Other Mobile Phones with Similar Signal Loss Issues

[mstrmac]

This thread is disgusting, sad and fanboyish.

Are you guys REALLY trying to justify the crap antenna of the iPhone 4,a 2010 smartphone, to a 2004 regular old cell phone?

....the things Mac fanboys do to hide how smug, pompous and arrogant they really are.

My 3g has 5 bars of Edge until i pick it up, then goes to two. Sit it on the desk, it goes back to 5 bars.
Jobs is right. The droidbots are working overtime tonight.
Depends on your location with all cellphones and probably never noticed until tonight with all the gossip going around.

 

[MacTheSpoon]

I like Apple products when they're great, but I don't pretend there are no problems when they exist. And frankly I'm incredibly insulted by their response. It's off to Verizon. I guess I won't have the thinnest phone, but at least it will work great.

 

[ryanwarsaw]

Here is the Nokia 6230 manual, like all Nokia manuals that I have had over the years. It is just a fact of RF engineering and life. Hard science.

oh, and the dB loss is about the same as what I see in my 3GS. On the 3GS 3G mode, Zero to 5 bars covers 22 dB (-113dBm to -91dBm). But 5 bars can be from -91dBm to -51dBm, or 40 dB higher. That is why some lose signal or don't see the effect, IMO

They forgot to add to put the antenna in a place likely to cause interference.

 

[bakadong]

Iphone 4, case required; so much for Apple promoting the thinness of the i4.

 

[Gasu E.]

From today's NYTimes:

Even Brian Lam, Gizmodo’s editorial director, saw an upside to the iPhone 4, antenna problems and all. “We are paying attention to the antenna issue because it could be a big deal,” he said.

But Mr. Lam said that for years, he had not been able to use older iPhones to make calls from his home. That changed on Thursday, after he bought an iPhone 4. “I have made three hours of calls today,” he said.

Perhaps people are looking at this backwards. Perhaps the reality is that the iPhone 4 has superior reception to prior models, unless you hold it in the problematic way.

 

[viewfly]

Ah interesting. Is there an app that shows dbms for iPhone?

IDK. I got my 3G in field test mode, did a little trick, so that I can toggle between dBm and bars when out of Test mode. It carried over with the firmware upgrades and to the 3GS, including iOS 4.

 

[FFArchitect]

We tried every 3GS we had (in a place where we have never experienced a significant issue of signal loss while holding it in our hand) and cannot reproduce anything near what the iPhone 4 does in losing reception when held in your hand in this manner. It goes from full bars to none.

And most of us agree, this is how we hold the phone. We're all right handers that use our right fingers to touch most of the time.

Again, to us (and we believe most right-handers perhaps) it's a natural holding position, but we still don't think the answer back should be "we're holding it wrong and here's how to hold it the right way."

There is a big issue here; no doubt. I don't see how Apple can keep this stance. It's a bit dumbfounding.

 

[Pbrad08]

My 3g has 5 bars of Edge until i pick it up, then goes to two. Sit it on the desk, it goes back to 5 bars.
Jobs is right. The droidbots are working overtime tonight.
Depends on your location with all cellphones and probably never noticed until tonight with all the gossip going around.

<----Doesn't own a Droid, or any Android-powered phone.

<--- Uses Symbian.

 

[NC MacGuy]

I just held my Palm Centro on Verizon Wireless and it also went from full bars to only 2 bars. So it happens to all phones on all networks.

No, it doesn't. I've got an LG Dare & Droid on Verizon and neither have but a 1-2db change, no matter what orientation or where they're grabbed.

Not disputing some phones are more prone to signal attenuation if antenna is covered than others but to flat out drop calls is not normal. Especially considering the phone area that causes it is where a normal person would hold a phone while using text entry, scrolling, etc.

Apple has failed on this one big time and fan boys just can't handle the fact they lusted after & spent big bucks on a real magical device this time. The new device can make RF signals disappear.

Ya'll fell for the hype, waited in line, scrambled to pre-order for a glorified iPod Touch with crappy memory w. no upgrade path, none replaceable battery, and now flaky phone signal.

If iPhones have had this "feature" before, AT&T has been eating a lot of poop over crap Apple's been selling.

Happy Droid owner who has lent my phone to iPhone users to make a PHONE CALL more than once. Remember, it is supposed to be a phone first, play toy second.

 

[ryanwarsaw]

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It does fix it.

Arn

So there is a problem?

 

[cdmoore74]

I'm new to this forum but my wife has been using the ipod touch for almost 2 years and love it. When I found out about all the new upgrades I had my credit card in one hand and hitting my mouse with the other on pre-order day for 2 iphone4G's. But after today and especially after Mr. Jobs remark on holding the phone a certain way put a bad taste in my mouth. After testing my HTC touch pro 2 and my motorola droid my signals never dropped based on the way their being held. Granted not all phones are alike but everyone assumed that the new body/antenna was going to make things better; not worst. Holding a phone a certain way and adding "band aids" to fix confirmed issues is not a real solution. I thought the new Iphone4 was suppose to set the bar high; not drop them based on how you hold it.

They better have this fixed before it jumps to Verizon. Not spending the next 2 years under contract thinking if I'm holding the phone correctly. I do 90% web/apps and I always hold the phone with my left hand and select with my right finger. And with all the people showing inserts from other phone operator manuals, does the iphone4 have the same statement in writing?

 

[Zander-Fragile]

I notice that there are very few people here from beyond 2009; these sort of events make that unsurprising.

To all of you who insulted those who posted similar discoveries yesterday and have now gone silent; You are a bunch of cowards.

 

[ndriver182]

This thread is disgusting, sad and fanboyish.

Are you guys REALLY trying to justify the crap antenna of the iPhone 4,a 2010 smartphone, to a 2004 regular old cell phone?

....the things Mac fanboys do to hide how smug, pompous and arrogant they really are.

What a troll. Clearly this issue is not adversely affecting everybody including myself. I haven't had any problems yet. I'm not saying that people aren't having problems, but I really think there are plenty of people jumping on the hate bandwagon.

Also, what's your definition of a fanboy, huh? Do I like Apple and their products? Yes. Would I prefer them over many other devices on the market? Yes. However, I haven't resigned my soul to all things Apple. I find it very presumptuous that you decide to lump those who believe in, and enjoy Apple products, into category that is classified as smug, pompous and arrogant. Way to generalize. Have a cookie.

 

[spf250]

Seeing as how this forum is full of pasty nerds with sweaty palms who spend a big majority of their time sitting idly I would say we are all pretty good conductors to this antenna

 

[wentwj]

I did a quick table vs. palm speed test, and it's absolutely terrible. There's no way you can spin this as expected behavior from a phone.

I've been trying to do this myself, and I'm certainly seeing a drop when holding it (seemingly in either hand), but my speedtest results on 3g are so crazily inconsistent that other than noting that it's less, I can't get a good measure. On download I seem to be getting 900-3000kbps flat on a table, and anywhere from 300-1300 when holding.

Of course I'm not exactly seeing what some others are seeing. When I hold it in the dreaded left hand corner, I see a drop in signal, but I haven't gotten that to drop the signal, or even drop the call, and it seems to stabalize out at 1-2 bars. I don't know if that just means I have too good a signal to begin with.

However, if it has to do with how good of a signal you have to begin with, then would it really be "shorting" out the antenna? I'd figure that'd drop any signal, always.

 

[viewfly]

This thread is disgusting, sad and fanboyish.

Are you guys REALLY trying to justify the crap antenna of the iPhone 4,a 2010 smartphone, to a 2004 regular old cell phone?

....the things Mac fanboys do to hide how smug, pompous and arrogant they really are.

Nonsense. Many anti smartphone users say that they wish they had the RF performance of their old (nokia, whatever) phones, using them as benchmarks. And the 6230 was one of the remarkable ones. Even more so the really old ones with external antennas.

All internal antenna systems are a compromise. So the fact that the same thing happens on a workhorse like the 6230 demonstrates that body influences on RF radios is a real and enduring phenomena, not something new created with (apple) smartphones, or Nexus, etc.

That is the point.

 

[Zander-Fragile]

What a troll. Clearly this issue is not adversely affecting everybody including myself. I haven't had any problems yet. I'm not saying that people aren't having problems, but I really think there are plenty of people jumping on the hate bandwagon.

Also, what's your definition of a fanboy, huh? Do I like Apple and their products? Yes. Would I prefer them over many other devices on the market? Yes. However, I haven't resigned my soul to all things Apple. I find it very presumptuous that you decide to lump those who believe in, and enjoy Apple products, into category that is classified as smug, pompous and arrogant. Way to generalize. Have a cookie.

I think the apologists are demonstrating extreme denial. They are not being accused of smug, pompous or arrogant behaviour.

 

[teknishn]

From the HTC Evo manual....

 

[sneezingdog]

We tried every 3GS we had (in a place where we have never experienced a significant issue of signal loss while holding it in our hand) and cannot reproduce anything near what the iPhone 4 does in losing reception when held in your hand in this manner. It goes from full bars to none.

And most of us agree, this is how we hold the phone. We're all right handers that use our right fingers to touch most of the time.

Again, to us (and we believe most right-handers perhaps) it's a natural holding position, but we still don't think the answer back should be "we're holding it wrong and here's how to hold it the right way."

There is a big issue here; no doubt. I don't see how Apple can keep this stance. It's a bit dumbfounding.

This is exactly right. I am not holding the phone with a death grip, and I have 4 to 5 bars of 3G signal from ATT. I am just putting it in my left hand as I always do (I am right handed) to surf the web or to use the speakerphone. I switch from left to right hand and back several times during hour long phone conferences when I am not using the speakerphone. In my left hand I lose the signal completely. COMPLETELY! Unacceptable. Not merchantable, especially given the hype.

 

[manhattanboy]

Several readers have pointed out that, as per Steve Jobs statement, other mobile phones also suffer from similar signal degradation while being held tightly. In fact, a support thread for Google's Nexus One described a very similar issue back in February

Well, I have a N1 and tried this and my signal strength went up upon touching the phone. I guess maybe Google finally fixed it via software, so i4 owners keep your fingers crossed that Apple & Co. will push a patch out soon.

 

[Gasu E.]

A better response would have been to issue an emailed addendum to the user manual that's tells you not to hold it that way

Exactly my point. Most CEOs would not respond individually to users. As you suggest, most companies would just update their user manuals and communicate only through public relations people.

 

[Pbrad08]

Nonsense. Many anti smartphone users say that they wish they had the RF performance of their old (nokia, whatever) phones, using them as benchmarks. And the 6230 was one of the remarkable ones. Even more so the really old ones with external antennas.

All internal antenna systems are a compromise. So the fact that the same thing happens on a workhorse like the 6230 demonstrates that body influences on RF radios is a real and enduring phenomena, not something new created with (apple) smartphones, or Nexus, etc.

That is the point.

Odd, my E72 doesn't have any reception drop-off when I hold it left, right, top, bottom, full-cupped, etc.

 

[ndriver182]

I think the apologists are demonstrating extreme denial. They are not being accused of smug, pompous or arrogant behaviour.

If denial is legitimately not having any problems then sign me up for a 12 step program.

 

[teknishn]

I think the apologists are demonstrating extreme denial. They are not being accused of smug, pompous or arrogant behaviour.

So not having any problems at all = denial then?

 

[iPhone4GPlanet]

"Uhhh, hold it different."

Lol