Redesigned Antenna for Verizon iPhone 4
The antenna on the Verizon iPhone includes a different design from the original units which came out last year and were linked to complaints about dropped calls.
The design of the iPhone 4 antenna on AT&T's network extended around the unit and some users last summer had complained of losing calls when they held the handset in certain ways. But now it's been revealed that the new Verizon iPhone was designed with an extra notch as part of a switch from the GSM standard to code division multiple access, or CDMA.
Will it do much for reception? "Only time will tell if this new antenna design helps combat the reception problems plaguing the GSM iPhone 4," it wrote on its website. (If it does work, rest assured Verizon will trumpet the difference in its marketing campaign.)
Apple doesn't talk about the parts it uses to make its products. However, both iFixit and UBM TechInsights - took apart the Verizon iPhone 4 handset and published their findings. Though most people likely won't notice most of the changes, they have become quite the topic within the chattering segments of the tech industry. Besides the new antenna design, perhaps the most important other change was related to Apple's decision to include the Qualcomm MDM6600 chip. That processor also is used in the Droid Pro world phone, allowing the Droid platform to support both CDMA and GSM.
Other changes include:
- A battery that iFixit says can be removed "fairly easily once you circumvent Apple's pesky Pentalobe screws."
- Custom-molded rubber pads separating the chips and the EMI shields - "presumably to conduct heat and quell any interference between analog and digital circuitry."
- A different display assembly where the unit's mounting tabs are located different locations.
