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Just purchased five iPhone 4's (Antenna issues on all of them)

A

AreYouAMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 5, 2008
110
0
Hey guys,

We just purchased five iPhone 4's on a fam-plan yesterday, and while I must say the phone is awesome...the reception is not that grande. When I hold the phones regularly.... I get call fails depending on the way I hold it. The bars go to either only having 1 or 2 bars when holding the phone and not talking on it.

It's October, so the free case is over...anything else you guys can recommend? We made a Genius Appointment on Monday already...but it just sucks that this is happening to all 4 iPhones.

From your experience....what would Apple do? I mean - we did purchase five iPhones...hopefully they can help us out or something.

Thanks.
 
There was a rumor that Apple was going to offer a free bumper to people that phoned up on a case-by-case basis to complain about the antenna issues.

I'm not sure whether they'd send you five of them though.
 
did you try the free case app. i thought someone posted on this forum that they extended the promo.

also, if all the phones are doing this, it's probably the sucky reception in your location as opposed to an antennae problem.
 
if you call applecare and bitch to them they'll give you a free bumper.

Mr Kram said:
also, if all the phones are doing this, it's probably the sucky reception in your location as opposed to an antennae problem.
Click to expand...

+1. this antennae issue is one of the most OCD complaints ever.
 
iBaloney said:
if you call applecare and bitch to them they'll give you a free bumper.



+1. this antennae issue is one of the most OCD complaints ever.
Click to expand...

Yes it is. When this was a big issue back in June and July, I started using a bumper and never had the problem. I then started using my phone without a bumper and never had the problem. I likely never would have had the problem had it not been for people making such a big deal about it.

I've been using my phone without a bumper or case for almost two months now and not one dropped call.
 
We live in Miami, it on the coverage it says "Best" on the AT&T website.

I can understand the coverage area BUT when are hand is not on the phone/near the antenna gate - it has FULL BARS. Once we hold the phone regularly it drops to only 1 or 2 bars.

What's your 3g speed test btw way (if you done it)? I guess this is a way I can tell if its the area. I get between 1.28MBPS to 1.71MBPS
 
SpaceKitty said:
Yes it is. When this was a big issue back in June and July, I started using a bumper and never had the problem. I then started using my phone without a bumper and never had the problem. I likely never would have had the problem had it not been for people making such a big deal about it.
Click to expand...

What!?

Are you saying that:

a) the problem does exist
b) the problem doesn't exist
c) the problem did exist, but magically disappeared?
 
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icedd said:
All iPhone 4's have that problem.
Click to expand...

False. I bought my iPhone 4 at the end of July, and have not had the antenna problem at all, and that is with or without the case on..... Some iPhone 4's have it, others don't. ;)
 
Irish Rose said:
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False. I bought my iPhone 4 at the end of July, and have not had the antenna problem at all, and that is with or without the case on..... Some iPhone 4's have it, others don't. ;)
Click to expand...

All iPhones have it, it's only noticeable under particular low-signal conditions. Apple admitted as much.
 
Daveoc64 said:
What!?

Are you saying that:

a) the problem does exist
b) the problem doesn't exist
c) the problem did exist, but magically disappeared?
Click to expand...

The problem exists but it was only a problem because it was such a big deal on the websites. I too could produce this problem on my 3GS iPhone if I use it without a case. I went a whole year of using the 3GS phone before I even knew that the phone could drop to zero bars if I held it on the side just like the iPhone 4. It never got blown out of proportion like it did with the iPhone 4 because so many people used the 3GS in a case starting from the minute they opened the box.

Once people started complaining about the iPhone 4 dropping to zero bars, of course I tried it along with everyone else so everyone then had this problem. I would have never considered it a problem had it not been for people making a big deal of it. Today, it's not a problem because I have nearly forgotten about it and I just use my phone and don't drop any calls and my data never stops working because of the way I hold it though I didn't change the way I hold it from day one.
 
I got a replacement one, and if I cover up black strip, the bars go down after a awhile, but even at almost no bars, I can't get it to drop a call or kill the 3g internet performance, no matter if I walk around or keep it covered up.
 
also, remember that this not isolated to the iphone 4. this is a common "issue" with the design of many modern phones.
 
I think people need to pay more attention to dropping calls and not dropping bars.

You could drop bars all day but still be able to make calls. I don't understand why people need their bars to say 5 bars all the time. It doesn't really matter, you just need to be able to send and receive calls/data.
 
Irish Rose said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)



False. I bought my iPhone 4 at the end of July, and have not had the antenna problem at all, and that is with or without the case on..... Some iPhone 4's have it, others don't. ;)
Click to expand...

don't fool yourself. it is hardware problem and if one has it, very phones should have it. youre lucky that you are in a good signal area and experience less.

I tried more than 5 iphone 4 and all had this issue by holding the phone naturally in both Seattle WA and Charlotte NC. don't take my words for it. check out all review and articles with scientific data. all reported the same issue. denying it is just a way for apple to avoid financial burden.

my old window phone also has this issue but I have to hold on the top of the phone. but who would hold on top? apple happened to put the antena right at the naturally-hold position, what is why this issue is so widespread. you can be sure that Iphone 5 will fix this "none-issue".
 
RalphMac said:
I got a replacement one, and if I cover up black strip, the bars go down after a awhile, but even at almost no bars, I can't get it to drop a call or kill the 3g internet performance, no matter if I walk around or keep it covered up.
Click to expand...


Adisah said:
I think people need to pay more attention to dropping calls and not dropping bars.

You could drop bars all day but still be able to make calls. I don't understand why people need their bars to say 5 bars all the time. It doesn't really matter, you just need to be able to send and receive calls/data.
Click to expand...

We're experience both. Call failed three times when I was calling T-Mo to prorate my account. Other times regular calls can't hear me, saying it was fading in and out. So I have to hold the phone on the top-right corner. Haha. Hopefully Monday come around, genius will try and help me out.
 
foxnews1 said:
don't fool yourself. it is hardware problem and if one has it, very phones should have it. youre lucky that you are in a good signal area and experience less.

I tried more than 5 iphone 4 and all had this issue by holding the phone naturally in both Seattle WA and Charlotte NC. don't take my words for it. check out all review and articles with scientific data. all reported the same issue. denying it is just a way for apple to avoid financial burden.

my old window phone also has this issue but I have to hold on the top of the phone. but who would hold on top? apple happened to put the antena right at the naturally-hold position, what is why this issue is so widespread. you can be sure that Iphone 5 will fix this "none-issue".
Click to expand...
You could buy,try 300 iphones and experience this. 300 stick shift cars won't shift themselves. Both are defective:p Move on, buy a case, or live with it. 10,000 posts saying the same thing geez:apple:
 
AreYouAMac said:
Other times regular calls can't hear me, saying it's static.
Click to expand...

that might actually be a separate, different problem from the antenna. GSM and UMTS are digital and poor reception doesn't result in static. Distortion yes. No audio, yes, but not static.

Were you using a bluetooth headset at the time?
 
Sorry, let me clarify.

It wasn't static, but distortion...I was trying to find a word for that but couldn't think of one.

Multiple people said that I was fading in and out. Like they couldn't hear me talk. One of it was fading in and out AND THEN call failed appeared. This was also when I was outside of my house.

We live in Miami, so I think Miami is a major city for AT&T to have its coverage.
 
AreYouAMac said:
Sorry, let me clarify.

It wasn't static, but distortion...I was trying to find a word for that but couldn't think of one.

Multiple people said that I was fading in and out. Like they couldn't hear me talk. One of it was fading in and out AND THEN call failed appeared. This was also when I was outside of my house.

We live in Miami, so I think Miami is a major city for AT&T to have its coverage.
Click to expand...

We are in a major area for Att coverage. It has it's disadvantages as the Att rep told me. Being in a major city= lots of towers= more possible issues.

Marc
 
Ugh.... here we go. Every iPhone has an issue (as do many smart phones in general), if you think your phone doesn't, then you either rarely use your phone or rarely go into an area without great coverage. Bumper helps hold onto signal better so that is the answer for the OP.

Forget looking at the strength meter, I can hold a 5 hour conference call on one bar sometimes. Before I got a bumper (and eventually a case) it was impossible to do such.

To some up, every iphone has the issue, there are no exceptions, period, endstop. If you don't believe it, send me your phone (or visit me) and I will show you how, without a bumper, I can make your iphone drop a call within 5 minutes by holding it normally, no death grip needed. With a case, I rarely drop calls. No less than 8 people who declared they don't have the problem have been able to replicate it at my house, including one Apple Genius. The old firmware would go from full signal to drop, now from 3 bars to drop.



ash =o)
 
My opinion is that all cell phones should be in cases to protect them. Put an iPhone 4 in a case and the antenna issue becomes a non issue.

All of the cell phones I've ever owned have had cases for them, even the very cheap ones. The case not only protects from major damage but from everyday scratches etc.

Therefore my advice to the OP is put all the phones in cases, you won't regret it when it comes time to trade them in and you can get top dollar because they look so good. In the meantime the antenna issue is a non-issue.
 
AreYouAMac said:
What's your 3g speed test btw way (if you done it)? I guess this is a way I can tell if its the area. I get between 1.28MBPS to 1.71MBPS
Click to expand...

Count your stars, son.
Full bars and this is my speed test result.

65335285.png


Orange County, representing! Restrictive zoning and old-timer NIMBY homeowners who will stop at nothing to prevent the onslaught of technology and hipsters = No cell towers.
 
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