Say What?! iPhone 4 Loses Reception Bars When Held by the Antenna Band?

[ish8894]

Rofl. Im glad I decided to stick with my 3g.

[Moosestache]

according to at&t this is just an issue with the presentation of the bars and it should quickly be fixed

Some of the other sites have extensive videos of tests, showing internet connection speeds significantly dropping as the bars go down. SOOO....I call BS on that one.

[jcasas392]

i wonder how chaotic it will be to get into the apple store tomorrow just to buy the damn bumpers, or some sort of case. i am one of the lucky ones who got their phone today. but i too am suffering from dropped calls. and after seeing this post and trying just what i saw in the video, i got the same exact results. kinda sucks. but simply holding it with my shirt over my hand seems to do the trick. phone is f-n sweet otherwise. but they do need to fix this. and it won't be by way of simple update.

[DJM AutoWerkz]

Those that say it doesn't work hold the phone sideways like playing a game or browsing the web then hold the phone with your fingers on all 4 edges then u will see the signal drop.

[NiteStar]

I'm hoping it's only a software problem. I cover up the bands and it goes from 5 bars down to 1. But I NEVER lose signal completely. I'm going to turn my wifi off and see what happens to 3G network and whether it goes to Edge at 1 bar. Not sure if that will really say much though.

[Jedi5o5]

its a software issue its happing to 3g and 3gs [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Lpt2YkF3Q]YouTube - iPhone reception issue on iPhone 3G.mov[/ame]

[Poseidon79]

Gizmodo has 16 videos up now of different users and tests... The problem only happens wen you are touching the left side and the bottom band at the same time... Seems to create major interference. A recall would be an epic fail.

[maxgsteinberg]

This is why i never get any thing when it first comes out. I learned my lesson when i bought an Xbox 360 Elite when it first came out for 500 dollars...

not to get off topic...but i bought my xbox 360 for $500 3 days before it dropped in price...

i will never buy something as soon as it comes out again

[bluespot]

100% repeatable. Just press one single finger against the bottom and left side of the phone (between the 2 antennas) and 5 bars becomes none in about 10 seconds.

And I've dropped about 6 calls already, several while testing and a few more accidentally from holding the phone the wrong way. Which of course means signal quality IS actually degraded, and it is not just an indication issue.

I *really* doubt this can be fixed in software. This one is going to cost Apple.

[wakeboarder132]

How did you all get your iphone 4 activated? I got mine today and att says they can't activate it till tomorrow! PLEASE HELP!!

[one1]

The problem isn't the antenna being on the outside. Its the placement of the exterior antennas. They should have been on the top and/or bottom, not the sides.

Incorrect, but good try. The metal band is using the conductance between your hands and the band to increase the ground potential on the antenna. I said a day or two ago (search my posts) that "I" didn't want to be used for an RF antenna.

Now you know why.



Early adopters FTW> LOL!!!!

[xclusiveiphone]

according to at&t this is just an issue with the presentation of the bars and it should quickly be fixed

That's a load of BS, can't trust a word out of AT&T. If that's so then why the drop calls?

[kickerman65]

according to at&t this is just an issue with the presentation of the bars and it should quickly be fixed

Haha yea of course it is. Its not really losing signal, you just appear to be losing signal lol. Yea sure! In that case it will be an easy fix for apple. They will just fix it with an update to where we never appear to lose signal but in reality we'll have very little to none. But it will be ok though cause we will appear to have full bars. Problem solved lol.

[brian5s]

I can definitely say that this is true. Happens every time you pick up the phone. Sit the phone back down and the signal goes up. So, I decided to try a little experiment. Put my iSkin 3GS case around it, and guess what. The bars went back up while holding it!!!

[robertr1]

Ha this is why I never buy anything on release date. I just wait for them to work out the big kinks then get it. But I'm not sure how this wasn't worked out before they even released it.... I mean come on it doesn't sound too hard to find out that it does that. You would think they would have noticed and fixed this problem before they go and sell 600,000+ in one day.

[whereswaldo]

Maybe it's from the new materials

[Jedi5o5]

its not the phone its the software there's plenty of videos on youtube showing the same thing happen with the 3g and 3gs i posted one a few post ago, also a few reports say a fresh restore (not from back up) has fixed some

[Happy Noodle Boy]

That's a load of BS, can't trust a word out of AT&T. If that's so then why the drop calls?

Haha yea of course it is. Its not really losing signal, you just appear to be losing signal lol. Yea sure! In that case it will be an easy fix for apple. They will just fix it with an update to where we never appear to lose signal but in reality we'll have very little to none. But it will be ok though cause we will appear to have full bars. Problem solved lol. :

Explain the 3G and 3Gs having the same issue, smartasses.

[iPhone4...20]

Holy Balls you're right, well that must be why Apple made the Bumpers.

[MooShoo]

Apparently you need to wear gloves when holding the iphone4 and take them off to use the touchscreen.

Can't wait til I get to pick up my POS iPhone4 tomorrow.