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Experts Explain iPhone 4 Antenna Problem
CWmike writes "Reports of call and data signal strength problems in the new iPhone 4 have a basis in fact, a hardware expert said Thursday. Later in the day, Apple acknowledged that holding the iPhone 4 may result in a diminished signal that could make it difficult to make and maintain calls or retain a data connection. '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 in a statement issued to several media outlets, including PC Magazine, which had run tests earlier Thursday. '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.' Scores of new iPhone owners confirmed the reception problem in a string of more than 360 messages posted to a thread on Apple's iPhone 4 support forum."
A blog post from an antenna design company explains that the reception problems are probably the direct result of phone design adapting to FCC requirements.
In a sane world there's no way that my theory can be right, but here it is:
The lab tests were done at Apple HQ, where AT&T has a tower in order to keep Steve Jobs happy -- plenty of signal even with the defect. The field tests were done with the rubber disguises on, so it didn't affect them.
It Just Works. As long as you hold it the way Steve Jobs instructs you to. Coming from the supposed experts on user interface this is a major let down. Users holding the phone the way that comes most naturally to them are not wrong - the product is wrong.
To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
Grounding, or effectively grounding (by say, shorting two ends of a dipole) an antenna will *always* result in loss of signal, even when starting values are ideal. But regardless of how it was missed, the fact that it was missed at all means one thing: inadequate testing.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I think the reason they may not have found this in testing, is because it seems that you have to have slightly sweaty hands to trigger the problem. Just after running through an airport I was able to replicate the speed drop, but sitting on the plane a little later I could not see a network speed drop no matter how tightly I gripped the edges.
The tested mostly in winter, now it's summer - leading more people to have this problem.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley