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iPhone 4 Signal Declines While Being Held? A Longstanding Issue?

This has happened on just about every 3G mobile phone I have ever owned, including ones from Nokia, Samsung and LG.

It is related to the frequency of the band that 3G operates in, more than antenna design. 3G signals just don't penetrate any objects as well as 2G and other radio services in different bands, hence why there are more masts / towers for 3G networks than any other type of network.

What would make more sense, would be a review of the iPhone 4's reception against other 3G handsets.

Phil
 
Here is the thread that shows Apple knew about "color uniformity" when using LED lighting. This was before the release of the iMac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/872918/

I think we can all be pretty sure Apple knew about this too. It remains to be seen what the feedback will be after tomorrow (or today I guess if you're one of "those" types ;) )
 
wschutz said:
Believe what you want... but if you remember, that "lost" iPhone was enclosed in a case... and probably most of the field tests were done with some kind of enclosure given Apple's secrecy...
I wouldn't be surprised that they did very little testing without enclosure and out of the lab...

For me, it makes perfect sense... the phone works but under certain conditions which they didn't test properly, it doesn't as it is expected... they realised it was too late to halt the development as they have forced themselves to release a brand new design every year... so... they went ahead and created the bumpers :) Of course I'm speculating ;)

Though we'll have more info today about this possible design flaw ;)
Click to expand...

If you believe that 3GS was just a backup plana and they were working on this iPhone for a very long time it's impossible miss this, so the only other explanations are that this is just a conincidence and only some phones will suffer from this issue or they comletely ignored the problem they knew about.

Any other possibilities?
 
Lord Vader said:
If you believe that 3GS was just a backup plana and they were working on this iPhone for a very long time it's impossible miss this, so the only other explanations are that this is just a conincidence and only some phones will suffer from this issue or they comletely ignored the problem they knew about.

Any other possibilities?
Click to expand...

You need to be more mindful of your sentence structure. I tried to read this comment twice before deciding it was too incoherent to bother deciphering.
 
Lord Vader said:
If you believe that 3GS was just a backup plana and they were working on this iPhone for a very long time it's impossible miss this, so the only other explanations are that this is just a conincidence and only some phones will suffer from this issue or they comletely ignored the problem they knew about.

Any other possibilities?
Click to expand...

It can't be a coincidence, since the principle is based on simple physical properties. Note, I am not an electrical engineer, but I can understand the information I read at least. This seems like this would have been a day 1 thing to put the kibosh on. I am sure any engineer would know this (as another poster noted, they put in seams to separate the bands!). At the moment, sounds like another form over function example for Apple.
 
azazel- said:
In 15 years of consistent, multi-carrier cell phone usage, I have never owned a cell phone, or for that matter even seen a cell phone that completely dropped all signal strength from merely touching the case, or picking it up. To suggest that this is a normal occurrence is utterly preposterous. Some signal loss, fine. I'll bite. But to completely drop all signal from handling the device? I'm sorry, no.

It may not be a big deal, or it might be an easy fix. But to sit here and say that this is normal is idiotic and insulting to the nth degree.
Click to expand...

I couldn't have said it better myself
 
Wear a rubber?

Tyre said:
Anyone know if the bumpers could help with this? I don't know what how cell reception is affected by rubber but it seems to me that it may help.
Click to expand...

As much as I love Apple, iPhone 4 is not the right one for me if I have to wear a rubber the whole time. ;)
 
I can get mad when some people saying this happens to all the iphones (incl. 3GS and 3GS)

THATS BS and I hope nobody listens to them. (I also hope the ones how say bias crap get there phone stolen)

If the Iphone 4G drops signal only by holding it.... then its a crappy device and Apple should not sell one more Iphone 4G until they fixed it.
 
By no means am I trying to be a troll, but doesn't this happen someone frequently w/ Apple or any new technology?

I remember the first iPod Touches had screen issues and things of that nature. Early adopters always take a risk. If I think about it I could probably dig up 2 or three other examples w/ in the last 5 years.

That being said, I truly feel for all of you who are experiencing this problem - must truly suck
 
wschutz said:
Believe what you want... but if you remember, that "lost" iPhone was enclosed in a case... and probably most of the field tests were done with some kind of enclosure given Apple's secrecy...
I wouldn't be surprised that they did very little testing without enclosure and out of the lab...

For me, it makes perfect sense... the phone works but under certain conditions which they didn't test properly, it doesn't as it is expected... they realised it was too late to halt the development as they have forced themselves to release a brand new design every year... so... they went ahead and created the bumpers :) Of course I'm speculating ;)

Though we'll have more info today about this possible design flaw ;)
Click to expand...

Hey—I'm with you, but this sounds like something Apple could have tested in a lab. Afterall, it doesn't take field testing to know if physical contact will cause signal loss. It is both foreseeable and reproducible; and I doubt Apple couldn't see it coming.

In my gut, I believe there is a widespread manufacturing defect in play. Think about it: even with rabbit ear TVs, a good antenna will not be effected by physical contact. I wish I could find out what the defect is. Grounding problems?
 
I don't know why the iPhone has such trouble with signals. I've owned mobile phones for 10 years now and none of them had any kinds of signal problems whatsoever. I have never had a dropped call and I have never had any kind of problems with calls. I now have a Nokia 5310 and I can say that the signal strength bars are always at 100%, no matter where I am, whether I'm in the car, on the metro, in a fast moving train or in the middle of nowhere, and no matter how I pick it up.

Can't just Apple put the same antenna in the iPhone that other phones have? Other phones don't have problems with signal.
 
baryon said:
I don't know why the iPhone has such trouble with signals. I've owned mobile phones for 10 years now and none of them had any kinds of signal problems whatsoever. I have never had a dropped call and I have never had any kind of problems with calls. I now have a Nokia 5310 and I can say that the signal strength bars are always at 100%, no matter where I am, whether I'm in the car, on the metro, in a fast moving train or in the middle of nowhere, and no matter how I pick it up.

Can't just Apple put the same antenna in the iPhone that other phones have? Other phones don't have problems with signal.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

Do a little research before posting. "Other phones don't have problems with signal"? Please.
 
flapperdink said:
i'm not overly surprised. you create three separate antennas on the case, each one is most likely "tuned" to the frequency range it's supposed to operate in, and you short them to each other in your hand and change their characteristic impedance. the body is a high resistance, but it just may have an affect.
Click to expand...
http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=233281&stc=1&d=1277366153
http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=233282&stc=1&d=1277366153
http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=233283&stc=1&d=1277366153
I'm pretty much sure that Apple knew it: the first accessory presented @ WWDC was the "bumper" :eek:

As an EE Engineer and has been worked in microwave area, I'm not surprised with this issue. If you have messed around with microwave electronic circuit then you know the phenomena: you touch the circuit board then you will see something changed ...

The "bumper" will be probably included in the box ! :rolleyes:
 

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Yikes... who's gonna wanna use a phone you can't hold?! This combined with the yellow discolorations on the new screen is disappointing!
 
keyofnight said:
Hey—I'm with you, but this sounds like something Apple could have tested in a lab. Afterall, it doesn't take field testing to know if physical contact will cause signal loss. It is both foreseeable and reproducible; and I doubt Apple couldn't see it coming.

In my gut, I believe there is a widespread manufacturing defect in play. Think about it: even with rabbit ear TVs, a good antenna will not be effected by physical contact. I wish I could find out what the defect is. Grounding problems?
Click to expand...

This is just not true. Other manufacturers have had phones where they say don't touch the antenna, it degrades the signal. You brought up rabbit ears for a TV. I remember when we had one of these when I was a kid, the signal would MASSIVELY change when you touched it, usually for the worse. Again we will see what happens... I was all set to buy one of these, now I'm wondering if I will be able to get one at all!
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
:rolleyes:

Do a little research before posting. "Other phones don't have problems with signal"? Please.
Click to expand...

I've owned like 5 phones so far and I know many people who have owned way more. No one I know had problems with signal, ever. I thought a stable, consistent reception was a given today. I'm sure the iPhone isn't the only phone with this problem, but I'm also sure that the majority of phones don't have any similar issues. The only time I get poor signal is when I'm in a bigger tunnel, and I know that isn't my phone's fault.


Maybe having the antenna exposed is the problem. All other phones have their antennas insulated by plastic, so you never come into direct contact with them. And as people above are talking about TV antennas, it's the same thing, if you touch them, your body becomes an extension to the antenna and it affects the signal in some way. There's a reason the exposed antennas of old mobile phones were covered in thick plastic or rubber, just like GPS receivers today.
 
champ01 said:
I can get mad when some people saying this happens to all the iphones (incl. 3GS and 3GS)

THATS BS and I hope nobody listens to them. (I also hope the ones how say bias crap get there phone stolen)

If the Iphone 4G drops signal only by holding it.... then its a crappy device and Apple should not sell one more Iphone 4G until they fixed it.
Click to expand...

How can you be so sure this is BS... my 3GS does this exactly the same, it's a real pain when you're in an area with poor signal to begin with
 
chill1n said:
Finally, we can move on from all this craziness about reception... all cell phones have always done it... get a Bluetooth head set if it's an issue where you are.

You only drop a bar or two if you're moving around, but if that's all the cell available, then you'll get drop outs or dropped calls. What's absolutely hilarious is it's engrained in the common culture that when you can't get any cell, you run around like an idiot looking for better cell, when that alone is working against you.

If you have no bars, set your phone down. What I've had success at in remote places is setting the phone on the roof of a car, near the driver door (so I can stand on the frame)... and actually make the call using speaker. It sucks, but that's life... and it works sometimes when you'd otherwise be running around like an idiot trying to get cell that you can never get.

btw, informed Jason Chen, author of the fallacious junk science Gizmodo article alleging iPhone 4 has a reception problem... yeah, you know the one I'm talking about... I let him know all cell phones exhibit this behavior, always have... and he BANNED me from Gizmodo. ROFL. So if you have a few minutes to wait for Gizmodo's painful page loads, go ahead and register and post your experiences that what he is reporting is... very very old news. We knew this in 1982 (G1 cell phones the size of a car, the good old days).
Click to expand...


Gizmodo is despicable.
 
pyroza said:
Why are people flaming Gizmodo? Go check out the massive thread in the iPhone forum about multiple users having this same issue. Gizmodo has nothing to do with this.
Click to expand...

They're just bitter that Apple has f**k-ups for employees ("You dropped your pocket. Oh, wait, no... that's the iPhone 4 prototype.") and clearly makes products w/ problems, so they're looking to deflect. Typical fanboyism... hypocritical fanboyism. It's pathetic. Almost makes me ashamed to own so many Apple products I love.
 
Gizmodo bashing here = sour grapes

If this had been Macworld posting this??? Accept Giz one-up'd Apple and move on w/ your empty lives.
 
I've come to realize that you can be called a "fanboy" for defending this issue or for trashing it - seems like a bastardized an useless term now.

All that to say - if you are pissed that your phone is dropping calls, I think you have a right to be. You paid money for something that isn't working as advertised.

I live in China - I can buy an iPhone 4 for 8,000 RMB(~$1,100 USD). In the meantime I'm hoping that if this is an issue, it will get fixed.

Cheers,
B
 
VictorNT said:
http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=233281&stc=1&d=1277366153
http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=233282&stc=1&d=1277366153
http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=233283&stc=1&d=1277366153
I'm pretty much sure that Apple knew it: the first accessory presented @ WWDC was the "bumper" :eek:

As an EE Engineer and has been worked in microwave area, I'm not surprised with this issue. If you have messed around with microwave electronic circuit then you know the phenomena: you touch the circuit board then you will see something changed ...

The "bumper" will be probably included in the box ! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I fully agree with what you said. Why then would any company build a case that only envelopes the antenna and not the rest of the phone? Looks like Apple is deliberately preventing conductive contact with the antennas. The bumper is just an attempt to hide this reception flaw in the disguise of a "phone cover". But to be fair, the Nexus One has suffered from reduced signals from touch on DAY 1, and Google has eventually given up all hope to remedy this. I would say iPhone is not the only phone that suffers from this fate and is only highly publicized because of all the hype.
 
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