Gikas continues, “We reached this conclusion after testing all three of our iPhone 4s (purchased at three separate retailers in the New York area) in the controlled environment of CU’s radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber. In this room, which is impervious to outside radio signals, our test engineers connected the phones to our base-station emulator, a device that simulates carrier cell towers (see video: IPhone 4 Design Defect Confirmed). We also tested several other AT&T phones the same way, including the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4. Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4’s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that “mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”
“We did, however, find an affordable solution for suffering iPhone 4 users: Cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material. It may not be pretty, but it works,” Gikas reports. “We also expect that using a case would remedy the problem. We’ll test a few cases this week and report back.”
MacDailyNews Take: “We’ll test a few cases this week and report back,” but not until we milk this for all it’s worth. They already had iPhone 4 test units in their big bad “controlled environment radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber,” but they couldn’t test iPhone 4 in a few cases while they were at it? Puleeze.
Gikas continues, “The signal problem is the reason that we did not cite the iPhone 4 as a ‘recommended’ model, even though its score in our other tests placed it atop the latest Ratings of smart phones that were released today. The iPhone scored high, in part because it sports the sharpest display and best video camera we’ve seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller. But Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4.”
Full article here.
AppleInsider reports, “The latest update from Consumer Reports is a 180-degree change from what it advised users earlier this month. In that report, the company noted that there was “no reason” to not buy an iPhone 4. The company said, at the time, that they were unable to recreate the signal loss issue.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever. So, Apple will sell approximately eleven less iPhone 4 units to Consumer Reports’ geriatric subscribers (CR ought to be testing Jitterbugs, not smartphones). Using Consumer Reports as a basis for tech buying is like using Windows for color-sensitive print work. It’s something only attempted by the ignorant.
So, bottom line: Consumer Reports finds iPhone 4 superior to all other smartphones in most respects, but because you need a case for it if you’re going to cover the antenna while holding it a certain way — a case, by the way, that’s something most people add to their phones regardless — Consumer Reports won’t recommend it, at least until they milk as much free pub out of their “non-recommendation recommendation” as possible. For more, please read: Consumer Reports: Oh yeah, almost forgot, Apple iPhone 4 is also the best smartphone on the market – July 12, 2010.
Why do we get the feeling that Consumer Reports PR employees’ day jobs are at Greenpeace? They both seem to have the same modus operandi: Use Apple to gin up free publicity.
All that said, as we’ve stated consistently: If the iPhone 4 requires a case or a hardware “fix” of some sort, then Apple should provide one free of charge to every iPhone 4 owner.
OH MY GOD THE AWESOMEST PHONE EVER DROPS CALLS APPROX 5% MORE OFTEN THAN BEFORE UNLESS I BUY A CASE OR PUT A ONE CENT PIECE OF TAPE OVER THE ANTENNA — I THINK I’M GOING TO SCREAM AND MOAN ABOUT IT ALL DAY
i.e., who the hell cares. get a life. cutting edge tech always requires a little DIY and this DIY fix, assuming you need it (many honestly can not replicate the issue) is about as easy as DIY gets. Android astroturfers keep trying to milk this all you want, nobody cares!
If you don’t like your iPhone 4 please send it to me and I will trade for my perfectly good 3GS, I would love an iPhone 4 so I could lovingly put a little piece of tape on it and enjoy the best phone in the world, but I am unfortunately not upgrade eligible until next year!
Consumer Reports is extremely influential in many households. You can try to deny or ridicule that fact but that that doesn’t make it untrue. Beyond that CR has a multi-decades long history as one of the most honest of evaluators. They don’t even take ads so they can maintain their impartiality. I find it extremely hard to believe they would put out a false story to garner publicity. Your ridiculous take is just your desperate attempt to denigrate them because they dissed an Apple product. Well, its time for you to state the truth and stop with the paranoia. Apple has a serious problem here and they need to fix it, either with an antenna redesign or with a free case to keep sweaty fingers away from the dreaded “gap”. If they don’t, it will hurt (and must be hurting) their sales even though those sales are phenomenal, and it gives their competitors an opening, which is a mistake.
I don’t have any call issues with my Iphone 4, as a matter of fact it is much better in every aspect than the Android phone I have to carry for work…With that said, Apple really needs to get a better response out there and soon…Right or wrong the “perception” of this issue is going to hit sales hard if they don’t get a handle on this…
I’m not a big fan of Consumer Reports. I lost respect for them as soon as I started doing consumer electronic reviews myself and comparing what I was discovering versus what they were reporting.
The biggest flaw in CR is that they do a really poor job of isolating what’s important for a customer versus how those variables are rated.
This is a prime example. It’s totally irresponsible for them to rush to report that they can’t recommend the iPhone 4 when the reality is that they themselves would place atop of their recommendations for most customers…that is to say the overwhelming majority who would have a case or bumper anyway…or for that matter simply never be affected by the antenna issue.
They should’ve instead put a large asterisk aside their recommendation stating the issue and that a case/bumper is highly recommended…and would be recommended anyway for general protection, as with any other smart phone.
That being said, Apple is blowing this big time. In terms of PR, they need to get ahead of this issue. They’re lagging behind and the more time that goes by the more life-long customers they could lose and the more they’ll have to do to remedy the situation.
The software fix they outlined sounded straight forward enough, but where is it? At the very least, we should be getting a release date..or even an estimate.
If bumpers or a case is needed, Apple needs to deal with that sooner rather than later, and definitely not claim it can be fixed with software only to have us later find out that it can’t.
I love my iPhone 4. I can recreate the problem when I take my bumper off, but I never once considered not having a bumper or case…heck, I bought a case and a bumper before iP4 day just so I’d be ready. However everywhere I go and have people ask about it, I get more and more people who are frustrated that they can’t get one, and then say that they’ll just wait until the next model because “this one has too many issues”.
As much as I can explain the situation, there is a perception (which is growing) that Apple blew it with this one.
Come on people, get a life. You can get iphone 4 cases for as little as $.99 on eBay, with free shipping. Put a case on it!!
If we could even get an iphone here in North Dakota, I would be standing in line now.
There are areas where CR doesn’t shine. (No audiophile takes seriously their speaker rankings, for example.)
But there’s no congenital dislike for Apple evident at CR. The Macbook Pro and iMac 27″ were the top ranked laptop and all-in-one desktop (the 21.5″ came in third), and their service and support rankings place Apple WAY ahead of the pack. But their suggestion that one not rush to the iPad because lower cost competitive alternatives were coming wouldn’t be taken seriously here.
Yes, there is a problem with the antennae but they will still sell over 40 million phones for 2011 and they will find a fix by then.
I am wondering if by the time it comes here (Canada) they would have fixed it by then, but the stock price could suffer because of this. Also, if there were not any problems, they would sell probably double that.
Personally I like MDN’s rants. You don”t have to read them if you do not want.
As for the iPhone, big flippin deal. I do not even own one (my wife a two kids do though). From what I understand, the product is so amazing that one would think this defect (real or not) is trivial enough and easy enough to fix that doesn’t the beauty of the beast outshine the few warts and pimples it possesses?
Also Apple is a good enough company that they will fix it soon, perhaps not retroactively but for new purchases.
Certainly a lLOT of whiners on here.
Who gives a sh^t about CR ?? Really ? Clearly not that many people think it’s a serious issue (look at the sales).
CR reviews are so flaccide and obvious… totally desinged for the luddite ‘Best Buy shopper’ …
The iphone 4 problem is not really a problem…
I’ve owned every single iphone since the original and the iphone 4 has the best reception, by far.
I live in Los Angeles but work (and travel) all over the US… the iphone reception is better everywhere.
MDN: Lashing out at well-respected organization such as CR because they disagree with your editorial line isn’t going to help your (recently diminished) credibility on this issue.
FACT #1: It’s true that all cell phones suffer attenuation issues caused by people holding the phone as it was designed to be held.
FACT #2: Apple’s design of the iPhone 4 magnifies this problem by exposing the antenna to direct contact with the user’s skin.
There’s no getting around this. This particular characteristic of all cell phones has been made worse by Apple’s design of the phone. In this case, form trumped function, and ugliness ensued. Software doesn’t explain nor will alleviate the problem.
It does seem fair to point out that there is improved reception over previous models when the “death-grip” is not emplyed. This, and the fact that Apple released this product with their own “bumper cases” on launch day (didn’t that seem weird to anyone else?), leads me to believe that Apple knew about this particular behavior of the phone, and deemed it a good trade-off with the improved reception. Nothing seedy, just a choice that Apple often makes as a hardware designer. I think they made two mistakes: 1) They underestimated the reasponse to the issue, and 2) They haven’t responded very well to it.
The iPhone is still an excellent device which will sell very well. But, as CR points out, it has a flaw. Apple can’t hit home runs all the time. The good news is that (once they admit the problem to themselves), Apple will probably address the design sooner or later, and either this model (or subsequent ones) will be improved.
OK . . Let’s get some facts straight here….
Fact #1:
All cell phones suffer from signal attenuation when holding the phone in your hand. This has been demonstrated online with various cell phones.
Fact #2:
Apple has reported that there is a problem with the calculation used to display the number of bars (signal strength). The iPhone is reporting a higher signal strength than there really is.
Conclusion:
Some iPhone users are in areas where cellphone reception is less than ideal. For these users, the iPhone displays many more bars than it should; the iPhone displays 4-5 bars when it should probably be displaying 1 bar. In this scenario, an iPhone 4 user grips their phone and their signal strength drops from 4-5 bars down to no signal. When in actuality, the signal bars really when from 1 bars to no bars. Since all cell phones suffer from signal attenuation, this scenario is a reasonable outcome for the iPhone 4 or any other cell phone for that matter. If you have a weak signal and cover the back of your cell phone with your hand, you’re bound to decrease the reception and loose the remaining signal on your phone.
It’s really very simple: if you sincerely believe Consumer Reports is a viable tech review source, then you most likely consider Walmart the best place for buying the latest and greatest technology.
MDN is 100% spot on with this one, the comments defending CR are embarrassing to those writing them. Consumer Reports is a joke.
This being said, I do hope these Consumer Reports/Walmart fans are convinced the iPhone is a very “problematic” smartphone, and to buy the upcoming Droid instead. With every new iPhone 4 purchased, my own iPhone 4 becomes less and less a status item…
I’m not putting tape on the antenna.
I’m putting tape over the bars indicator.
I bought both a Vacuum cleaner AND a brand of dishwasher soap CS recommended and both products were horrible. Did my own internet research the second time around and bought products that really work. After that, it’s hard to take them seriously. I think CS was good once, but no more.
There is an issue and apple are going to have to own up to it. I can knock my iPhone off 3G just by holding it. While it doesn’t knock me off the network totally (apple’s justification for it being a software issue) it does leave me without 3G in places my old iPhone 3G had no problem at all.
I’ve had to switch 3G off as there’s no point – as soon as I start surfing the web the 3G signal drops off.
I’m as big a fan boy as anyone but the new iPhone is not fit for purpose.
I love my iPhone 4 ! I never use a case, and I never experience any issues of falling bars no matter how I hold it. You’d need a crow-bar to get this phone away from me!
Why are MDN in denial about this (iPhone 4) problem?
My wife and I had all the various iterations of iPhones since their inception in 2007 … and our new shiney i4’s have the worst reception of any iPhone we’ve even owned.
Make no mistake, we love our new phones but being in denial about their performance doesn’t help anyone.
If Apple can’t fix this problem in software, then maybe it’s time for the company to step up and use some of it’s $40 billion + cash reserves to show how insanely great they are at respecting their customers and sorting out all out iPhone problems.
They could turn a potential PR disaster into an amazing success for the company.
If you don’t like the new phone, return it. If you feel Apple is heading for the dump, sell your stock. JS has always said that the people and market decides. Who is more free market than SJ?? There are plenty of alternative smartphones on which to spend your money and plenty of stocks in which to invest. So go for it and quit the whining. By the way, has anyone seen a return rate on the new iPhone?
MDN is totally wrong on this and Consumer reports is right. Could Apple do ANY wrong in MDN’s eyes? Own and love many Apple products. But I do not accept that they are perfect. Apple screwed the pooch on the iPhone antenna. They could have chosen to bundle a free bumper with each phone and nobody would care about this issue. In typical Apple arrogance, they chose not to do this. WDN should be ashamed that it gives Apple a pass on this.
It’s funny, I was just on the phone for an hour and this particular conversation I just kept wishing my phone would disconnect.
But they should have tested the phone in 3 different markets, like NewYork, Los Angeles, Miami.
I would like to know what kind of engineers and where they got their degrees. Given the ever declining reputation of Consumer Reports since they started hiring European engineers I would guess Dumbarton U or Dumas trade school.
Perhaps you fucking knee-jerk morons should read the entire Take before criticizing MDN?
“As we’ve stated consistently: If the iPhone 4 requires a case or a hardware ‘fix’ of some sort, then Apple should provide one free of charge to every iPhone 4 owner.”
In other words, MDN fucking agrees with you, you brain-damaged mouth-breathers.
Yeah, I gave up on Consumer Reports “credibility” 20 years ago when they rated the Mazda Navajo much higher than the Ford Explorer. I guess nobody told the team at CR that both vehicles came off the same assembly line and were identical, aside from some Mazda branding and trim.
Wolf!
I have been using my iPhone 4 while on vacation in Europe.
I came from South FLorida where I had absolutely no issues and I have had no issues here either. Performs perfectly and much better reception than my 3Gs.