Anandtech - in depth iphone4 review and signal testing

Bleh... never mind.

 

+1

 

Excellent article and worth the time, at LEAST thru the antenna portion. The remaining benchmarks and whatnot were interesting as well.
Gotta admit, i like their stance on what should be done for the fix.

Funny, i was in the AT&T store yesterday and their two display phones dropped all bars with the slightest touch on the left gap. I feel a bit more at ease after reading GRC's comments, the AntennaSys Blog, and now the very thorough Anandtech Review.
Maybe some others here could do the same method to get true signal numbers and post their results as well?
I must say i really DO find it suspect that Apple removed any meaningful way to see the actual signal and also was quite prepared with bands. They wouldn't have bothered to remove it unless it was d**ming. I really doubt that was a simple "oopsy"

Because we upgraded just a few weeks ago, I only have this very day to make the choice on this 4, or keep my 3Gs. I'm leaning toward 4 with a case.

 

Cheers for posting - very interesting.

Hopefully this isn't a tangent, but this was an interesting reception test - http://fscked.co.uk/post/751030001/more-on-the-iphone-4-signal-issue

 

This helps explain a lot, especially w/ the bar translation of signal strength and why the results of tapping the bottom left corner is not easily duplicated for everyone. 40% of the signal curve is represented by 5 bars - if you are on the VERY bottom of that curve and tap the bottom left corner, you're going to crater your signal (according to the bars on your phone at least).

 

Good testing of the signal drop right next to a cell tower:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2

Too bad he had to install iOS 3 to get the field test to work. Apple should release the codes that allow a field test of the iPhone 4 (along with a free Bumper).

Android phones have various signal strength testing apps. One that has a nice design is "Real Signal." It lets you define what signal strength constitutes one, two, ... five bars. And you get two sets of bars -- one for voice and one for data.

Okay Apple and/or Apple Developers, it's your turn. Give us "Real Signal HD"!

 

Excellent review.

 

AND if you have five bars you could very likely have such a strong signal that you loose 20+ dbm and not see a drop in bars.

After reading this I am firmly of the belief that EVERY iPhone 4 is "flawed" and that the "I have no problem with mine" crowd lives in a strong service area.

Again, I don't think this is something that should stop people from buying and enjoying the phone. But, it is something they should be aware of and something that Apple NEEDS to fix mid-cycle...

 

I am a big fan of Anandtech. Their technical reviews are easy to understand and very indepth. They were the ones who brought to light the issues with SSD's and even had companies asking him for advice/consulting.

And, as many suspected, it does looks like an inherent flaw in the antenna design. I will believe Anand's evaluation of the issue over the denials and Job's dismissal of it entirely.

 

+1

 

We had 2 iPhone4's, one in my left hand and one in my right. Holding the phone by the notches on the left and right near the bottom of the phone, one phone went down to 1 bar and one phone stayed at full bars.

I think there are broken phones out there. After a replacement, the phone that went down to 1 bar now stays full, tested in the same place.

 

This is THE DEFINITIVE review of the iPhone 4 ...

... a must read for all of us.


Apple's iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed

 

This should be stickied.

and Anandtech is awesome. He convinced me to get an SSD for my MBP, and now he's almost making me want to get a Nexus One. Almost.

 

Very good review.

 

Yep, Anandtech is awesome. Will have been a member over there for 10 years this October.

Very awesome, detailed explanation of the antenna issue.

 

Does this mean that it is definately a hardware issue? Even though the dBm range is messed up, according to the tests, if you have a dBm signal of -89 or lower, you're screwed since the drop in signal averages around -24.

If that's the case, I probably won't have any issues (at least in my home) since I get a constant -70 dBm with my Blackberry.