Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter kingrob
  • Start date Start date
Synaesthesia said:
They still rate it as the best smartphone on the market though. I'm gonna echo what John Gruber wrote on Daring Fireball:
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fxit_man bought himself an iPhone 4, is using it - and can testify that the problem is REAL....but you're basically saying fxit_man is holding it wrong? :p

*I wonder if John Gruber actually has an iPhone 4?
 
kingrob said:
fxit_man bought himself an iPhone 4, is using it - and can testify that the problem is REAL....but you're basically saying fxit_man is holding it wrong? :p

*I wonder if John Gruber actually has an iPhone 4?
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iPhone4 owners have 30 days to return it for a full refund. Has he?
 
bwana has always been an Apple fanboi, so not interested in his comments.
 
No I didn't say that! My point is it's not such a large issue that fxit_man is unhappy with his phone, or wants to take it back.
kingrob said:
*I wonder if John Gruber actually has an iPhone 4?
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What? Of course he does!
 
AnandTech on the iPhone 4’s Antenna and Reception
Detailed analysis by Brian Klug and Anand Lal Shimpi at AnandTech. They show a decided drop in signal strength when “holding it wrong”, but conclude that the antenna is significantly improved overall:

From my day of testing, I’ve determined that the iPhone 4 performs much better than the 3GS in situations where signal is very low, at -113 dBm (1 bar). Previously, dropping this low all but guaranteed that calls would drop, fail to be placed, and data would no longer be transacted at all. I can honestly say that I’ve never held onto so many calls and data simultaneously on 1 bar at -113 dBm as I have with the iPhone 4, so it’s readily apparent that the new baseband hardware is much more sensitive compared to what was in the 3GS. The difference is that reception is massively better on the iPhone 4 in actual use.
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The issue is overblown.


and that's the bottom line ... because Stone Cold SAYS SO!
 
Ah, this is just classic!

Behold the awesome power of our brand

Consumer Reports calls our product defective and says they can’t recommend it. And what happens? Some hack at Business Insider actually sides with us, and says Consumer Reports is just trying to pull a publicity stunt, bashing Apple to drive traffic to its Web site.

Friends, the power of our brand is like nothing that has ever been known to man. If you could bottle our brand, it would be more powerful than kryptonite, more valuable than gold. The guys at Toyota just sit there turning green with envy. Honestly, I’m just agog.

Of course other less honest journalists are saying we need to do a recall. Like Cult of Mac and CNET.

My response is simple and direct: We will never, ever, ever do a recall. No way. The stain of a few gripers we can deal with. The stain of a recall is something that takes years — years — to overcome. In our business it would be fatal. We would never recover.

So, no. We’ll keep shipping the ****ed-up phones, and we’ll continue to insist that they are the best phones in the world with the best antenna that has ever been invented for any mobile device. We’ll keep running syrupy ads showing deaf mutes waving at each other over FaceTime.

If that’s not enough, maybe we’ll do a partial fall-back and agree to give out free bumpers to people who want them, and we’ll act like this is some huge deal and a big blow to our bottom line and blah blah blah so that will buy us a month maybe.

Then we’ll rush out iPhone 5 with a new design by Christmas season. It’s basically an iPhone 4 with a rubber wrapper around the outside. We’ve got the kids in China building them already.

Meanwhile, to all concerned, remain on message: There is nothing wrong with iPhone 4. It’s the best phone in the market. Even Consumer Reports admitted that.

If anyone mentions Android, say it’s fine if you’re a hardcore computer geek but too complicated for the average user. And it has the porn on it. Gross. Plus, iPhone has the bigger GBs.
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www.fakesteve.net
 
I'm not a huge fan of the iPhone so I won't be buying one any time soon, but until people stop buying them and start returning them I don't see Apple doing much about it - apart from maybe handing out bumpers, since the antenna issue is easily mitigated by putting a case on it (which in itself is a good idea anyway considering the body is mostly made out of glass).
 
yeah, i'm not too cut up about apple's products. they make good products on the whole, i can accept that.
it's more the ethical issues around their recent position toward other companies (adobe flash / zeal for patent litigation / rejection of google voice) and dealings with dissatisfied customers that has raised an eyebrow (iphone 4)

google's approach to PR:
"Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do and we have to earn that trust every single day," Eustace said. "We are acutely aware that we failed badly here."
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apple's approach to PR:
Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
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murraybiscuit said:
yeah, i'm not too cut up about apple's products. they make good products on the whole, i can accept that.
it's more the ethical issues around their recent position toward other companies (adobe flash / zeal for patent litigation / rejection of google voice) and dealings with dissatisfied customers that has raised an eyebrow (iphone 4)
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+1
 
Don't get me wrong guys, the phone is awesome! I'm just a bit disappointed with the antenna problem and the proximity sensor issue. It only happens when holding the phone in my left hand (covering the black bar)

I'm not planning on returning it! And yeah you would most probably need some sort of case with the entire phone being glass. But the antenna problem does exist ( see my thread in sig for screenshots with proof), and I have noticed it without doing it on purpose! I have also noticed the proximity sensor on a few occasions.

I personally believe it is more than just a software issue after having the phone for a week or so myself, but I'm hoping I'll be proven wrong.

Apart from these issues, the screen is really mind blowingly amazing, the camera quality (pics and video) is amazing too, with a bright and powerful LED flash accompanying it. (which can be used as a torch with the free LED flashlight app :))

The front facing camera lens is tiny, but the quality is very impressive despite it being VGA.

The feel of the phone is also more "square like", but feels more solid than the previous gen iPhones.

What I like about the back is that the etching and apple logo is under the glass, and therefore won't get scratched/worn like previous gen iPhones.

Volume and silent buttons are much more solid than before as well.

So apart from the few issues mentioned above, I'm very happy with the phone!
 
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