Best Sounding Solution (Beware - Mod)
I don't get it. I wonder if in mounting the case it at times touches the antenna if care isn't taken. just a theory but repeatedly putting on and taking off the case may compress the insulation. I put it on and haven't messed with it. I still get 4 even on occasion 5 bars (rare). with the apple bumper I was getting 3 bars. I was watching it after ios 4.02 up to the time the vapor arrived in preparation.
I guess I should consider myself lucky. the Greenberg group's review certainly shows that is rarely the case. Of course they were all testing in the same office and/or the same city.
I've been lurking this thread as well as the first one that was closed since the first part of August when I first saw a picture of this case on a tech website. I have been coveting this thing ever since. I put in my pre-order request shortly afterward, and have heard nothing yet, but that is another issue. I know alot of folks would like this thing to work right out of the box and I totally agree. For something you pay that much for - it should. So I just want to put that out there right away.
With all blame, conjecture, what ifs and should haves aside, I really think that what archrider has touched upon here is the answer to about 95% (if not 100%) of the problems most have been seeing with the Vapor 4. I believe that a full insulating barrier around the inside of the case - and what it would do to alleviate signal issues for most, if not all radios on the iphone 4 - would be enough to convince a lot of people to keep it. Of course their willingness to modify the case themselves will factor into it until Element realizes (if they haven't already with version 3) that this should be integral to its design, so if you don't even want to consider trying to mod this thing, by all means, send it back or sell it on eBay. But to me, it sounds like such an easy fix for such a major issue. Of course this is all speculation on my part, but it's based on comments from people like archrider and the fact that in the many pictures I've seen of the thing, the padding appears to be way too sparse as well as way too compressible, that I really do think this is a fixable issue for the consumer - if they're willing to give it a try.
With that said, and the fact that I don't yet have a case to try it on, I've done some research on what I thought could be used on the inside of this case. The criteria I used was high impact, compression resistant, non-conductive, one sided foam tape that had to come in a 1/4 inch width (the width of the antenna on the iphone) and be no more than 2mm thick. What I found was 3m Urethane Foam Tape 4116. It comes in the quarter inch width and is 1.6mm thick. With that thickness there will be some compression to get the case on, but I believe if you remove the "high tech" stuff before you apply this, it should compress just enough to provide a nice, tight - but still cushioning - cradle as well as enough standoff between phone and case to prevent any contact between the two. The nice thing about this stuff is that both Home Depot and Lowes carry it - at least they do in Albuquerque.
So, barring me from receiving a third version that addresses this issue, I'll be doing this to my case when it comes with a high level of confidence that it will fix most if not all of the reception problems being seen now.
So now all I need now is someone who already has a case to use as a guinea pig - lol!
