iPhone 4S Seems to Fix 'Death Grip' Antenna Issue

[baileyw813]

Still has some issues

When holding in landscape (to watch a uTube video or something along those lines), if you do cover the four black bands on the antenna, it will go from perfect bars down to one (never lost signal, granted I have great reception in my home.)

Now I know this seems ridiculous to do, but that's how I hold it when watching landscape videos. The iPhone 4 did the same thing (although you weren't covering all 4 bands, since one was on the top of the phone), as this is comparable to the "death grip" since you are covering the two bottom bands.

Just covering the two bottom bands, doesn't do anything (signal remains full), but if you cover all four (like I said, only applicable when watching a video or when holding in landscape orientation, since you would have to be holding it VERY abnormally when making a phone call to cover all 4 bands). So they fixed the "death grip", but the exterior antenna still has its issues.

Love my 4S though!! Siri is a trip!

 

[daveathall]

After the last dropped calls revelations (antennagate) Apple will have tested this phone to death, there will be no issues with the 4S.

 

[paulcdb]

whatever apple has done is great, never have i had such a strong signal.

have an iPad and iPhone 4S both on the same network and the phone shows full bars when the iPad struggles to get 1! Drops a little if you hold it but it hasn't dropped yet so i might actually get to make calls when i need to now.

 

[K.B.]

This is stupid. Bars means nothing.

Bars are a poor representation of anything and you want to try and present some sort of test results using them??

Don't you know how to put a phone into Field Test Mode? Google it.. then you get a numerical representation of the signal strength.

I'll save you trouble:

*3001#12345#*

the lower the negative number from -100 it is, the better the signal.

Try the test again and it might mean something.

 

[tjb1]

Wow, that was scientific...

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Oh, you mean the problem that was never really a problem anyway? That's some R&D well-spent.

I realize Apple had no choice but to "fix" the problem due to the bad PR, but the fact that they had to in the first place is ridiculous.

Some people just don't get it. The problem was real. It really sucked if you were left-handed and held the phone in a perfectly normal manner and it cut out. It's now been FIXED and yet people like you say how stupid it was of them to fix it. (shakes head) I'm certainly thrilled you aren't in charge, that's for darn sure.

Kudos to Apple for fixing the issue for everyone else that actually wants a phone free some such misery.

 

[technopimp]

Oh, you mean the problem that was never really a problem anyway? That's some R&D well-spent.

I realize Apple had no choice but to "fix" the problem due to the bad PR, but the fact that they had to in the first place is ridiculous.

Once again, I'm amazed at how some people still can't grasp that fact that just because THEY didn't have a particular issues does not mean that it didn't (or doesn't still) exist. I always especially enjoy when someone throws out a statistic like "exactly none of the people I know have this issue", etc.

I have this issue. Still today...with my iPhone 4. The only way I could use my phone was to use a case with it, which I never wanted to do in the first place. If you never had the issue, you're lucky. I've had 2 iPhone 4's with the same problem. So, for MY money, Apple damn well had better fixed it with the 4S.

 

[MrNomNoms]

Why do they call it a death grip when the problem is really AT&T's crap coverage? I've got an iPhone 4 and I don't suffer from the 'death grip' but then again the carrier I'm with consistently provides 4-5 bars without any problems regardless of whether I'm at home or at work.

 

[terraphantm]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Why do they call it a death grip when the problem is really AT&T's crap coverage? I've got an iPhone 4 and I don't suffer from the 'death grip' but then gain the carrier I'm with consistently provides 4-5 bars without any problems regardless of whether I'm at home or at work.

Because it is a problem - you can go from 4-bars to "Searching..." within seconds. At&ts service makes it worse, but the problem shouldnt have existed anyway.

 

[kolax]

This is stupid. Bars means nothing.

Bars are a poor representation of anything and you want to try and present some sort of test results using them??

Well, considering before we'd see the bars drop by 2-3, or sometimes lose signal all-together, the fact that the iPhone 4S retains its bars shows that the antenna performs better.

Why would a bunch of meaningless numbers to most people be better? We're not interested in how much the signal degrades in numbers.. the bars represent those numbers, and regardless of what each bar actually represents, the point is that the iPhone 4S doesn't lose any where as the iPhone 4 does.

 

[Kissaragi]

IMHO this was never a "real" issue because the iPhone 4 & 4s should be cased. The phone is just to nice and to fragile to not have some type of case for protection.

I see people every day, all day with iPhones without a case and it just makes me cringe.

Wrap that rascal...keep him safe!

Again...just my opinion.

Stev

My iphone 4 has never had a case on from launch day and it's still perfect.

 

[vitzr]

The fact that finally Apple learned how to make the phone work is far more amazing than Siri. Too bad they brainwashed users into believing their finger pointing at AT&T. What a ruse.

 

[Skoal]

Oh, you mean the problem that was never really a problem anyway? That's some R&D well-spent.

I realize Apple had no choice but to "fix" the problem due to the bad PR, but the fact that they had to in the first place is ridiculous.

No other phones I've ever owned on ATT or any other carrier EVER dropped calls and lost signal like the iphone 4 when I first started using it. There was an issue whether some want to believe it or not. Apple is not infallible.

 

[Skoal]

the problem was real just not a big deal. you had to hold it like you wanted to break the phone, which for a 700 phone people sure tend to treat them like cheap plastic nokia phones you get for free.:roll eyes:

I have had no case on any of the iPhone and had non of the problems or the amount of glass cracks I see people have. what are these people doing that they can't even take care of a phone in their pocket.

That said I find that walking around with a phone stuck you your ear makes people look like dorks and 80's rejects. people bluetooth is for real use it.

Dude, BT makes people come off as self important morons! As for the deathgrip issue. I don't know about that. I held my iphone 4 like ever other phone I've owned, ie. normal. Calls dropped left and right till I got a case for it. Problem solved! You come off like you are better than the rest of the world so go ahead and enjoy your bluetooth. You'll fit the stereotype perfectly.

 

[Skoal]

This.

There was never really a problem that was measurably manifest in everyday use of the product.

Hence, the massive sales and extremely low return-rate (lower than a lot competitors' devices in the same category.)

Besides, the issue is now moot. Apple deftly side-stepped whatever was spun out of it and now we're at the 4S.

Dear Mr. deluded.

It was measurably manifest in everyday use for me. As in I could barely use it everyday without it losing signal and dropping calls constantly where my prior phone, an iPhone 3G did not!

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Originally Posted by kiljoy616
That said I find that walking around with a phone stuck you your ear makes people look like dorks and 80's rejects. people bluetooth is for real use it.

Yeah, people don't look 'stupid' at all walking around looking like they're talking to themselves (i.e. the usual way BT headsets looks since you often can't see the headset, especially from certain angles.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say "Hello. How are you doing?" and you turn around and they're looking right at you and so you respond and then they pull their hair back and you see a headset (or maybe they don't and they just keep talking and you keep thinking they're nuts saying things that don't make sense while looking in your direction). It's freaking ridiculous looking. So if I had to choose between looking like an '80s reject or a crazy person, I'd take the '80s reject.

Besides, the '80s were freaking awesome. Only someone who was born late/after them (or long before them) would think otherwise. Things started to go to hell in the '90s. Today, music is absolute garbage (if you can even call it music, more like people talking and yelling in rhymes to loud bass and ripped off samples because they have zero musical talent). Corporate greed is at an all time high. People are political zombies. Most movies are just bad remakes of good movies from the '70s and '80s (and in some cases like Spiderman, from less than 10 years ago). Games all look alike (i.e. 1st person shooters or puzzle games) and are usually more looks than gameplay (the '80s had all kinds of wild gaming themes and not to mention pinball that's darn near impossible to find these days along with the arcades that used to house them) and we realized back then that 3D movies SUCKED and so they disappeared (oddly kids today think it's cool for reasons unknown, probably because they don't get outside anymore and so three dimensions is something NEW to them.

Dude, BT makes people come off as self important morons!

I remember the good old days when talking on the phone was mostly limited to phone booths and houses and so you actually had time to have fun and do things without interruptions (dangerous ones at that while driving). Today, some people won't even answer the phone. They insist on 'texting' instead, which makes a LOT of sense. I know the phone companies love it since they make money with every text in some cases and an extra flat-rate charge in many others for something that uses almost no data at all. They might as well go back to 300 baud modems if that's all the speed they need for information exchange.

The only bluetooth I use is in my car (or when transferring photos to the computer in some cases). The only antenna issue I have is wondering why Subaru put one on the roof with '11 WRX instead of in the rear window like my '04 had.

 

[Eager Beaver]

I've dropped more calls with my iPhone 4 than with any other phone that i've owned. I'd say the problem was real.

You ain't kiddin' !!!
I had to return my 4 cause is sucked so bad as a phone!
And forget the "death grip" bs, my 4 sucked ass sitting alone on the table while on speaker, (from the same exact locations my 3g never had problems from) -

I had to walk all over my front lawn while talking to new customers, only to drop the call anyways - that was total bs that external antenna crap -

I have been scared to death with my new 4s, (but so far so good)

 

[DiamondMac]

Don't confuse folks with that little fact.

What exactly is a fact?

As many others including myself dealt with...it existed.

I am not sure how or why some continue saying it didnt exist with so many saying they had this issue.

Maybe they are the type who can never, ever admit to being dead wrong?