Friday, June 25, 2010

iPhone 4 Antenna problems

There have been many complaints concerning the new iPhone 4 and signal problems. Users report having poor reception on the phones when gripping them by the metal sides. Of course Apple's CEO Steve Jobs has down played the problem calling it a "non-issue". The solution from Apple is to not hold the phone by the lower left corner. A common gripping point on nearly all phones.

The problem seams to come when users are touching the thin black bands between the metal strips on the side of the phone. Those metal bands are where the antenna are stored in the phone. Touching them seams to cause direct interference with the phone's signal.

This is a common issue with most every wireless phone on the market that uses internal antennas. A user's hand covering the internal antenna will always cause some interference. The issue on the iPhone 4 seams to be worst when the user is touching the black band that separates the antenna from the main body of the phone. So it may be some sort of grounding issue that is making things worst for iPhone 4 users.

Apple confirms this with a recent statement. "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."

It seems the best solutions may be to use BlueTooth or one of the many iPhone 4 cases available.

On a positive spin, (for those that use cases and avoid touching the black strips separating the antenna from the main body of the phone) the number of dropped calls and poor signal strength is improved over previous iPhones. Further proof that AT&T's network isn't as bad as iPhones users thought. Allot of it may have been from the antenna placement inside the older iPhone or the use of a weak radio. Most likely its been the antenna placement.

Producer Mike

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