iPhone 4 Improved Reception? Unpossible!

30 Jun 2010

A few days ago I expressed my thoughts on the whole iPhone 4 antenna issue:

Some people got upset because I stated it wasn’t an Apple issue, but a cellular design/technology issue with attenuation. I even stated in the video that it is a legitimate problem with iPhone 4, but not as big as people are making it out to be.

Let me repeat that: I acknowledge this is a legitimate issue with the iPhone 4 (or maybe even iOS4). Is it worth national attention? Maybe. Is it worth a lawsuit? Heck no. People seem to think attenuation doesn’t happen anywhere else and I even gathered a few videos demonstrating just that, but as most of us know, the iPhone 4 has increased attenuation due to its design. Is it as extreme as people make it out to be? i.e. “OMG! I hold my iPhone and it goes from 5 bars to 0 and I can’t make a call! ZOMG!” Let’s see.

Bars Mean Nothing
I also stated something else that no one seemed to acknowledge: “I’ve dropped calls with full bars on my phone. Bars don’t mean anything”. I don’t know why, but people see those bars go down and ultimately believe that it’s representative of their phone signal. Today I read Anandtech’s analysis of the issue and they found some very interesting results:

So, an entire day and more than a quarter tank of gas later, here are the results. Holding the iPhone 4 without a case, in your left hand, crossing the black strip can result in a worst case drop of 24 dBm in signal. As we’ll show in a second, how you hold the phone makes a huge difference across every smartphone – and we’ve tested thoroughly in 5 different positions.

Now, there are two vastly different possibilities for what happens to the bar visualization after you drop 24 dBm. I happen to live less than one block from an AT&T UMTS tower (it’s across the street, literally), and have exceptionally strong signal in all of my house – it’s part of why I chose to live here, actually. Signal is above -65 dBm in every single room, in most cases it’s at -51 dBm. When I incur that worst case drop of 24 dBm from squeezing the phone, I fall down to -83 dBm, which is still visualized as 5 bars.

However, in locales that have less signal, but where iOS still displays 5 bars, the drop of 24 dBm is visualized much differently. For example, at another test location, signal without holding the phone is -89 dBm, which is still displayed as 5 bars. Cup the phone, and you’ll fall all the way to -113 dBm. All the bars dramatically disappear one after the other, people think they’ve dramatically lost all the signal, and you know the rest.

Death Grip Doesn’t Discriminate
Check out what Anandtech found compared to the Nexus One and iPhone 3GS in terms of attenuation:

Apple's iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Not only do they confirm that you need to squeeze the life out of the phone to get the maximum effect, but that attenuation does occur in other tests though not as extreme as iPhone 4 with its exposed antenna. It does make sense that an exposed antenna will give more attenuation.

Liars? Fanboys? No.
So when people say they don’t have the issue, there’s a high chance, they don’t have the issue. Why? Because they are getting 5 bars in iOS4 and likely have a high dB signal, whereas those who low dB, and have 5 bars in iOS4 will show increased attenuation. Example:

If she’s lying or doctoring results, then I’d be very impressed. I would bet the farm she has a high dB signal coupled with 5 bars.

But Wait, It’s Not Terrible?
Here’s another thing that is pretty much in line with my usage: The iPhone 4 antenna is actually better! What gets me is that pretty much every review I’ve read stated they got better signal with normal use, but this information gets glossed over. Anandtech expressed it best:

From my day of testing, I’ve determined that the iPhone 4 performs much better than the 3GS in situations where signal is very low, at -113 dBm (1 bar). Previously, dropping this low all but guaranteed that calls would drop, fail to be placed, and data would no longer be transacted at all. I can honestly say that I’ve never held onto so many calls and data simultaneously on 1 bar at -113 dBm as I have with the iPhone 4, so it’s readily apparent that the new baseband hardware is much more sensitive compared to what was in the 3GS. The difference is that reception is massively better on the iPhone 4 in actual use.

So while everyone wants to focus on squeezing their iPhone 4, I’m focusing on my experience of improved call quality, less dropped calls, overall better reception. While I don’t grip my phone like shown in the experiements, I have done some tests in different areas and I have had varied results just like Anandtech. The perception is that every iPhone 4 has this issue and if anyone says otherwise, they’re a lying, brainwashed, Apple fanboy who is protecting their pride. Well to that I say:

Haters Gonna Hate