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Update 6 a.m. PT: Apple has published a letter regarding the iPhone 4 antenna, explaining that a faulty formula is making signal strength display incorrectly. The company claims a software update coming in a few weeks will correct the formula.
Many customers are complaining that the iPhone 4's antenna loses the signal when you hold it a certain way. They're not delusional: Independent tests lend credence to the issue.
A study led by AnandTech saw a major drop in signal strength when the iPhone 4 was "cupped tightly," covering a sensitive area in the lower left corner. The iPhone 4's external band is actually two antennas — one for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, and the other for voice and data — and according to Anandtech, touching the point in the lower left, where the two antennas meet, causes attenuation.
"The fact of the matter is that either the most sensitive region of the antenna should have an insulative coating, or everyone should use a case," Anandtech wrote. "For a company that uses style heavily as a selling point, the latter isn't an option. And the former would require an unprecedented admission of fault on Apple's part."
Immediately after the iPhone 4's release, several customers reported that covering the handset in the bottom left corner caused major signal loss, signified by dropped bars on the screen.
Criticism about the iPhone 4's reception doesn't look good for Apple. For years, dissatisfied customers have quibbled about the smartphone's spotty 3G network performance. Apple claimed the iPhone 4's new antenna design would significantly improve reception. Already, the erratic behavior of the iPhone 4 antenna has spawned lawsuits.
In a canned response, Apple said all phones experience attenuation when held in different positions. Consumer Reports also published a post agreeing that this is the case with all phones.
Is it a non-issue, as Steve Jobs suggests, or is it a major design flaw? Going beyond anecdotal experiences, Anandtech managed to hack together a way to get the iPhone 4 to display actual signal strength rather than reception bars. (The reception bars, many have explained, are a poor indicator for actual signal strength.)
AnandTech then held the iPhone 4 in five different ways — cupping tightly, holding naturally, open palm, resting on an open platform and holding naturally inside a case — and recorded results for each position. The blog ran the same tests with an iPhone 3GS and a Nexus One.
The results: All phones exhibited attenuation behavior in different positions, but the iPhone 4 did show a greater dropoff in signal strength in every holding position compared to the iPhone 3GS.
However, the blog noted that the iPhone 4's reception is definitely better in low-signal situations than the other two phones. In short, the iPhone 4 gets a much stronger signal overall compared to the iPhone 3GS and the Nexus One, but that strength is greatly hampered by attenuation when held in different positions.
"Reception is absolutely definitely improved," AnandTech wrote. "I felt like I was going places no iPhone had ever gone before. There's no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS."
Corroborating AnandTech's findings, antenna expert Richard Gaywood ran a different test gauging the iPhone 4's speed in different holding positions and came to similar conclusions. Gaywood's tests suggest that the problem is greatest when signal strength is already low.
"I think it’s pretty clear that there was still a performance penalty from gripping the phone in my bare left hand, despite the strong signal conditions," Gaywood wrote.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
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