I use my 770 every day, and at work I have acess to a very weak wifi signal coming from 3 rooms away, now if I connect to this signal I will drop off every 15 to 20 minutes becuase of the weak connection.
If I remove the hard cover from its place on the back of the tablet, and use it without the cover attatched at all, I NEVER drop this weak signal.
which makes me wonder.. Is the metal cover actually acting like a faraday cage and killing a few % points of signal?
Has anyone else found a similar issue with thier 770?
-Ezra Hilyer

I usually use my 770 with the cover on. I did notice that it sees lots of weak signals that I can't connect to. I thought this was because the AP was less sensitive than my 770. It may be that the cover was compromising my transmit power.

I just did an informal test with my 770 and found that removing the cover caused many signals with one bar to increase to two bars. They went back to one bar when I put the cover back on.

I think you're absolutely correct that the cover acts as a faraday cage. At least the remedy for this problem is simple.

Wow. Good find!

Hmm, maybe another reason for the n800 not having a cover?

That could be it, I love the hard cover because I don't have to worry about the screen, but I would take better wifi sensitivity over the cover. I am looking forward to ordering an n810 as soon as I can, but I won't get rid of my trusty 770.
I wonder if their antenna engineers knew of this problem when it was designed?

I guess we finally got an answer to why they removed the hard shell cover that we complained about not having.

I've noticed it going either way, although my observations aren't based on actual testing, just normal use and unconsciously taking notice. Some go up, some go down. (They do this with each rescan even if it's still in case on or case off configuration.) Then again I'm in downtown Toronto so the sheer amount of radiowaves should be turning me into a giant tumour at any given time.

Okay, this may be just totally misinformed me, does not half a Farady cage equal to no Faraday cage at all? Meaning: I happen to notice the huge gap in the 770's case. Doesn't the mesh wire -- or metal -- have to go all around to make for an effective insulator?

You've got the screen/motherboard/etc on one side and the case on the other. If not complete, at the very least, it's mildly directional.

This would indicate why it tends to affect it by only a few % points, and actually seems to me to make it a directional antenna.
Even one layer of metal ( not a cage) between an antenna and transmitter will dampen signal (or distort it) Even if the metal re-radiates the signal it will be lessened.
The only other possibility would be that the engineers could have actually used conductive plastic to use the cover as the antenna I think that this would have been possible; however I see to evidence that this is the case.

-Ezra Hilyer

A faraday cage also has to be grounded to work effectively. Anything you put over the antenna will effect the signal. The same thing will happen if you put your hand over the area the antenna is located.