Aside from Signal Issue, Consumer Reports Rates iPhone 4 Highest Amongst All Smartphones

[AdminB]

Apple needs to offer a free fix to their customers. Final answer.

I bought the iP4 and have been using it roughly 2 weeks and I am more than satisfied with the purchase thus far. It sure seems nobody really wants to hear or believe it, but it is an awesome phone. And I would take it back in a second if I really had any problems making calls - that would be a deal killer. But in all honesty, in my experience thus far, I have not experienced poor call quality or dropped calls or anything. A couple days ago I purchased a Belkin case, not because of the issue, but because I know I'll drop it at some point. I can sit there and fiddle with the phone/antenna area and make the # of bars drop by 1 or 2, but haven't experienced an issue in normal usage.

Bottom line, if you hold off on the purchase, you'll have the best chance of being compensated in some way - free case, free bumper, free coating. But if you need a phone now, I personally haven't experienced any reason to delay. My 2 cents.

What really frustrates me though, is that I can't go on about all the stuff I love about the phone because again, seems nobody wants to hear it until this issue has been put to bed by Apple. Fair enough.

So it's hands-down the best, but they can't recommend it? Sounds about right to me.

First and foremost, it's a phone. I'll come out and say that the phone feature is probably the least important part of the device to me, but I still need a phone and not an iPod Touch. I love Apple products as much as anyone, but I'm not buying an iPhone 4 until they fix this and I doubt a software update alone will correct it.

 

[arn]

I disagree. What about the people who have received replacements and no longer have the issue in the same area?

Please point me to these reports. (Serious request)

arn

 

[KnightWRX]

Fact is, there are many, many users on this forum and elsewhere who cannot reproduce the problem no matter where they are or what they do. Fact is, the alarmists want this to be present on 100% of phones because it furthers their agenda. Fact is, I'm about as likely to believe someone with a defective phone saying they're all bad as I am to believe someone with a good phone saying they all work fine.

If your phone always shows 5 bars, you are still having and reproducing the issue. It's just you're never getting low enough a signal to see it on the bars. You'd need the numerical signal level.

If your phone shows 2-3 bars and you can't reproduce the issue by putting your finger on the gap on the lower left, post and video and prove us wrong. We've been asking for this very simple gesture since this whole thing began.

Until then, 100% of iPhone 4s, wether you like it or not.

 

[PerfSeeker]

will continue to get the benefit of doubt from consumers UNLESS there is a steady stream of horrible quality issues. Dell was very admired company 10 years ago and it only took 3-4 years for their reputation to go into the toilet. Somehow I don't see Apple allowing that to happen.

 

[Full of Win]

As much as I consider the recpetion issues a design flaw, it's kind of ridiculous how much attention it's received when it can be solved by a bumper, case, or piece of tape. Most people use them anyways and it makes the problem disappear. Still the best phone on the market.

But why should we have to pay an extra 29.99 to use our phones without dropping calls?

 

[ericinboston]

1)this is a phone...it's called the iPhone for Pete's sake! If Apple manufactures a PHONE that drops calls and loses signal because of the way a HANDHELD device (phone) is held, that's a manufacturing defect. Therefore, 0 recommendations. Touch luck, Apple.

2)This news of the "signal issue" has been on every major news outlet (tv, magazine, radio, internet) since it was discovered. Consumer Reports is, in my opinion, a dead magazine/service that almost everyone you ask would say "they're still around?!". I doubt Apple is going to get much bad publicity from CR. However, they are just 1 more of the zillions that are reporting bad reviews on the iPhone 4.

3)Jobs/Apple severely insulted and angered consumers and techies alike with the "don't hold it that way" comment and then again later with the "buy a $30 case" comment. Even if the case were free and mailed out with chocolate chip cookies, it still is a poor WORKAROUND! My new $500 phone and 2-year locked-in contract and I get a phone (the only one I might add) that drops calls when I hold it with my left hand? Here are other 1-liners you would hear from Jobs if he were a CEO at different companies:

Consumer: "My GE oven turns off when I turn on the oven light to see how the food is cooking"
Jobs' Reply: "Don't turn on the oven light"


Consumer: "My car turns off when I make left hand turns"
Jobs' Reply: "Don't turn left"

Consumer: "My tv turns off when I hold the remote control with my left hand"
Jobs' Reply: "Don't hold the remote with your left hand"

Consumer: "My alarm clock fails when I set it to 6am"
Jobs' Reply: "Don't set it to 6am"



Although I like Apple's product-line creativity, it's the "we're better than everyone" attitude at Apple that angers customers and partners alike. Jobs preaches about doing the right thing and the best thing for consumers but yet time and time again Apple just expects the consumers to bow to Jobs.

The iPhone 4 may be a cool device...but at its heart (the phone) it doesn't work well.

Cue major advertising from Droid and Blackberry that prey on iPhone 4's signal problem...as well as single-carrier lock-in.

-Eric

 

[iEvolution]

Must be another company in Apple's check book cause I know consumer reports wouldn't rank it the best if this was any other brand with these reception issues. What a joke.

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

Now if we can only fix that signal issue darn lol

But in all seriousness these signal problems better get fixed, it works with a case but it's still annoying

 

[insidmal]

what I also find interesting is that in 2nd place is the 3GS tied with the Evo 4G.. this "brand new revolutionary phone" tied with an old, replaced, outdated iphone? lol

 

[QCassidy352]

Please point me to these reports. (Serious request)

arn

I've been seeing these threads on this forum for weeks. Haven't you seen all the "my iphone 4 is perfect" threads? I saw a guy in another thread earlier today saying that he traded in a defective phone and got one that doesn't display the issue.

If your phone shows 2-3 bars and you can't reproduce the issue by putting your finger on the gap on the lower left, post and video and prove us wrong. We've been asking for this very simple gesture since this whole thing began.

Until then, 100% of iPhone 4s, wether you like it or not.

I don't have an iphone 4 yet because they're still sold out everywhere in Boston (apparently not everyone has gotten the memo that it doesn't work as a phone ). I'm going off other people, many on this forum, saying they cannot get the bars to drop no matter what their signal strength to start with. I see no more reason to disbelieve them than I do to disbelieve the people who say they have the issue.

You have no idea whether it's 100% of iphone 4s. You're just choosing to ignore the people who say they can't reproduce the issue because that position doesn't fit with what you want to believe. Me, I'm taking everyone at face value, whatever they report, because who's going to know better - me or the person with the phone?

 

[nopple]

Best Ipod Ever

I think CR mistakenly put this in phone category. iPhone 4 is the best iPOD ever built.

What a genius Steve BlowJobs is. Ha Ha Ha. I wont be surprised if he is kicked out of apple for this blunder. No wonder apple got into the bumper case business.

What a Joke this guy is.

 

[benoitgphoto]

WOW...they really did score the battery life as being excellent on the iPhone 3GS... that's the main reason why I will change my 3GS for a iP4. I would say that the battery life on the 3GS is far from being excellent

 

[UTclassof89]

Why is macrumors trying to shine this turd?

"just don't hold it that way"

"just buy a bumper from us t o fix the problem"

"it's not a real problem; only the bar indicator that's miscalculated"

I just don't trust Apple anymore (and am rapidly losing faith in Macrumors)

 

[KnightWRX]

I don't have an iphone 4 yet because they're still sold out everywhere in Boston (apparently not everyone has gotten the memo that it doesn't work as a phone ). I'm going off other people, many on this forum, saying they cannot get the bars to drop no matter what their signal strength to start with. I see no more reason to disbelieve them than I do to disbelieve the people who say they have the issue.

You have no idea whether it's 100% of iphone 4s. You're just choosing to ignore the people who say they can't reproduce the issue because that position doesn't fit with what you want to believe. Me, I'm taking everyone at face value, whatever they report, because who's going to know better - me or the person with the phone?

The issue was explained, it makes sense that 100% of iPhone 4s are affected but not 100% of users see it the way it was explained (http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2). The issue is documented and backed up with evidence, reported by major news outlet, tested by major tech blogs and now tested and shown as true by a major publication that does this kind of testing.

On the other side of the fence, you have anecdotal evidence of working iPhone 4s, with spurious details about how they work (do they show 2 bars, 5 bars ? Did you get it to display numerical signal values ? How much decibels of signal do you lose ? no answer to any of these) and when pushed for video evidence to back up their claim with a simple scenario, the poster disappears or argues that "their word should be good enough" *cough* aggie *cough*.

So yeah, why do you have reasons to disbelieve those who say it works ? I wonder...

 

[observed]

I can't help but notice...

First, I'm not in the market for any of these phones, so I don't have a dog in this hunt.

That said, however, I can't help but noticing that, with the exception of the Motorola Droid (which also rates as "Good"), every other phone covered in the graph rates worse than the iPhone 4 on "Voice Quality." And, furthermore, no other [edit--except the iPhone 3GS] ranks so highly across so many of the other categories.

So, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, it would seem that the iPhone 4 is the worst possible smart phone... except for all the others.

 

[firewood]

Please point me to these reports. (Serious request)

Don't be surprised if a few actually exist. Manufacture 1.7 million of anything rapidly, and there a bound to be a few with bad solder joints, flaky RF capacitors, loose connector cables, chips with marginally functioning transistors that make it though test and burn-in, etc.

However the odd are far greater that the local RF signal conditions got better, their hand got less sweaty, they didn't hold it in exactly the same position, and etc., and that's the real reason they think they got a "fixed" i4.

 

[QCassidy352]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/966061/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/965772/ (post 19 and 33)

Just on the first couple of pages of the iphone forum. There have been countless more similar posts in recent days. But I'm sure the haters will say these people are just lying. Like I said, I believe the people who say they don't have the problem just like I believe the people who say they do. I see no reason to trust some blanket assertion like "100% of iphone 4s have the problem" when there are statements directly to the contrary and no reason to doubt those statements.

 

[MrWillie]

I guess that it is natural with all the hype that Apple has attracted with its iPhone and iPad products, that they will also attract comments from all and sundry. Anything negative will be jumped on from a lofty height which is what we are now witnessing.

It is a pity regarding the signal issue, and this plus Apple's slow responses to this problem and others like the MacPro overheating problem makes me seriously consider whether the iPhone4 and IPad are really worth buying with the known problems and no Flash. I hate to say this but the latest Androids are a very serious threat to the iPhone and I can view both my websites without issues which is not the case with the iPhone 3GS I own.

I think Steve has acted foolishly regarding Adobe and Flash and as HTML5 is years behind flash in terms of functionality, and whilst I appreciate the open source argument, without flash the internet functionality is reduced to an unacceptable extent. It was not a wise business decision, as it works fine on an Android without significant battery loss. I am sure many within Apple share the same sentiments.

Think again Steve..., life is too short...

Ah, SOME Androids play flash... With craptacular results. Internet on iPad is a wonderful experience, especially without flash. (I don't own an iPhone, but an iPad is close enough). If you designed your websites with flash, you alienated millions of people. Of course we don't care, but if you are trying to make money.... ( you are not trying to sell 8 inch floppy disks are you???)

I have handled two iPhone 4's, no issues noted, even after removing them from there cases. So it is not a 100% as some people state.

Earlier today, I had a 3GS in one hand and a 4 in the other. The 4 had two bars and could make a clear call, the 3GS had no service.

Iquiry: Someone writes an email, addresses it to sjobs@apple.com, why does everyone assume that is Steves email address ? Did Steve come out and make the statements publicly or is everyone going off of what someone living in their mom's basement says ?

 

[KnightWRX]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/966061/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/965772/ (post 19 and 33)

Just on the first couple of pages of the iphone forum. There have been countless more similar posts in recent days. But I'm sure the haters will say these people are just lying. Like I said, I believe the people who say they don't have the problem just like I believe the people who say they do. I see no reason to trust some blanket assertion like "100% of iphone 4s have the problem" when there are statements directly to the contrary and no reason to doubt those statements.

Except again there is evidence pointing to 100% of iPhone 4s being affected, those posts are anecdotal and not backed up by evidence.

There's your reason.

Why go with blind faith when there is something known as evidence and that it is easily provided by both camps if their assertions are true ? Somehow, you are just trying to spin this in a positive way for some ludicrous reason.

The weight of evidence right now is against the "I have a working iPhone 4" camp. They have yet to produce any evidence at all of their position. It should be simple, if they are really not affected.

I have handled two iPhone 4's, no issues noted, even after removing them from there cases. So it is not a 100% as some people state.

Earlier today, I had a 3GS in one hand and a 4 in the other. The 4 had two bars and could make a clear call, the 3GS had no service.

Exactly the kind of anecdotal posts I am talking about. Back it up with evidence. Get that iPhone 4 back and make a video showing 2 bars and no issue when the gap is covered. Make sure you clearly film yourself touching the gap and the bars of signal just like people reporting the problem have been doing. Until you do, you just fail to understand the problem.

 

[firewood]

Fact is, there are many, many users on this forum and elsewhere who cannot reproduce the problem no matter where they are or what they do.

Easy. They're getting a cell signal of -85 dBm or better everywhere they go.

 

[Thex1138]

Oh!

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)



I disagree. What about the people who have received replacements and no longer have the issue in the same area? What about the people who no longer have the issue after trimming the sim? Why is it so hard to believe that this doesn't affect all ip4s?

Yes the replacements... good news hey? Where and when???? Oh Okay per above....

 

[dma1965]

How was the play?

Reminds me of the old saying "Besides that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

 

[QCassidy352]

The issue was explained, it makes sense that 100% of iPhone 4s are affected but not 100% of users see it the way it was explained (http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2). The issue is documented and backed up with evidence, reported by major news outlet, tested by major tech blogs and now tested and shown as true by a major publication that does this kind of testing.

On the other side of the fence, you have anecdotal evidence of working iPhone 4s, with spurious details about how they work (do they show 2 bars, 5 bars ? Did you get it to display numerical signal values ? How much decibels of signal do you lose ? no answer to any of these) and when pushed for video evidence to back up their claim with a simple scenario, the poster disappears or argues that "their word should be good enough" *cough* aggie *cough*.

So yeah, why do you have reasons to disbelieve those who say it works ? I wonder...

and why would people lie? Why would someone come on this forum and say that starting with 2 bars they can't get the signal to drop? What's the motive?

The issue was tested yes, on a very limited number of phones. Do you know the statistical relevance behind sampling 3 phones (like CR did) out of a batch of maybe 3 million sold so far? That relevance would be zero. Can you imagine if that's how car companies tested safety? Or how the FDA tested new drugs? Sure, give us 3 pills from your batch of 3 million, and we'll go by whatever those 3 pills tell us.

If you want to claim that 3 million iphones have a problem, you'd better get data from at least several hundred of them. If 100% of that few hundred have the problem, and that few hundred weren't self-selected (a few hundred on this forum, meaning people who chose to find a place to post, doesn't count), and those sampled were from different batches, then I'd agree it's 100%.

All I know is that people are reporting it both ways. Since nobody has tested a few hundred random iphone 4s from different batches, that's all I can go on.

 

[Darkroom]

LOL... had to just toss this in there... oh, macrumors. you're too funny. i mean, sure "Consumer Reports Rates iPhone 4 Highest Amongst All Smartphones", but the GLARING difference here is that the iPhone is the only one they don't recommend...

 

[Stately]

Sounds like 100% of iPhones are "affected", but whether it is actually a problem in your day-to-day use depends on your regional signal strength.

arn

I suppose, because I know two people with the phone and unless they are blatantly fibbing; they say their connection works fine.