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With such an expensive antennae test facility...

S

Scottyfrombi

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 10, 2007
52
0
how does iPhone 4 emerge with all the reported problems experienced by users and reviewers? I don't understand. Apple spent $100,000,000 on an antennae testing facility and a whole lot more on engineers, and other specialists so how in the world does it still comes out with a design that can not be recommended by Consumer Report and has generated a whole lot of controversy? Makes me wonder if Apple is getting it's moneys worth out of it testing budget.

Or is the iPhone really as good as Apple is saying it is? I want to buy one now but feel compelled to wait until Sept 30 or later to see if Apple redesigns the iPhone or at least the internal workings to make the antennae less susceptible to interference. What do you folks think? Are you waiting or does the Bumper satisfy you. I don't really like the look or feel of the bumper and it appears to interfere with some inputs.
 
Form over function. As always with Apple.

It sickens me that they try to follow the Bauhaus rules but they fail miserably.
 
Scottyfrombi said:
how does iPhone 4 emerge with all the reported problems experienced by users and reviewers? I don't understand. Apple spent $100,000,000 on an antennae testing facility and a whole lot more on engineers, and other specialists so how in the world does it still comes out with a design that can not be recommended by Consumer Report and has generated a whole lot of controversy? Makes me wonder if Apple is getting it's moneys worth out of it testing budget.

Or is the iPhone really as good as Apple is saying it is? I want to buy one now but feel compelled to wait until Sept 30 or later to see if Apple redesigns the iPhone or at least the internal workings to make the antennae less susceptible to interference. What do you folks think? Are you waiting or does the Bumper satisfy you. I don't really like the look or feel of the bumper and it appears to interfere with some inputs.
Click to expand...

Steve and his Engineering Team are absolutely right "All phones have weak spots". The problem is, the majority of these "weak spots" are not obscured through normal use. The iPhone 4's weak spot, however, is obscured through normal use.

We've been using iPhones for years now. We know how to hold them. So naturally, when the iPhone 4 came out, we use it like we know how to. We hold it like we know how to.
 
Instead of wandering around, you should but it and use it yourself. You can return it and get full refund if you don't like it. Please be quiet now!:mad:
 
Thoughts:

I've had my 4 for 18 days now.

I use it for business but I use it personally too.

-2 dropped calls in 18 days:

One was due to my face hitting the mute button so the person on the other end could not hear me and hung up before I realized it.

That's got to be fixed but I'm confident that will be fixed.

One was during a severe thunderstorm between Stillwater, Minnesota and Hudson, Wisconsin.

No dropped calls in any other circumstance and some of those calls were made from server rooms in basements of offices in far flung suburban locations.
 
No amount of lab testing or prerelease field testing can fully predict all real world scenarios. Put a product in millions of hands and patterns emerge you may have failed to pick up in testing.

That been said, I believe Apple knew of the potential issue. They were banking it would not be as big a PR issue as it became. However, just because you can put your finger/hand over an area an you get dropped bars, doesn't mean you will get a perceptibly lower voice quality or drop the call. If the numbers are to believed, less than 1 call more per 100 calls than the 3GS.
 
I don't see a redesign coming for this phone. There would be millions demanding an exchange if that were to happen.
 
Look, its simple. If you cover the antenna, your connection to a tower will decrease. WITH ANY PHONE.

More so w/ the iPhone 4? yes because of the design. I don't have an iP4 yet, but I have been paying attention to how I hold my iPhone 3G. I rarely grip the phone with whole hand (Im lefty) and a case or even bumper will help alleviate the issue to a point where its not as much of an impact.
 
eawmp1 said:
No amount of lab testing or prerelease field testing can fully predict all real world scenarios. Put a product in millions of hands and patterns emerge you may have failed to pick up in testing.

That been said, I believe Apple knew of the potential issue. They were banking it would not be as big a PR issue as it became. However, just because you can put your finger/hand over an area an you get dropped bars, doesn't mean you will get a perceptibly lower voice quality or drop the call. If the numbers are to believed, less than 1 call more per 100 calls than the 3GS.
Click to expand...

I agree. Also from speaking to an AT&T rep (I know how reliable they are), but they told me that you can get equal speed/voice quality from 2 bars and 5 bars. How true is that? IDK, but I do know that as long as I have 2 bars, my phone works fine.
 
xmarcuswildx said:
Stop all of your whining.
Click to expand...

I'll stop whining about this design flaw when my iPhone 4 works as well as my old 3G and 3GS did. I know it's foolish to expect to be able to surf the Internet on my iPhone, check email, send and receive SMS, and so forth while holding the phone in my left hand, but I'm a dreamer. I remember what it used to be like to do those things and I miss that ability. Since I'm stuck with this defective POS for the next 24 months or so (and since I cannot, for a number of reasons, return the phone) the only thing I can do is complain about it online so that others don't make the same mistake I did. Buying the iPhone 4, I mean.
 
mavis said:
I'll stop whining about this design flaw when my iPhone 4 works as well as my old 3G and 3GS did. I know it's foolish to expect to be able to surf the Internet on my iPhone, check email, send and receive SMS, and so forth while holding the phone in my left hand, but I'm a dreamer. I remember what it used to be like to do those things and I miss that ability. Since I'm stuck with this defective POS for the next 24 months or so (and since I cannot, for a number of reasons, return the phone) the only thing I can do is complain about it online so that others don't make the same mistake I did. Buying the iPhone 4, I mean.
Click to expand...

As the vast majority of users have no problem in real world use, your complaining is more sour grapes. And why, exactly can you not "return" or exchange the phone?
 
mavis said:
I'll stop whining about this design flaw when my iPhone 4 works as well as my old 3G and 3GS did. I know it's foolish to expect to be able to surf the Internet on my iPhone, check email, send and receive SMS, and so forth while holding the phone in my left hand, but I'm a dreamer. I remember what it used to be like to do those things and I miss that ability. Since I'm stuck with this defective POS for the next 24 months or so (and since I cannot, for a number of reasons, return the phone) the only thing I can do is complain about it online so that others don't make the same mistake I did. Buying the iPhone 4, I mean.
Click to expand...

You seem to be missing a big part of the point here, a very small percentage is affected. Personally, Id just get the bumper or case and save all of your complaining.
 
eawmp1 said:
As the vast majority of users have no problem in real world use, your complaining is more sour grapes. And why, exactly can you not "return" or exchange the phone?
Click to expand...

I ought to put this in my sig; I'm getting just about as sick of answering this question as I am of seeing "No Service" on my $600 phone in the exact same places every other phone I've ever owned (iPhone 3G, 3GS, Sharp 814SH, Samsung 804SS, etc) has always shown full signal strength.

1) In Japan, returns of used handsets are not permitted. Period.

2) Even if returns were allowed, I've had the phone exchanged already, so the serial number doesn't match the one on the box.

tpabrad said:
You seem to be missing a big part of the point here, a very small percentage is affected. Personally, Id just get the bumper or case and save all of your complaining.
Click to expand...

I have a bumper. It looks and feels like crap, the rubber edge catches on my pocket, is a lint magnet, and the raised edge makes it very difficult to clean the screen. I've owned iPhones and iPods for years and have never used a case. Why should I have to now, just to compensate for a design flaw?
 
mavis said:
I ought to put this in my sig; I'm getting just about as sick of answering this question as I am of seeing "No Service" on my $600 phone in the exact same places every other phone I've ever owned (iPhone 3G, 3GS, Sharp 814SH, Samsung 804SS, etc) has always shown full signal strength.

1) In Japan, returns of used handsets are not permitted. Period.

2) Even if returns were allowed, I've had the phone exchanged already, so the serial number doesn't match the one on the box.
Click to expand...

As for #1, what a quaint law.
Can you sell it on aftermarket/online and return to the 3GS world? Would a case kill you?
 
eawmp1 said:
As for #1, what a quaint law.
Can you sell it on aftermarket/online and return to the 3GS world? Would a case kill you?
Click to expand...

It's not a law; that's the problem - it's company policy. Consumer protection laws (the so-called 'cooling off' period of a whopping seven days, IINM) only apply to mail and television orders.

As for selling it, I could, but that wouldn't change the fact that I'm locked into a two year contract with a company that has been known to bill people in full - to the tune of more than $10,000USD - for swapping SIM cards out with phones other than those bought from the company. So basically, I'm stuck. My only option at this point is to simply wait for Apple to fix this design flaw.
 
I think sticking it in a 3GS styled case for testing kept the issue from being noticed on handsets that had the issue while Apple was still building it.

I really don't think this is that big of an issue. However, moving the 'spot' higher on the phone near the top edges or making the BT and WiFi antenna internal again would fix the issue.
 
mavis said:
I'll stop whining about this design flaw when my iPhone 4 works as well as my old 3G and 3GS did. I know it's foolish to expect to be able to surf the Internet on my iPhone, check email, send and receive SMS, and so forth while holding the phone in my left hand, but I'm a dreamer. I remember what it used to be like to do those things and I miss that ability. Since I'm stuck with this defective POS for the next 24 months or so (and since I cannot, for a number of reasons, return the phone) the only thing I can do is complain about it online so that others don't make the same mistake I did. Buying the iPhone 4, I mean.
Click to expand...

You do not know what you are talking about. I understand being upset but claiming Apple does not know how to design is naíve.
 
A case/bumper is a must for the iPhone 4. Just figure you have to have one. If having a case/bumper is a deal breaker. Then the ip4 is not for you.

I have Always had a case on my iPhones so it is an issue for me.
 
they did know about it. Steve said so. They just didn't think it would be this big of a deal.

Watch the keynote, you'll see where he says that
 
The antenna issue is only a problem if you don't have a case on it.

There is no reason to wait to see they change anything with the hardware if you plan on having a case anyway.
 
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