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Consumer Reports Still Not Rating iPhone4

Shrink

Shrink

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 26, 2011
8,929
1,727
New England, USA
Just received this month's Consumer Reports. (Yes, I read that rag :eek: )

They rated "smartphones" and again excluded iPhone4 from ratings because of "signal problems"

Antennagate lives!!! :eek:




Gonna get out of the way now so the indignation can begin. ;)
 
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Well, it's not like it was a myth.
The problem has been lab-measured and verified.
A design flaw that might only impact a small percentage is still a flaw.
 
why should they if it's technically flawed, shoot i'm still on the dinosaur 3G, i refuse to get the iPhone4 on principle.
 
acurafan said:
why should they if it's technically flawed, shoot i'm still on the dinosaur 3G, i refuse to get the iPhone4 on principle.
Click to expand...

I could see sticking with a 3GS, but the 3G is just too far behind. Unless you hardly use the smartphone features...

Do yourself a favor and upgrade to a modern handset. Even if you jump ship and go Android/WinMo, you will be experiencing a different class of device from your old iPhone3G.
 
Consumer Reports is but one opinion out of billions.

I'll use my own opinion on if a product is good or not. I'll read what others might say, but the final decision is mine.
 
acurafan said:
why should they if it's technically flawed, shoot i'm still on the dinosaur 3G, i refuse to get the iPhone4 on principle.
Click to expand...

Because they rate thousands of products that have flaws of some sort or another. The smart thing to do is make a pros/cons list and tell the buyer all the facts.

But no, for some reason they can't do that with the iPhone 4. Why they can't treat it the same as other products they review is a mystery.

If they want to stamp "not recommended" on all prodcuts with flaws, that's fine with me. It's their magazine and they can do it that way if they want to. What's not fine is doing it to one product and not doing it with other products that aren't perfect.

What argument do you use to defend hypocrisy? I haven't come up with any good ones.
 
Who cares? The iPhone 4 is great and I love it

There isn't a single other phone I would want
 
Just on the CR website and they do have it rated. The overall score is a 74. Mostly red and red/white dots, which indicates Very Good to Good ratings in most areas. In fact it's one of the highest rated smart phones they have listed. With alot of space devoted to listing of "Highs" and only a few "Lows".

I think the issue that chafes some people is that for a phone that is so highly rated CR wouldn't actually "Recommend" it due to the antenna issue. I suppose that's fair in their eyes, but frankly it isn't as though the antenna issue has prevented the phone from becoming a huge hit.
 
Yeah CR does rate it, and it has maintained one of the highest ratings out of smartphones in general since it came out. I think the biggest thing here is that they were one of the big outlets that broke the antennagate story, and ultimately decided that they could not recommend it based on that.

They waited for Apple to come out with a solution, where Apple decided to give out free bumpers for a short period of time, and after that they still maintained that due to Apple not providing a more permanent solution rather than free bumpers for a temporary amount of time, they still couldn't recommend it.

So because they made that decision, it would basically go against their own journalistic integrity as well as compromise their editors' opinions if they were to go back on that and recommend the iPhone 4. But regardless, they still do quite highly rate it.
 
I could seriously chuck norris grip my white iphone 4 all day long and it never loses a bar. However when I had a black one it did it consistently, though not without holding it like i was gonna hit someone with it. Did something change with the white iphone or did I just get lucky?
 
sawah said:
I could seriously chuck norris grip my white iphone 4 all day long and it never loses a bar. However when I had a black one it did it consistently, though not without holding it like i was gonna hit someone with it. Did something change with the white iphone or did I just get lucky?
Click to expand...

There are rumors that apple quietly fixed the problem around the time that the Verizon iPhone was released
 
Nothing's changed AFAIK with regard to the iPhone so why would they suddenly endorse the product when it still has the design issue where we need a case to prevent signal detuning.
 
Consumer reports is pretty much garbage now. Not because of the iPhone, but because of many other products too
 
Tarzanman said:
There are rumors that apple quietly fixed the problem around the time that the Verizon iPhone was released
Click to expand...

I just did the test on my VZ White 32gb and created the signal loss. Bars typically hover at a steady 3 where I am right now, so signal strength could be a contributing factor.

Should say that I could create the same effect on my release date AT&T phone last year. However in both cases the loss in bars did not necessarily mean a loss in data/voice.
 
Centient said:
Just on the CR website and they do have it rated. The overall score is a 74. Mostly red and red/white dots, which indicates Very Good to Good ratings in most areas. In fact it's one of the highest rated smart phones they have listed. With alot of space devoted to listing of "Highs" and only a few "Lows".

I think the issue that chafes some people is that for a phone that is so highly rated CR wouldn't actually "Recommend" it due to the antenna issue. I suppose that's fair in their eyes, but frankly it isn't as though the antenna issue has prevented the phone from becoming a huge hit.
Click to expand...

Just curious - what was the date on that rating to which you refer.

I'm looking at the September 2011 issue of the magazine (page 49). Under "Select Ratings Smart Phone" there are listings of phones by carrier. Under AT&T, the only Apple phone listed on the page is "Apple iPhone 3G S" with an Overall Score 68.

I'm sorry if I missed something. That why I'm wondering the date of the report you reference. :confused:
 
Shrink said:
Just curious - what was the date on that rating to which you refer.

I'm looking at the September 2011 issue of the magazine (page 49). Under "Select Ratings Smart Phone" there are listings of phones by carrier. Under AT&T, the only Apple phone listed on the page is "Apple iPhone 3G S" with an Overall Score 68.

I'm sorry if I missed something. That why I'm wondering the date of the report you reference. :confused:
Click to expand...

This is the online CR. Don't have a date listed per se. I believe it's the original review of the AT&T 16gb iPhone from last year.

Strange that they wouldn't include that in their print magazine list. Are they only including "Recommended" phones on that list? Could be why they don't have anything listed for the i4.

Anyway, ratings wise the i4 is tied with the HTC Inspire 4G (74). The only phones rated higher are the Motorolla Atrix 4G (76) and Samsung Infuse 4G (79). All 3 of those phones are tagged as "Recommended" buys. There is a blurb in the run down about how CR can't recommend the i4 b/c of the signal reception issue.
 
Centient said:
This is the online CR. Don't have a date listed per se. I believe it's the original review of the AT&T 16gb iPhone from last year.

Strange that they wouldn't include that in their print magazine list. Are they only including "Recommended" phones on that list? Could be why they don't have anything listed for the i4.

Anyway, ratings wise the i4 is tied with the HTC Inspire 4G (74). The only phones rated higher are the Motorolla Atrix 4G (76) and Samsung Infuse 4G (79). All 3 of those phones are tagged as "Recommended" buys. There is a blurb in the run down about how CR can't recommend the i4 b/c of the signal reception issue.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
I thought the online version displayed the same stuff as the magazine.
I kept looking at the page and couldn't figure out why I couldn't see what you posted :eek:
At my age - these things scare you :eek::D
 
Centient said:
I just did the test on my VZ White 32gb and created the signal loss. Bars typically hover at a steady 3 where I am right now, so signal strength could be a contributing factor.

Should say that I could create the same effect on my release date AT&T phone last year. However in both cases the loss in bars did not necessarily mean a loss in data/voice.
Click to expand...


I have a AT&T 16 gig white iPhone and I can't duplicate it at all. I have a steady 5 bars where I live, and while my black iphone did it, this one seems solid.
 
iceterminal said:
Consumer Reports is but one opinion out of billions.

I'll use my own opinion on if a product is good or not. I'll read what others might say, but the final decision is mine.
Click to expand...

This

Not to mention consumer reports has a terrible track record with electronics.. About 11 years ago I worked at a circuit city and people would come in with their CR magazines all the time, and despite the sales peoples warnings, the customer wanted what consumer reports recommended which was usually some of the worst products with the highest return rates.

I'm not saying all their reviews are bad, but they should be used as an augmentation to research, not as a sole source of information.
 
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