Apple's Signal Strength Display Changes in iOS 4.0.1 and 4.1 Detailed

[JohnnyGo]

Sorry but your video just proves Apple is right !

At the end of the day it doesn't work. here is my video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXYBXQQYgNs signal drops when I pinch the bottom left with 3G on or off.

Cezza: Apple does not claim that there is NO issue with the signal but that given a reasonable signal strength to start with (in your case 3 bars for 3G and 4 bars for Edge) your phone will still have good signal and would still function.

Your video shows that with the new formula your 3G signal drops from 3 bars to 1 bar, and your Edge signal drops from 4 bars to 2 bars.

Indeed, if you notice how you are holding the phone, Steve is right: it is totally un-natural to hold a phone like this.

 

[Bluehinder]

Cezza: Apple does not claim that there is NO issue with the signal but that given a reasonable signal strength to start with (in your case 3 bars for 3G and 4 bars for Edge) your phone will still have good signal and would still function.

Your video shows that with the new formula your 3G signal drops from 3 bars to 1 bar, and your Edge signal drops from 4 bars to 2 bars.

Indeed, if you notice how you are holding the phone, Steve is right: it is totally un-natural to hold a phone like this.

Stop with the "Steve" Apple fanboy carp.

 

[Russell L]

I just applied the update to my iPhone 4 and now I've gone from 5 bars to 3 in my apartment. From looking at the new bar chart, this scenario is entirely possible, as there's a little overlap of the "old" fifth bar and the "new" third bar. I guess the bottom line is that the ATT reception in my apartment isn't as good as I thought it was.....

 

[Master Chief]

I just applied the update to my iPhone 4 and now I've gone from 5 bars to 3 in my apartment. From looking at the new bar chart, this scenario is entirely possible, as there's a little overlap of the "old" fifth bar and the "new" third bar. I guess the bottom line is that the ATT reception in my apartment isn't as good as I thought it was.....

And that is exactly the problem. Most people think to have a 'perfect' signal, based on a flawed signal strength formula, when in fact it is not that great after all. Enter iOS 4.0.1 – which I believe is going to change the consumers perspective on AT&T [and others] coverage.

 

[threeonezero]

Great graphic

Guess who just found his new wallpaper?!!!!!

 

[adrian.oconnor]

Did Apple mess up the calculations on purpose to make people think they had better service than they did?

I think I know why apple did it the way they did -- band three is very narrow, but despite that it must be an extremely common sweet spot for signal strength -- my iPhone often has three bars. I guess they wanted to catch the sweet spot, which may or may not be the level required to get reliable data transfer/reliable voice service (though this is a wild guess and I know virtually nothing about the technical details of data transfer over radio). If it is an important point in the curve, having it indicated would be an understandable choice.

The new levels look much more useful though, IMHO.

 

[rich2000]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-gb; Nexus One Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)



In the uk, in certain situations you are locked into a lenghy 2 year or 18 month contract once you use your phone.

What would you have those people do who are left with up to 2 years of service to pay for?

it isn't as easy as you think to "return it" for everyone.

You did read that contract you took out didn't you? Under the sale of goods act you can return it before 30 days without any fee

 

[cezza01]

Cezza: Apple does not claim that there is NO issue with the signal but that given a reasonable signal strength to start with (in your case 3 bars for 3G and 4 bars for Edge) your phone will still have good signal and would still function.

Your video shows that with the new formula your 3G signal drops from 3 bars to 1 bar, and your Edge signal drops from 4 bars to 2 bars.

Indeed, if you notice how you are holding the phone, Steve is right: it is totally un-natural to hold a phone like this.

I appreciate your point.

I help the phone in that way to show that you don’t need to grip the phone for the signal to drop. It is total natural to hold the phone where the two sides of the strip touch your palm.

When the signal drops you lose download and upload bandwidth. How annoyed would you be if every time you touch your mouse your computer cut your broadband connection to dial up.

Lest hope that today article about a possible software fix are true. I really don’t want the fix to be a free bumper.

 

[rossshear]

Facts

Seems strange how this has become more an emotional issue then fact.

Fact : The only test of a phone is whether it will make a successful call from a weak location better or worse then other phones. This is the only test that counts. Signal bars do not or have not meant anything, as different manufacturers use different reference points for bar guides.

All phones will loose signal if you are in a weak location and you shield the antenna. This is why phones with exposed antennas work better provided you keep your hand off the antenna.
Iphone 3 has always had more signal bars then other phones for the same signal level. It would read 5 bars when other showed 3.
Iphone 3 could easily drop 3 bars if you held the bottom part of the phone tightly

The biggest issue is att&ts lack of coverage

In Australia however, coverage on Telstra is far in excess of what the US has
For the record iphone 3 is not the best coverage phone on 850 3g but it is up there with the better ones
The best are phones are made by zte and samsung but not all their models are good
Nokia however is extremely bad and each new model seems to get worse.
Coverage is very low on Nokia's todo list

There is no doubt if you touch an antenna it will loose signal that is the science. I wonder why it is so hard simply not to touch the antenna
It would be very easy to loose 30 db of signal touching the antenna so on an iphone old software this could drop the signal from 5 to zero

We will not see Iphone 4 in OZ until next month. It does seem however from factual performance reports, if you can find them amongst all the crap that iphone 4 actually in real terms is one of the best coverage phones available and much better then Iphone 3. That is if you do not cover or touch the antenna . The exact same thing applies to all phones even those with antennas on top.
I suspect that much of this debate is being generated by people being hurt very much by iphones success. There are some very big phone companies out there that need to bring apple down to earth in sales as they see their market slip
So go do a comparison with other phones in the same location
Find the antenna and touch or put you hand around it tightly and you will see it will also drop significantly. Do not rely on what you read .Go test for yourself. Steve is right the original signal meter was wrong, always has been or at least by comparison to others. 4.01 is closer to the meters used by other manufacturers

 

[Benster]

Interesting Results

I have a 30 minute bus ride to work that has 3 "trouble spots" where I will momentarily lose signal on my 3Gs.

I did a "side-by-side" signal test with my Blackberry Bold 9700 (work phone on AT&T as well) on the way in this morning after upgrading the 3Gs to 4.0.1.

Observations:
- The Bold and the 3Gs at any given time either
a.) Matched 5 bars evenly
b.) Bold was 2 bars higher than 3Gs
c.) Matched 1 bar evenly

- The three "trouble spots" were now 1 bar 3G on the 3Gs and did not lose signal; no signal on the Bold.

On the Good side, it looks like the "lowering" of the 1 bar helped smooth out some rough patches.

On the curious side, either RIM has the same "former signal calc" that Apple did, or, now we get to see the real differences between the two phones' antennas.

I'll also add that:
- 15 minutes of Microcell calling so far did not encounter any noticeable impact (mine has been rock solid since January 2010.)
- The displayed signal strength is lower just about everywhere by 1-2 bars, but I was surprised the coverage was "that good" prior.
- No noticeable impacts on Speedtest app testing results for up and download before and after upgrade for me.

-Ben

 

[mrochester]

You did read that contract you took out didn't you? Under the sale of goods act you can return it before 30 days without any fee

Sadly, returning the goods means there'd still be a contract to pay for since you only have 14 days to get out of that.

 

[bfar5]

Question. Can I assume that "someone" was lying to me about my signal strength all along? Hmmm... I wondering if this is grounds for me to get out of my ATT contract.

If I could get out of my ATT contract, I would investigate other options at this point.

 

[LewisBassett]

Forgive my ignorance

But can't we just have a number rather than trying to represent things in bars?


If 100 was the strongest signal the phone could ever receive and zero was when the call was dropped due to not enough signal to maintain the connection.

Genius

Totally Agree Mate!

 

[Ackster]

Prior to the software update, I could easily lose call ability and internet speeds by shielding the antenna. At work though, no matter how hard I held the phone, I would never lose any calling ability or internet.

At home after the update, I still had issues when shielding the antenna, which is what I expected. At work, again, my tests were identical to before the update.

Prior to the update:

At home, I had 4-5 bars of service.
At work, I always had 5 bars.

After the update:

At home, I have 1-2 bars.
At work, I still have 5 bars. Download speeds of between 2.5-3.50 Mb/s down and 1.5 Mb/s up no matter how I hold the phone.

If you are in an area soaking in towers with perfect service, no matter how you hold the phone, you shouldn't lose any service or internet speeds. This verifies the accounts of people who said they have never had any issues with the phones that they have. It's not that certain phones don't have the hardware issue, its the fact that their service is perfect in their testing area.

Those, like myself, who are able to force the phone to drop calls and stop their up/dl's, were in spotty cell coverage areas to begin with.

The antenna issue is real for all phones, it's just dependent on your coverage. If AT&T had 4-5 bars of coverage in all areas, no one would even know the phone had an antenna issue.

 

[choddo]

Seriously, maybe all this wouldn't be an issue if AT&T wasn't so concerned about their bottom line and their shareholders, and actually fixed the goddamn network.

What, it's been like two weeks and their whole 3G upload speeds are disgraceful for any wireless carrier, and I have more holes in my coverage map than swiss cheese.

Notice how NO ONE is mentioning any other international carriers that the iPhone 4 was released for, nor their users who might be complaining about similar issues. All I hear is that it's pretty localized to the US and AT&T.

The antenna issue/signal deterioration is the same in the UK. I haven't had a dropped call yet though.

 

[rossshear]

Exactly correct if you have strong signal to begin with you will not loose any signal bars as the 20 db drop will not take you into the 4 bar level
There is a way to see the actual signal level in db
Dial *3001#12345#* then press "Call."
This gives much better comparison
remember the smaller the number the better the signal

 

[Benster]

Exactly correct if you have strong signal to begin with you will not loose any signal bars as the 20 db drop will not take you into the 4 bar level
There is a way to see the actual signal level in db
Dial *3001#12345#* then press "Call."
This gives much better comparison
remember the smaller the number the better the signal

This does not work anymore with 4.0.1. At least not that I could get working.

-Ben

 

[gibbz]

Exactly correct if you have strong signal to begin with you will not loose any signal bars as the 20 db drop will not take you into the 4 bar level
There is a way to see the actual signal level in db
Dial *3001#12345#* then press "Call."
This gives much better comparison
remember the smaller the number the better the signal

That was taken out of iOS 4

 

[mrelwood]

Question. Can I assume that "someone" was lying to me about my signal strength all along? Hmmm... I wondering if this is grounds for me to get out of my ATT contract.

AT&T promised you would have more bars than you did? I doubt.

 

[choddo]

Seems strange how this has become more an emotional issue then fact.

Fact : The only test of a phone is whether it will make a successful call from a weak location better or worse then other phones. This is the only test that counts. Signal bars do not or have not meant anything, as different manufacturers use different reference points for bar guides.

All phones will loose signal if you are in a weak location and you shield the antenna. This is why phones with exposed antennas work better provided you keep your hand off the antenna.
Iphone 3 has always had more signal bars then other phones for the same signal level. It would read 5 bars when other showed 3.
Iphone 3 could easily drop 3 bars if you held the bottom part of the phone tightly

The biggest issue is att&ts lack of coverage

In Australia however, coverage on Telstra is far in excess of what the US has
For the record iphone 3 is not the best coverage phone on 850 3g but it is up there with the better ones
The best are phones are made by zte and samsung but not all their models are good
Nokia however is extremely bad and each new model seems to get worse.
Coverage is very low on Nokia's todo list

There is no doubt if you touch an antenna it will loose signal that is the science. I wonder why it is so hard simply not to touch the antenna
It would be very easy to loose 30 db of signal touching the antenna so on an iphone old software this could drop the signal from 5 to zero

We will not see Iphone 4 in OZ until next month. It does seem however from factual performance reports, if you can find them amongst all the crap that iphone 4 actually in real terms is one of the best coverage phones available and much better then Iphone 3. That is if you do not cover or touch the antenna . The exact same thing applies to all phones even those with antennas on top.
I suspect that much of this debate is being generated by people being hurt very much by iphones success. There are some very big phone companies out there that need to bring apple down to earth in sales as they see their market slip
So go do a comparison with other phones in the same location
Find the antenna and touch or put you hand around it tightly and you will see it will also drop significantly. Do not rely on what you read .Go test for yourself. Steve is right the original signal meter was wrong, always has been or at least by comparison to others. 4.01 is closer to the meters used by other manufacturers

I'm sure even without you having an iphone 4, you can see how hard it is to not touch the antenna.

 

[jimboutilier]

Customers were significantly misled

The bottom line is that customers were significantly mislead.

When comparing an iPhone and AT&T against other phones on other carriers, the iPhone was giving an artificially high impression of both itself and the AT&T network.

I always wondered what kind of freaky glitch caused missed or lost calls in many areas showing 5 bars. Now I know they were not really 5 bar areas and that these should not have been unexpected. For instance at home my original iPhone and iPhone 3GS showed a constant 5 bars everywhere in the house all the times. With this firmware upgrade my 3GS varies between 1 and 4 bars at different places in the house. No wonder I miss calls and get dropped calls. What I assumed to be isolated events (due to the lying bars) are now clearly due to poor coverage or reception. Had I known this when I first got an iPhone my decisions would likely have been different.

I made the decision many months ago that these "glitches" were too frequent for me and that I would not be purchasing any future AT&T serviced devices. Glad I got my Wifi Ipad and Verizon Mifi card rather than a 3G model and I will be moving to Verizon for my next phone as well be it a Droid or iPhone.

 

[mrochester]

Question. Can I assume that "someone" was lying to me about my signal strength all along? Hmmm... I wondering if this is grounds for me to get out of my ATT contract.

If I could get out of my ATT contract, I would investigate other options at this point.

If anything it's Apple who have been lying to you by misrepresenting the product you're getting.

 

[jimboutilier]

Question. Can I assume that "someone" was lying to me about my signal strength all along? Hmmm... I wondering if this is grounds for me to get out of my ATT contract.

If I could get out of my ATT contract, I would investigate other options at this point.

While we can't say if it was deliberate or accidental, you were being lied to. People use signal strength indicators to gauge a phones reception against another phone, people use it to gage quality of the network in different places, and even use it to gage the risk of missed or dropped calls in a particular area.

Not sure if AT&T will let you out of your contract yet but I fully expect a class action lawsuit agains both Apple and AT&T that will result in people being able to terminate their contracts early and return their phones late and would not be surprised at some small additional compensation. Of course the Lawers will be the big winners but Apple and AT&T will be punished and many customers will get help returning from a spot they would never have been in without being misled.

 

[meatballs]

This is troubling indeed.

 

[choddo]

While we can't say if it was deliberate or accidental, you were being lied to.

I'm not sure it's possible to accidentally lie.

Apple have clearly prepped the ground on this one with the "stunned to discover" comment.