It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side―an easy thing, especially for lefties―the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4.
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 uters/phones-mobile-devices/cell-phones-services/smart-phone-ratings/models/overview/apple-iphone-3g-s-16-gb-99023450.htm">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."
The tests also indicate that AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4's much-reported signal woes.
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. We also expect that using a case would remedy the problem. We'll test a few cases this week and report back.
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.
[UPDATE: Some commentary suggests we've retracted an earlier recommendation of the iPhone 4. In fact, our first blog on the iPhone 4's performance, and a followup comparing it to the Motorola Droid X, were based on preliminary testing, as we stated. Those earlier tests did not address antenna performance. We recommend products only after all tests are complete, and as part of our full smart phone Ratings. ―Paul Reynolds]
If you want an iPhone that works well without a masking-tape fix, we continue to recommend an older model, the 3G S. (The full list of recommended smart phones models appears as part of our latest Ratings, available to subscribers.)
Apple's Bumper, a frame-like cover sold by the company to add a "dash of style" to the iPhone 4, has been flagged by some bloggers and consumers as a possible fix for the phone's signal-loss problem. We put the accessory to the test in our labs and confirmed that it does remedy the issue.
We slipped a Bumper onto an iPhone 4 and repeated our earlier tests of the phone's signal reception when held in a certain manner. Mimicking the contact described in consumer complaints about the phone, our tests measured any change in signal strength when a finger was placed over a small gap in the casing on the bottom left edge of the phone.
In the earlier tests without a Bumper, signal strength on the iPhone 4 dropped significantly each time a finger was placed over the gap, a reduction that might cause a call to be dropped. 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 our latest Ratings of smart phones, released this week and available to subscribers.
With the Bumper fitted, we repeated the test procedure, placing a finger on the Bumper at the point at which it covers the gap below. The result was a negligible drop in signal strength―so slight that it would not have any effect, in our judgment.
The Bumper, a skirt made of rubber and molded plastic that fits snugly around the phone with buttons that connect to those on the device and openings for its input jacks, is sold by Apple for $29 online and at their brick-and-mortar stores. There are other third-party cases for the iPhone 4―including many that are less expensive―and presumably some of those might remedy the signal problem as well, though we haven't tested them.
The Bottom Line: The Bumper solves the signal-strength problem. So does a piece of duct tape, as we reported earlier, or just being careful how you hold the phone. But these options all put the onus on consumers to solve or pay for a fix. We're still calling on Apple to provide an acceptable free solution to the iPhone 4's signal-loss problem.
―Paul Reynolds
posted at 13:49:48 on 07/13/10
by suga -
Category: Apple ＆ Macintosh
