Tech & Biz

Consumer Reports iPhone 4 Video,Test Confirms Antenna Design Flaw

by NowPublic Staff | July 12, 2010 at 11:36 am

473 views | 10 Recommendations | 1 comment

Consumer Reports Video: Use Duct Tape To Fix iPhone 4 Antenna Design Flaw - AT&T Network May Not Be A Problem

Consumer Reports, a well respected independent consumer protection organization, says tests of the iPhone 4 reveal a design flaw that translates into poor reception for phone calls on the new iPhone 4.

Watch Video of Consumer Reports iPhone 4 Test

...our test engineers connected the phones to our base-station emulator, a device that simulates carrier cell towers (see video: IPhone 4 Design Defect Confirmed). We also tested several other AT&T phones the same way, including the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4.

Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that "mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength."

The tests also indicate that AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4's much-reported signal woes.

Apple has long blamed AT&T for not having the network capacity to handle the surging data usage of iPhone users for dropped calls. Now, it seems the problem may have been with Apple an its iPhone design all along.

So now the Apple iPhone 4 has a do not buy recommendation from Consumer Reports which actually may not deter potential customers from buy a new iPhone 4.

Many Apple customers clearly feel the problems with the call reception and the phone antenna on the iPhone 4 are not a deal beaker. Customers can shell out more money and buy a cover to fix the iPhone 4 design flaw or they use the cheaper, albeit uglier, duct tape to fix the iPhone 4 antenna.