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

why pick on iPhone 4..?

As someone who has had or used briefly, every single type of iPhone going, they have always been the absolute worst as actual telephones in the market...the iP4 is just a logical extension of that...


if you rely on a telephone for business then the iPhone isn't the way to go...

dreadful pieces of kit.
 
If the eventual solution is that Apple will give out free bumpers I'll take a pass. Those bumpers are worthless as they provide almost no protection from a fall to the sidewalk. A credit towards a case *or* bumper(if that's what you really want) would be better and would put this to rest.

I really doubt there will be a recall.
 
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
 
Small White Car said:
I know MANY people who base all of their purchases on that magazine. It's a big deal.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. I have friends who live and die by this magazine. I always had respect for them even though I tend to do more Internet research.

However, IT IS A BIG DEAL.

The ball is in your court Steve....
 
It's not insane to assume that Consumer Reports affected the stock price.
When CR broke the news about certain SUVs being rollover death traps both stock prices and purchases went to the floor on those affected models. Rightly or wrongly they are considered the voice of reason in a sea of reviewers with a particular ax to grind and many people consider them the only truly dispassionate source of product information.

This is very bad news for Apple -- and couldn't come at a worse time, since it comes just when the bad stories started to decline. It is fanning the flames now. Not good news as all.
 
Hey, Apple, How about some free Bumpers?

You can afford it.

Each iPhone you sell gets you $599-$699 ($199-$299 plus $400 kickback from AT&T). Your $29 bumper probably only costs about $10 to make. Give some away, please.
 
barkomatic said:
If the eventual solution is that Apple will give out free bumpers I'll take a pass. Those bumpers are worthless as they provide almost no protection from a fall to the sidewalk. A credit towards a case *or* bumper(if that's what you really want) would be better and would put this to rest.

I really doubt there will be a recall.
Click to expand...

I don't want credit towards a bumper at all though or a case. I simply want the phone to work as is, I don't want money back, I want it to work full stop.
 
I still think they were harsh in their review, but I can see why they retracted their recommendation.

Smartphones aren't just phones and I think they did unfairly describe the problem's severity.

I mean for goodness sake they still rank it top of their list of smartphones, but they can't "recommend" it, even though it's #1.
 
Apple will not recall these phones, IMO. That would be an absolute disaster for them, both financially and in public relations. What they should do is stop treating their customers like complete fools and admit to what everyone already knows - they made a design error. Then offer free bumpers to everyone who wants one.
 
I think many people with this problem need to find another solution other than explain; I am sure there are many more customers without the signal problem than with. If you have the signal problem return your new iPhone, get another one to slide your sim card into until Apple fixes it, then buy a new one... OR just buy a new phone all together! They are always looking for more users over on the Android OS
 
I haven't been able to replicate the signal loss issue on my or my wife's iPhone 4s but that damn proximity sensor problem has me using the speaker or headphones all the time, crazy annoying.
 
byron_hinson said:
Also for the UK at least - the 30 day return policy doesn't count for contract phones. You get just 7 days to decide. I'm up to day 4 and dropped call today has got me worried, as has loads of signal fluctuation which doesn't happen on other phones on the same network.
Click to expand...

well 14 days for o2
 
byron_hinson said:
Also for the UK at least - the 30 day return policy doesn't count for contract phones. You get just 7 days to decide. I'm up to day 4 and dropped call today has got me worried, as has loads of signal fluctuation which doesn't happen on other phones on the same network.
Click to expand...

Byron, I've done loads of testing (in northern England) with all the iPhones on 3 different networks, the results are always the same.

ANY other kind of phone will hold its signal better (sometimes by a large margin) than the iPhone.

If you can, just speak to the exec relations/complaints guys of any of the major networks in the UK ..... off the record of course. They'll tell you their stats...... its frightening!
 
rwilliams said:
Apple will not recall these phones, IMO. That would be an absolute disaster for them, both financially and in public relations. What they should do is stop treating their customers like complete fools and admit to what everyone already knows - they made a design error. Then offer free bumpers to everyone who wants one.
Click to expand...

So you'd be happy to have a free bumper that doesn't fix the problem and for some still shows it even with the bumper on?

They should recall it, but then they should have done it in the first week so I can't see it happening now - I've never been part of a lawsuit before but this may be the first time I ever do...it's just not good enough.
 
A recall is out of the question but they might (MAYBE) make a change and call it the iPhone 4.5 and then allow people to exchange 4s for 4.5s if you come and ask.

Not a recall...just an option.

Even that is a long shot, though.
 
CR is a joke.


They recommended not buying the new Lexus GX460 because if you drive the effing thing like a sports car you might wreck.. and the stability and traction control systems don't stop you in time, in the time it took to stop "... the driver could have hit something". The driver could also run directly into a brick wall, and stability/traction control would be irrelevant. Learn to drive a damned SUV, the systems are there to aide you, not make decisions and drive the car for you.


Bunch of douches @ CR.
 
tripjammer said:
If your phone drops signal...then take it back. You have a defective model and you need to get it back to the apple store for a replacement. Most people do not have this problem. But some do so they need to take theirs back.
Click to expand...

1. Most (all) people DO have this problem
2. Apple aren't replacing IP4s with the reception issue (because they all have it)
 
cmaier said:
But didn't you hear? There are three threads full of people who deny that there is no evidence of any problem at all! 🙂

I suppose now they'll say that CR's tests don't count because they don't use real cell towers or something.
Click to expand...

Correct... there is evidence that covering a particular area with your hand results in lowered signal... lowered from a dramatically increased signal due to the same antenna design.

Everything I've seen and experienced is that the improved reception of the external antenna far outweighs losses from those intentionally trying to get it to not work.
 
callmemike20 said:
How is that insane? Do you ever watch stocks tick by tick as news is announced? When the CR news came out, the stock had a small sell off. What's the big deal? It may still go up by the end of the day. Sure, it could be something else, but I'm 99% sure it was this report.

Just like when big numbers come out such as the housing numbers. If home sales are low, you may see a instant sell off in the market.
Click to expand...

This is not a "big number." This is simply a report that is verifying the problem that has already been brought up many times since the release of the phone. It's hardly news...there's no way to say with absolute certainity why a stock drops or rises...that's why they call them "analysts"
 
To be fair, Apple doesn’t claim it’s a software problem—they acknowledge it’s a real problem (and that other phones have it—but they gloss over the fact that the iPhone has it worse than most).

Apple claims that the software is hiding information ABOUT the problem. To wit: the software problem can sometimes hide when you’re in a weak signal area—and that’s when the problem crops up. As a result, you may think you’ve lose a STRONG signal, when really you’ve lost a weak signal. (Worth fixing, but it’s not the actual problem.)

CR tells me nothing new here—I already knew two things about the iPhone 4 in weak-signal areas:

1. It can get BETTER signal than previous iPhones (and various other phones too). AND it can make do with less signal and still hold onto a call or data connection. (See Anandtech’s test among others: driving through an area where a 3G was useless, the 4 never dropped a call all day.)

2. The better signal can then be worsened by touching that black stripe.

Does #2 outweigh #1? The only answer is “sometimes.” In other cases (like Anandtech—and of course people who use cases), the new antenna design will prove to worthwhile despite this issue. Three steps forward, one step back, as Daring Fireball described it.

It’s a better antenna AND a worse one. Try it out, and note the return policy (as you would with ANY phone).

My order is definitely not cancelled 🙂 (Besides, AT&T is decent in my city.)
 
callmemike20 said:
They have done it before (but maybe not at such a large scale) ...

http://www.neowin.net/news/apples-passing-out-the-benjamins-to-iphone-owners?showcomments=true
Click to expand...

When Apple handed out all that money (well, store credit), it was to a smaller group of consumers who paid FULL price for the 1st generation iPhone.

They needed goodwill back then. iPhone was new to the market. Now, all they really need to do is come up with some sort of fix that satisfies the majority of people who bought the phone. They don't need to hand out 100 bucks in store credit to a bunch of people who paid only 2-300 for a phone in the first place. That would've been like giving 2-300 in store credit to the people who paid FULL price back in 2007 for the 1st gen.

Uh. uh. Not gonna happen.

Free bumpers, or a recall of a very small number of iPhone 4 batches.

That's my prediction. Has been from the start.
 
archipellago said:
Byron, I've done loads of testing (in northern England) with all the iPhones on 3 different networks, the results are always the same.

ANY other kind of phone will hold its signal better (sometimes by a large margin) than the iPhone.

If you can, just speak to the exec relations/complaints guys of any of the major networks in the UK ..... off the record of course. They'll tell you their stats...... its frightening!
Click to expand...

Then why have i not had a single dropped call with O2 in two years on previous iphone's - then multiple dropped calls with the iPhone 4 within a week of having it? I know O2's network sucks, but even this isn't their fault for once!
 
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