iPhone 4 grip of death strikes outside NBR

RIGHT: The gorilla grip that took signal strength down to one bar. MIDDLE & BELOW: the more modest south paw thumb hold that took the iPhone 4 down to two bars.

Yesterday I met Ben Gracewood (aka @nzben) for a slice of pizza at Sal’s, immediately outside NBR Towers in Commerce St, Auckland.

An uninvited guest turned up: the Grip of Death.

READ ALSO: iPhone 4 recall - and other possible scenarios as Apple fronts up

Sal’s is a good place to take a call; a five-bar location.

I've previously reported how Ben (in Auckland) and fellow tech-savvy early adopter Layton Duncan (in Christchurch), have been unable to replicate the notorious “grip of death” - the issue that led Consumer Reports in the US to warn people against buying the iPhone 4. Only one bad drop off was encountered - and that was in Auckland’s ASB Tower, a notorious reception blackspot for any handset.

Ben was essaying this theory that the grip of death was analogous to the over-baked Xbox 360 “ring of death” controversy when something strange happened.

Pawing his iPhone 4 on a whim, the Breakfast gadget reviewer noticed a fluctuation in the reception bars (tech bloggers, by law, have to hold iPhones at all times, even when eating pizza).

He then clubbed both hands over the lower left of the handset (direct contact between hand and the iPhone 4’s trendy, external antenna is what causes the grip of death call loss, or degraded call quality).

And over the next 30 seconds, the reception bars fell from five to four to three to two to one.

Even just by placing a thumb over the lower left of the handset, reception degraded by two bars.

By contrast, my iPhone 3GS stayed at five bars the whole time, no matter how I held it.

So there you have it: like Consumer Reports (which initially found no issue, before flip-flopping, we’ve found the grip of death does not haunt iPhone 4 users every moment, but it can happen.

Incidentally, I loved the iPhone 4's retina display - especially with text which, side by side with my iPhone 3GS, looked appreciably sharper.

It proved resistant to pizza grease, too, in both vegetarian and more extreme pepperoni tests.

Side by side, thumbing both handsets simultaneously, there was zero speed difference in iOS4 multitasking speed between the iPhone 4 and the 3GS.

Want to buy an iPhone 4? Take your pick of carriers
Ben got his iPhone 4 from NBR's great mates at Parallel Imported.

I'm still waiting for my official review unit from Apple - but with Parallel Imported already advertising for pre-orders, and Telecom and 2degrees launching Micro-SIM cards (and I happen to know an MVNO will join them Monday), wannabe iPhone 4 owners' retail, and telco, options are proliferating.

If I were Vodafone, I would not be that thrilled about the way its official carrier status is being so enthusiastically undermined. I approached Apple for comment on that point; none was forthcoming.