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MacRumors Poll: iPhone 4 Signal Loss by Region

I can reproduce the problem even with a Apple bumper. People should not be making excuses for Apple. They should fix the problem ASAP and think about a better PR strategy then telling us to not hold it in our left hand.
 
I always figured I was electrifying, so I guess that's why I have signal loss. Keep in mind that I don't drop the call, nor do I get worse call quality when I get the lower bars.

Come to think of it, no joke, I do generate a decent amount of static electricity frequently. Sometimes I even see the arc from my finger to the object.
 
I sure haven't been able to recreate it no matter how hard I try... thank goodness. I mean, it looks like an incredibly awkward way to hold your phone anyway. I hold it left or right handed depending on the situation (driving a stick requires left handed hold sometimes) and never ever in life have I held a phone even remotely close to the way I see in those videos.

Battery life isn't quite what I'd hoped for... but no signal loss or yellow spots for me. I feel like this all gets blown wayyy out of proportion... though after looking at the poll results, I could be wrong.
 
smarch said:
I wish all of the reporting on this "issue" would stop! like steve says all phones have some signal loss when you hold them different ways, I love my iPhone 4 more than life itself, I want everybody else to get one, i want apple to sell a billion, and stupid people LOVE to feel 'smart' they aren't getting one because they heard 'doesn't that phone not make phone calls when you hold it hahaha blahblahblah. my phone loses some signalwhen you cover that gap, but I just don't hold it there and it works fine for the most part even if I do. it's just like with other iPhones when I would sit there trying to figure a good way o hold it when I was in a basement or something

STOP MAKING THIS THE STORY. THE STORY IS THAT THE IPHONE4 IS AWESOME!!!!!
Click to expand...

You are right and wrong. The iphone 4 is awesome. However, this is a very real story. My signal strength has been atrocious compared to my 3G that I replaced (resulting in many dropped calls). Everyone in my family nearby that got one is having the issue. Not only that, after many conversations with Apple tech support it is clear that the engineers are very aware of the problem and working on figuring it out. This is not a 'manufactured' controversy.
 
observe problem, bumper solves

greater cincinnati/northern kentucky. with the "bare" phone i can induce the signal loss (from full five bar 3G--better, incidentally, than i got in this same location with my 3GS--to four bars and once to three bars). With the bumper on, i could not get the phone to budge from its five bars. I only tested it on two calls--I'd squeeze and watch the signal drop, release and watch it go back up, repeat 3-4 times per call--and in neither case was the call dropped.

I'm guessing apple can "fix" future production by having some sort of coating on that portion of the antenna. Still, it's a dumb mistake for a company like apple to allow to get into production. I don't think it's as big a deal as critics are making it out to be, imho.

OT, made my first facetime call today. great feature. worked flawlessly.

Q: has anyone checked to see where the Wi-Fi portion of the antenna band is, and whether or not skin contact there diminishes the wi-fi signal?
 
I've seen signal loss while holding my 3GS in various positions even before iOS 4 came out. I've observed the issue on my 3GS as long as I've had it and accepted that as normal. Why? Because before my iPhone I had a Blackberry and before that a Palm Treo. The Treo would also lose signal and drop a call if I held it in my left hand up to my left ear. But holding it in my right hand up to my right ear caused no issues. THIS WAS ON VERIZON!

So it's really not unique to the iPhone 4 or AT&T. The iPhone 3GS had it too and so do many other phones made by other manufacturers.
 
AZREOSpecialist said:
I've seen signal loss while holding my 3GS in various positions even before iOS 4 came out. I've observed the issue on my 3GS as long as I've had it and accepted that as normal. Why? Because before my iPhone I had a Blackberry and before that a Palm Treo. The Treo would also lose signal and drop a call if I held it in my left hand up to my left ear. But holding it in my right hand up to my right ear caused no issues. THIS WAS ON VERIZON!

So it's really not unique to the iPhone 4 or AT&T. The iPhone 3GS had it too and so do many other phones made by other manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Yes, but did you lose service and drop calls with these other phones? People are dropping lots of calls because of this problem with the iPhone 4. That's the difference.
 
Kuro said:
I think the reason this is affecting some people and not others is not a case of location, but a case of the person using it. I get signal loss on my UK iPhone 4 so I went back to the store and they had no idea what I was on about, they said their demo phone was fine. I try their demo phone, signal gone within 30 seconds. The store manager then went on to try my one I'd been experiencing the issue with, nothing happened.

I think this is caused dependant on how conductive you happen to be, does anyone scientific have any idea if humans can be more or less conductive than one another?
Click to expand...

Totally agree, I got a 40% drop (two bars) from a display model in the Apple store. I didn't pester an Apple Store drone to test it with me because it was hugely busy, but I definitely think its about conductivity.

Furthermore, for me, thats my natural hand position, especially when I'm talking, or browsing two handed. I'm probably luckier than many that its not dropping connection entirely, but it has certainly stopped me from purchasing. If it gets fixed then ill save my pennies, but as it stands, there's no chance.
 
Whew, wasn't an early adopter for a change. I'll wait for a VZ phone and see how that works. And by then any other problems will have been worked out.

Oh, that and lower tiers for people who aren't teen-age girls.
 
smarch said:
I wish all of the reporting on this "issue" would stop! like steve says all phones have some signal loss when you hold them different ways, I love my iPhone 4 more than life itself, I want everybody else to get one, i want apple to sell a billion, and stupid people LOVE to feel 'smart' they aren't getting one because they heard 'doesn't that phone not make phone calls when you hold it hahaha blahblahblah. my phone loses some signalwhen you cover that gap, but I just don't hold it there and it works fine for the most part even if I do. it's just like with other iPhones when I would sit there trying to figure a good way o hold it when I was in a basement or something

STOP MAKING THIS THE STORY. THE STORY IS THAT THE IPHONE4 IS AWESOME!!!!!
Click to expand...

You only sound THIS crazy...
 
danb5521 said:
I can reproduce the problem even with a Apple bumper. People should not be making excuses for Apple. They should fix the problem ASAP and think about a better PR strategy then telling us to not hold it in our left hand.
Click to expand...

I bought a bumper with my phone, haven't seen any issues in fact I get a better signal than with my 3GS which was also in a case.

Stop moaning peep and buy a bumper or a case, there are some really nice cases coming out soon.

It's a great phone and as has been proven other handsets all suffer from this to a degree also, period.
 
tintoy said:
The poll needs 2 dimensions to be provide a basis for meaningful analysis :

1) do you have signal problems and
2) where do you live.

You could then chart percentage of respondents that have issues verus those that dont, broken down by region.

Pull this nonsense before somebody gets sued! :(
Click to expand...

The poll is not meant to compare region-by-region directly, but indirectly. It's poorly worded, for sure. You need to compare each region to itself... Yes/No responses. You'll see in any given region whether the Yes answers are more than the No answers, and then compare that comparison to other regions.

So you can see that a larger percentage of US iPhone 4 owners are having a problem than in other regions.

It's not how many responded, it's the percentage of respondents within in a region that answered Yes compared to No.
 
smarch said:
I wish all of the reporting on this "issue" would stop! like steve says all phones have some signal loss when you hold them different ways, I love my iPhone 4 more than life itself, I want everybody else to get one, i want apple to sell a billion, and stupid people LOVE to feel 'smart' they aren't getting one because they heard 'doesn't that phone not make phone calls when you hold it hahaha blahblahblah. my phone loses some signalwhen you cover that gap, but I just don't hold it there and it works fine for the most part even if I do. it's just like with other iPhones when I would sit there trying to figure a good way o hold it when I was in a basement or something

STOP MAKING THIS THE STORY. THE STORY IS THAT THE IPHONE4 IS AWESOME!!!!!
Click to expand...

haha, you're such a joke. I have a 3GS and after reading all the crap about signal loss, I decided to try the same thing on it. My signal also went down a few bars.

What concerns me, however, is when people hold their phones with full bars and it goes so far down as to say, "searching...". Not to mention some have pointed out that data is severely affected. THAT is inexcusable. So shut your little fanboy mouth up and stop downplaying what could potentially be a real issue.

I'm going to get an iPhone 4 next month, however, I'm left handed and I by no means am going to try to use my right hand & ear just because Steve says so. If I get dropped calls and poor data transfer rates just because I am left handed, there is no way I'm keeping it.
 
iphone antenna

The reason i believe that you must hold it more tightly. Yesterday i visited the apple store and held it very tightly in that are, and all the ones lost their signal after a few secounds.:confused:
 
nooaah said:
Uh if you were 1 mile from the tower then your signal was probably decent.
Click to expand...

Having worked in an AT&T retail store before... you'd pretty surprised how many of them have micro cell towers tucked into the ceilings to make sure the customer sees a full signal when they are trying out phones.

And I'm not talking about the ones they cell currently for home use.

So if they happened to have one in that store and the phone still dropped to zero bars, that's BAD!

Just saying...
 
Sometimes, the bar goes from 5 to zero bars when i am at home and office.

But yesterday while i was driving, the star remained 5 bars, even when holding tight (I listen to Pandora in my car). It was over a distance of 10 miles, not a single signal loss. Didn't make a phone call though(the bar remained 5 bars), no drop in Pandora music. Will test with a phone call next time.

So, it could be related to the tower location/switching.

Location : Chandler/Phoenix, AZ.
 
Signal loss

I always hold my phone in my left hand, and when I do, my 3G drops and my phone goes to "searching".

It seems a bit ridiculous that I can't hold my phone in my left hand while browsing the web or whatever without the phone losing signal.

Today I will buy a case and hopefully it will solve this issue.
 
This is very worrisome. I'm so glad that I got a model without this issue. I also attempted to drop bars on display models at the Apple Store. Holding the entire frame had no effect on three models. At this point it's:

a) A short due to manufacturing that allows a sweaty palm to conduct.
b) A fundamental hardware issue that went unnoticed due to concealing test models.
c) Least likely, a software issue that will be fixed with 4.0.1.

There is NO way it's just software. Because the calls drop. Apple suggests it's just an inaccurate bar display.
 
Sorry people. It may be hard for you to grasp that apple screwed up...but they did. Yes the problem is easily remedied but it should not exist. Ya
Yea yea other phones do similar stuff blah blah. Point is when u can go from full bars to losing a call while using a normal hang grip it's a problem. Not all people have to "death grip" the phone to replicate. I know I don't. Just barely touching it drops my bars. And it's awkward for me not to hold it in that area. I still love the phone and believe it's the best phone in the market but don't deny the problem. Now I just need to wait for my next paycheck to get a bumper...ugh.
 
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