With the announcement of the iPhone 4 coming to Verizon, Apple fans everywhere rejoiced at the thought of having no more dropped calls. However, their excitement may be cut short when they realize both the Verizon and AT&T flavor of the iPhone 4 suffer from the same design flaw.
The original iPhone 4 on the AT&T network was touted as a groundbreaking piece of hardware; it featured a retina display, a front-facing camera for video calling and still featured the famous Apple “App Store.” Apple also thought they had redesigned the phone’s antenna perfectly, moving it from the inside of the phone to the outside edge.
Consumer Reports found the new “antenna” was actually a strip of stainless steel wrapped around the outside of the piece of hardware. There are several small gaps in the steel frame, which is where Apple’s problems began. Users of the phone started to submit complaints that calls would drop or not even go through in the first place. These reports caused uproar in the phone’s user community as it plagued nearly everyone who purchased the phone and had been using it without a case.
The poor signal with the iPhone 4 emanated from how it was being held while in use. When the phone was held in a very natural position, in the palm, one of the gaps in the antenna would be bridged by the user’s skin. Thus, signal would be interrupted and calls either would not connect or would drop in the middle of a conversation.
In response to complaints, Apple released a statement asking users to “avoid gripping [the phone] in the lower left corner when making or receiving a call.”
CNN quoted Apple CEP Steve Jobs telling customers to “just avoid holding it in that way.”
Customers were not at all happy with this result—some threatened to sue Apple for intentional misrepresentation. Shortly thereafter, Jobs announced free “bumpers” would be issued to those who requested them. The case, just a small strip of rubber that covered the antenna, was a temporary fix to the reception issues. However, the public seemed to buy into it–press coverage of the issue essentially disappeared after people learned that a case fixed the issue.
On Jan. 11, Verizon announced a partnership with Apple. The Verizon iPhone 4 has since become a reality. The design of the phone essentially stayed the same as its AT&T cousin; the only difference was the gap that had caused the connectivity issues had been relocated on the edge of the phone. However, the new position was still vulnerable to the signal jamming from the AT&T version.
Using a controlled environment, a team of Consumer Reports researchers put only the Verizon iPhone 4 and some of its leading competitors such as Motorola Droid 2 Global and HTC Droid Incredible through a number of reception tests. Each phone was set up in a chamber with a constant signal going to each piece of hardware. Next, researchers placed a finger in a number of positions on the edge of each phone. The results were that no phone other than the iPhone suffered loss of connectivity when fingers were placed in certain spots. With these results, it is clear the same downfall of the AT&T iPhone 4 remains in the Verizon version.
Alex Eder, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, recently received the Verizon iPhone and case as a birthday gift and has had no difficulties with it.
Paul Chang, a freshman in environmental technology, is in a similar situation with the AT&T version. He has never had reception issues but has only used the phone in its case. Chang is also very pleased with his phone. “Its amazing man.”
