Consumer Reports bombshell: don’t buy iPhone 4
ABOVE: Putting masking tape over the iPhone 4's offending antenna to prevent direct contact with your hand, which can interrupt calls. It might not be pretty, but it works, says Consumer Reports.
Influential US publication Consumer Reports has changed its tune on the iPhone 4.
Initially, a blog on Consumer’s website said reception issues with Apple’s new handset were probably not serious, and no better or worse than those experienced with any smartphone (a finding backed by early New Zealand iPhone 4 adopters who contacted NBR).
But a week in, Consumer staff started to experience problems, and extensive testing of three iPhone 4 handsets in three different locations, plus a lab, found that reception was an issue.
Senior electronics editor Mike Gikas blogged earlier today:
"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".
Problems with call dropping were not experienced by other phones in the same tests.
Mr Gikas concludes "Apple needs to come up with a permanent - and free - fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4".
The publication also rubbished Apple’s explanation:
"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.' Consumer Reports said.
Consumer Reports did have a solution: to place a piece of masking tape over the offending lower left hand corner of the iPhone 4’s external antenna to prevent direct contact with your hand (the so-called "grip of death").
But it might not be that appealing to image conscious iPhone owners.
Apple promises a software update that will boost the iPhone 4’s ability to handle poor reception.
A Vodafone New Zealand spokesman would only comment that the company tests all handsets before launch. Testing might or might not take place in New Zealand.
Apple shares (NAS: AAPL) fell 0.9% in regular trading on the Nasdaq, but recovered after hours. The broader market rose 0.09%.
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Comments and questions13
"But it might not be that appealing to image conscious iPhone owners."
Is there any other sort?
[I've got one. Though it is a loaner - CK]
What next? Women and gingas?
Seriously... we have standards you know.
[You're barred - CK]
Dropped calls will not surprise NZ vodafone customers. Too many areas where even ordinary calls and texts are difficult - let alone 3g. My comments on the Arrowtown area's reception received the "indifference" response. Hell, there are time when reception in the Auckland area drops off! So, no sympathy for Iphone 4 users. Yet!
It won't stop me getting one - I was planning on getting a case anyway and it definitely seems to only be a problem in really poor reception areas.
I'm sure early iPhone4 users would rather graft on a plastic hand than admit their beautiful Apple made a mistake
Putting on masking tape to the antenna part of the phone's casing, is hardly the epitome of "cool" fashion accessory.
Won't stop me getting one either.
But I am hanging out for a 3G iPad..... when, when, when......???
I'll get one because it does 900MHz finally so I'll get great coverage at home, in the office and at the bach. No more Friday traffic queues for me - I'll be off early.
And no, switching to XT is not an option. I simply have no trust in the network. You guys stress test it for a year and let me know.
...A 1.5 inch piece of clear plastic tape to avoid reception issues - with the bonus feature that it reduces scratches* to the lower left corner of your iPhone.
But wait there's more...
...Buy 3 and we'll even give you the fourth piece free of charge so you can reduce scratches* to all for corners...
Don't wait... join the other iPhone fanatics now!
(* some conditions apply - product may only reduce scratching in certain situations and we cannot forsee all events so no warranty is made, explicit or implied about the protective nature or longevity of your upgrade kit for iPhone 4)
Does sellotape work? I'd be less visible than masking tape surely.
-KENT
With all the focus on the iPhone 4 Apple seems to be ignorign all the cries for help from iphone 3G and 3GS owners who have "upgraded" to OS4. There are many forums with people complainging of a incredibly slow application response, unexpected rebooting, and worst of all massively reduced battery life.
Apple are claiming this is a 3G only issue but it seesm to be just as prevalent with the 3GS. And that users must close extra app's. But this hasn't helped most people, with some losing battery life ay 1% every 5 minutes. Come on Apple, get your head out of the sand.
[I'm constantly meeting iPhone 3 users who complain iSO4 has slowed them up - and they don't get the multitasking either. But for iPhone 3GS I think it's a very solid upgrade, with lots of useful features. Pity it doesn't run so well on older iPhones - shades of the Windows hardware upgrade cycle in the PC world. - CK]
There has definitely been a major aggravation for iphone users who sync their Outlook (and probably other) calendars via Apple's MobileMe (paid!) service. Ie, it doesn't work any more. And there are constant pop-ups about not being able to sync and DotMac Sync something-or-other not working. The only help I have seen (if you look hard enough) is a half page instruction to re-load accounts on the iphone. Thanks for out-sourcing the fix for your debug to me, Apple.
Vodafone tends to have a very bad signal anyway, Yes the iPhone 4 does have a small flaw if handled a certain way.
I had experienced lots of dropped called in lots of strange places with my iPhone even with my old Motorola, before my iPhone, I had call drop outs, I recently switched to Telecom XT and the service has been pretty much neck-to-neck in perfection, service is great and no dropped called.
Maybe Telecom should take over Vodafone's role in supplying the iPhones.
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