By utilizing the inherent symmetry of a folded loop structure, a novel active antenna solution is presented that can optimize the performance of the antenna in terms of efficiency for various user cases like the mobile phone in free space, in the hand or close to the head—right or left side. The principle is to excite two distinct modes, and we can note as much as 1.5 dB improvement in efficiency while maintaining all the bandwidth requirements for 3G operation. The structure can be implemented with relative ease on most smart phones and shows potential for meeting the bandwidth requirements of a 3G handset. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:1437–1441, 2014