Monday, February 21, 2011

Verizon iPhone 4 Antenna

AnandTech:

So the long-awaited Verizon iPhone 4 is finally here. It’s functionally the same as the GSM/UMTS iPhone 4 on AT&T, except significantly less prone to unintended signal attenuation from being held thanks to receive diversity through two cellular antennas. Battery life is the same or better than the AT&T iPhone 4, GPS is slightly more precise, Verizon lets you turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot if you pay the fare, and SMS concatenation even works on Verizon’s network. There’s really nothing to complain about at all or point out as being inordinate about the CDMA iPhone—it’s simply an iPhone 4 on Verizon’s network.

They measured the antenna’s signal attenuation and found that it’s less susceptible to the death grip, as expected. However, when not in a case the Verizon iPhone 4 is worse than all the tested phones except the AT&T iPhone 4. I still think the problems with the antenna design go farther than what’s been acknowledged. My father returned his iPhone 4 because, even in a case, the signal strength was much worse than his original iPhone (which generally has worse signal than my 3GS), to the point where it was unusable. Fingers crossed that iPhone 5’s antenna is better, because I’m guessing that soon I won’t be able to run the latest version of iOS, and I really want a better camera.

5 Comments RSS · Twitter

"Fingers crossed that iPhone 5’s antenna is better, because I’m guessing that soon I won’t be able to run the latest version of iOS, and I really want a better camera."

Hell. In a year or so, Google or Microsoft might actually bring something worthwhile to market.

There will be demand out there for a functional mobile platform that doesn't have the evil of iOS baked in, if someone can just execute it. Easier said than done, but easier than putting a man on the moon too.

I'm looking for a way to express my discontent with the Mothership in some fashion beyond mere words, if someone will give me the opportunity.

[…] reminds me a lot of Antennagate. Here, as there, independent tests show that Apple’s new phone performs worse than the previous generation […]

[…] smaller? This smells like a software bandaid for a hardware problem, like when they responded to antenna problems by making the iPhone signal strength bars […]

[…] also like to point out that people seem to be misremembering Antennagate, perhaps because of Jobs’ masterful presentation. The iPhone 4, even with the bumper, had […]

[…] my father tried to return an iPhone 4 that had no cell signal at his home or work (with or without a bumper), despite an iPhone 3GS […]

Leave a Comment