Apple responds to iPhone 4 antenna problem -- hold different
Engadget followed up with Apple regarding the issue of lost bars/reception when iPhone 4 is held with the left hand, connecting the two antenna bands in the lower left corner. Apple's response -- hold different:
Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.
Reports suggest doing either -- switching grips or putting on a case -- will let you avoid the problem, which Engadget reminds us is not isolated to the iPhone 4. But if previous iPhones and other devices like the Nexus One have similar issues, is that just a fact of life or an engineering problem that needs to be fixed?
What do you think?
[Engadget]
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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It does the same thing with my 3gs with the case off, except I gotta cover the whole back of the phone
Found this over in apple forums:
Yes, the signal degrades to the point that I lose all connectivity, rendering my iphone 4 useless until I set it down. I have also been informed that I am missing calls. I called Apple and they set me up with an appointment to get a new iphone 4 on Friday. They believe that when some of the phones were manufactured...some of the antenna's were not properly seated. Hopefully the swap out will resolve the issue. Otherwise we have a HUGE blooper.
Wonder if this could be the issue...
treated!
Annopen letter to Steve Jobs:
I am a person Who lives on a fixed income. I have full blown AIDS. Who knows when I will die. The slightest illness could kill me. Apple products are one thing that in love. I resign a $100 a month 2 yr contract with ATT and pay 209$ for ur new phone, to be told to hold it different way!!! Yoru kidding me! What happens if and when I lose the ability to use that hand?! Oh and the other option, by a case. Like your over priced one, that seems like you knew about this issue before releasing the phone. This is appalling! I lose all bars every time I have put this to the test. FIX THIS! Maybe give me that "bumper" to fix it. This phone is going back if something isn't done and I'm not paying ur restocking fee!!! Gabriel Schroeder
Sent from my iPad
Who holds their phone like that anyway?
they should test with other phones..but still the iphone 4 made it so you can easily affect its reception.
Yea man, thats a shame if this is a persistent/permanent hardware flaw. All that R&D and Apple couldn't catch something like this? Like damn, and to bring it to the public. Not coo' Apple, not coo' at all. I guess i will be returning it tomorrow and thinking of heading to android central
I have a 3GS and have ALWAYS had it in a case. I therefore never have had dropped call issues. As of all of this iPhone 4 business, though, I decided to take it out and try it naked. Sure enough it does the EXACT same thing. I tried it a few different times throughout the day and in different levels of coverage and EVERY time I held it a certain way, I'd drop signal. Maybe it's a bit more prevalent on the iPhone 4, but if you'll take a naked 3G or 3GS you'll see it does the same thing. And maybe Apple shouldn't try to make people buy cases or whatever but how many of you iPhone 4 owners that upgraded and aren't using a case actually never had a case on a previous iPhone? Something that expensive that lacks insurance surely isn't just bouncing around in your pockets/purses unprotected. I really don't think this is as big of a deal as it's being made to seem. But that's just my personal experience and opinion.
That is seriously messed up! What a lame answer from Apple! Ugh!
Note to Apple:
Instead of "Just avoid holding it that way" - how about "Just test it properly"?
It"Hold it differently, or buy one of our many available cases"
Wow. Thanks, Apple. It's Nintendo all over again. "It's the Wii! It's awesome! Here's the remote. Oh wait, you need the analog stick to play 95% of the games. Don't worry, we have that. Just give us $25 more."
I mean, really? Give me a gd break. I paid $300 for the thing, is it so horrible I want it to work? Thanks, but I'll buyh a MyFI and use my 2-year-old ipod touch.
this is the first time i can't see apple point ... i mean wtf ? couldn't they have just covered the antennas with a transparent covering to fix this ?
I do have an iPhone 4 - got it this morning around 9 am and I can go from 5 bars to 1/0 with holding it by the lower left corner or using something metal.
I'm going into the apple store tomorrow to get a bumper to see if it helps and if it does I'll be happy because my finger is getting sore from the sharp edge anyways.
Unfortunately this is not acceptable. Now they tell me how I have to hold the phone to use it!?! I can hold my 3G anyway I want and it does not display the bar dropping/data connection loss that the iPhone 4 does.
Does someone smell a class action law suit in the air?? And why is it that other companies would have listed the "wrong way" to hold the phone due to the antennae placement in their manuals? I dont see it anywhere on the apple website. Doesn't everyone remember seeing diagrams in Nokia manuals depicted "don't touch here". ?
I'm a huuuuuuge fan of apple I have iphone 3g, 3gs and ipad. and going to buy iphone 4 and macbook as well. I love apple product veeeeeery much. But this issue is apparently Apple's mistake that they didn't test iphone 4 properly. If they want to go through it, they should recall iphones or give customers "bumper" for FREE to prevent this stupid problems. HOLD DIFFERENT? MAKE DIFFERENT!!!!!
When I get my iPhone 4 I'm testing it at the Apple Store and making sure that I do not have a defective unit. If you can reduce your signal from 5 bars to 0 and you have issues sending and receiving calls, you have a defective unit. Don't buy a bumper to fix it, make Apple replace the unit to get it right. After all, for what we pay, we deserve to have a device that, at the least, works.
Lower left? Lower right? I see the same gap in the lower right. Are they really saying that left handed vs right handed makes a difference? I'd like to hope that this was just a manufacturing issue and we'll get replacement like the one earlier comment. using bumpers or a case is unacceptable. I like my iPhone naked. It fits in an in car holder without a case.
Interesting enough, I just checked my 3GS and it does the same thing. I would have never noticed until someone told me though...
New iPhone 4 owner: Steve, I love this phone! But whenever I hold it in my left hand I lose 3G signal and drop calls. There must be something wrong. Steve Jobs: Impossible. The problem lies with you. Owner: But this is happening to everyone else, too. Steve: The solution is simple. Owner: Really? Steve: Yes, hold it in your other hand. Owner: But I like holding it in my left hand. Steve: Not any more you don't. Now get out of here before I send the police to raid your home.
It's funny how many android ppl on here bashing the phone, they are partially right. I'm left handed, so this naturally affect my uses of the phone.
With that email posted, im starting to think what has been mention for months is true....all reception/signal problem with my 3gs was prolly due to a hardware error rather than AT&T signal. My co-workers have the same service but a blackberry. while their phone have service mine dont. of course, att service isnt the greatest, but it's possible that the iphone hardware design added more to the problem.
So with iphone 4, i gave it another chance. but after this signal thing started to happen, and the best Steve job could say is hold it a different way....i had enough of it. I dont see why i should cough up more money for a bumper when it's the company flaws.
but I’m returning this thing and wait for an android phone, no point putting up to this bs. and if other user could put up with this bs, then find a way to make ur phone work, but i had enough of this bs.
Just talked to the CEO of GM about my car slowing down randomly and braking, here's his response, "Don't hold the steering wheel"
The reception bar is definitely affected by the way you hold it but for the most part I dont have any problems performance wise. This is Apple and AT&T were talking about. Get over it.
Hey guys i just wanted to let you know i dont think its the phone. My reason is if your outside you cannot get it to drop one bar. If you continue holding the phone and walk inside then it starts decreasing. All the tests out there are done from inside there house. I think att's network is weak or haveing trouble with all the activations. I just wached a video that showed a nokia doing the same thing on att. What you think?
Andrew....You said exactly what i was going too...I was having the same issue indoors, when ever i held the phone i would loose bars..but not the quality of the call, that was always clear. But when i am outside, i do not loose any bars what so ever, unless obviously i am in a bad area, not because of how i am holding the phone!
Oh I see . . . It's our fault.
I have this problem too, waiting for a fix... or a rebate or something.
Some of you claiming it's only the signal bars, or it's AT&T, or it's only inside, and that the actual call quality is unaffected are DEAD WRONG according to my personal experience.
I have seen this signal problem in every conceivable situation EXCEPT for when I am in a VERY STRONG 3G area...otherwise without my case, the iPhone would be useless in any fringe area holding it in my left hand cradled like I have done for a decade!
What! I never noticed on my 3G, but I always have horrible reception, maybe it IS becuase of the phone/holding it situation. I'm gunna find out. I've been blaming att's coverage this whole time.
I just got a Gelli Case from Casemate and it does appear to eliminate the fading reception issue when the iPhone 4 is hand held around the antenna band. This sounds like a clever Apple trick to get people to invest in cases for their devices, (i.e. Apple iPhone 4 bumpers) when has Apple ever offered a case for their devices?
You can buy an expensive bumper case from Apple to cover the edge antenna.
Cheap man's solution: use the thick blue rubberband from a broccoli bunch and stretch it over the stainless steel edge!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1373/4733013039966c6301d4b.jpg
@droidlover. U are the biggest form of a loser there is. just use your droid and be happy. That being said, shouldn't this be happening with every phone? I don't have one though a friend does and neither of us can seem to recreate this.
Maybe Steve should update, um, every marketing picture and ad Apple has, since virtually all of them show the phone being held with the lower left corner covered.
http://i.imgur.com/zAJ0y.jpg
I'm so glad Steve could come down off of his "High Horse" long enough to scold his consumers for holding his phone the wrong way.
Heil SJ!!!
Like Steve Jobs (and Wozniak), I'm left-handed, and thus hold it the "right" way, unlike pairs of scissors or can-openers.
Sprint Evo and Verizon Droid Incredible don't drop calls. Oh and I'm sure the Motorola Droid X won't drop calls either.
Better phones on better networks, stop being iSheep and upgrade.
@darrkman
Why do you even care what kind of phone anyone else uses?
Why does the public need to change the way they hold their phones? Should a phone make not keep that in mind when designing one? And what is this business about spend more money and put it in a case? If that is the answer then why put so much time into designing the phone if it is going into a case. Why not just build one around a case.
I also like how apple disabled their online chat support. Why would you do that if your products work as they should?
@Jeff Can u please put your posts in English as opposed to gibberish? It would help. Thank you.
I am planning to buy iPhone soon but now it wud be better for me to wait. One think we don't understand why apple not accepting their manufacturing issue and just tell people true facts and accept it. Give people assurance of their product quality and come out with solution if they want to maintain their status as a great company with excellent product range. Else, people will easily start moving to other side which i beleive apple don't want. Thank you.
Walky Chalky did replacing the phone fix your reception problems because i have the same issue.
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