Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Droid Incredible Antennagate?

M

mackiwilad

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 21, 2007
69
4
Ask the Goverment!
Hi all,

Mr Gruber just linked to this video about an Incredible having the Death Grip too. Not wanting to start a flame war or anything, but it is interesting that many phones in weak signal areas are so susceptible...

The Incredible does look nice in the vid, but I'm still going to get a iP4. The Death Grip thing doesn't bother me as I always get a case for my phones anyway...

Thoughts?
 
Yep. Like alot of people I was curious and tried it on a bunch of my friends smartphones. Turns out, every single one I did, bars went down. It's simply not just an iPhone 4 issue. I'm very happy with my iPhone 4 and I don't have any problems. Sure if I "death grip" it, it goes from 4 bars to 2, but even then I can still surf the web and make a call. So it's all overblown and pointless.
 
I understand the death grip. Years ago I would hold my iPhone 2G upside-down to get better reception. My iPhone 4 can drop bars from light touches to the metal while on phone calls.
 
For the haters - Steve Jobs, in the press conference, did not say these other phones sucked. He said they were all good phones, but like all Smart Phones, have their challenges and weak spots.

Smart Phones are expected to run all of the following services simultaneously (pretty much): 3G talk, GPS, Blue Tooth, Data, WiFi. HaHa. And they do it pretty, pretty good which is awesome. But if once in a while in some weak spot in the city, it doesn't work absolutely perfectly (but still works!), you ninnies get hysterical like you just found out your daughter is giving it up in the back of Cadillacs for crack.

Learn to cope before your hair falls out.
:apple::D
 
ntrigue said:
I understand the death grip. Years ago I would hold my iPhone 2G upside-down to get better reception. My iPhone 4 can drop bars from light touches to the metal while on phone calls.
Click to expand...

If its truly dropping that many make it happen a few times a day and go to apple. They can run a program to see the data and if it is really happening it is out of spec and WILL be swapped. If not its not happening. (Not saying you are making it up but there are a lot on here who do)
 
bat95132 said:
If its truly dropping that many make it happen a few times a day and go to apple. They can run a program to see the data and if it is really happening it is out of spec and WILL be swapped. If not its not happening. (Not saying you are making it up but there are a lot on here who do)
Click to expand...

I went. Their software at the Genius Bar indicated 11% of calls drop on my iPhone 4. He showed me each day of the week. Unfortunately, a replacement cannot be returned.
 
There is a huge difference between how antenna attenuation works on the iPhone 4 versus all other phones. On all these phones that are being demonstrated as having antenna attenuation, the way to drop bars is to tightly grip the entire back of the phone. The antenna is located inside, either at the top or the bottom, and by covering that entire section of the phone you can get bars to drop. But guess what? It's really unnatural to grip your phone that way. Normally you grip your phone with your palm and fingers holding its sides, with some space between your palm and the back of your phone. Go ahead, try it on your phone and you'll see what I mean. If your palm is making contact with the back of the phone, your fingers are going to be way out in front of the phone, making it pretty much impossible to hold the phone to your ear.

This is why iPhone 4 has antennagate while no other phone has: it has a unique problem, because its antenna is on the side, where people actually do grip the phone normally. All these videos showing antenna attenuation by gripping phones in unnatural positions are pointless.
 
kuaiyouming said:
You guys are still ignoring the true issue at hand (just like Apple wants you to). It's not that "all phones experience signal loss," it's that "the iPhone 4 experiences signal loss to a greater degree than any other phone ever made."

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/970093/
Click to expand...

Well my phone works perfectly fine. If I wasn't able to make calls and surf the web, I'd be returning it and buying a 3GS. But fact is, I hold it anyway I want, and it works perfectly. So there you have it
 
OP - In order to get the bars to drop a hand has to be pressed flat against the bottom half of the phone. Who actually holds a phone like that?

Even the person demonstrating says that if there is even a little bit of space between the phone and ur hand then the bars will not drop. That is not like the ip4 where u just just need to casually hold it with ur left hand.

All these vids showing bars dropping on other phones are dumb because they show people holding the phone in unnatural ways. Like the evo vid... who the hell holds a phone on the top half???
 
wreckshop said:
OP - In order to get the bars to drop a hand has to be pressed flat against the bottom half of the phone. Who actually holds a phone like that?

Even the person demonstrating says that if there is even a little bit of space between the phone and ur hand then the bars will not drop. That is not like the ip4 where u just just need to casually hold it with ur left hand.

All these vids showing bars dropping on other phones are dumb because they show people holding the phone in unnatural ways. Like the evo vid... who the hell holds a phone on the top half???
Click to expand...

Hi Wreckshop,
Thanks for your comment.
I guess (like so many people have said) it depends on how you personally hold the phone. I try and use the headphones whenever possible, but if not and I am on a call I hold it by the fingertips. I sometime hold it flat on the bottom if I am surfing the net or something. Maybe if you had pudgy hands it wouldn't have any space there and drop the bars? :p
 
wreckshop said:
OP -
All these vids showing bars dropping on other phones are dumb because they show people holding the phone in unnatural ways. Like the evo vid... who the hell holds a phone on the top half???
Click to expand...

Who actually holds their iPhone with the "death grip"? I hold my phone in my left hand with my fingers gripping the sides and a couple of fingers on the back for support and I don't drop calls. For people who drop reception by just touching the metal, your phone is defective and needs to be returned. This video is proof that what Jobs said was right. However the iPhone haters will disagree, like always.
 
maddux2005 said:
Well my phone works perfectly fine. If I wasn't able to make calls and surf the web, I'd be returning it and buying a 3GS. But fact is, I hold it anyway I want, and it works perfectly. So there you have it
Click to expand...

Ditto, to infinity and beyond
 
wreckshop said:
OP - In order to get the bars to drop a hand has to be pressed flat against the bottom half of the phone. Who actually holds a phone like that?
Click to expand...

That's the issue. While you can cause the any phone to drop reception, the clear majority seem to be done by holding it in ways that does make it feasible to make a call.

Unfortunately in the iPhone's case its the natural holding position, so people who talk with the phone in the left hand are most affected. Notice I didn't say left handed people. I and my wife are not left handed but we both talk on the phone with the phone in our left hand.
 
Compile 'em all said:
I hate to break it to you but service degradation to the point of ZERO BARS happens on even new phones like the incredible

Please watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4zbQ3f7H0U

Griping the phone like an ape might on any phone bring it down to no service in areas with spotty coverage. And no one grips it like that, when on a call, including the iPhone 4.
Click to expand...

Except on the iPhone 4, the problem occurs if you grip it normally with your left hand,
 
bat95132 said:
If its truly dropping that many make it happen a few times a day and go to apple. They can run a program to see the data and if it is really happening it is out of spec and WILL be swapped. If not its not happening. (Not saying you are making it up but there are a lot on here who do)
Click to expand...


Funny I did that with my first 4 and they only said it was the carrier, they blame all reception issues on AT&T. I asked them to replace it all they said was either I keep it and deal with it, or return it, so I returned it because that was not a cool way to handle a customer, and I do buy a lot of Apple products, but not from that store anymore, in fact Best Buy has treated me well and I may just be getting everything from them in the future.
 
For kicks, I did some death grippage on my cheapo Samsung Mantra Virgin Mobile phone. And I was able to re-produce it. So even non-smartphones will do it. Though I did have to squeeze the christmas out of it. And it only seemed to drop while I was using data (checking email, websites).
 
SexyBeast said:
Who actually holds their iPhone with the "death grip"? I hold my phone in my left hand with my fingers gripping the sides and a couple of fingers on the back for support and I don't drop calls. For people who drop reception by just touching the metal, your phone is defective and needs to be returned. This video is proof that what Jobs said was right. However the iPhone haters will disagree, like always.
Click to expand...

Well seems like there are a lot of defective iphone 4s out there then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back