Apple Acknowledges iPhone 4 Antenna Issue

Apple has finally acknowledged that the way you hold the iPhone 4 can hinder the device's cellular reception.

CNET

Complaints about weakening or disappearing signals when the iPhone 4 is gripped in a particular way--usually by touching two seams of the antenna band on the exterior of the phone simultaneously--began popping up late Wednesday night, and continued to appear Thursday.

While Internet commenters and bloggers spent most of the day trying to figure out if the problem was related to the phone's hardware or software, Apple released a statement late in the day to PC Magazine.

"Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your Phone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases."

There are two antennas on the iPhone, which are built into the steel band on the exterior of the phone. The one running on the left side of the phone is for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the one on the right is for cellular reception. That means how a left-handed person holds the phone will affect it differently than how most right-handed people would hold it.

Steve Jobs said at WWDC the exterior antenna was supposed to help reception--he didn't mention there was a particular way you had to avoid touching it. However, if you don't feel like spending more for a case for the phone, it sounds like that's the cheapest solution.

This article originally appeared on CNET.

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[to_john]

actually, the problem with poor reception is that the telcos and cell phone manufacturers lobbied the US gov to dilute the US system with multiple standards, instead of simply adopting the GSM standard that the rest of the world uses. If all the wireless development had been done in a single standard, we would have ubiquitous, high-performance wireless like Europe does. Once again, "capitalism" screws the consumer by maximizing profits for businesses, even at the cost of reducing service for the consumer (or allowing oil spills to happen, or making a profit from poor health, or charging you for carry-ons, or...). As for Apple, they have adopted this system wholeheartedly, and will insist the consumer is getting EXACTLY what they wanted through poor service, fewer options, and products that limit creativity.

[voxpopulus]

I've used my 3GS iPhone in Asia and Europe too. It has similar issues everywhere. It never has the strongest reception. It's frustrating to me not to get reception in situations where people around me are.

[RoboBlogger]

When the Chinese made the phones they didn't consider the fact that American's have gi-normous paws that would hinder the iPhone's reception.

[voxpopulus]

The Chinese didn't design the phone. They made it to Apple's specs.

[way2ski]

Apple?s antenna on the iPhone4 is an extremely poor design. The only mitigation may be to wear gloves or purchase the optional rubber bumper ring (which may actually be the fix in disguise).

As an electrical engineer and antenna designer I can say for sure that using a bare metal rim around the phone as the antenna will have profound sensitivity to how the user holds the device and how and where bare fingers come in contact with the antenna. I?ve always been amazed that cell phones work at all given the way they are used. People expect them to work regardless of how they held, where they happen to be- while riding inside a metal cage (car, plane, etc) and even in tunnels. We?ve all become accustomed to walking around the house to find a good signal in places where the service is on the edge of failure.

The telecomm industry knows that users expect high quality service and ?drop free? operation. They try to account for this wide variability of user environment by providing very large margins of signal power needed to maintain a good connection. The hand sets have done all they can do with sophisticated signal processing algorithms and modulation schemes that minimize the impact of weak signal conditions, but reductions on the cell phone power level years ago for health and safety reasons severely limits the options of what can done to the phone to improve service. The telecomm industry compensated for this limitation by installing more cell towers closer to the users. That worked initially, but that too is now suffering because the sheer number of users greatly exceeds the capacity of the system as it was designed. Until the telecomm industry increases the number of towers and upgrades the existing towers, people will rant about poor performance and walk around the house looking for a good signal- we?re humans and we adapt.