Detailed Analysis of iPhone 4 Signal Strength Dropoff

[baryon]

Why did Apple go with an external antenna? Don't radio waves travel through glass? I thought glass wasn't like metal and that putting an antenna inside, behind the glass, would have worked.

I can't see why an average Nokia antenna wouldn't be enough, cities and other areas where people live should always be covered (I'm not talking about 3G, just the basic "mobile phone" network for making calls).

 

[sishaw]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: 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 guess it is time for me to head to the store to find a case. I really like the naked iPhone 4 though.

One can always take it out of the case to gaze upon it from time to time. That's what I do.

 

[slate1]

I agree - best signal I've ever had with any of the iPhones

My home is on a "fringe" area and I would drop calls all the time with my 3G. I haven't had a dropped call yet since switching to the I4.

FYI - my phone is in an iFrogz Luxe case, which did help with the signal problem. If I remove it from the case I can get it to drop from 2 bars to "no signal" at home and it will drop from 5 to 4 bars at work. With the case on, however, I can hold it any way I want at home and maintain a connection.

For me, this is the most important part of their analysis:

"It's amazing really to experience the difference in sensitivity the iPhone 4 brings compared to the 3GS, and issues from holding the phone aside, reception is absolutely definitely improved. I felt like I was going places no iPhone had ever gone before. There's no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS."

I have terrible reception at home and generally cant make calls, but with my iphone 4 its has the best reception I have had from any phone I have owned (and I can actually make calls now) - sure the signal attenuation problem exists, but if I hold it "correctly" its a great signal

 

[mojomarley]

Critique of analysis

This study is woefully inadequate to anyone with a basic knowledge of experimental design for the following reasons:

This does not provide any data on upload/downloads of Web pages, for example; it only addresses phone calls. It would seem that at lower signal strengths, regardless of selectivity, data/transmission would be much slower on the IPhone 4 under most circumstances.

Also, in how many situations (e.g., varying signal strength, different cell phone tower frequencies) was the "study" done. How many different phones were used in producing the results? How many calls were used in drawing the studies conclusions? How many testers (with different degrees of conductivity in their hands were used)?

How do they explain the huge number of reports from users in the field that the iPhone 4 drops calls at a higher rate than the other reports. One study by a user showed an iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS side-by-side phoning each other. The iPhone 4 constantly dropped calls the iPhone GS did not.

 

[Anuba]

Ok, dude. That's just ridiculous. They clearly did it for function. If it was form they would have just slapped a useless piece of metal around the end.

Yeah but it was in the pursuit of form that they ended up having to resort to this impossible antenna solution in the first place. If Steve and Jony hadn't been rabidly obsessed with "thin", the iPhone 4 would've had a conventional antenna solution just like the iPhone, iPhone 3G and 3GS had. But they were stuffing more stuff into this phone (a secondary camera, a flash, a noise cancellation mic and the retina display with 4X the resolution, and all this stuff needed a much larger battery). And 64 GB was probably on the drawing board as well. But then came the real challenge: "You have to make it thinner than the last one too. Steve will cry and fire the whole company if he doesn't get to say 'look how thin it is' during the Keynote". And the only way thinner could happen was if they took something and put it on the outside of the phone, and the only thing you can conceivably move to the outside is the antenna.

If the 3G/3GS had been notorious for antenna problems, it would be plausible that they designed this antenna to fix that (in which case you might argue that the pursued function over form), but there was nothing wrong with the 3GS antenna, it didn't need fixing. So the iPhone 4 antenna design is clearly the product of pursuing form first, or at best killing two birds with one stone (form AND function).

 

[rsocal]

Right

Is it form over function? According to the article the reception is much improved which would make it more functional as long as you don't hold it in one specific way without a case.

Why is it when people get told not to do something they want to do it more? They want what they can't have?

To be honest if I didn't browse MacRumors or Engadget I would have never noticed the issue because I don't hold my phone in the palm of my hand, I use my fingers instead. That is probably why the complaint is not widespread, people who don't read about technology are just going on with their daily lives, enjoying their new iPhone 4.

This is exactly what I think as well, I have similar posts in other threads.
I really think some people are really going out of there way to make this happen and I myself can get it to drop a couple of bars when inside my house but never drop a call or lose data, but when outside or at work and every where else I’ve gone so far I cannot get it to drop at all!

 

[blindzero]

Good to have actual data.

All this has done for me is make me start using the headphones. After reading the cellphone cancer/tumor linkage report published last month, I've been meaning to but have been lazy about it. Now I'm more than a little nudged to.

 

[lkrupp]

Wrong! Signal strength measured in dB is non-linear. The way they mapped the 5 bars is entirely correct!

Please people, stop second-guessing professional engineers.

Not a chance. The panties-in-a-knot crowd always know better. With them it's always a "design flaw" or a "manufacturing problem". It's apparent now that Apple isn't going to cow-tow to this crowd. It's also apparent that this same crowd is losing control to more reasoned and professional analysis. This is starting to move off the radar screen already, just like the "yellow botches on the screen" issue did.

The panties-in-a-knot crowd will soon move on to the next outrage. It's what they live for. Outrage at Apple keeps them feeling empowered.

 

[citrate]

This is exactly what I think as well, I have similar posts in other threads.
I really think some people are really going out of there way to make this happen and I myself can get it to drop a couple of bars when inside my house but never drop a call or lose data, but when outside or at work and every where else I’ve gone so far I cannot get it to drop at all!

Just because you can't reproduce it naturally don't assume that others are going out of their way to do it. Just open your mind for a second.

 

[LagunaSol]

Great. Awesome. So give out $2 bumper cases to anyone who wants one and put out the public relations fire. No big deal.

 

[macintoshi]

apple

I hope apple does come out with a good statement on this...

 

[citrate]

Not a chance. The panties-in-a-knot crowd always know better. With them it's always a "design flaw" or a "manufacturing problem". It's apparent now that Apple isn't going to cow-tow to this crowd. It's also apparent that this same crowd is losing control to more reasoned and professional analysis. This is starting to move off the radar screen already, just like the "yellow botches on the screen" issue did.

The panties-in-a-knot crowd will soon move on to the next outrage. It's what they live for. Outrage at Apple keeps them feeling empowered.

It is a design flaw and that artical proves it. Trust me this won't go away until Apple do something about it.

 

[arn]

How do they explain the huge number of reports from users in the field that the iPhone 4 drops calls at a higher rate than the other reports. One study by a user showed an iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS side-by-side phoning each other. The iPhone 4 constantly dropped calls the iPhone GS did not.

This is easily explained by the data. You lose far more signal when holding the iPhone 4 than the iPhone 3GS. So if you have a marginal signal to start with, you will drop the call.

arn

 

[wovel]

Yeah but it was in the pursuit of form that they ended up having to resort to this impossible antenna solution in the first place. If Steve and Jony hadn't been rabidly obsessed with "thin", the iPhone 4 would've had a conventional antenna solution just like the iPhone, iPhone 3G and 3GS had. But they were stuffing more stuff into this phone (a secondary camera, a flash, a noise cancellation mic and the retina display with 4X the resolution, and all this stuff needed a much larger battery). And 64 GB was probably on the drawing board as well. But then came the real challenge: "You have to make it thinner than the last one too. Steve will cry and fire the whole company if he doesn't get to say 'look how thin it is' during the Keynote". And the only way thinner could happen was if they took something and put it on the outside of the phone, and the only thing you can conceivably move to the outside is the antenna.

If the 3G/3GS had been notorious for antenna problems, it would be plausible that they designed this antenna to fix that (in which case you might argue that the pursued function over form), but there was nothing wrong with the 3GS antenna, it didn't need fixing. So the iPhone 4 antenna design is clearly the product of pursuing form first, or at best killing two birds with one stone (form AND function).

Unless of course you actually read the article in the thread you are posting on and you would know its conclusion was that the iPhone 4 offers a much improved antenna design and receiver that it allow to hold on to calls much better and operate better in more marginal areas.

 

[Anuba]

Why did Apple go with an external antenna? Don't radio waves travel through glass? I thought glass wasn't like metal and that putting an antenna inside, behind the glass, would have worked.

There simply wasn't any room left after they crammed more stuff in. Having the antenna on the inside would've meant a thicker phone. What they could've done though is make the phone taller and switch from 1.5:1 to 16:9 screen, then there would've been room for the antennas at the bottom plus it could've been a wee bit stronger because it would've been farther away from the top which would've yilded a better SAR rating.

But then there'd be the issue of the aspect ratio mismatch between the iPhone 4 and previous models, which means apps would have to be letterboxed...

 

[arn]

Unless of course you actually read the article in the thread you are posting on and you would know its conclusion was that the iPhone 4 offers a much improved antenna design and receiver that it allow to hold on to calls much better and operate better in more marginal areas [if you use a case]

fixed.

 

[egret]

Yes it's the best but only when the antennas are not being bridged. Holding naturally the iPhone 4 is the worst by a fair margin. I guess people only see what they want to see.

"Holding Naturally" may be the case for you, but that may not be the natural way to hold the case for everyone.

I love when people ASSUME the way they do things is the way everybody does it and is THE ONLY POSSIBLE way to do it.

 

[keyofnight]

Damn—I love Anandtech: they give me the analysis I want without the snarky "you need to take an extra 6 years of college to understand this" commentary. (You know who you are…)

What this article tells me is that Apple knew there would be attenuation problems with human contact, but they also were relying on the Baseband software to account for that attenuation. I'm sure there are noise reduction algorithms, band selection algorithms, and many other mechanisms at work. This is reflected in ifixit.com's Teardown commentary too:

Apple has gone a step further and tuned the phone to utilize whichever network band is less congested or has the least interference for the best signal quality, regardless of the actual signal strength. Early reports suggest this feature, while buggy in its early stages, will greatly improve the phone's reliability on AT&T's fragile network.

I'd like to know where their "early reports" came from, but I tend to trust ifixit on these matters.

I'd bet there is a software update that will address the issues I'm having with dropped calls, but my issues are not related to griping the phone a certain way—so I'm screwed in that respect.

 

[0dev]

"Holding Naturally" may be the case for you, but that may not be the natural way to hold the case for everyone.

I love when people ASSUME the way they do things is the way everybody does it and is THE ONLY POSSIBLE way to do it.

 

[macintoshi]

Why did Apple go with an external antenna? Don't radio waves travel through glass? I thought glass wasn't like metal and that putting an antenna inside, behind the glass, would have worked.

They even had the option to cover it with an invisible material arround the antenas...

 

[jahman]

Did you not read the article at all? The report says clearly that the iPhone 4 has the best reception of any phone on the market. That's a pretty strong statement. This is so because the antennae is on the outside of the phone. As with anything in life there's upsides and downsides. One of the downsides of this design is that there's greater attenuation of the signal. However, since this attenuation is *easily* canceled out by simply hold your phone slightly different or putting a case on it (and getting to keep that awesome reception), overall it's a plus. Really, people, seriously. Perfection does not exist in this world. Would it have been better to have awesome reception and no attenuation of signal right out of the box. Sure. But, take what you can get.

Agree. This isn't a technical problem for Apple, the design is good. It's a bad publicity nightmare though. I'm certain that Apple knew that people needed to have bumpers with the phone in order to avoid this attenuation problem. An Apple bloke was trying to persuade people to buy them in the queue at Regent Street Apple Store on launch day. Unfortunately, I was so shattered by the time it came to actually buy the phone that I forgot.

Apple really ought to give the bumpers away for free or at least at cost price. Knowing my luck I'll finally buy one and the next day Apple will announce the freebies.

Top marks for a great product; no marks for customer service/satisfaction.

Cheers,

jahman

 

[Anuba]

Unless of course you actually read the article in the thread you are posting on and you would know its conclusion was that the iPhone 4 offers a much improved antenna design

What on earth does the article's conclusion have to say about Apple's intentions?

"This black hat is warmer than the white hat. It must mean they designed the black hat to be warmer."

"Nah, we just made it black because it looks good, but if it's warmer too... good for you."

 

[2005CTS]

I have terrible reception at home and generally cant make calls, but with my iphone 4 its has the best reception I have had from any phone I have owned (and I can actually make calls now) - sure the signal attenuation problem exists, but if I hold it "correctly" its a great signal

You shouldn't have to change the way you hold a phone...or have to buy a bumper!! I was set to pay the ETF to dump VZW and move to AT&T and get the iPhone4 but now have decided to hold off a while to see what Apple comes up with.

To sell a $300.00 phone and then tell people to hold it differently or buy a case is completely ridiculous. Granted the phone (in ideal circumstances and held "correctly") may have better reception than the last iPhone...but it still has a major design flaw.

I have admired Apple for a long time and just this past month got my first Mac...but I will have to admit, the issue with the iPhone4 is sounding a lot like the way Apple handled the 27" iMac - terrible. It seems that some quality issues are starting to rise up with new products that in the past Apple didn't have. Makes you wonder if they are growing too big too fast to keep a handle on the quality of their products? I would argue that a $3,000 iMac shouldn't have had the issues that it did...just like a $300 iPhone shouldn't be having these issues...or have to buy a case. I am really disapointed in apple right now.

As a result...this consumer that was so excited to get an iPhone will be sitting on the sidelines until Apple get's their act together on this one.

 

[citrate]

"Holding Naturally" may be the case for you, but that may not be the natural way to hold the case for everyone.

I love when people ASSUME the way they do things is the way everybody does it and is THE ONLY POSSIBLE way to do it.

I think it is fair to assume that most people hold phones the same with some minor differences. The vast majority are going to cup the left corner (when the phone is in the left hand) to support the phone and prevent it from falling. No one said that this is THE ONLY POSSIBLE way but it is the recognised way weather you choose to believe it or not. I'm sure you've seen the recent montage of Steve and various commercial actors holding the iPhone in this way.

Also note that this artical relates to a natural hold.

 

[ghostface147]

You can call *3001#12345#* which will put the phone into signal test mode. In the upper left hand corner, the numeric value will be displayed.

I was able to do this on my 3GS (it has 3.1.2) but this does not appear to work on iPhone 4. I'm not sure if this is doable with any os above 3.1.3.

This can only be done on 3.1.3 versions or below only. The app itself no longer exists in the file structure of iOS4.