Reception issue shows Apple's antenna design works

[pflau]

Look. The whole reason the antennas are on the outside is to improve reception. Now if you cover the antennas with your hand or anything, of course the reception will deteriorate!! If the signal does not deteriorate then it is pointless to have the antennas on the outside now, doesn't it?

Now the thing about the signal bars drop from 5 to 1 when you cover the antennas with your hand is because Apple tries to play game with the bars - it makes you think the iPhone is getting a strong signal even when it is not. Now they shot themselves in the foot and instead of getting from say 3 bars to 1 bar you get 5 bars to 1 bar which seems like such a big attenuation when it is not.

 

[ajnicho]

Look. The whole reason the antennas are on the outside is to improve reception. Now if you cover the antennas with your hand or anything, of course the reception will deteriorate!! If the signal does not deteriorate then it is pointless to have the antennas on the outside now, doesn't it?

Now the thing about the signal bars drop from 5 to 1 when you cover the antennas with your hand is because Apple tries to play game with the bars - it makes you think the iPhone is getting a strong signal even when it is not. Now they shot themselves in the foot and instead of getting from say 3 bars to 1 bar you get 5 bars to 1 bar which seems like such a big attenuation when it is not.

holey moley batman, i think you've got it

 

[rstark18]

But if it were an interference issue with your hand then shouldn't the same interference happen with a case on? after all your still covering the same area of the phone. The problem is only happening to me when I "short" the two antennae. I have a bumper and will soon have an iSkin case so I'm ok. I just think Apple should come clean with the actual problem (bad functional design).

 

[xmtgx]

But if it were an interference issue with your hand then shouldn't the same interference happen with a case on? after all your still covering the same area of the phone. The problem is only happening to me when I "short" the two antennae. I have a bumper and will soon have an iSkin case so I'm ok. I just think Apple should come clean with the actual problem (bad functional design).

It does still happen when you have a bumper on, just less of a drop and doesn't pass the 40% mark because of the added distance. AT already published an article where they forced the phone to show a dBm reading and proved this.

 

[pflau]

But if it were an interference issue with your hand then shouldn't the same interference happen with a case on? after all your still covering the same area of the phone. The problem is only happening to me when I "short" the two antennae. I have a bumper and will soon have an iSkin case so I'm ok. I just think Apple should come clean with the actual problem (bad functional design).

I got the same interference with my old 3G iPhone, which of course has a "case" over the antennas.

 

[rstark18]

Explain this (and I can post a video if you like) if I place a sheet of paper between my finger and the gap in the phone I don't have a reception issue. If I remove the paper the bars start dropping. That is definetly a "short of the antennas wouldn't you say?

I actually also had the same issue with my 3G but only noticed it after iOS4. and for some reason only happened if I really squeezed the phone tight. That's probably because I was shown how to reproduce it.