Consumer Reports 'Can't Recommend' iPhone 4 Due to Signal Issues

[rwilliams]

Err... can all lefties just speak for themselves, please? I'm a leftie, but I wouldn't voluntarily hold the phone in my right hand while making a call unless my left hand was in a cast.

No two lefties are alike in this respect. I know total lefties who inverse absolutely everything, they keep the mouse on the left side of the keyboard and hold a guitar like Jimi Hendrix. Myself I do everything like a rightie except writing and brushing my teeth.

You and I are exactly alike. I'm left handed and NEVER hold the phone with my right hand. Nor do I use the Grip of Doom when holding the phone. And like you, the only things I really do with my left hand are write, brush my teeth, hold the phone, or eat. Everything else (playing the guitar, using a mouse, throwing a football, shooting basketball, etc.), I do with my right hand.

 

[SCOTTGAZ9]

Ok. Keep drinking the Kool Aid. Some how you magically got the only iPhone 4 in the world without this design flaw.

I must be on the same Kool aid then as i dont have a problem either...used it in Aruba for 2 weeks and now back home no reception issues no dropped calls...nothing!!

 

[dimpleness]

Does anyone else find it funny that Apple has to tell us how to hold their iPhone 4 to use it?

 

[vmistery]

Not upgrading. No amount of assurances that it does work well as a phone will persuade me now after this. I know 4 people with the 4 and 3 of them have signal problems, 2 of them right-handed and we live in a good signal area.

Roll on the 5


Posted on my 3GS while watching tv on my macmini

 

[res1233]

Why should we as consumers not expect to use our phone, that works for that matter. HELL it even has the word phone in the name. Why should we have to buy an accessory just to use it as it was advertised. And i believe in the WWDC presenatation Mr. Jobs himself said that it would make reception better!

I agree, it's just that people shouldn't feel like apple is the only company out there. I love all of apple's products, but for many people, their products don't suit them. If the phone doesn't work in your area, or if the coating they supposedly put on "some" of the iPhone 4s isn't on yours, then try to get your money back, and if you can't, just buy a new phone. Also, no smart consumer EVER is an early adopter for reasons such as this. The early adopters are risk takers, plain and simple.

 

[QCassidy352]

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)

Why do the people with this issue have so much trouble believing it's not universal? Some people really don't have it, regardless of signal strength.

 

[dimpleness]

You and I are exactly alike. I'm left handed and NEVER hold the phone with my right hand. Nor do I use the Grip of Doom when holding the phone. And like you, the only things I really do with my left hand are write, brush my teeth, hold the phone, or eat. Everything else (playing the guitar, using a mouse, throwing a football, shooting basketball, etc.), I do with my right hand.

I'm like you. I only eat, write, and brush my teeth with my left hand. Everything else I do with my right hand.

 

[nopple]

What the heII are you doing on this forum dude? Why don't you join the other geeks at some fandroid forum... Here you may learn how to install Linux, and download warez on your newborn EVOs (ohh Sorry... I forgot... No battery)

Hell with apple fanboys who make $6 an hour at wendys.
Hellwith stevejobs who really knows how to make these wendys fanboys look stupid

Gandhi once said,
First they ignore you
Then they laugh at you
Then they will fight you and you win

lets fight this douchebag steve blow job.
Ps: I lovemy 3gs on tmobile!!!!

 

[pirateRACE]

pirateRACE does recommend iPhone 4

 

[Ochyandkaren]

Has a problem return it, No Whining (unless 4 goodoldfun) Necessary.

I just can not believe so many people are asking so much about iphone. This phone is great. It can take great picture and video, it can surf web, it can send and receive emails, it can show maps.......etc. It just can not make a phone call if you touch the antenna. Stop complaining, think about all the good things SJ provided.

: I know, i know!
I personally still have no cell phone since 2003-2004 (no longer use it, a Sendo phone), but my wife's cousin has one, and she said it has no issues. I was just making fun of that lame PS stunt.

 

[iPadztr]

hopefully this will wake apple up and get their ***** together and fix the issues . I know mine works just fine, but yes it has the reception issue and so far no drop calls yet...

 

[res1233]

: I know, i know!
I personally still have no cell phone since 2003-2004 (no longer use it, a Sendo phone), but my wife's cousin has one, and she said it has no issues. I was just making fun of that lame PS stunt.

No cell phone? Good god man, how do you survive?

 

[ikir]

Auch! BURN!!

Apple denied this way to long already. Don't get me wrong, I love Apple, but their arrogance is getting way over the top. First Apple direct us not to have blu ray. Now they direct us how to hold our phone, and simple deny a serious design flaw. They almost screwed me with my macbook air, where the hinge have a serious design flaw and break. My Iphone 3 is almost unusable after the update, and works as bad as a PC, crashes, sluggish, no battery life anymore. Enough is enough!

In general, It seems ease to become successful, but way harder to keep success. Especially with serious competition on the corner.

As long Apple keep thinking the customers are a stupid sheep who eat this kind of crap, they will be wrong at the end of the story. People won't accept this.

The gap between Apple and the rest (Microsoft) become smaller too.

I forced my Girlfriend a lifetime windows user to go for Mac. But after a few months she still isn't impressed with MAC OS-X and find it hardly an improvement over WIN7. Wake up Apple. You are not longer the most unique in the universe anymore. There are alternatives. And if you keep treating your customers as stupid sheeps, they will go for that "alternative" eventually.

With kind regards,
Bas

Sorry don't want to offend, but probably your girlfriend ins't very smart about computers. Tech under OSX is much more better than Win7, usability too if you don't count habit. Also digital life app included are a welcome plus.
I don't think Apple threat us like stupid sheeps since most of they products innovate or try to innovate. If your reasoning is like that, Microsoft and many pc manufacters are acting like you described more than Apple.
Your girlfriend was a long time pc users? Bad for her, but it is your error forcing she to switch. Most normal users will find hard things even if there things are super easy because their habit is different.

And about iPhone 4 antenna... most users don't have the problem and we had call drop before iPhone 4 so i'm sure only some models have this problem or microsim problem.

 

[BadMoon]

 

[donny77]

LOL. I have a fair amount of experience, both in software and hardware. Think about it for a minute - the purpose of an antenna is to collect signal. When you bridge the antennas, the issue is NOT that signal from the wifi/bluetooth is being sent to the 3g antenna. The issue is you have changed the effective size of the 3g antenna. It no longer functions properly as an antenna. Therefore the signal-to-noise ratio of what the antenna can send on to the circuitry drops substantially - there is nothing there for the signal processor to work with.

If it was truly bridging the antennas, I think it would occur even in strong signal. I think it is just the attenuation you get from touching the end of ANY antenna. Even if the other antenna was not there, even if the rest of the band was plastic, I think this would still occur.

That said, if I don't touch it, it is the best cell phone reception I have ever had beating my old Motorola Razor. So, I have adjusted my grip and am enjoying a great phone.

My biggest beef, is calling it a flaw and a gaffe by Apple. The truth is, there is no other phone on the market like the iPhone 4. We don't know what they tested. Maybe the glass back offered poor reception for an internal antenna, or maybe the glass back caused as much attenuation as the external antenna. Maybe they tried coatings and they didn't work. There are a lot of unknowns, and it is in the realm of possibility that the external antenna provides the best overall performance of any designs.

That said, they should have documented it and said, for best results, don't touch here.

 

[ctrobins]

In my life with my iPhone 4, the antenna signal degradation has not been an issue in my normal day-to-day use.

Yes, the signal does degrade when held covering that spot, But, I'm lucky (kind of) in that the way I naturally hold the phone does not touch that gap.

BUT... I have a different problem that is related to how I hold the phone... I hold the iPhone in my left hand by my fingertips, with my thumb on the left side, 3 fingers on the right, and sometimes my pinky touches the bottom of the phone.

When I do this, my pinky tends to cover the mic opening at the bottom of the phone, it seems this completely cuts off its ability to pickup any sound. The result is the person on the other end cannot hear me speaking. This is pretty annoying for me. And has been much more of an impact than the antenna issue

 

[w00master]

What the heII are you doing on this forum dude? Why don't you join the other geeks at some fandroid forum... Here you may learn how to install Linux, and download warez on your newborn EVOs (ohh Sorry... I forgot... No battery)

Hmmmm Misjah... Let's look at YOUR profile: Newbie.

Look at MY profile: Member of Macrumors since 2002.

I'm an iPhone *4* owner.

I'm a ALL APPLE household: 2 Mac Minis, 2 iMacs, 2 Macbook Pros, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, and iPad wifi.

Let's think about who really is the TROLL on here. You or me? Again, I've been an ACTIVE Macrumors member *since* 2002. You? Again, a NEWBIE. Get a life.

STOP DRINKING THE KOOLAID.

w00master

 

[rotobadger]

why do you people come to apple message boards?

works perfect for me, sucks if it doesnt work perfect for you.

if you don't like it, return it for a full refund.

So if yours works perfectly what are you doing in this thread?

 

[Fernandez21]

Soooo, last week the fanboys pointed and linked to the original consumers report to state it was no big deal and to stop whining. Now some of those same fanboys are stating cr isnt credible.

 

[mmyers0520]

great to have large companies doing tests to corroborate our bitching

I'm gonna take a big folder w all these articles back to the 'genius' bar. HAH

 

[kernkraft]

As long as Aplpe refuses to offer a real fix I will continue to hold my blackberry anyway I like. It may have a crappy OS - but it never lets me down when it comes to making calls.

Yes, but that is a phone and iPhone is magic that "Changes everything. Again."

By the way, have others noticed that Apple changed their US opening page to a more modest "iPhone 4 is here"? They are giving up on their little revolution, I suppose...

 

[Manie Frizzle]

i ordered mine online through att, can i return it for a full refund at an apple store? i want to avoid the restocking fee att is charging.

 

[swimman]

I'm a right but use my left hand to hold the phone. As well, it's held in the left hand when I'm punching away at the keys. My hand usually tends to cover the area in question and holding it another way is not comfortable.

I think we need to ask Stevie a question? Can you please use your weak hand to wipe yourself after doing your business and let us know how comfortable that is? It behooves me as to why Apple would tell us we are holding the phone incorrectly. I should be able to hold it in my left or right hand as well as any other way, without the consequence of losing connection.

 

[LagunaSol]

I have the suspicion that you wouldn't admit even if you experienced the issue on a regular basis...

Flat out incorrect. Nice try.

There are a few MR members who still believe what Apple Inc claims. But I think for most of us, it became obvious that they are misleading people by trying to cover up the issue (literally, with a bumper).

Apple's response to this has been horrible at best. Their PR blurb about being "stunned" to find out about their visual representation of signal strength was truly embarrassing.

 

[rwilliams]

Soooo, last week the fanboys pointed and linked to the original consumers report to state it was no big deal and to stop whining. Now some of those same fanboys are stating cr isnt credible.

There's also a crowd here that somehow dismisses Gizmodo as not being credible now, when they were the ones that broke the news of the new iPhone, complete with photos, internals & everything. But because they got on the bad side of Apple, the Steve Jobs Brigade must now discredit their every word.