Sorry iPhone lovers. Although iPhone 4 has the best resolution display ever, a multitasking feature, a 5mp camera, longer battery life and more, Consumer Reports announced that they cannot recommend the latest phone by Apple.
Engineers of Consumer Reports have just completed testing the iPhone 4 and they have verified one thing… The iPhone 4 ‘Death Grip’ is real!
Ever since the iPhone 4 went on sale in June, consumers started to complain about poor reception and if you hold the phone in a certain way, calls could drop. Apple tried to cover up this issue by saying that any phone which is gripped in a certain way will likely to lose its signal strength. They also issued a statement saying that the formula they use determine how many bars of signal strength to display is wrong, instead of acknowledging that there is a flaw to their hardware.
Consumer Reports further said that the iPhone 4 reception problem is caused by its antenna design. The test shows that even the smallest gesture can cause your signal to drop. Like when you are on a weak signal spot and your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side, a thing you can’t avoid especially if you’re left handed, you can lose all connection. Because of this issue, Consumer Reports stated that it cannot include iPhone 4 on its list of recommended smartphones.
The test was made in a controlled environment of CU’s radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber. Other phones including an iPhone 3GS and Palm pre were also tested but only iPhone 4 had an issue with loss of signal. Read more about the test here.
The ‘Death Grip’ will kill Apple, if they don’t do something about it that is. Consumer Reports has a rather funny solution on how to fix this problem though. “Cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material.” It’s quite ironic to think that iPhone 4 is the most-hyped iPhone Apple has ever made. Who cares if the phone doesn’t work? As long as you look cool, right? (Insert sarcasm here).
July 19th, 2010 - 8:12 pm
“Steve Jobs, expresses irritation with the critical coverage of the phone’s reception problems” Maybe if Apple said something sooner the media storm wouldn’t have gotten so terrible. I think people at Apple thought if they didn’t pay attention to the problem it would go away. Clearly Apple is well on its way to become the company they once said they would never become.
July 26th, 2010 - 9:46 am
I am going to switch to ATT but should I buy the 3gs being a year old or do I go with the iphone 4 and all its bugs?