Consumer Reports was wrong on Verizon iPhone 4; so-called ‘death grip’ fixed by Apple

15 years ago

“Consumer Reports’ made waves last week with its decision not to recommend the Verizon iPhone 4 because of the same ‘death grip’ antenna problem that plagues AT&T’s iPhone 4,” David Goldman reports for CNN/Money. “But the magazine may have made the wrong call: Tests show that Verizon’s version is significantly improved over its rival’s.”

MacDailyNews Take: Made waves with the Hoveround crowd, maybe. Consumer Reports’ demographic is the non-coveted “older than dirt” segment. Which probably explains why the rag has to grasp at Apple’s coattails in a desperate quest for relevance. If Consumer Reports thinks that this is a good way to get the interest of a younger demo, they’re sadly mistaken. Anyone under the age of embalmed now knows that Consumer Reports is a piece of shit. The National Enquirer has a sounder grasp of the scientific method. And, there’s no “may have.” Consumer Reports did make the wrong call because a) they’re desperate for readers who still possess a pulse; and/or b) their staff of pretend “scientists”/publicity whores did yet another shitty job.

Goldman reports, “Gadget analysis group AnandTech, which was the first to diagnose the iPhone 4 antenna issue, ran a thorough test of the new Verizon iPhone 4 and found that the ‘death grip’ problem has been mitigated. ‘Apple fixed the problem,’ said Brian Klug, author of AnandTech’s report. ‘You can use the Verizon Wireless iPhone with no case without any concern for losing signal because of how it’s held.’ AnandTech founder Anand Shimpi criticized the Consumer Reports study for failing to provide data to support its findings. Consumer Reports spokeswoman Melissa Valentino declined to offer the group’s test results, only saying that the Verizon iPhone and the AT&T iPhone performed ‘similarly’ in tests.”

MacDailyNews Take: Uh, gee, where’d the “test results” go, Missy? “Tests.” Pfft. The only thing that performed “similarly” in both cases is Consumer Reports. Their quest for free publicity long ago turned into a self-immolating vendetta as toothless as their decaying readership. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that shitty self-described “scientists” produce shit “science.”

Goldman reports, “The AnandTech study, however, showed that the Verizon iPhone performed roughly on par with its non-iPhone peers — and far better than the AT&T version — in terms of cell signal attenuation… So why does Verizon’s iPhone fare better than its AT&T cousin? A key difference lies in its antenna architecture.”

“A teardown analysis performed by IHS iSuppli revealed that the Verizon iPhone kept the same integrated antenna design of the AT&T iPhone, but Apple made several improvements to fix the signal problems that the earlier model. The Verizon antenna employs a ‘dual-antenna design that takes advantage of antenna diversity to improve reception,’ iSuppli said in its analysis,” Goldman reports. “Unlike its competition, Verizon requires that all of its smartphones have multiple antennas that can be switched depending on which one has a better signal. That so-called antenna diversity also allows the phone to average out the two antennas to get a better signal.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: So, the Verizon iPhone 4 does not have the same “death grip” issue as the AT&T iPhone 4 and, oh by the way, all cellphones attenuate when held in certain ways as Apple proved with numerous videos last summer and YouTube users prove daily. Therefore, big surprise: Consumer Reports is wrong. Again.

Hey, did we mention that Consumer Reports is a piece of shit? Tell your great, great grandma to cancel her subscription.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ken M.” for the heads up.]