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

no-one seems to be addressing the question of how far I need to hold my new iPhone from my tin-foil hat in order to reduce interference?
 
Got mine this morning ( I live in the UK ) and I can also duplicate the signal loss holding the left corner. It's very bizarre and disappointing. I would have thought that apple themselves would have posted at least an acknowledgment to the issue, even if it isn't affecting all users.

I guess we shall just have to see.
 
This freaked me out last night when I first experienced it. After about 10 minutes of experimentation, I narrowed it down to the "bridging the antennae" and "lower left corner" issues.

I threw a loose, thick InCase 3G case on it that I had laying around, and the variability vanished. So, now I'm doing what I would have been doing this morning anyways... going to HandHeldItems and getting a case and set of screen protectors. (looking for discount codes at DealNews first, mind you) In the mean-time, I just need to cut a camera/led-hole the right size in my InCase.

I'm sure a portion of this can be remedied with some fancy-schmancy spread-spectrum dancing down the road, but I think AT&T and Apple need to get some real-world sample data before the "optimal" algorithm can be figured out.
 
Yes the antenna bridge thing is a big problem but I think I have a defective one because I can sit with my old 3G (now my wife’s) and my 4 and the 3G has perfect 3G strength and the 4 only 1 bar of 3G and I have a rubber bumper. :(
 
robogobo said:
Bars are never an accurate representation of signal strength. Most likely the signal is extremely weak and the higher bars are inaccurate. This has happened with every phone I've ever owned, not just iPhones. Cell signals are extremely susceptible to interference. Just consider times when you have a bad signal and moving your head an inch to one side improves things dramatically. I doubt the degrading signal would happen near a tower during transmission.
Click to expand...

Wrong.

I have a Microcell. 3 feet from the microcell I can replicate the problem on two iPhone 4s, every time. Touch the lower left to bridge the antennae, and it goes from 5 bars to searching, and drops the call.
 
What happens if you put some clear tape around the edge? If it's the hand actually shorting the antenna there should be an easy fix, like clear coating the metal.
 
From the forums at apple.com, it seems like it might be a problem with the iOS4.


While I have my doubts, I'd like to ask someone to try something:

- Use the iPhone OS 3 on an iPhone 3GS, and check if holding the iPhone in any particular way lowers the signal reception.
- Upgrade the iPhone 3GS's OS to iOS 4.0, and see if the problem remains.

Apparently some users it also happens in the 3GS. I say we use that to our advantage and troubleshoot this thing.
 
ok so to conclude… if you have the problem, hold your iPhone 4 differently for the moment and when the lines go down a bit GO to your nearest Apple Store or Call Apple and open a claim and they will surely replace it or they will tell you that they are investigating the issue if its software related and wait for a software upgrade to get it fixed.

The case you know you were gonna get anyways because its stupid not to put such an expensive device in a case… be it a bumper or a speck, incase, griffin, marware, or whatever… GET ONE

And enjoy your iphone 4 and know that Apple is looking into this, but do make the call or the visit to make the issues known to Apple.

Happy iPhoning!

and yes I work for Apple and they told me to tell you all this...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

VicMacs said:
ok so to conclude… if you have the problem, hold your iPhone 4 differently for the moment and when the lines go down a bit GO to your nearest Apple Store or Call Apple and open a claim and they will surely replace it or they will tell you that they are investigating the issue if its software related and wait for a software upgrade to get it fixed.

The case you know you were gonna get anyways because its stupid not to put such an expensive device in a case… be it a bumper or a speck, incase, griffin, marware, or whatever… GET ONE

And enjoy your iphone 4 and know that Apple is looking into this, but do make the call or the visit to make the issues known to Apple.

Happy iPhoning!

and yes I work for Apple and they told me to tell you all this...
Click to expand...

Get a case eh? What about those of us that prefer slipcases or pouches for their phones?



On that situation you would still be grounding the antenna whenever you wanted to use it.
 
Blues003 said:
F
Apparently some users it also happens in the 3GS. I say we use that to our advantage and troubleshoot this thing.
Click to expand...
Well, I'm using iOS4 on the 3GS I brought in July and am not replicating this problem, even holding it with both hands - so I have a hard time buying into it being a problem with iOS 4 itself.

It sounds like just putting a case on the iPhone 4 solves the issue, or am I missing something else here?
 
ok guys, I'm the guy that finished posting twice that this what not happening to me. Well here is an UPDATE. When I'm in an area with Good or Great signal it DOES NOT happen. When I'm in an area with Poor or Bad signal it happens. This is very interesting.

Took off bold (sorry)
 
OnNightfall said:
ok guys, I'm the guy that finished posting twice that this what not happening to me. Well here is an UPDATE. When I'm in an area with Good or Great signal it DOES NOT happen. When I'm in an area with Poor or Bad signal it happens. This is very interesting.

Took off bold (sorry)
Click to expand...

I noticed this also. Where the signal is really strong it is not a problem, but if the signal is weaker, like in my house, it becomes a major issue.
 
Apple Support Fixed My Issue

So I called Apple about the bars dropping on the iPhone 4 when held in my left hand. They had me "Reset Network Settings". Problem solved! The bars no longer drop out when the phone is held in my left hand.
 
anthony808 said:
So I called Apple about the bars dropping on the iPhone 4 when held in my left hand. They had me "Reset Network Settings". Problem solved! The bars no longer drop out when the phone is held in my left hand.
Click to expand...

Ha! Epic Fail for the retarded public! Apple FTW.

Reset network settings to fix a network issue!?!?! OH MY GOD WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT!?!?!?!?

ok, so whats the next thing to whine about?
 
anthony808 said:
So I called Apple about the bars dropping on the iPhone 4 when held in my left hand. They had me "Reset Network Settings". Problem solved! The bars no longer drop out when the phone is held in my left hand.
Click to expand...

is this the official fix?
 
anthony808 said:
So I called Apple about the bars dropping on the iPhone 4 when held in my left hand. They had me "Reset Network Settings". Problem solved! The bars no longer drop out when the phone is held in my left hand.
Click to expand...

Dude!!! This fixed it for me. WoooooHooooo!
 
anthony808 said:
So I called Apple about the bars dropping on the iPhone 4 when held in my left hand. They had me "Reset Network Settings". Problem solved! The bars no longer drop out when the phone is held in my left hand.
Click to expand...

Should we do it before each call?
 
anthony808 said:
So I called Apple about the bars dropping on the iPhone 4 when held in my left hand. They had me "Reset Network Settings". Problem solved! The bars no longer drop out when the phone is held in my left hand.
Click to expand...

Tell me this isn't the fix...tell me this isn't the fix...lol

Will other iPhone 4 owners be able to confirm?
 
Between this, the yellow spots and the ordering fiasco . . . what a colossal mess!
 
anthony808 said:
So I called Apple about the bars dropping on the iPhone 4 when held in my left hand. They had me "Reset Network Settings". Problem solved! The bars no longer drop out when the phone is held in my left hand.
Click to expand...

I just did that on my phone here, but will be a true test once I take it back home, where I was noticing the issue. I work in a downtown location, so my signal strength is greater in my office location.
 
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