http://www.paconsulting.com/our-thinking/pa-consulting-group-iphone-antenna-test-results/
Basicly:
Not touching the point of the death, it works comparable to the other phones. Touching it, and it becomes a brick.
Quote:
In the case of the iPhone the grip avoided bridging the gap between the two antennas. When the death grip was used and the gap bridged, the signal level dropped to the point where it was not possible to conduct the test as the call could not be established to begin with. This effect was not seen when handling either of the other mobiles. Note that all these tests were conducted in a test chamber, calls with the iPhone could still be established outside the chamber even when using the death grip.
Conclusions
The iPhone antenna performance is comparable with the performance of the other mobiles when handled or hands-free, though at the lower end of the range.
All the mobiles suffer attenuation when handled. The so called death grip gives a substantial further drop in performance for the iPhone to the point where we could not quantify it using the same test method.
Putting a rubber band around the iPhone, similar to but not the same as Apples plastic bumper, gave a significant improvement in performance.
Basicly:
Not touching the point of the death, it works comparable to the other phones. Touching it, and it becomes a brick.
Quote:
In the case of the iPhone the grip avoided bridging the gap between the two antennas. When the death grip was used and the gap bridged, the signal level dropped to the point where it was not possible to conduct the test as the call could not be established to begin with. This effect was not seen when handling either of the other mobiles. Note that all these tests were conducted in a test chamber, calls with the iPhone could still be established outside the chamber even when using the death grip.
Conclusions
The iPhone antenna performance is comparable with the performance of the other mobiles when handled or hands-free, though at the lower end of the range.
All the mobiles suffer attenuation when handled. The so called death grip gives a substantial further drop in performance for the iPhone to the point where we could not quantify it using the same test method.
Putting a rubber band around the iPhone, similar to but not the same as Apples plastic bumper, gave a significant improvement in performance.