Detailed Analysis of iPhone 4 Signal Strength Dropoff

[macintoshi]

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.

$300? But only with a monthly phone contract I must pay about $800 or $900 not sure, to buy this fully.

 

[BornAgainMac]

That was the introduction of the iMac.

s.

Yes and the Cinema display intro too.

 

[tigress666]

So you're saying you are going to spend more money just to have a phone that works?

Hey, it works better! Read the article. Sure, you may have to buy a case (some people aren't even having an issue with where and how they use the phone) but hey, it improves on performance.

Is it really that difficult for people to adjust the way they hold their iPhone? Is it physically and mentally hard to do it? All I did was move my grip up an inch as not to cover the bottom left of my iPhone and no more issues. It took a couple days for me to get used to it but now it's natural for me to hold it that way.

Instead of b!tching about it, I adopted.

I eat food with a fork most of the time. Sure I can use a fork to eat a sushi but it's best if I eat it using a chop stick..

Yes, yes it is. And yet they already make compromises to use an iphone. For that wonderful touch screen, you can't have gloves. In the summer no problem (or if you don't ride a motorcycle). But I can tell you, while I never questioned that Apple shouldn't have designed it that way (I figured that's technology, it's how it's used), it is a pain sometimes to have to remove my motorcycle gloves when I want to stop and quickly look at my iphone for something (I'm talking stop at the side of the road) like a GPS map. Or when it's winter and I'm outside and I wnat to use my iphone for something. I take it for granted that's how it works.

And everyone else does too (I did a satire bitching abotu that and had several people just roll their eyes at me and say, well duh! That's how the touchscreen works).

And yet, they're told to slightly alter how they hold the phone and, "How dare Apple tell us how to use the product!"

It's because of people like you that Apple can get away with telling everyone that they're holding the iPhone wrong. You shouldn't have to deal with it. I never chose how to hold my iPhone, it just came naturally and that is how it should work. We all know how brittle these phones are so holding the top of the phone, instead of supporting the bottom left corner is just asking for trouble.

Oh, and I guess them telling you you have to use your fingers (and not fingernails or wearing gloves unless you want to buy special gloves or if you don't want to get fingerprints on your device having to buy a special stylus) to use the touch screen is them "getting away with stuff". Technology isn't magic. It comes with limitations. Sometimes to do one thing you may have to compromise on another (The type of touchscreen they use now is much more responsive and allows for multiple touch inputs at once).

 

[huntercr]

Apple fix is coming "Stay Tuned"

I just realized Steve Job's statement ( Stay tuned ) is a pun.

But anyway... I think Slashdot found out what Steve really meant when he said stay tuned... he presumably fired some Antenna engineers and is looking to hire new ones:

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/06/30/130205/Apple-Hires-Antenna-Engineers-Really

Oh man, that's gotta sting

 

[2005CTS]

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.

You are correct...the situation is improved over the 3G and 3GS...but the fact remains that the location of the antenna is causing a new set of problems...one that require you to hold it differently (you shouldn't have to) or buy a case (that defeats the new slim design of the phone).

Neither of those are acceptable solutions on a $300.00 phone from a company like Apple. This isn't some cheap start up electronics company fromt the Third World! Part of the appeal of the iPhone4 is the beautiful design of the phone - which in my opinion looks much better than the 3GS with its plastic rounded back. But if the new design is causing problems due to the external antenna...then improved reception when held in mid air or sitting on a desk doesn't do much good.

I am ready to buy an iPhone and even pay the ETF with Verizon to change carriers...but I won't do that until Apple comes up with a better solution than for me to cover up the sexy design with a plastic case.

 

[atomicbatteries]

I'm not returning my phone. I am choosing to keep it, i will use the dam bumper which takes away from the great design, defective as it may be.

I will never forget that Apple released a product knowing it had this problem and created a $30.00 product to cover up their problem and virtually made this the way people could secure better reception for their devices.

It is blatant corporate irresponsibility and consumers have a right to be angry and should be cautious going forward with this pack of liars.

I have lost a lot of respect for Steve Jobs, he's a liar and this kind of karma always comes back to haunt you.

Best of luck going forward Steve!

 

[tigress666]

I just realized Steve Job's statement ( Stay tuned ) is a pun.

But anyway... I think Slashdot found out what Steve really meant when he said stay tuned... he presumably fired some Antenna engineers and is looking to hire new ones:

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/06/30/130205/Apple-Hires-Antenna-Engineers-Really

Oh man, that's gotta sting

Or you know, they could be working on future designs (cause you know, they didn't just come out with the iphone 4), had some people leave for whatever reason, and need more antenna engineers. Could easily be entirely coincidental.

 

[Qtip29]

I have dropped very few calls as a result of this whole issue - not enough to return the phone or warrant anger.

However, I see dramatic slowdown of 3G speeds when holding the phone in the death rip (how many right-handed people hold the phone when using portrait-oriented apps). Despite what this research is saying, data transmission still suffers depending on how you are holding the phone.

I, for one, am in love with the phone. However, I will not put a case on it; I have never used one on any device, and I will not start now. I will be returning it if there is no statement from apple before my return date is here.

 

[atomicbatteries]

I just realized Steve Job's statement ( Stay tuned ) is a pun.

But anyway... I think Slashdot found out what Steve really meant when he said stay tuned... he presumably fired some Antenna engineers and is looking to hire new ones:

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/06/30/130205/Apple-Hires-Antenna-Engineers-Really

Oh man, that's gotta sting

The word presumption is correct. He could be hiring new ones, no indication of people being fired so I caution reader to draw that inference from this job posting.

 

[liavman]

And as the Anandtech articles states, here is the bottom line... There are two different but related action items.

"... The deciding factor for reporting the signal quality metric is then SNR, something Apple and other handset manufacturers will have to move to eventually instead of just power. In reality, reporting based on SNR makes a lot more sense, since I couldn't make calls drop driving around an entire day cupping the phone, despite being at -113 dB (1 bar) most of the time.

"..... At the end of the day, Apple should add an insulative coating to the stainless steel band, or subsidize bumper cases. It's that simple."

 

[CylonGlitch]

Still haven't had one dropped call. Just saying.

Just saying, I hold the phone in my left hand and have had 100% dropped call rate. This is in Orange County, CA - I get 4 or 5 bars everywhere. But every call either fails to go through or drops. This is much worse then my previous 3G.

 

[atomicbatteries]

I am ready to buy an iPhone and even pay the ETF with Verizon to change carriers...but I won't do that until Apple comes up with a better solution than for me to cover up the sexy design with a plastic case.

I would advise not holding your breath on this one mate!
Good luck though, Verizon is such a better carrier, i wish they had something i could live with now, but I'll jump in January if they do in fact get a working iPhone!

 

[citrate]

Oh, and I guess them telling you you have to use your fingers (and not fingernails or wearing gloves unless you want to buy special gloves or if you don't want to get fingerprints on your device having to buy a special stylus) to use the touch screen is them "getting away with stuff". Technology isn't magic. It comes with limitations. Sometimes to do one thing you may have to compromise on another (The type of touchscreen they use now is much more responsive and allows for multiple touch inputs at once).

Are you really comparing this problem to wearing gloves? This isn't a limitation or compromise, it is a fault.

 

[dmelgar]

My favorite part of the review which MacRumors didn't highlight is,

The main downside to the iPhone 4 is the obvious lapse in Apple's engineering judgment. The fact that Apple didn't have the foresight to coat the stainless steel antenna band with even a fraction of an ounce worth of non-conductive material either tells us that Apple doesn't care or that it simply doesn't test thoroughly enough. The latter is a message we've seen a few times before with OS X issues, the iPhone 4 simply reinforces it. At the bare minimum Apple should give away its bumper case with every iPhone 4 sold. The best scenario is for Apple to coat the antenna and replace all existing phones with a revised model.The ideal situation is very costly for Apple but it is the right thing to do. Plus it's not like Apple doesn't have the resources to take care of its customers.​

 

[2005CTS]

I, for one, am in love with the phone. However, I will not put a case on it; I have never used one on any device, and I will not start now. I will be returning it if there is no statement from apple before my return date is here.

I agree with you...I too have never put a case on a smart phone. They should be durable and reliable enough to use without a case. I love Steve Jobs statement about the touch screen phone/tablet - "if you have to use a stylus then you failed" I think the same thing applies to a smart phone...if you have to cover up the design with a case...to reliably use it or withstand normal wear and tear...then your design failed.

Plain and simple.

 

[hackum]

Just saying, I hold the phone in my left hand and have had 100% dropped call rate. This is in Orange County, CA - I get 4 or 5 bars everywhere. But every call either fails to go through or drops. This is much worse then my previous 3G.

Well, according to the article:
Holding it naturally: iPhone 4 gets 19.8, 3GS gets 1.9.

That's a HUGE disadvantage for the iPhone4. Apple should respond to this.

 

[slate1]

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

Yet, oddly, this is counter to what I'm experiencing at home. With my 3g (not "s") I have a marginal signal - maybe 1 or 2 bars at best - and would routinely drop calls or drop to "No Service" unless I moved to a different area of the house.

With the I4, I get from 2-4 bars of coverage and have yet to drop a call. I do have it in an iFrogz case.

 

[citrate]

Well, according to the article:
Holding it naturally: iPhone 4 gets 19.8, 3GS gets 1.9.

That's a HUGE disadvantage for the iPhone4. Apple should respond to this.

I'm glad that someone read the whole artical.

 

[2005CTS]

Are you really comparing this problem to wearing gloves? This isn't a limitation or compromise, it is a fault.

Exactly. Every touch screen phone requires that you take your gloves off...not just the iPhone. But it is just the iPhone that has this external antenna that is causing the issue. The touch screen/gloves issue is not a good comparison to the "how you hold it" issue that is plagueing the iPhone4.

I predict that Apple will quietly work on some sort of a fix and just replace those that complain loud enough like they did with the initially flawed 27" iMac. Apple doesn't like to admit it when they make a mistake as they did on the 27" iMac and as they have clearly done on the iPhone4...but they do eventually get it right. Until then...I will wait.

 

[isotropic]

As an RF engineer I must say, at last some real data

Finally!

As an RF engineer working in 2G and 3G for more than 15 years. I have been wanting to do this kind of analysis but unfortunately I don't own a new iPhone since they are not for sale in Portugal yet.

On the previous iPhones you could dial the number *3001#12345#* to enter a field engineering mode which lets you know of the actual received signal strength that the iPhone is measuring. This seems to have gone away with iOS4. You can give it a try with your phone. The measurement in dBm will show up on the top left corner of your screen.

The values shown on the chart by Anandtech are for 3G measurements since the sensitivity (the smallest measurable signal) of a 2G phone is around -104 dBm (their chart legend and article is wrong, it should read Signal Strength in dBm not dB). The hard truth is that the bars on any phone are useless since they only measure really low signal strengths. The operators/phone manufacturers want you to think that you always have good coverage. A -101 dBm measurement is a really low signal strength even for 3G.
This usually means that you are either far away from the BTS or in a deep indoor environment. In both situations your coverage is very precarious which means that holding the phone or even moving it around can cause significant changes in signal strength (to the worse). The same happens when you use one old antenna for a portable TV or radio.
Also, in 3G (and also in GSM) the signal strength is not good indicator that you'll be able to have good calls quality/throughput. 3G is an interference limited system and the lower your signal strength is higher is the probability that you are interfered. One more justification for dropping calls when you have "a small number of bars".

This proves that a lot of the problems that are being reported are just nonsense and Steve is absolutely right when he says that every single phone will behave the same way in regards to this. I am surprised though that the Anandtech is reporting 20 dB losses by holding the iPhone naturally. That is indeed and lot.

This however does not justify things like the iPhone dropping a call with a femto cell with very high signal strength. But then again we don't know how many units are being affected in this way.

Finally, measuring RF and attenuations is tricky. You can easily make mistakes if you don't have a single controlled source of RF to measure.
For instance, the 1.9 dB loss on the 3Gs by Holding it Naturally is dead wrong. I am absolutely sure about this one.


And believe me. If you sell 1.7 Million phones even a very small percentage will give you weird problems.

And when you are a target as big as Apple is nowadays everyone tries to be in the spotlight by writing something stupid.

 

[Gasu E.]

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.

How many users do you think have been reporting problems. Have you seen a tabulation? How many reports have you seen personally?

There are nearly 2 million users of the iPhone 4. 5% of 2 million is 100,000. 100,000 is a huge number. 1% of 100,000 is 1,000. 1,000 would appear to be a huge number of reports from disgruntled users.

So if 5% of users are experiencing worse drop problems with the iPhone 4 than its predecessor, and 1% of those are "reporting" this, that would account for that huge number of reports from the field. If you don't like my numbers, make it 10% having worse problems. It still accounts for a lot of problem reports while more scientific studies show an improvement for the average user.

 

[dmelgar]

Agree. This isn't a technical problem for Apple, the design is good.

The design stinks. No one did it before because everyone knows not to put an antenna on the outside where it will be touched.

From the article,

The main downside to the iPhone 4 is the obvious lapse in Apple's engineering judgment. The fact that Apple didn't have the foresight to coat the stainless steel antenna band with even a fraction of an ounce worth of non-conductive material either tells us that Apple doesn't care or that it simply doesn't test thoroughly enough.​

 

[KnightWRX]

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.

Hum, did you read the article yourself ? It says that the iPhone 4 suffers greatly from being held in a natural way unless covered with a case. More than any other phones, and WAAAAAAAY more than the older iPhones.

Sure they have improved the antenna, but those improvements are lost instantly the moment you pick up the phone in a natural way.

All you're doing is try to put a positive spin on what is essentially proof that this is a design flaw and that all iPhone 4s are affected. The antenna position was poorly chosen in a bid for form. People not seeing the issue only have better signal in the area in which they are doing their testing.

 

[topmounter]

Glad to see that Anand is still going strong.

Too bad Apple continues to focus almost entirely on hyperbole and sound bytes to respond to this issue / non-issue, while I don't expect SJ to try and explain such involved topics to typical Apple customers, it would be nice to see them release a white paper explaining the issue / non-issue rather than SJ sending out snarky emails.

After reading that article and now that I understand the issue / non-issue, I won't hesitate to buy a white iPhone4 when they are ready.

 

[tigress666]

Are you really comparing this problem to wearing gloves? This isn't a limitation or compromise, it is a fault.

The point being is that you do have touchscreens that you don't need gloves to use. In fact, they used to be the standard touch screen. My ipaq had a screen that required just something pressing on it to work.

No one bitched and whined with the new touch screen that you couldn't wear gloves or use a stylus (ok, the second they did but they adjusted. I know, I was one of those cause I didn't like the idea of fingerprints all over my screen).

To me if you think about it, having to use your fingers is more of a limitation than just re-adjusting your hold (or maybe you just live in a warm climate and never do activities that require you to wear gloves like riding a motorcyle). Point being that the design does require you to use the phone a little differently. It is part of the design so yes, it is a compromise (phone uses weak signals better than the old phone, but you have to make sure you hold it right).