[iPhone4] Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Apparently, users are reporting that if they touch the outside metal perimeter of the new iPhone 4 they begin to lose signal:

iPhone 4 Loses Reception When You Hold It By The Antenna Band?

I'm willing to bet you that this is occurring because this time Apple didn't steal patents from other companies like Nokia. Their QA testing for their hardware is probably nothing compared to the huge labs Nokia has. I'm somewhat enjoying the fact that Apple doesn't know how to get the basics of phone hardware right. I mean isn't one of those basic things they teach people in electrical engineering.

I could only imagine the blood that would be spilled if a Nokia phone couldn't make a phone call successfully because you're holding the phone. :D

So I can faithfully say that I can indeed make phone calls on my N900 without losing reception.... and it's supposed to be an internet tablet device.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You The Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

could it be that his device is defected?

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Allright Jmangs!!! way to go

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You The Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

There seems to be other people reporting the same issue. E.g. data connection speed is really poor when touching the antenna.

This article predicting problems was linked there.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

I doubt it's because they didn't license GSM patents or whatever. Probably it's more likely the testing conditions they did (since they do have several prototypes that Apple people test in the field) did not include something. Say maybe they were using cases to disguise it was the new iPhone, or some coating wore off.

I also don't think the snideness is really needed..

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Apple will fix it with iphone 5 forcing people to upgrade.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

I dont think they can fix that. I believe its a hardware issue especially since the antenna is right there. Which means recall or Rebate one of the two i am sure.

-MASTER

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

i wonder if having this raw metal exposed and connected to the innards could be a hazard to the phone in case of strong static arc?

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

or give everyone free pink apple brand bumpers :)

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

AT&T made them do it. Now Apple will take some of the heat for dropped calls.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

i think the suit from nokia does cover innovations in antenna design...

you are right, probably not applicable, but it still might indirectly bring some attention to the case

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Nokia E71 dropped quite a few bars when u held the bottom of the phone as u naturally would.it was a commonly reported problem, jsut had to live with it.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Insulating the metal rim by a plastic/rubber cover that I've seen on older iPhones will probably solve the problem altogether. Anyway, I am looking forward to winning over the fight for the office WiFi :)

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Eek, I know someone who is planning on getting the 4th-gen iPhone. Man, he's going to be bummed about this -- he still has his first-generation iPhone and has been looking forward to this.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

haha owned

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Seriously, when you bring posts like these avoid sounding like you have a personal agenda against apple...

Yes they're somewhat overhyped (but thats due to good marketing) but avoid sounding disgruntled, it makes apple look even better

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

here is a good synopsis of the antenna patents nokia is suing over

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/nokia-ad...question/34190

maybe in to stop using these, they made a bad design. i doubt it, but interesting linkages nonetheless

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Wow, first iFixit confirms that the glass apple invented is actually gorilla glass, iFixit scratched the "unscratchable" glass, band problems, yello spots on retina display!! best news all week!!
also about the processor apple invented in their backyard, by invented i mean developed by samsung and and other company..

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Not necessarily.

I remember one Motorola iDen phone having a similar issue that resulted in a statement to the effect:

"Some people are having issues with reception. Our engineers have determined that how you hold the phone affects signal quality... blah, blah, blah..."

They went on to show a diagram that had very specific places to put your fingers and whatnot. They then sent this "Bulletin" out to everyone who had already bought one and slapped a sticker on every new one made from there on out. :)

Maybe you have to be wearing a turtleneck sweater or suttin' when ever you use the new iPhone. :D

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Doesn't matter. Regardless of these dumb stories that come out, there's no denying that the iPhone has far more success and will still be a more popular phone. I love my N900, but I wouldn't mind having an iPhone4 if I could get one.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

You don't have to spend $30 with Apple to fix this. Just get a really fat elastic band and wrap it around the edge of the iPhone 4 and then super-glue it in place. The elastic band will also help protect the exposed edges of 'unbreakable glass' from getting chipped when the phone falls out of your handbag onto the floor at the gym.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Someone said that iSheep will be buying the next iPhone even if it couldn't make a phone call -- guess he was right:

http://www.slashgear.com/apples-late...#comment-64337

Apple's design decisions have often been lacking in functionality (think of all the horrible mice, the proprietary connectors, the oversimplification of UI). With all the flaws in the iPhone 4 they have taken the "form before function" idiocy to the extreme. But they will still sell -- see my signature.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

oh man, for apple, its all about advertising. Have you seen them talk about video call or "facetime" calling??Its as if theyve INVENTED IT.
n900 ftw!

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Hmm, are the antenna conductive parts actually touchable outside the cover? If they are, that would pretty much screw up any impedance matching.

Also, if they are, what about static electricity? Wouldn't a good discharge fry the transceiver?

Edit: I actually watched few of the videos at OP's link, it does look quite bad to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ixIHyEPO5g

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

@sopwith: one thing about Apple though.. they have really good aftermarket service*. I'd be very surprised if they don't completely fix this or offer you a full refund.

* within the warranty period.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

I would've thought this kind of issue would have been found during testing. Evidently there's a hole in Apples' product testing.

Although this is a interesting piece of news but why such a provocative title for the topic? I hate all the "My phone is better than your phone" flaming that never leads to anything productive.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Maybe it's something that happened in manufacturing.

E.g. manufacturer substituting cheaper components / materials from the original design, for better margins?

Or then these are just examples of faulty hardware.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

@juise: I really doubt any manuf company contracted by apple will risk their relationship by substituting any parts/design to save cost without Apple's knowledge or approval.

It's also very weird that after 3 iterations of iPhones (albeit with seemingly no antenna design change), they're bitten with a bug that's as prevalent and obvious as this.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Apple is to phones like Microsoft was to computers.

I remember back when the first Windows users discovered remote desktop and were amazed by it as one example.
Then I pointed out that x11 forwarding has been around in Linux FOREVER and people have been doing that for a long time in the IT world.

Now Apple is doing the same with phones. :D

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

i still think apple usually does their **** well...

... but yea this one is a total **** up if it causes calls to disconnect (i seen youtube vids where even if it goes down to 1 bar the call stays connected etc)

wonder how apple will handle this one.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Lowered reception via touching... get a case. USB port falling out... shave the charger's prongs.

I'll take my chances with a case. Just saying.

But then again, I don't tend to hold the phone much. It's in a pocket almost always during conversations.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Apple invented the "Gorilla Glass", which is made by Corning, and used in other products such as TVs and car windshields?

As far as the poor reception, from what I understand, it seems that by touching the junction of the 2 different antennae (side and bottom), it is creating a "short" so to speak. Especially given that the recepton is little affected holding in the same spot when using the bumper cover.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Right. So applying that to the subject at hand...

Everyone has been doing bad antenna design for ages. Now that Apple does it, it's the new Big Thing!

:p

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Naw. Just really makes you question their QA, all of them.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

here are three antenna patents that nokia sued apple over

http://www.google.com/patents?id=K0k...page&q&f=false

http://www.google.com/patents?id=woE...page&q&f=false

http://www.google.com/patents?id=3mg...page&q&f=false


Is it possible that apple knew they were wrong and thought better to redesign the antenna for iphone 4 and then Steve came out and specifically said nobody has designed an antenna like this before?

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Main thing is to see how Apple deals with this within 2 months.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

I can "some what" justify in my mind the USB problem some N900's experienced. The USB port is not a direct contact thing, in the QA area they may have never experienced a port break and thus it snuck through. (I've never had a problem with my USB port along with many many others.)

However, not noticing the bad reception problem while HOLDING the phone? That's a serious miss. Did not a single person actually hold the phone while testing it? :D

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

I think by 2 months it's past the sink or swim period already.
They should (and I think they will) describe the way out within the next 1-3 days to remove all confusion and set the plan in motion immediately.

If it's truly an issue that can't be permanently resolved quick enough, I wouldn't be surprised if they give 2 options to current owners:

1. Free replacement when the fixed revision becomes available, in the meanwhile they offer a free bumper to mitigate the issue.
2. Full refund.

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

Ah, now I get it. :D

Everyone has been doing their QA testing on end-users for ages. Now that Apple does it, it's the new Big Thing!

Re: iPhone 4 - Loses Reception When You Touch the Side (Who says Apple products are "Better Quality"?)
 

In their defence, it's quite probable that finished phones in field testing would have been wearing some sort of disguise which would have more than likely masked this issue.