How long to wait to ask for a replacement?

I hit my breaking point today with the new iPhone. I live in NH and have battled signal issues since the first iPhone. A lot of money (MicroCell, signal boosters, etc) later i had the 3GS up and running pretty well to match my routine. My office has horrible reception but the signal booster worked well enough to stream audio, etc. after meticulous positioning.

So I got the new iPhone on launch day and immediately felt like something was wrong. The signal has been nothing short of horrible. I had "field test" mode enabled on my 3GS and it carried over to the iphone 4 on the restore (so I can see signal in decibels). On average in a dock, I get 10-15 db less service. Picking up the phone in any way gives me 15-25 db less and touching the "magic spot" gives me "searching" within 10 seconds without failure. I've seen it drop from -71 to -113 to searching with the "magic spot" touching my palm.

So this week I lost my ability to stream audio of World Cup games on the ESPN app (my work blocks basically every web site that has any streaming). I lost my ability to hold my phone and do anything. To top it off... a co-worker asked me "Is that the new iPhone?!" and after confirmation asked if he could touch the "magic spot" to make the signal disappear. Within minutes there was a group gathered watching the bars rise and drop. I've had the past 3 iPhones and I never thought I would see a reaction like this.

Finally today, a co-worker came in with an iPhone delivered on 06/30. No problems at all and better signal than I ever had. You could lick the "magic spot" and nothing would happen to the signal. I DON'T GET THIS?!

So my point is... how long should/can I wait to get a replacement? I don't want to rush to it and get another bum unit.

 

Yes. He was sitting next to me in my office. He had 3 bars of 3g in hand and I was showing -107 db or 0 bars of Edge (which does nothing) in the official dock. He handed me the phone, i pressed my thumb against the "spot" and nothing. I was able to load espn radio app with no issues. I continued to hold the phone more naturally for me (left hand and my palm hits that black band area) and I never saw a signal fluctuation or interruption in streaming.

 

I've had two SIMs because "technically" my wife jumped ship to AT&T from Verizon and got the iPhone 4 for $299. I then added her to a family plan and we swapped devices but I needed a new SIM because of the micro-sim. Hers looked different but in the full day I had it with her SIM and phone number, I saw the same exact thing. FWIW I tried the stupid electrical tape on edge of SIM card thing on my SIM card and it did nada.

 

I am home so I just have it hooked up to the M-Cell but seriously, is this normal? I picked it up and shifted it in my palm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er7vv339CJo

and another... I just broke my personal indoor record by losing 46 db in roughly 1.5 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOCZeOK_SP0