How does a case improve reception?

[macfilm]

Hi, maybe this is a stupid question but the issue with iPhone 4 was when you cover the antenna "line" you loose bars, then why does wrapping a case around the phone and covering it completely HELP reception? I'm just curious.

Cheers

 

[Bandolier]

Who told you it improves reception? The case just disables your hand from coming into contact with the spot.

 

[shakeman0]

Having a case on the phone prevents your skin from touching the lower left had corner of the device and bridging the current, an easy fix for the anntenuation.

Hope this helped,

 

[TruckdriverSean]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

The iPhone 4 antenna issue is really a two-part thing.

1) Covering the antenna with a fat, dense, fleshy material. (your hand) This can effect any phone, and is what Jobs wanted to talk about during the press conference. (remember the videos of competing phones dropping bars?)

2) Bridging the antenna gap. This is the issue that is specific to the iPhone 4. Apple didn't talk directly about this issue, but this is what the case fixes.

In either case, you may or may not notice the issue depending on how the signal is in your area.

 

[macfilm]

OK so it's a finger thing, I was just curious how covering it with a case prevented bars from dropping as much cause when I lightly place my finger over the line the bars decrease until I get no service so hopefully getting a case will prevent this from happening. I just didn't get how the line can tell the difference between a finger and a case.

 

[roffir]

OK so it's a finger thing, I was just curious how covering it with a case prevented bars from dropping as much cause when I lightly place my finger over the line the bars decrease until I get no service so hopefully getting a case will prevent this from happening. I just didn't get how the line can tell the difference between a finger and a case.

Your finger can carry a current(conduct electricity), while plastic cannot. Therefore your finger will short both pieces of metal (it carries a current form one to the other).

 

[macfilm]

Your finger can carry a current(conduct electricity), while plastic cannot. Therefore your finger will short both pieces of metal (it carries a current form one to the other).

Wow, did not know that, thanks for the info! This is all starting to make a little more sense.

 

[Night Spring]

Wow, did not know that, thanks for the info! This is all starting to make a little more sense.

Btw, fingers carrying current is how iPhone touch screen works. If you touch it with something that doesn't carry current (like, say, you touch it while wearing gloves), it won't work.

 

[colder]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_loss