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iPhone 4 Drops Calls when Left Corner is Touched

f00f said:
Was able to reproduce this just fine on my 3G and my fiancé's 3G S. On both phones, on AT&T, bars dropped from 5 to 1 -- using my right hand. This is normal behavior ....
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really? cause I have a 3GS and I cannot reproduce it for the life of me. Maybe I have cold, dead, non-conductive hands...

but let's all get serious and stop defending the problem... we should discuss (1) whether or not you are affected, and (2) come up with a temporary fix until Apple steps in.
 
hexagonheat said:
If Apple purposely designed the iPhone4 such that it can't make calls when holding it with your left hand then they really have gone insane. This is unintended and is not supposed to happen. It is ludicrous to assume that Apple should have told everyone not to touch the left corner when making a call. This is a flaw.
Click to expand...

This is basic engineering...unfortunately you do have the hold the phone in your hand somehow. Palming the Nokia 6230i but not a good idea. Unless you are planning to mount the phone somewhere in free space, and never hold it to your face (i.e. using BT), you will have a signal change when hold a cell phone.

It is what it is...a simple fact of RF antenna design in cell phones...and I've seen antenna designs that make use of the fact that the phone will be next to your face...
 
f00f said:
Was able to reproduce this just fine on my 3G and my fiancé's 3G S. On both phones, on AT&T, bars dropped from 5 to 1 -- using my right hand. This is normal behavior when intentionally obstructing the cell antenna. Trouble with iPhone 4 is this is extremely easy to do given the antenna is external and the core structure onto which we are meant to hold.
Click to expand...
What exactly do you do? I can't reproduce this on my 3G no matter how I hold it, or how I envelop the thing in my hands.
I'm in Belgium on Proximus.
 
Master Chief said:
Try this; Disable 3G in settings!!!
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I tried.

When on 3G I have full bars. I short the two antennas and get 1 bar and web pages can not load until I separate the antennas (i just put a penny to connect them together and remove the penny to go back to normal /untouched phone/antennas).
When on EDGE I have 4 bars. I short the two antennas and get 2 bars. Web pages will still load properly.

Hum...
 
Good video, hail to the maker..

This will ruin Apple's day for sure, and unfortunately will grow into something big... watch the Apple haters jump on this :eek:
 
I don't own an iPhone, but I've found that signal reducing when holding a phone is reasonably common. Someone earlier said that wearing thick rubber gloves didn't improve the issue - so evidently conduction between the exterior aerial and the user isn't causing the problem.

It could conceivably be due to capacitive coupling between the hand and the aerial, in a similar process to how a theremin works. If that's the case, then the bumpers won't help.
 
the only real test

The only REAL test will be if while in a call,holding the phone next to your face, you actually drop more calls.

From what I've read so far, the iPhone 4 is dropping less calls.

You guys with no engineering experience need to cool down a bit here...
 
I managed to do this once. and it was only 1 bar that went down from full bars to 4 bars. I keep trying, but most of the time it seems fine, and only some times 1 bar goes down. I think thats typical with phones.
 
viewfly said:
The only REAL test will be if while in a call,holding the phone next to your face, you actually drop more calls.

From what I've read so far, the iPhone 4 is dropping less calls.

You guys with no engineering experience need to cool down a bit here...
Click to expand...

No need to be an engineer really. It's as simple as that: if I put the phone by it self on the desk, i can browse/load pages just fine (on 3G). If I hold the phone with my left hand (and inevitably have my palm touching the bottom left corner), to browse the web, then it just stops loading, the data transfer is down to 0. When release the phone and hold it without touching left corner it will instantly resume loading the web page... I tried enough time to be sure it's not random.

So if I want to use my iphone 4 for calling or be on the web I have to hold it in a certain manner... That's a bit annoying.
 
viewfly said:
This is basic engineering...unfortunately you do have the hold the phone in your hand somehow. Palming the Nokia 6230i but not a good idea. Unless you are planning to mount the phone somewhere in free space, and never hold it to your face (i.e. using BT), you will have a signal change when hold a cell phone.

It is what it is...a simple fact of RF antenna design in cell phones...
Click to expand...

I work as an Electrical Engineer so I am well aware of the RF antenna limitations and interference but the placement of the antenna looks to be a design flaw is what I am saying. If you can not hold the phone in a normal position with either hand then it is an issue. If the antenna was located such that the phone could not be held at the top above the earpiece that would be a different story but it as it stands, it seems to be located in a very problematic area.
 
viewfly said:
The only REAL test will be if while in a call,holding the phone next to your face, you actually drop more calls.

From what I've read so far, the iPhone 4 is dropping less calls.

You guys with no engineering experience need to cool down a bit here...
Click to expand...

only test?

No, that's just one of many tests. I make a lot of calls while holding the phone not next to my face. Also, this phone is designed to be used for more than just calling.
 
I can make mine lose a bar, but this could easily be a normal fluctuation in signal.
 
viewfly said:
The only REAL test will be if while in a call,holding the phone next to your face, you actually drop more calls.

From what I've read so far, the iPhone 4 is dropping less calls.

You guys with no engineering experience need to cool down a bit here...
Click to expand...

You don't need an engineering degree to understand what happens when you short two antennae together.
 
I wonder how many bumper making companies started overnight in China?:D

I'd rather prefer some plastic coating on it though than using bumpers as the whole point in owning iPhone 4 is because of it's metal banding around the phone for me. It looks way too good compared to any phone out there at present.
 
The iPhone 4 initially has 2 antennas, they separate from the bottom left corner.

Holding the bottom left corner with your palm will result in dropped signals because your connecting the two antennas with a conductor, aka, your skin.

This is very simple knowledge people, an easy fix is to simply grab one antenna, or hold the phone from the back so that it's resting in your palm.

So again, if you don't want to buy something that covers the stainless steel antennas to prevent interference from your skin, make sure your skin isn't connecting the two antennas together.

The best way to hold it while making a call, if you hold it with your right hand, place the pointer and middle finger on the very bottom left corner (just below where the antennas split) and your thumb on the right side (anywhere).

If you use your left hand to take a call, you have to make sure your not touching both sides of the phone. The only way not to connect the two antennas with your left hand is to grab the back pf the phone with your 4 fingers and the front screen or bezel with your thumb.

Remember, any case that covers the stainless steel antennas will solve this issue.

- if there are any typos, I'm using my iPod touch, forgive thee ;)
 
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