartphones is Wi-Fi tethering. It allows your mobile device to share its Internet connection with other Wi-Fi enabled devices, effectively making your phone a Wi-Fi hotspot. This might be useful when you need to go online from your laptop or PDA or e-book reader and there's no other means of Internet access available. This can also save money if you are using a paid data service on your cell-phone as it eliminates the need of separate hardware/connection for your laptop etc
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Best WiFi Cell Phone - 2017
