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  • Zink - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link

    I like these reports on products that are one step lower level than a normal consumer tech review.
  • watersb - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link

    Me too. +1
  • name99 - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link

    I agree.

    The one thing I am curious about, as a simple number we can appreciate, is how many dB does this buy us. If I bring my OK-tuned current phone design (ie not something totally stupid, my current compromise to all the constraints of the problem) and apply this magic to it, do I improve my signal strength and so SNR by 1dB? 3dB? Something awesome like 10dB?

    And I'd second the question about power. (Though one possible way of doing this would be with MEMs, and might only involve some power when the various cavities are reshaped, ie when deliberately moving bands, and perhaps once a second or so while the radio is active, testing if the config has slightly detuned.)
  • tilandal - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link

    With antenna's you have fundamental physical limits. A small omni-directional antenna can only be so good. What you can do with something like this is reduce your need for 5 antennas to only 2 antennas but if you already have 2 good antennas you aren't going to make them any better. You actually may make them worse (for a given size). What you are buying with an active tuner is better integration at the expense of better performance. That is not to say you may not get better performance on any 2 bands as you would any 2 out of 5 bands with an array of passive antennas though.
  • rdwade55 - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link

    I really enjoyed this article, and I appreciate the author taking the time to explain one of the most important yet least talked about aspects of modern cell phone performance. I think it is fascinating how such tiny devices can pack such an array of technology, and deal with the physical reality of electromagnetic propagation over multiple bands using tiny antenna. Keep it up!
  • DuckieHo - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link

    What about increased power consumption for active tuning?
  • DanNeely - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link

    Is it to allow a phone manufacturer to create N different carrier specific models without having to create N different hardware models; or to allow creating a global phone that's compatible with all of the dozens of bands different carriers are deploying LTE to.
  • Julio2Nahvs - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link

    It is just so interesting to know that new tech things are coming. Admittedly, I don't really know anything about antennas and every language of it. However, I do understand that it is something that will enhanced the power of transmissions of signals in all these gadgets we have, particularly those that are still coming out in 2013. This Versitune Integrated Module will definitely augment the power of the coming gadgets. I would humbly entreat the excellent writer of this article, Mr. Brian Klug, to stretch this article into layman's term that the many computer-not-so literate people (including me) may understand it better relative to the particular gadget (iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.) that are highly sought-after these days. I am very grateful to you Mr. Brain Klug. MORE POWER!

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