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Mystery Patch on Edge of iPhone 12 is a mmWave 5G Antenna Exclusive to U.S. Models

farewelwilliams said:
I think you forgot about the overreaction of the iPhone 4 Antennagate event.
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Did you own the original GSM iPhone 4? It was a real problem. Hold the phone like a normal person, and the signal drops to nothing instantly.

Apple had a very effective marketing campaign to make people think every phone had the exact same issue - perhaps one of the greatest examples of Steve's reality distortion field. But the design was fundamentally flawed.
 
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terraphantm said:
Did you own the original GSM iPhone 4? It was a real problem. Hold the phone like a normal person, and the signal drops to nothing instantly.

Apple had a very effective marketing campaign to make people think every phone had the exact same issue - perhaps one of the greatest examples of Steve's reality distortion field. But the design was fundamentally flawed.
Click to expand...

I had it. I was on AT&T. No, the signal did not drop instantly. I tried intentionally covering that troublesome spot. I was still able to talk fine for about 10-15 seconds before I started to encounter issues. The antenna icon wasn't accurate. It took the antenna icon about 20 seconds before it went down to 1 bar. My normal grip however didn't result in this dropped connection.

I never said every phone had the issue. But there were certainly other phones that had the same issue. And they didn't nearly have the same amount of media bashing (not to mention they didn't offer free bumpers or cases for their phones). Yet to this day, people think Apple was the only phone that had the issue.

Regardless, you're missing my point completely. I never said there were no issues. I'm simply saying the reaction was overblown.
 
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If you're curious why Apple's new phones don't have mmWave in the EU, there's a reason, primarily related to when supporting spectrums will be widely deployed and available in the region.

This video dated end of September is Qualcomm sponsored but who better to discuss mmWave availability?

www.telecomtv.com

Practical opportunities for mmWave 5G in Europe

- The session will discuss the state of mmWave worldwide, how the main deployment scenarios work, as well as the associated product roadmap. The session will …
www.telecomtv.com www.telecomtv.com

Given the timeframe that Apple likely had to test mmWave with partners, there was probably limited availability to do so in Europe. iPhone 13 is the more likely product for broader support of mmWave. But is it likely that mmWave will be broadly deployed and be worthwhile in the EU by end of next year? This video offers insights into the barriers involved in making mmWave an effective product.

I'm surprised mmWave is even offered in the US at the moment. From a future proofing standpoint it make sense but it is such a limited use technology at this time.
 
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farewelwilliams said:
I think you forgot about the overreaction of the iPhone 4 Antennagate event.
Click to expand...
I don't think it was an overreaction as it could have been mitigated early on during their field testing if it wasn't for their shroud of secrecy. The cover that went over the phone that make it look like an older phone added insulation that "fixed" the issue, hence causing the need of the stupid bumper. If they wanted to field test where people wouldn't suspect an Apple engineer at a local watering hole, then test it in Omaha or someplace where the latest iPhone would not be suspected to be used out in the public. If it was tested properly then Steve Jobs wouldn't have had to say people used the phone wrong. That was such a load of bollоcks—how can anyone actually say Steve was right about that? Just deal with the mistake, learn from it, and move on.
 
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jweinraub said:
I don't think it was an overreaction as it could have been mitigated early on during their field testing if it wasn't for their shroud of secrecy. The cover that went over the phone that make it look like an older phone added insulation that "fixed" the issue, hence causing the need of the stupid bumper. If they wanted to field test where people wouldn't suspect an Apple engineer at a local watering hole, then test it in Omaha or someplace where the latest iPhone would not be suspected to be used out in the public. If it was tested properly then Steve Jobs wouldn't have had to say people used the phone wrong. That was such a load of bollоcks—how can anyone actually say Steve was right about that? Just deal with the mistake, learn from it, and move on.
Click to expand...

Are you saying the other phones that were having the issue (blackberry, samsung) didn't field test either?
 
Had to reply to this thread regarding the iPhone 4 issue. I was working for a Canadian carrier at the time when the 4 was released, I also bought the phone myself on release day. MANY people were complaining about calls dropping on the 4, we actually thought it was a network issue at first because we had also recently launched our HSPA network at the time.

I personally dropped more calls than I could count including multiple 911 calls unless I held the phone a certain way. The bumper of course fixed all those issues.

We had to tell all customers to get a case or free bumper from apple, otherwise they WILL drop calls.

anyway there’s no way calls are going through 5G, waste of battery so we won’t have issues with the 12 like we saw with the 4
 
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Kinda glad the UK model does not have it, it looks like the same nasty piece of plastic (guessing by looks) that scratches easily on the iPad pro where the pencil goes. Also isnt a case of your hand going to block that?
 
Maconplasma said:
Did it ever occur to you that feature may not be available in your country? That it's not Apple in general that chose not to offer it to other countries? If it's only available in the U.S. that doesn't mean Apple shouldn't offer to their U.S. customers. They should.
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Oh, they are available in my country, and much more than in the US. Also, the 64gb Mini costs 809€ (950$) and the 128gb 12 Pro costs 1159€ (1370$).

It's just good ol apple ripping customers abroad.

"Don't buy it". I won't, I'll buy it preowned in the US when I travel there for 450€. I don't give a dime directly to Apple. Some of their hardware is good, but they're so fake and stingy it's distusting.
 
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Ry L said:
mmWave is a gimmick in my book, and I have no intention of switching to Verizon. I have to have that “patch” on my phone either way since I’m in the US? That’s lame.
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mmwave is usefull in som spesific cenarios, ie decly packed spades as stadiums, airports and the like, beond thatthe range an penetration might cause problems. I would not call it a gimmic, put ofvpc if you are in these kind of places in frequently then the application of mmwave will be of limited use to you
 
Anyone know if buying this thing will force me to change my T-Mobile plan to one that supports 5G? Because I have the mother of all deals on my T-Mobile plan and I don't want to touch it. I live in fear that something will happen to it. It's $74/mo for three iPhones and an iPad. It's $8/extra per iPhone if it goes over 2GB of data which usually only happens on my line. Something glitched when they had to fix something with my iPad $8/mo line and I have 2PB (yes, petabytes, 2000TB, 2,000,000GB) of data. I know. As I said, I LIVE IN FEAR that something will happen to that line, lol.

Wish I could replace that with a side mounted Touch ID for when I need to use my iPhone when in public with a mask. With how long they took with verification devices this year as they were toying with Promotion on the iPhone, you'd think they could add the same button they developed for the new iPad Air. But maybe they're just doing that as a test run like they did with the LIDAR on the iPad Pro earlier this year?

Also wish there was an option to not have this 5G mmWave window it since it's kinda unsightly and takes up space that could probably go towards battery or something. Does T-Mobile even have mmWave yet? It's also for dense areas in big cities where they have to have antennas every block or two. Will be interested to see if it's as terrible as the Android phones where you have to be line of sight facing an antenna for it to work at all. I'm pretty sure I saw a video where even a frickin umbrella was slowing down the speed. Nobody needs 4Gbps on their phone for the next several years, maybe not even until towards the end of the decade at the earliest. 1Gbps regular 5G is more than enough. My home internet is half of that, lol, and it's plenty fast for everything I'm doing.
 
Oh no, they did a Samsung. They should have just put it in for everyone around the world. Does it ever occur to the decision-makers that people might travel to the US or that infrastructure in their own country is built up over time?
 
JimmyBanks6 said:
So what’s the technical reason this is USA only, and why aren’t non-USA phones $50 cheaper since they don’t need the mmWave modem.
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iPhone 12 Pro Max 128GB in US is USD 1’099+VAT.
iPhone 12 Pro Max 128GB in Switzerland is CHF 1'229 (incl. 7.7%VAT) = CHF 1'141+VAT = USD 1'256+VAT.

So buyers in Switzerland are paying a full USD 157 extra for an inferior phone?
 
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Different countries means different GSM bands but it starts looking like in case of Samsung Galaxy smartphones with worse Exynos SoC for old world (EU) and better Qualcomm SoC for a new world (US). It must be noted that EU customers pay much more for the same product and it is not just a tax and duty because Apple currency exchange is 1 USD = 1EUR or even more. Strange.
 
farewelwilliams said:
I think you forgot about the overreaction of the iPhone 4 Antennagate event.
Click to expand...
I had an iPhone 4 that couldn’t keep a call connected inside my apartment.
When it got stolen, I got a 4s instead and never again had a call drop.

just cuz you didn’t have issues doesn’t mean others didn’t.
 
ISprainedMyUvula said:
I had an iPhone 4 that couldn’t keep a call connected inside my apartment.
When it got stolen, I got a 4s instead and never again had a call drop.

just cuz you didn’t have issues doesn’t mean others didn’t.
Click to expand...
But also, just because you had issues, it doesn’t mean others did.
 
There are now so many different models being sold. Apart from all the iPhone 12's in their various sizes and pro / not-pro, you now have the fact that the country you buy it in determines which 5G frequencies it'll work on.

On top of this, Apple are still selling the 11 and the XR.
 
JimmyBanks6 said:
So what’s the technical reason this is USA only, and why aren’t non-USA phones $50 cheaper since they don’t need the mmWave modem.
Click to expand...

This. I am sick of Apple overcharging prices in EU. They don't even have the EU tax excuse anymore. I won't buy a brand new device from Apple.com until they adjust this massive discrepancy. In fact, haven't done so for the past 3-4 years.
 
I wont be spending $1000+ on a European model that won't do what it says on the tin when I visit the US, its just completely misguided... so many people are global travellers these days, why make different iphones connect only to locally available bands? Worse, if you take your European iphone to the US its going to be Verizon and T Mobile that you connect to, the SIM card ones, so it definitely is going to have an impact. So I will pass this year until they get their supply chain working!
 
Cant understand why rest of the world wont be able to have proper 5G but only the slowest 5G version. I live in Spain, not Burkina Faso. There would be widespread 5G by the end of the year.
 
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