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

[JoJoCal19]

I've been recommending Macs to everyone for almost a decade, but because of their recent actions, I'd have a hard time making that recommendation at this point.

I've gotten to feel the same way lately, not totally related to this iPhone 4 situation but it's part of it. Apple has gotten way too smug and arrogant for its own good and no longer treats it's consumers with the respect they used to. Really starting with the original Intel MacBook palm rest yellowing issues (which I have) and their denial of the issue until months after release, to the various other product issues to more recently the major iMac issues people were having.

Now it was the whole white iPhone pre-order debacle and their lack of feeling the need to let people know, and this whole iPhone 4 antenna debacle, and the fact that they still had the gall to charge people for restock fees until just days after the CALS was filed. And of course the latest slap in the face to our intelligence, their "shock" to find out they were calculating signal incorrectly.

I'm hedging my bets and am building a new Windows 7 Phenom II X4 PC. Partly to prepare for a possible defection from Apple, although I have to admit that my stock/currency trading software, Poker stat tracking software and RE investment software does not work on Mac and I'm rather sick of Fusion.

But yes after converting no less than 15 people to various Apple products I've halted recommending the move to Apple until they change the way they treat their customers and get out infront of issues. I'm really really hoping Apple comes through and takes care of everything because I love their products.

 

[juicedropsdeuce]

Using the overworked phrase "xyz = fail" = fail.

Hmmm.

Rafterman = fail

No, seems to work fine.

 

[dagomike]

All I want is for Apple to just come clean and say, yup that's what you should expect. It will drop data/calls when you touch that area.

Otherwise I'll keep hoping to get one of those magical phones that Apple advertises and people claim to have that can actually hold calls at least as well as the 3GS.

 

[PerfSeeker]

Remember Jobs + Ives = genius.

 

[Full of Win]

Damn, suck for Apple. But no company is fail-free.

True. However, the true measure is what they do in response to their failures. Making users pay for 29.99 over glorified rubber bands, blaming how we hold it and then software issues.

In short, they have not responded the why they should. There needs to be a recall and free bumpers for all until their unit can be replaced pending availability.

 

[dagomike]

who got a replacement??? I didn't think they even had enough made for replacements, or even new orders

I just got my second replacement. All three dropped calls.

Either I'm really unlucky, not lucky, or every iPhone 4 does this.

 

[xbjllb]

Many people follow this magazine religiously and this bad news can really hurt Apple even more.

Oh yes, God forbid Apple wakes up and kicks Jobs over to Wham-o to make iCrap iFads and goes back to making cutting edge computers.

Someone is trying to tell Apple something, and it goes something like this:

That iCrap bubble in the bottom line has just popped, and you've got mere months, if not weeks, to get full Blu-ray implementation and cutting edge graphics and cpus throughout the line just to keep up.

And in the future, never ever let another Willie Wonka desert your bread and butter computer line and pro app software and let it languish so long without updates.

Let everyone else make iCrap. They will, and they'll do it cheaper, and better, and let them tear each other apart at the bottom of the food chain. You wisely concentrate on the TOP of the chain and the flagship high-ticket items.

You've been taught a hard lesson you probably would not have learned any other way.

 

[3282868]

If you can't argue with them, then you don't understand the problem. It's a visual issue that will be addressed with the software update. An iPhone 4 in the same spot as an iPhone 3GS would have just as good if not better reception, period. And Apple is not treating anyone like a fool. Sheesh!

Yet there are reports that it's not just a visual issue. Certainly bars do not indicate actual signal loss but strength, however it's when the signal is lost and calls are dropped due to this issue than anything else. There have been reports, such as this one, that indicate the bars are not just a result of a visual abnormality but of actual quality in signal connectivity. If the reports are valid, then it is a hardware issue with regards to the antennae signal hampered by physical contact.

True. However, the true measure is what they do in response to their failures. Making users pay for 29.99 over glorified rubber bands, blaming how we hold it and then software issues.

In short, they have not responded the why they should. There needs to be a recall and free bumpers for all until their unit can be replaced pending availability.

Agreed. If Apple simply addresses this issue by "repairing" the visual representation of bar strength in a firmware update, I would believe that to be just as deceiving as claiming this is a "non-issue". I recall a humorous comment on MacRumors with code suggesting that Apple will merely "replace" bar strength visually if the actual bars are 3 or less. Was quite amusing.

 

[aughsum]

until the coating on your wears off in 6 months.

there is no coating.. isn't that what you are all bitching about?

16gb launch day

 

[Full of Win]

You have three options:

1. Case it.
2. Return it.
3. Can it.

The 'return it' is BS, PURE 100% BS. Why? Because by getting a new unit, you agreed to a new 2 year contract. They will not reset the contract due to this, per AT&T this morning when I called.

 

[kironin]

Design is one thing.... manufacturing is another. Ive can design the perfect computer, but if glue isn't drying... and LCD panels are bad.... Ive doesn't have anything to do with that. He just puts his vision down on paper, and Apple goes and gets the parts he needs. Now, I think the iPhone 4 does have problems, and they may be at the design level, we'll have to see for sure.

I agree that this seems to be a manufacturing issue and if it is it would seem that Apple could easily counter the CR review by clearly explaining the issue and making recalls to anyone having trouble. If it simply is the coating being inadequate on some phones, seems like they should have already fixed it on newer ones. One would expect that for example that if they have solved this, none of the phones will have this problem in countries where it is not yet released and should greatly diminish for those buying phones here in August.

I don't know how much you can blame Ive for this if at all. Now if the coating starts wearing off in less than a year, then it's time for the tar and feathers.

 

[trainwrecka]

I just got my second replacement. All three dropped calls.

Either I'm really unlucky, not lucky, or every iPhone 4 does this.

I'm thinking they all do (we have gone through 3 now), it has more to do with how the user holds it. Don't even get me started on the proximity issue. Had zero problems since the 2007 launch, but things are really buggy this time.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Steve Jobs thoughts about Consumer Reports...

 

[PerfSeeker]

Apple is #1 in customer satisfaction and overall love from the American people. There would need to be a 1000 fails in a row to dent that.

 

[whsbuss]

Yet there are reports that it's not just a visual issue. Certainly bars do not indicate actual signal loss but strength, however it's when the signal is lost and calls are dropped due to this issue than anything else. There have been reports, such as this one, that indicate the bars are not just a result of a visual abnormality but of actual quality in signal connectivity. If the reports are valid, then it is a hardware issue with regards to the antennae signal hampered by physical contact.

Yep just what I said earlier. Software can do many things but it can't change the actual signal being received by the antenna/receiver. Wish I was wrong but CR seems to agree.

 

[DMann]

.
Jony I've is bringing Apple down all by himself.

-iPhone external antenna = fail
-iMac yellow screen = fail
-iMac flickering = fail
-iPad huge bezel = fail
-Mirror for a screen on macbooks = fail
-Cracked iPod screens = fail

How much longer do we have to deal with this magical moron???

-iMac yellow screen = monitor department, manufacturing issue - not a design issue

-iMac flickering = monitor department, manufacturing issue - not a design issue

-iPad huge bezel = designed so that hands would have an area to hold the iPad without activating the screen

 

[kenypowa]

How any fanboy can continue to deny any of the antenna accusations are beyond me

Well, some fanboys view Apple as a lifestyle or a way of life. By admitting it is at fault is like admitting they are defective as well. It's never going to happen.

 

[tivoboy]

Fcc

ok not the best place to put an antenna thats admitted by me, but with a bumper case there is no problem with the iphone itself.

FCC requires it on the bottom, or at the very top with an extendable antenna.

 

[Avalontor]

Apple is #1 in customer satisfaction and overall love from the American people. There would need to be a 1000 fails in a row to dent that.

are you for real? "overall love from the American people" roflmao

this is why there is so much laughter when these forums are read.. children these days, so precious.

 

[tuatha]

Based on some of these posts on here, if Apple dropped an A-Bomb on a major city, the Apple fanboys on here would blame the city for being there.

Post of the day.

 

[xdhd350]

If the antenna impedance is affected by human contact across the left side of the phone, software won't change that. It can change how it gets interpreted but the actual signal will be what it will be.

That statement is 100% correct. Why? Because it's the law of physics where RF is concerned.

De-tuning an antenna's resonant frequency by altering it's RF impedance attenuates both reception and more importantly, transmission. It doesn't hurt a transceiver to receive a weaker signal, but you'll fry the RF power amp if the impedance encounters a mismatch. In the vacuum tube era, this was bad, but only shortened the life of the tube. Transistors however, are current amplifying devices and they will go up in a hardy Hi-Yo and a puff of smoke immediately. For that reason, transistor based RF amps have SWR feedback protection circuitry that automatically reduces the drive signal in proportion to the amount of reflected power coming back from the transmitting antenna.

 

[tivoboy]

call back

The 'return it' is BS, PURE 100% BS. Why? Because by getting a new unit, you agreed to a new 2 year contract. They will not reset the contract due to this, per AT&T this morning when I called.

call back, if you return it within the 30 day window, you go BACK to your previous contract/upgrade position

 

[ychro]

Duck tape really

We all know the iPhone has signal issues. The recommendation these guys give is the dumbest **** I have ever heard. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not use duck tape. The issue with duck tape is that it will leave adhesive on your phone and cause all kind of dirt and nasty junk to stick to it. I don't have an iPhone yet but I can almost guarantee Electrical tape will work significantly better and look more appealing. Use an exacto knife to trim away any excess tape.

 

[bmwhd]

But you are displaying a lack of knowledge of what is actually going on.

As are all of us. Myself included.

Is the actual signal being degraded? No one can know for sure. Even the "tests" can't know for sure because the signal that the phone reports (even the decibel readings) are produced by software, software in the phone...

And: no one knows exactly what Apple is doing with the new radio basebands. We have reports that they are dynamically switching frequencies from the 800Mhz ranges to the 1900Mhz ranges as the phone tries to lock the most reliable signal. Some of the earliest comments from Apple engineers (and those comments which have disappeared by the way) is that the problem lies in when the antenna are bridged the resulting attenuation confuses the processor which causes a lag in the frequency switch - which should not be there - and then it loses track of it's signal.

My whole point, which you are ignoring, is that WE DON'T KNOW.

So no one can say whether it can be solved or can't be solved with software. No one knows if it is a 100% hardware issue. In fact, I guarantee that this phone is not the first place that software has had to deal with signal degradation or interference or other "physical" aspects and hardware limitations.

Every year someone says that you can't do something because of the laws of physics then the next year someone does it. I remember reading a decade ago about how the RF spectrum was full and we were going to run out of signal space. Yet here we are with 2G, 2.5G, 3G and 4G and we now have 802.11a,b,n wifi and we have Satellite internet and GPS and Digital TV and WiMax and all sorts of other things going over the air. I remember when Cable lines had reached their maximum data speeds and now I have a connection to my house over cable that was deemed impossible a decade ago. It happens over and over.

None of us have access to the raw data of what is happening in the iPhone 4. We can "test" all we want with off-the-shelf models, but we don't have source code, and we don't have detailed diagnostics. We are all just armchair quarterbacks.

I have plenty of knowledge of basic physics and RF engineering. What I don't have is detailed data on what is actually happening to the signal after we touch the magic corner.

Exactly what I've been saying from day one. WE. DO. NOT. KNOW.

The actual cause of the observed behavior is UNKNOWN to us. We can speculate until we're blue in the face but until well executed end-to-end engineering tests are conducted that include all the variables (towers, phone, and OS), we will not know for sure if the behavior can be changed by a firmware upgrade.

The Consumer Reports test was nothing more (or less) than a reproduction of what we all see ourselves. Not an E2E engineering study. For example, it's highly unlikely they were monitoring tower server logs during their tests.

Not a fanboy, not saying there's no problem. Just pointing out that while holding the phone seems to be a very reliable way of making the phone lose signal, we don't know anything about root cause.

 

[kernkraft]

Strawman arguments are lame.

And Kernkraft is one of those unlucky few who seems to get a major defect in almost every single Apple product he purchases.


People are acting like Apple shot their dog. If their product is flawed and doesn't suit your needs, return their product for a refund. It's the capitalist way. It doesn't matter how good or horrible Apple's PR is - you ultimately speak with your wallet.

Many of my issues effected others too and I have pictures or videos to prove some annoyances. Perhaps others are not bothered by constant fan noise or high-pitched noise/CPU whine. I am and in this price range I expect high quality products without any quality issue. However, I certainly noticed a trend of decreasing quality. Cracking hinges and cases, faulty graphic cards... for thousands of dollars?!

Apple should realise that today, companies can fall just as fast as fast they can rise. A decade ago, it might have been sustainable (although, in the case of Apple Inc, it wasn't) to charge a hefty premium for being quirky and unique. Not anymore.