“First, Apple has issued an official statement, with which I completely agree,” Segan reports. “‘Gripping any 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,’ Apple said. ‘If you ever experience this on your Phone 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.'”
“If I hold the phone in a slightly sweaty left hand, with my fingers covering the three black lines on the phone’s edge and the bottom left corner in my palm, signal strength is somewhat reduced. If I had to pick a number out of the air, I’d say it’s by 3 to 5 decibels per milliwatt (dBm). Feel free to correct me if you have the appropriate lab equipment. The hand involved has to be a little sweaty to encourage conductivity, or the trick might not work,” Segan reports. “This doesn’t have any effect on connecting voice calls in areas with a strong signal, but it can make the difference between connecting and not if you’re already in a fringe signal area.”
Read more in the full article here.
Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors, “Several readers have pointed out that, as per Steve Jobs statement, other mobile phones also suffer from similar signal degradation while being held tightly. In fact, a support thread for Google’s Nexus One described a very similar issue back in February:”
If you go to Settings -> About Phone -> Status you will see a display for “Signal strength”. When my phone is sitting on the desk, the signal stays consistent. However, the second I touch my phone, the signal drops up to as much as -20 dBm. I am able to replicate this test every single time, whether the signal is incredibly strong or weak.
Kim reports, “Another user filmed this video of his Nokia 6230 showing the same phenomenon:”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Joshua Topolsky reports on an email Engadget received from Steve Jobs in which Apple’s CEO rather ludicrously states, “Just avoid holding it in that way.”
Bzzzt! Wrong answer, Steve. Try again.
Check out how Apple employees from Steve Jobs on down held the iPhone 4 in demos and videos here. Funny, they didn’t “just avoid holding it in that way.” They all do seem rather entranced by something, though. Maybe it’s the disappearing bars?
iPhone 4. Not only does it disappear in bars when it’s put down, but its bars disappear when it’s picked up. Talk about “magical.”
So, it looks like our source was wrong (wouldn’t be the first time) about a software fix for this issue and this is the way the iPhone 4 will operate. Therefore, if the iPhone 4 requires a “case” or rubber “bumper” in order to operate properly, then Apple should provide one in every box free of charge.
And, no, a 29-cent (if that much) piece of colored rubber marked up 100 times to US$29, however nicely-packaged it may be, simply doesn’t cut it, Mr. Jobs. We’re willing to pay for quality, but we don’t appreciate being ripped off.
All that said, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone/pocket computer we’ve ever used. We wouln’t give our units up even if they had to held with salad tongs.
I do have my 4 th iPhone and it is amazing. This problem though is unacceptable. The while point if the band was advanced reception and now that the opposite us the case us bs. Free bands isn’t even the answer because I have always liked my iPhones tn be naked. I’m at least glad that I am in a relatively good AT&T;area in Frisco TX.
People need to chill out. Try it out. Don’t just watch signal bars, a signal bar is nothing. Make calls. Hold it how you want. Go to an area of marginal coverage. Does it drop calls? In a day off calling around for me anyway, it did not. Your mileage may vary.
As for the software fix: it is still possible. Software can easily be patched to be less quick or less severe in changing conditions when displaying bars. The user can hold it for a full minute in that corner, let’s say, before the signal shows as dropping. Net result: problem fixed because the ‘problem’ is mostly in the perception of the user, not the reception of the phone.
Again, your mileage may vary.
Seriously, chill out about a problem until it actually affects you.
Seems like simply clear coating (lacquer or =) the stainless steel case/antennas to prevent conductivity would solve the problem.
Just out of curiosity, is this a US-only problem? So far I can’t see anyone reporting this issue from the UK… which gives me hope that it wont happen when my phone gets here…
Still, that is a seriously poor show from Apple to dismiss the problem like that. Really, really poor show.
I’m terrified of recieving my iPhone 4 now, but glad it’s going to be another month before it gets here if it means all these issues are sorted out when it does.
> Is it really that much of a problem to slightly adjust your grip?
This statement is ridiculous. The point is not that it is a huge problem to adjust slightly one’s grip. It is that Apple may have designed a phone that, rather than fitting itself to the consumer and working with them, forces the consumer to alter basic behaviours in an unconscious and perhaps unnatural way.
When spending close to, in the UK, £850 for an eighteen month contract or, realistically, £500 for the phone itself, one expects not to have such problems.
To use the BMW/Mercedes analogy so often repeated, if the the steering were to veer to the left it would be inappropriate for BMW to advise customers that this was unimportant and for them just to compensate a bit by oversteering to the right.
Apple has a reputation for making quality products that “just work” out of the box. If it has made a phone which does not “just work” or that requires people not to hold it in a particular way or that requires accessories, expensive or otherwise, to work then this is a fault and there should be no explaining away of such a defect.
This is such bull…like everything…I tell you why:
1. Apple knew this problem long time ago, no question about it
2. They intentionally chose to downplay it (as per SJ’s mail) which is a real insult to everybody. I have had 30-40 cell phones the last 10 years and I have never had this problem, nor have I heard anybody having the problem – tho I admit it can exist.
3. It seems more and more as if Apple is trying to MAKE MONEY on this blunder by selling a bumper case with a whopping 29$ price tag (since they knew of this problem they knew ppl would want/need it)
And all you morons out there who bashed those of us who saw this “flaw” for what it is before SJ’s mail: keep on living in the brainwashed dreamworld where Apple can make no mistakes.
The rest of us will give Apple the needed feedback so that these kinda things will not happen again.
AAPL is more worth than any technology company in the world, lets keep it that way 10 years from now on too, right?
> Seriously, chill out about a problem until it actually affects you.
I should add that a consumer should not have to spend £500 on a phone or £835 on a contract over eighteen months on a wait-and-see basis. Any reasonable person buys products on the expectation and assumption that they work normally and naturally.
If this is a real problem then it certainly sails close to the wind, in the UK, of the statutory implied term in every consumer contract that the item purchased is of satisfactory quality, fit for the purpose for which it is supplied and free from minor defects.
for the life of me.. I can’t replicate this…
I feel sorry for Americans. Constantly dropping calls, and now this. You guys must be angry. I think we all understand. If this is widespread, and this is looking like a hardware/design flaw, this is really bad.
Steve’s email about holding it another way is ridiculous. Typical fanatical, incredulous, arrogant Jobs. And PLEASE: STOP MAKING EXCUSES. No, other phones don’t really do this. You can hold them in comfortable positions and you won’t lose service. I’ve had so many cell phones and the drop of this iP4 signal magnitude… I’ve never seen this.
If this did happened with other phones, people would also be complaining, and we would hear about it on the Blogosphere. Case in point. This was NOT a problem with any of the previous iPhones.
What’s silly about this is they could have put the split on the TOP of the phone instead of the bottom. It’s natural to hold your iPhone tightly and on the bottom. Gravity makes it logical that the phone will rest on the palm of your hand. And anyone who doesn’t want to pay $600-700 to replace a damaged phone will probably hang on to it tightly.
I love Apple products and own a LOT of them. But this is absolutely infuriating Apple-flavored bullshit and they need to make it right. If their phone requires a rubber bumper, they should supply one as part of the cost of the phone. If that means the jack the price to cover the cost of the bumper, that’s what they should have done. This could have been sold as design feature: a replaceable rubber bumper that you can swap for your favorite color or pattern. Instead, it’s a design flaw that they probably didn’t see in testing because their phones were hidden in an outer case.
“Just avoid holding it in that way.”
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Sorry Steve, but that’s gotta be one of the dumbest responses you have made in the recent years, can’t think of any that would match it right out of the bat.
For a company that used to promote itself using the phrase – “Think Different”, Apple sounds amazingly like a lot of others now, arrogant and uncaring. It’s a product design fault Steve, we don’t care what other devices do or don’t, we just care that the iPhone 4 design doesn’t. Apparently Steve thinks that we should limit our use of the iPhone 4 to worship from afar, never to touch, well I know who’s out of touch – Steve Jobs.
Time for Apple’s customers ton take some control – 1 word – embargo. Don’t buy the iPhone 4 until Apple fixes it.
If I was the boss and my engineers came to me to demo the new iPhone 4, and told me to avoid holding it a certain way (which it turns out is one of several normal ways people hold cell phones) or it won’t work, I’d kick them out of my office on their ass. By the next day they’s all be transferred to shipping & receiving department.
Seriously, this IS an issue if you’re not in a strong signal area (and sometimes even if you are). I can kill a download or a phone call just by holding it the way I normally would (yes, covering the antenna gaps), and it resumes as soon as I hold it with 2 fingers. I don’t care how many bars are being displayed – that’s an issue all by itself. The one that’s bugging me is the issue of it not working at all if I’m at home (2-3 bars of Edge) and hold it like I always did my 3GS iPhone.
If wonder if this is why the Wi-Fi wouldn’t work at the conference. Steve was holding it the wrong way??
Buy a case.
BFD
Thank you MDN for updating this issue -yes, it is not a case (no pun intended) of simply holding the phone another way. They need to add a case for free to everyone (except they already sold out of their bumpers) or redesign the phone. This is a train wreck. Someone should be fired for this oversight as it is so basic to making the phone useful. I wish I still had my 3GS – this new phone drops my calls and screws up data unless I set it down and do not hold it at all – terrible terrible terrible design and obnoxious. For all it’s great features it needs to have reception at least as good as the 3GS or it has no point in being hoisted onto the Apple faithful.
Thanks Steve. I am going to with the ‘just don’t hold it at all’ option. The iPhone 5 will come with a new feature: hold it anyway you like! Not the first company to let you hold your phone however you wish, but the best!
Now if someone could design a case that actually increases reception, that would be a plus. But for those of you who go ‘naked’, this is unfortunate. Apple’s next phone (the 5G, presumbaly due out next summer) may be worth waiting for? I would expect that Apple’s engineers have just been chained to their benches to come up with a solution for the next design, since this one is already out of the barn.
Funny, though. The white iPhone debacle, the scratches, etc. That’s why it is tough to have predictable upgrade cycles – you may run out of time to do things right.
Following the rules of the App Store, Apple Retail should reject iPhone 4’s because they clearly don’t work as advertised…
I think Toyota said something similar when it blamed the US public for installing the floor mats wrong causing the Camry’s unintended acceleration. Thank God we are only talking a cell phone here. This response is not what I had expected from Steve Jobs, but if we are talking a complete redisign, that would be a huge amount of money. Having to use a rubber case in order to not lose bars would be an epic fail for Apple in the design category. Yes all phones do lose some signal if you block the antenna but not even close to what I am seeing in these YouTube videos. I hope they fix it soon, but I don’t think I’ll be seeing an iPhone in my hands until 4G or 5 unless 4 somehow does make it to Sprint.
I have two Nokia smart-phones and they do the same thing.
Hardly as big a problem as the rabid world of blogging makes it out to be. Anyone wanting to dump their iPhone because of this outrage can send it to me. I’ll send you a sympathy card in thanks.
Steve Jobs is brilliant but it doesn’t mean he can’t be an asshole sometimes…the problem on my iPhone 4 is very real and I’m a lefty. So SJ should I become a righty to suite your ass. I agree totally with MDN it should come with a solution i.e. Free bumper.
If I have to hold it with the kung fu grip, I don’t care. It is still a brilliant device. Remember what cell phones used to be like? All you whiners are free to use some other phone. I love Apple’s.
I just posted the MDN take on another website without knowing it was your take… great minds think alike. As they say on Slashdot… Defective by Design.