There are approximately 10 days left to return your iPhone 4
It seems that every time I bring up the iPhone 4 antenna reception problems I and everyone I know is experiencing, and cite supporting evidence from other sites such as Ars, Gizmodo, Engdaget, etc, I get inundated with comments like “Forget about all those “blogs”, Consumer Reports says they found no signal issue, and they’re Consumer F’ng Reports, not some tech blog”. Well, while I won’t go into defending the fine nerds at those blogs who I believe are every bit as capable of hooking their iPhone to various meters and such that measure signal suckage as the fine nerds at Consumer Reports, guess who just came out bashing the iPhone 4’s signal problems? Yes, Consumer Reports has completed their official review of the iPhone 4 and rated it a “No Buy”.
What’s really telling is that Consumer Reports rates the iPhone 4 as the best mobile device in history in virtually every possible category, yet they cannot recommend people buy the device due to the glaringly bad reception issue.
It’s official. Consumer Reports‘ engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.
Consequently, Consumer Reports notes that it is unable to recommend the iPhone 4 until Apple comes up with a permanent and free fix for the signal issues.
So, taking into consideration Apple’s 30 day return policy for the iPhone 4, “day one” buyers now have about 10 days to decide whether or not they want to return their phones. Personally, I am truly on the fence here, as the issue is THAT bad. However, the thought of checking in with AT&T as to whether or not I could trade it in for an iPhone 3G S and still retain my “discounted” subsidized price (or hopefully get a lower one) almost has me thinking I’ll hold onto it and hope this highly publicized report from CR is enough to embarrass Apple into a recall. Apple is apparently more than aware of Consumer Reporta‘ findings, as they have been actively pulling all discussion threads mentioning the article from their support forums on the report.
[via Mac Rumors]
Wow.
Quote:
“…reception problems I and everyone I know is experiencing…”
How big is your circle of iPhone 4 friends/owners?
I ask because while admittedly I “run” in small circles and don’t have a ton of “friends,” I can honestly say I know around 8 people with iPhone 4s…and just ONE of them is experiencing antenna issues.
The rest of us are beyond happy with our iP4s.
I’m sure I’ll be told my opinion is wrong…but while no one will deny that there are problems with the iPhone 4, the issue is simply not effecting EVERYBODY. Not even a large percentage of the 1.7 million-plus are having issues…I mean, are they? Seems to me to be a clear “this is overblown by the tech media” issue.
Again, my “sample” of iP4 friends is beyond miniscule. Troll some heavily-viewed iPhone message boards and perhaps like me you’ll see what I am: a few people have issues, but not EVERYBODY or even a large percentage. I’ve used an Apple Bumper, an iFrogz case, and have just used my iP4 naked. ZERO connectivity issues. The one time I was seemingly able to make the “bars” go down in an already-weak area, my call and data that I was using at the same time did NOT drop.
I dunno. Still think this is not as big a deal as everybody thinks it is.
Maybe it is time to send Steve Jobs an Ass Cramp!
My circle of friends is really tiny. I don’t know anyone with one. Everyone still has 3G and 3GS models. I am happy to wait and see cuz, everything I am reading tells me the phone is ass.
Take a side:
On one hand, there is a small but loud camp saying that the iPhone antenna is flawed. These people can’t shut up about it.
On the other hand, the majority, softer speaking camp that says that their antennas work great and no matter how you hold the phone.
I’m getting mine soon and if I encounter this antenna problem, I will simply move my finger a few millimeters away. That’s it! Are we that stupid that we can’t do that?
From what I understand even Consumer Reports admits that the reception of the iPhone 4 is the best of any other phone.
I would agree with the larger group that says the iPhone antenna is not an issue.
Have been having this very discussion today with Apple and AT&T actually. AT&T support was very helpful, and said returning the phone would not be a problem. You have 30 days from the SHIP DATE of your pre-order, or 30 days from your in store purchase.
However my reason for returning the two iPhone 4’s on our plan is not because of the reception issue. Rather it’s the Proximity Sensor, and the “Coma” issue the phone experiences. I’m scheduled at a genius bar this evening to swap the phone (cannot even turn the thing on right now), but honestly everyone at our company with an iPhone 4 is planning to return early next week. That is unless a software issue comes out to fix everything. Not holding my breath, thanks.
Get the Bumper and the problems will be gone.
I don’t know how this crap snowballs into what it has become. I’ve had no problems at all with my iPhone4 and as a matter of fact, You can find any number of issues with and smartphone or service for that matter. Folks just want to see the KING OF PHONES in trouble. I would not trade my iPhone for any other phone. it’s just too useful.
@mfs and MEES – I’m pretty sure that the majority of iPhones have this problem not the minority and that 100% of the folks saying they don’t have the problem are either Apple apologists refusing to acknowledge it or they are in a great AT&T area where this wouldn’t be an issue anyways. I’d also be willing to bet everything I own that I could get every single iPhone 4 to do this given the right circumstances (i.e. moderate to poor ATT coverage). Believe me, I am trying very hard to convince myself to keep the phone. I don’t want a 3Gs or any other inferior Android phone, I want my iPhone 4 but these call drops and data die outs are getting infuriating. I really don’t see any other option than to return this thing for an Evo though. As much as I don’t want anything else, I need my phone to be at least as reliable for calls as my dead 3G was and the iPhone 4 is not even close.
@ gewappnet – maybe if they were available that would be an option but unfortunately none of the 8 Apple stores around me are carrying them, hell, they don’t even have demo units in the stores.
@seearees
That’s way too broad a generalization to say “If your iPhone 4 works, you’re a fanboy!” or “you must have a GREAT AT&T signal.”
Everybody without a problem falls into either of these two categories?
Nope. Not buying it. Yes, the iP4 has antenna issues. For some, for many, for several, for most, for a few. Whatever. All I know is that of the 2 million plus iP4s sold, if even 25% of them have an antenna issue, that’s 500,000 users with problems. Yes, that’s a LOT of people. So 1.5 million iP4 owners are Mac/Apple fanboys (when most iP4 users are Windows users anyway) or near a strong AT&T signal?
Not buying your logic. It’s simply baseless.
SOOO glad the earliest i could even think about getting one is January and thats ONLY if the rumors about Verizon getting the iPhone when there g4 network goes live are true
Again: A lot of buyers don’t have these problems BECAUSE you will never get these problems if you have a proper case or a bumper. I definitely could reproduce the loss of signal before I had the bumper. So if I think of the “old” iPhones, I rarely had seen “nacked” ones – most of the people use cases. I think everyone is in principle effected but because of the tendency to use cases a lot of people just don’t experience the problem.
@seearees: The Apple store in Frankfurt has hundreds of black bumpers.
One minor correction. You say “Yes, Consumer Reports has completed their official review of the iPhone 4 and rated it a “No Buy”. ” Actually they didn’t say don’t buy it.
They discussed that their testing confrimed the issue and based on this confirmation they said “The signal problem is the reason that we did not cite the iPhone 4 as a “recommended” model, even though its score in our other tests placed it atop the latest Ratings of smart phones that were released today.”
They also said “But Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4.”
If like many people you’re going to be using a case then consider what Consumers Reports had to say: “The iPhone scored high, in part because it sports the sharpest display and best video camera we’ve seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller.”