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Every one of the Alum cases is a problem

G

glen e

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 19, 2010
2,619
2
Ft Lauderdale
I am huge alum case fan. There are no others that look as good. But after owning them for a couple months, I'm in the camp that says you can't wrap the I4 in aluminum - I know, most are thinking:

"well, duh...."

The vapors are better than the others for me, but all of them send me in "searching" mode when I need it. All of them. And I have tried everything I can think of:

1. used the insulating material if supplied (like atomic)
2. tried the foam tape
3. meticulously applied vinyl tape to the inside of every case and insured the antenna was insulated from making contact to the antenna in any way.
4. Conversely, applied the tape to the phone all the way around, in addition to the case
5. in addition, my phone carries a lucky labs film all the way around it, in all tests above.

I carry the allan wrenches in my wallet and every time I end up in a spot where the numbers go above 115-120 or so, the case comes off and the numbers reduce to less than 99 and it goes back on 3G.

So IMO, it's the aluminum - and some other type of material for a case is the answer..

and BTW, this is Fort Lauderdale, Fl which has good ATT coverage...
 
glen e said:
I'm in the camp that says you can't wrap the I4 in aluminum - I know, most are thinking:

"well, duh...."

The vapors are better than the others for me, but all of them send me in "searching" mode when I need it. All of them. And I have tried everything I can think of:

1. used the insulating material if supplied (like atomic)
2. tried the foam tape
3. meticulously applied vinyl tape to the inside of every case and insured the antenna was insulated from making contact to the antenna in any way.
4. Conversely, applied the tape to the phone all the way around, in addition to the case
5. in addition, my phone carries a lucky labs film all the way around it, in all tests above.

I carry the allan wrenches in my wallet and every time I end up in a spot where the numbers go above 115-120 or so, the case comes off and the numbers reduce to less than 99 and it goes back on 3G.

So IMO, it's the aluminum - and some other type of material for a case is the answer..
Click to expand...

welcome to rational thinking
 
I don't doubt that that's your experience and I'm not denying that some people do have problem with aluminum cases. But my own experiences with aluminum cases is different than yours. I have bought all the aluminum cases that came out and never have any serious signal issues with anyone of them. From what I can tell, the case that perform the worst for me was the Aluma case but would only drop 1 bar when I'm down in my basement. If I go outside I would have full 4-5 bars,no drop in signal. The one that I have the gps issue is the Raw closed back, which kills my gps . Maybe because it's closed back, I don't know. As for my vapor I really have no issue at all. Then again, this is from my own experiences.
 
glen e said:
I am huge alum case fan. There are no others that look as good. But after owning them for a couple months, I'm in the camp that says you can't wrap the I4 in aluminum - I know, most are thinking:

"well, duh...."

The vapors are better than the others for me, but all of them send me in "searching" mode when I need it. All of them. And I have tried everything I can think of:

1. used the insulating material if supplied (like atomic)
2. tried the foam tape
3. meticulously applied vinyl tape to the inside of every case and insured the antenna was insulated from making contact to the antenna in any way.
4. Conversely, applied the tape to the phone all the way around, in addition to the case
5. in addition, my phone carries a lucky labs film all the way around it, in all tests above.

I carry the allan wrenches in my wallet and every time I end up in a spot where the numbers go above 115-120 or so, the case comes off and the numbers reduce to less than 99 and it goes back on 3G.

So IMO, it's the aluminum - and some other type of material for a case is the answer..

and BTW, this is Fort Lauderdale, Fl which has good ATT coverage...
Click to expand...

So far, the e13ctron case seems to be working pretty well, as all aluminum goes. It feels like I may be displaying slightly less strong signal, but have not dropped any calls, and GPS locks on just fine...give it a look - my minireview and pics are up in another thread. They may be onto something.

It seems that the "blade" is a simlar design, but with integrated buttons. I've not seen one, but if the design is the same as the e13ctron, you may experience similar performance.
 
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