iPhone 4 Signal Strength Indicator Issue Alleviated by Use of Bumper or Case

[MaxZ.]

i hear over and ove r"lucky im righthanded" or "lefties have a problem"
....actualy righthanded have a problem here. lefties wont even notice... why?
im righthanded and i hold my iphone left and navigate the touchscreen with my
right hand. feels very unnatural to dial or surf the phone with the left hand.

all those who say "lucky im righthanded" never used an iphone i guess.

 

[Espo]

I wonder if this would be an issue to those who put the wrapsol or any clear film around the antenna.

 

[carmenodie]

this will be redesigned for revision B

 

[CFreymarc]

Got my phone at the apple store today and I've been trying to replicate the reception problem and I haven't been able to.

That is because you are cool so the DBD (douche bag detector) sensor didn't engage so the firmware didn't alter the reception to intentionally upset you.

It is a genius device. Have the system detect jerk, the hardware automatically becomes a jerk back to them and they stay away from the user community.

I love it!

 

[azentropy]

Tried this myself. Is there any way to look at what frequencies the phone is using when the drop happens?

When I tried it at work (about an hour away from home and in EDGE only land) I could not reproduce the issue.

At home on a 3G network I can make the bars drop.

I'm able to reproduce it on 3G and Edge. I usually use a case anyway. I didn't get a bumper or one that fits the 4 perfectly yet, but the one from my iPhone 3G works well enough.

 

[Vulpinemac]

I can't comment on iPhone production, but I do know that prototype Macs were built internally, and Apple QA tests using those units. There was only minimal testing on the actual production units built in Foxconn/Alphatop etc.

If the same is true for iPhone now, it's easy to see how a manufacturing defect could bypass Apple's quality control.

I would have to disagree, unless their original test units had some sort of coating on the exterior steel. I've noticed in the past that Steve Jobs almost always uses a mere three fingers when holding his iPhone--even the earlier versions--so he literally may not have considered the issue while his designers flat overlooked it. Quite simply, they were so deep into the design that they flat forgot the everyday factors of use--like holding it with your whole hand. My guess is that they believed nobody would be holding the phone down that close to the corner and so would never cause any significant issues.

 

[mdickerson]

Impedance does care. By pressing hard, you're changing the impedance of your skin at that contact point--more flesh getting compressed lowers the skin's impedance.

Impedance, as I'm describing it, is the relative resistance of human skin. It is a variable, but measurable value.

Except that the impedance of your skin is very high relative to the characteristic impedance of the antenna. Antennae are typically designed for a 50 ohm impedance. If you put a high impedance (like you skin) in parallel with it, you still get 50 ohms.

It is highly unlikely that this is a skin conductivity issue as skin has about the same relative permeability as rubber. Instead, this is likely a capacitance issue messing up the VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio) and causing some of the energy to be reflected back (reducing the forward energy). I just emulated this with some equipment sitting right in front of me and the S11 of my antenna (similar measurement as VSWR) went up significantly when I touched it. Because the VSWR is periodic, some frequencies will see a resonant enhancement and others a significant loss.

MSEE, 20 yrs experience.

 

[satcomer]

Just another reason why you should always wait for round two of anything Brand Spankin new... even if it's an Apple Product.

+1000 Someday these early adopters will learn!

 

[phas3]

has anyone tried to do this outside your house and inside your house to see if the same problem occurs?

 

[paul4339]

I wish Apple would put out a statement in layman’s terms for the benefits of this design so people wouldn't be so worked up.

I'm an RF engineer with an EE degree and 10 years of experience. By touching the antenna your body becomes part of the circuit essentially making one large antenna. This improves reception considerably. Remeber old rabbit ears on your tv? You use to move them with your hands, when you touched them the picture was clear, as soon as you let go it got worse? It made it hard to tune them in. Same thing applies here. The bars decreasing when touched is a software glitch because the impedance has changed on the circuit, the software is simply calibrated to not being held.

As far as shorting it out, some simple isolation barriers take care of that, so no worries.

Where in my hand do I need to insert those barriers?

no need for barriers inserted into your hand... the trick is to create "old rabbit ears" with your index and fore fingers to improve signal strength, while holding the edges of the phone with your thumb and ring fingers... it's really no big deal. And besides unlike a stylus or rabbit ears, you'll never misplace your fingers.
And if that doesn't work, try raising your other arm above your head while doing the above... that should work. Once again, no worries.

P.

 

[rogeraak]

Do we know it is without coating? Nope.

Yes, we know, if signal drop at touching an uncoated metal antenna. If it were coated, the signal would not drop at touching. I would never use metal casing as antenna. It is asking for trouble.

 

[rmiller065]

Just another reason why you should always wait for round two of anything Brand Spankin new... even if it's an Apple Product.

This isn't the first iPhone that has been pushed into production

 

[NC MacGuy]

Seems like Apple sold a bunch of really nice iPods with intermittent phone/3g functionality. Can't you just use facetime with wifi? Problem solved!

 

[rmiller065]

Yes, we know, if signal drop at touching an uncoated metal antenna. If it were coated, the signal would not drop at touching. I would never use metal casing as antenna. It is asking for trouble.

Maybe Apple will furnish all iPhone4 owners with a small bottle of coating that we can all slap on our metal casing

 

[jrcsh6]

i like the "just use a bumper idea" it's like getting a car and telling people after the fact that there's a problem but if you wrap a huge tire around the car there won't be a problem.

...that said i'm waiting for an agent 18 case. i wonder what apple will do? replace phones and give a free dock and bumper "sorry kit"?

 

[CupertinoBob]

This isn't the first iPhone that has been pushed into production

Why do so many people who do not have an iPhone 4 and do not ever intend to get an iPhone 4 come here? I mean I will never buy a Maserati, but darned if I am going to find some forum and whine and moan about all of my imagined shortcomings of the Maserati. Surely people have more important things to do than read about something they don't care about. Boggles the mind.

 

[Tsunami911]

Not a hardware defect...

Software patch is in the works which will send an electrical shock through your body should you mistakenly block the iPhone4's signal.

Thank you for your patience.

- Steve

 

[Kadin]

Just got off the phone with AppleCare. Really cool guy I dealt with and he's got a bumper on the way to me at their expense. Should get here tomorrow. They know about the issue and he reported that even people there in the call center are seeing it with theirs. Now this was a decision he came to, to send the bumper, so your experience may vary.

But I'd urge everyone that's having this issue to call so they can log it and follow up with you on additional measures to fix this. A free bumper while nice still isn't a 'fix' to me so I got a point of contact now that I can touch base with.

 

[mdelrossi]

Invisible Scotch tape

Just did mine,
Works great, just be sure to cover the black band as well.
Hardly notice it, but this still sucks.

 

[Vorst]

Yes, we know, if signal drop at touching an uncoated metal antenna. If it were coated, the signal would not drop at touching. I would never use metal casing as antenna. It is asking for trouble.

Again I tried it on my BB curve and the iphone 3GS and got a dramatic drop of signal when I put my hand around it. Why would the iPhone 4 be different?
I just don't get it, that everybody starts to panic about this.

 

[Fliesen]

Yes, we know, if signal drop at touching an uncoated metal antenna. If it were coated, the signal would not drop at touching. I would never use metal casing as antenna. It is asking for trouble.

could still be a manufacturing flaw then, a (very big, but still limited) batch of units

 

[Fliesen]

I would have to disagree, unless their original test units had some sort of coating on the exterior steel. I've noticed in the past that Steve Jobs almost always uses a mere three fingers when holding his iPhone--even the earlier versions--so he literally may not have considered the issue while his designers flat overlooked it. Quite simply, they were so deep into the design that they flat forgot the everyday factors of use--like holding it with your whole hand. My guess is that they believed nobody would be holding the phone down that close to the corner and so would never cause any significant issues.

i find it funny how everyone thinks a company having developed and designed this product for over a year would make these rookie mistakes. how dumb do you think they are, seriously?!
"FORGOT the everyday factors of use?" ... how can you even REMOTELY think that a company designing a phone would FORGET that people actually HOLD it and therefore create such a dramatic flaw by DESIGN?!

but that's exactly my point.
The sheer impossibleness of them forgetting, 'overlooking' or not considering these very obvious dangers of external antennae, leads me to absolute certainty, that it's a manufacturing problem.

 

[kdarling]

I bet some reviewers are kicking themselves that they missed this one.

And the field testers are getting an earful from their boss as well.

Apple should've handed out naked prototypes to some of the people around here... instead of pro-Apple reviewers and case-using company field testers. Then they would've found out about it long ago.

 

[brentsg]

i called my apple store, the guy i talked to said we haven't heard anything about this, are u serious buddy its all over the internet, i said see u later i'll be down there inperson, moron

Perhaps he's been furiously working, handing out new iPhones all day long. It's unlikely he's had time to dick around on the internet much today.

 

[NC MacGuy]

I bet some reviewers are kicking themselves that they missed this one.

And the field testers are getting an earful from their boss as well.

Apple should've handed out naked prototypes to some of the people around here... instead of pro-Apple reviewers and bar-going field testers. Then they would've found out about it long ago.

Actually Engadget reported they have problems w. production units too but that their pre-production test unit didn't show any of the left-hand-signal-dropping issues.