Short answer: Yes
The signal on my C902 was terrible compared to the old w880i that it replaced (dopping calls, comming up no signal etc). Likewise the Samsung I have now is superior (I can actually get a 3G signal wooo! although that might be a network improvement).
My local pub is in a dead zone (handy for a quiet pint), but its a good guage of a phone's performance; My current phone can just about send a recieve texts - whilst most other can't even do that!