Other Mobile Phones with Similar Signal Loss Issues

[chill1n]

Ha ha, Gizmodo loses again

i would have thought there'd be a number of you out there that felt pretty foolish about now... but what I'm noticing is denial. People are actually in denial that there is nothing wrong with their phone. Unbelievable.

Jason Chen, and every single one of you that believed the meaningless reports and entirely invalid and fallacious conclusions, that are still believing them, you are now banned from Apple. No more iProducts for you morons... you all can watch the leaves come down every Fall and think its Armageddon. Every time.

 

[toujames]

YOu can't compare these phones together.
Unless its the evo, then yeah, ill be convince

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

i would have thought there'd be a number of you out there that felt pretty foolish about now... but what I'm noticing is denial. People are actually in denial that there is nothing wrong with their phone.

There is nothing wrong with my phone. I understand that there is an issue with many iPhone 4s, but not with mine.

 

[Foxypaco]

I was literally in an apple store last night, and I can confirm with 100% confidence, that the 3gs does NOT experience the same signal loss as the iphone 4. I HELD THEM BOTH IN MY HANDS PEOPLE. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

edit: adding my enV touch doesnt loose any signal when held. so no SJ, it's not a common phone problem

Mine does.

 

[capn7]

"...or buy a case."

Like your bumpers, Apple? F### you.

 

[justperry]

I have tried this test on both my iphone4s and a friends. Positively repeatable.

First, make sure wifi is off.

Now, place the iPhone on a table or hold it without bridging the antennas.

Load a web page.

Now, hold the phone so your thumb bridges the left corner insulation strip.

Try to load a web page... Doesn't load.

Release hand from insulation strip.

Page loads.

Apple owes us all at least a stupid cover. Or this will get ugly.

NO, this is not AT&T's fault. In any way.

Thats why they have those bumpers for sale

 

[Metzgermeister]

For all those who are freaking out right now or even canceling their orders, here is a great alternative. Be sure not to hold it by it's antenna...Maybe no Retina display, but at least it doesn't have yellow spots.

 

[trssho]

Am currently on hold with "mike" from tech support.

1) reset the "network settings". Me: Mike, thats going to disconnect us. Mike: it might, I will call back if it does. Me in my head: WOW!!!!

2) Ok, Andy...Mike here, we got disconnected. Me: DUH. Mike: Andy....eject the sim card. If we get disconnected, I will call back. Me: UGH!!!!

3)OK Andy...we got disconnected. I want you to try to replicate the problem now....OK Mike..

4) Andy, looks like you are having the same problem a lot of iP4 users are seeing. I am going to contact upper level tech support. We will be on hold for about 15 minutes......That was 10 minutes ago. I will keep mac rumors apprised .................

oK, so I just got off the phone with another agent. Long and short was she said to expect an announcement tonight.

 

[distortedloop]

Try this nifty trick. Put your iP4 on its side, volume buttons up. Now lay a nickel across the bottom seam. Went from 5 bars to 1 bar in about 30 seconds.

Why yes, of course, because that's how I always make a phone call with my phones - by standing them on edge on top of a nickel. Been doing it that way since my first cell phone in 1994.

LOL

I can break reception on ANY consumer electronic device if you're willing to let me use it in ways it was never intended an effort to do so.

...Like the previous post suggest, turn it on its side, and put the smallest bit of conductive material you have bridging the case gap on the bottom left side - you will get the signal reduction. Are people really trying to say that if you put the same mass on one of these 'every other' cell phones you would see a similar reduction in signal strength?

This is a design flaw of this particular phone and trying to confuse it with the general signal attenuation of all phones is just confusing the issue. Please  screwed up, let them fix it, don't try and rationalize why they shouldn't have to.

Uh, yeah, if you say so.

 

[PstLMac]

Really!!!

oK, so I just got off the phone with another agent. Long and short was she said to expect an announcement tonight.

I guess these Forums really do work!
The customer is always right...

 

[distortedloop]

I was able to reproduce this "issue" last night, in my house, with an iPhone 4 by cupping my hand around the phone like I normally do. Went from 5 bars to 4.

In my office today, I cannot reproduce it. No matter how I try to cover the antennas or "bridge" the antennas with my fingers, I cannot get the phone to drop to anything from the 5 bars it's displaying.

 

[chagla]

Its... actually a *feature*. you know, the *unique* way you have to hold your beloved iphone 4 so that everybody on the street will know.

 

[matttye]

Its... actually a *feature*. you know, the *unique* way you have to hold your beloved iphone 4 so that everybody on the street will know.

Have fun getting mugged

 

[BobVB]

Why yes, of course, because that's how I always make a phone call with my phones - by standing them on edge on top of a nickel. Been doing it that way since my first cell phone in 1994.

LOL

I can break reception on ANY consumer electronic device if you're willing to let me use it in ways it was never intended an effort to do so.

Don't be deliberately obtuse it just undermines your credibility. The test is to show its a 'shorting' problem not a mass signal attenuation problem as some have claimed. You can use a bit of flesh (bacon for the squeamish) and it does the same thing. This is obviously not the same issue that all cell phones have when they have a massive hand around them since they don't lose signal when such a small mass is near. As you probably know, in the real world the small metal object or bacon is your hand being the conductive material instead.


I can see why people get pissed at the fanboys.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

So the word is from some support staff that there will be an announcement soon? That's great news and I'm sure both people who are having issues and those that aren't having issues will at least agree on that!

 

[BobVB]

I was able to reproduce this "issue" last night, in my house, with an iPhone 4 by cupping my hand around the phone like I normally do. Went from 5 bars to 4.

See that's not the issue - if you are only losing one bar by holding the phone that's just the standard signal attenuation that all cell phones have now days.

Mine drops 5 bars, not 1.

Again, if the rumor of there being a non-conductive coating that isn't on some that explains it - yours has it, mine doesn't.

Guess we'll find out...

 

[trssho]

I was able to reproduce this "issue" last night, in my house, with an iPhone 4 by cupping my hand around the phone like I normally do. Went from 5 bars to 4.

In my office today, I cannot reproduce it. No matter how I try to cover the antennas or "bridge" the antennas with my fingers, I cannot get the phone to drop to anything from the 5 bars it's displaying.

I even tried the ridiculous suggestion of using a nickel to short the two antennas while standing the phone on its edge. 5 bars. (I can post a pic if needed.)

Yea, whatever dude. The nickle is a quick and easy way of exploiting this defect. Also, if i have change in my pocket, I would still like to recieve calls. As for the dude with the phone and nickel, you must not read well. I stated clearly you need to have the phone on it's side with the volume buttons facing up. They way you have this configured, the nickel is not flush with the 2 sides of the "seam". Besides, if your goal is to prove people wrong, you need to only set the nickel down, then snap the pic before the bars start falling off.

Hey, maybe your phone has a coating that some phones don't have...great for you! But if I hold my phone in my left hand to text or surf net, my att connection is GONE!! PERIOD!!!

 

[distortedloop]

Don't be deliberately obtuse it just undermines your credibility.

It's called sarcasm, not being obtuse. It's obtuse when you don't see obvious sarcasm and call someone a name because of your own obtuseness. ;-)

I can see why people get pissed at the fanboys.

LOL...I'm usually called a "hater" around here, or an Android fanboy. Too funny that you're calling me an Apple fanboy.

 

[anakin1992]

the same here. if i go to the stairway a few hundred yards away from my office, i can reproduce the issue by thumb-cupping the lower left end. in restaurant, i can also reproduce it easily. but just not in my office.

I was able to reproduce this "issue" last night, in my house, with an iPhone 4 by cupping my hand around the phone like I normally do. Went from 5 bars to 4.

In my office today, I cannot reproduce it. No matter how I try to cover the antennas or "bridge" the antennas with my fingers, I cannot get the phone to drop to anything from the 5 bars it's displaying.

I even tried the ridiculous suggestion of using a nickel to short the two antennas while standing the phone on its edge. 5 bars. (I can post a pic if needed.)

 

[mdriftmeyer]

That would be great if that were the issue.

If there really was a manufacturing defect on some earlier models then Apple should acknowledge it. That would go a long way to convincing me to give the iPhone another look.

Job's response was not a good response. I would be much more inclined to purchase the phone if this were a flaw on some models and not all.

Instead we are told that we are holding the phone incorrectly.

It will require Apple Engineers to see defective phones and compare them to the coated phones to see if indeed Foxconn manufacturing were screwing up.

If so, Apple will look start to look for other assembly corporations to do the job and not screw up.

 

[distortedloop]

Yea, whatever dude. The nickle is a quick and easy way of exploiting this defect. Also, if i have change in my pocket, I would still like to recieve calls. As for the dude with the phone and nickel, you must not read well. I stated clearly you need to have the phone on it's side with the volume buttons facing up. They way you have this configured, the nickel is not flush with the 2 sides of the "seam". Besides, if your goal is to prove people wrong, you need to only set the nickel down, then snap the pic before the bars start falling off.

Hey, maybe your phone has a coating that some phones don't have...great for you! But if I hold my phone in my left hand to text or surf net, my att connection is GONE!! PERIOD!!!

Okay, fair enough about not reading well, it happens when multitasking on just a few hours sleep. I apologize for that error.

To your point, though, with no hidden agenda or malicious intent, I didn't give the nickel test long enough. I had waited about a minute before taking the picture, you'll just have to take my word for that. I also tried it in the proper positions, that just happened to be the one I took the picture of. Anyways, I set my autolock to 5 mins and tried again…after about 70 seconds I did start to lose bars, and eventually went to zero, so obviously I'll redact the original post and delete the picture. I had also tried with a paperclip before the nickel. Same result.

Thank you for setting me straight on this.

However, it still only proves that if you intentionally short the antennas on a radio-equipped device, the radio won't work as well. Seems kind of obvious. In my normal use of the phone, I'm not seeing it, therefore I won't retract the earlier snark about how I use my phone all the time and that if you set out to make something not work by using it in non-real-world scenarios (such as laying it on its side and shorting it with a nickel) you can make it not work.


As for your change in your pocket scenario...not to try to sound like Steve, but don't keep your phone in a pocket with loose change. That one seems a bit of a no brainer, unless you like scratching up your phone/smartphone/iPod/whatever.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Yea, whatever dude. The nickle is a quick and easy way of exploiting this defect. Also, if i have change in my pocket, I would still like to recieve calls. As for the dude with the phone and nickel, you must not read well. I stated clearly you need to have the phone on it's side with the volume buttons facing up. They way you have this configured, the nickel is not flush with the 2 sides of the "seam". Besides, if your goal is to prove people wrong, you need to only set the nickel down, then snap the pic before the bars start falling off.

Hey, maybe your phone has a coating that some phones don't have...great for you! But if I hold my phone in my left hand to text or surf net, my att connection is GONE!! PERIOD!!!

Well that sucks, but it's no reason to get so pissy at another MacRumors member. Distortedloop isn't saying that no one else has the issue, only that distortedloop is not experiencing the problem.

 

[rtdunham]

First of all, we must agree this is a problem with many, perhaps all cellphones. To argue otherwise flies in the face of evidence just as strong as the evidence of the iP4's problem.

So, let's try to do something constructive:

Is a metal or a plastic hard case likely to better shield the antenna band from interference from my hand?

Is a metal or a plastic hard case likely to add its own interference? Which?

Any engineers in the house?

====================

I know that (sic) haven't announced it yet but I expect them to announce free bumpers for everyone very soon...

At the Cincinnati Apple store where i bought my iPhone at 10:30am Thursday, they had only black bumpers, and the salesperson told me the one i bought was the last one in stock. So it might be a while before apple could provide them to the million and a half iP4 customers to date, IF that unlikely scenario plays out. My bumper did NOT prevent a call from dropping from my iP4 (3 bars, holding left handed with contact in lower left corner of bumper) today (caller on other end was non-ATT in an area where his calls don't drop otherwise).

 

[bkspero]

Hope its good news

oK, so I just got off the phone with another agent. Long and short was she said to expect an announcement tonight.

Hope its good news and not something lame like a free bumper with every iPhone. Have you seen a phone with one of those on...or worse, a case. Changes it from the slimmest most elegant phone on the market to an ugly, fat, hum drum device. Looks like you wrapped it with a rubberband.

And what do you do with your dock? Will the phone fit into the dock with its case/bumper. If not, do you have to take the case off and on every time you want to charge it (or use a crummy plugin charging wire)? I'm not so sure that repeated removal would be good for the life of our $30 rubberbands.

My guess is that they will engineer a piece of clear plastic tape to fit all around the phone over the stainless steel band. Installed at the Genius bar. Won't look terrible when they put it on. Will stay in place for a while, and fit into the dock. After a year, they will introduce the iPhone 5, and be using the crummy reception of the iPhone 4 as a comparison for the major improvement in the "5". And long suffering iPhone 4 owners will be dismissed by Jobs as inconsequential whiners.

Welcome to Apple.

 

[chill1n]

uh oh

I thought this oddly appropriate in a nonsequitor sort of way.

Someone with talent may want to redo before it meme's it's way around.