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.

Comments

Cue the fanbois

[plover]

Next thing you know, holding a cell phone with the thumb and forefinger by the top right corner will become the fashionable way for any of the cognoscenti to hold their phones. Those of us who cradle them in the old fashioned way will be "not of the Body of Jobs", and mocked and ostracized.

Re:Cue the fanbois

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but there is only one correct way to hold a phone

Re:Cue the fanbois

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you sure?

Re:Cue the fanbois

[LBArrettAnderson]

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.

Re:Cue the fanbois

[Hope Thelps]

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.

Re:Cue the fanbois

[Anonymous Coward]

So how come this problem was not identified during the system test of the device?

Because - you'll really love this - they put it in an iphone 3 case when they were supposed to be testing it so as to keep the super shiny design secret. Really. The product they were testing wasn't the product they were planning to launch. Bunch. Of. Cowboys.

Re:Cue the fanbois

[StikyPad]

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.

Re:Cue the fanbois

[NotQuiteReal]

THEY FIRST told me I HAD to use iTunes, and AT&T,
and I didn't speak up because I wanted to be Cool.

THEN THEY told me I couldn't change the battery,
and I didn't speak up because I buy a new one every year.

THEN THEY told me I had to hold the phone with my pinkie extended,
and I didn't speak up because I don't mind looking gay.

THEN THEY CAME for more of my money
and by that time there was none left to buy more crap.

Apologies to Niemöller.

Re:Cue the fanbois

[Guillermito]

Sorry, guys. This is the right way

Simply ...

[randyzoch]

1) Stand on one leg, preferably facing the cell tower. 2) Use your other leg to form a crude counterpoise for the iPhone4's various antennas. Also, experiments in dry/low-humidity regions which lead to dry/chapped hands may also contribute to your success making and holding a call. What other company could get away with producing a product like this and succeed?

"Just avoid holding it that way"

[Chad Birch]

Saw a great post on reddit earlier today where a user goes through a bunch of Apple's own advertising to see how they've shown the phone being held.

Re:"Just avoid holding it that way"

[asdf7890]

Another reddit poster showed the true way to hold an iPhone: http://i.imgur.com/h9UDd.png

Danish professor predicted this

[Namarrgon]

This guy is an expert in antenna design from Aalborg University, and predicted this two weeks ago.

Presperation triggered

[SuperKendall]

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.

Re:Presperation triggered

[xs650]

It is a disgrace that it even got to testing, anyone with a clue about RF design would have predicted the dismal performance.

Re:Cases

[Gary W. Longsine]

I was initially skeptical that this might be software related, but recent rumors have a plausible software theory. The new iOS 4 has a new algorithm for picking the tower and channel that the phone uses, when it can see more than one. It appears that this mechanism may have a defect which is triggered by attenuating the signal (such as by bridging the two antennae with salty skin). This appears to cause the phone to decide to attempt switching channels. The speculation is that the timing is off, and the phone sometimes reports "no signal" rather than deciding to switch or stay put.

Death Grip hysteria may end Monday with iOS 4.01

The issue described is plausible, and fits some of the observations.

• Some folk can reproduce this problem, basically at will (one of the magazine review sites).
• Other folk are unable to reproduce this problem, at all (another reviewer at the NYT).
• At least some folk who can reproduce this issue are doing so in areas where reception was previously known to be marginal (including one of my developers at his house).
• The problem may have been harder to diagnose during Apple's testing, due to pre-release testing taking place inside insulated cases, thus the problem would be triggered less often, and not in associate with anything special that the user would notice (holding the phone in a certain way). The frequency of dropped calls might have been within the "normal" range for the AT&T network, given the small sample size of a few hundred test users. (Apple's off site testing includes hundreds of people, but that's actually a pretty small sample size, compared to the 600,000 people using the phone today.)

It will be interesting to see if a software patch emerges within a few days or even weeks, and cures this issue. If it does, I'll think back to several cell phones I had previously, which had problems that I could and did reproduce, and reported clearly to the vendors (both network and cell maker) and for which no patches were forthcoming, ever, during the life of the phone. Regular software updates for iPhone are a damn sight better than the old way, where the answer to any problem was "buy the new version of the phone you just bought a month ago".

Re:The media need to call Apple out.

[Jarik C-Bol]

I enjoy many apple products. However, they do not shit rainbows and butterflies. I am aware that they, like every other company on the face of the planet, from time to time, produce an inferior product. Your welcome to your personal shit-fest about apple, but really, if your that butt hurt about the existence of the company, then go cry in a corner you emo prick.

I want you to consider how shitty the home computing world would be if Microsoft never had ANY market competition. Imagine for a second how shit-tacular whatever OS we would be using would be if there were no competition between Apple and Microsoft. They are polar opposites in many ways, and wether they admit it or not, they strive to out do one another in the OS department. Without competition, the OS world would be a disgusting wasteland.

Apple is damn sure not a golden god on a unicorn with butterfly wings like some idiots make them out to be, but your fanatical 'anti apple' stance is just as moronic. /rant goodbye karma....