..on an iPhone 4 yesterday in the Aventura Apple Store.. with one of their demo phones.
I got it drop 1 bar while holding it.
You would think they would have a phone out on the floor that wouldn't do that....

It's not the phone, it's the signal. Not much the store can do about that, unfortunately. Still not great PR though when your exclusive partner can't even get a strong signal to one of your stores. I wonder what a Verizon signal would be like there?

?

Uh...it's the phone. Well documented that iPhone 4 loses bars when holding it so that your hand contacts more than 1 antenna at a time.
But only on some version 4s... not all. So it would seem that even the Apple store got some of the problematic ones.

See other threads in here about the iPhone 4 losing signal strength when held a certain way.

All cell phones can lose some signal when holding them -- it's not unique to the iPhone or even the iPhone 4. If the signal is weak to begin with, holding a phone a certain way can attenuate the signal down to zero, as seen in some of the youtube vids ... if the connection is strong to begin with, it won't matter much how you hold the phone. For instance, at home with my iPhone 4, I can't make the bars go down no matter how hard I try -- even bear-gripping the unit with two hands won't budge the bars. However, if I go to a local coffee stop a few miles away where the signal sucks, it's relatively easy to get the bars to move (although I never lost the connection completely).

Frankly, this isn't much different than moving to another room and losing a weak signal ...

Also, if you just lost a single bar, then you haven't really recreated the debilitating degradation of connection others have been reporting (unless the signal was at a single bar to begin with, in which case see above ;-). Losing a bar or two during a call isn't in any way unique to the iPhone 4 ...

Now, having said all that, Apple has stated that all of their iPhones have so far have been indicating incorrectly strong signals, leading many people to believe just holding the phone will kill a strong signal down to no connection at all, whereas the connection in the first place was actually weaker. We'll see if this is the case when they release their fix in a week or so ...

Right Six, according to Apples open letter to customers.

In my house, I can make phone calls from my bedroom, the second I walk to the front of the house, I lose all bars. Basically a dead phone from the living room to the garage and to the mail box. This is Moby PCS service

Daughters Verizon service, no problems anywhere on property.

Daughters boyfriend AT&T iPhone 4, has problems anywhere inside the house but outside he has no problems <-- go figure. Side Note, I do have wifi, so that single is strong, just phone calling and or reception.

Yeah, I read the letter... and I'm not saying that holding a cell won't cause some signal drop. You are right.. I only lost 1 bar... which isn't indicative of anything.

As one guy says in response to Apples letter..


Apple Press Release Translation: Yeah, it's just a calculation issue with displaying the bars... The dropped calls are just your imagination and/or AT&T's problem.


and another...

This is whats called the Jedi Mind trick, to end all mind tricks.
There is...no iPhone issue.

On another note... holding my 3Gs with the case on I can make it drop 1 bar... w/o case I can make it drop 2....

Kinda reminds me of holding a cars antenna, the radio volume drops dramatically

Funny, never had this issue when my phones used to have an antenna outside the phone.

Never had this issue with my RAZR either, the antenna for that is down at the bottom of the phone. Also don't notice it much on my Omnia, the antenna for it is also down at the bottom of the phone, which also happens to be where I hold it.

Then again, I don't have AT&T :P

Yeah.. I hear ya.

I'm in a huge building right now...with 5 bars reception.
The phone is in it's carbon fiber case.

But as soon as I wrap my two hands around the phone I dropped 3 bars over the course of 30 seconds.
Interesting that all that concrete and metal didn't stop those 3 bars... but 2 pounds of flesh did.
Maybe it's more the electrical field?


Edit: This is my 3Gs I'm referring to....

I also read that dirty hands affect it more than clean ones. (salt, sweat, etc.) which also may have affected the tests in the lab. Everyone is required to wash their hands before messing with them in the labs. ...or so they claim. That maybe the main reason a some people are seeing the problem worse than others too

Yep

Not to mention everyone has a electrical field around them, thats a given, possible when you are working hard or exercising for example this field could increase slightly?

Right.
That would explain why, after vigorous sexual activity, you have a glow.

LOL


Errrr yep

My 3G penalises me (and that's not meant to be a reference to the above few posts) for being left-handed. I notice that when the local signal is weak, I often get less bars holding my phone in my left hand than I do holding it in my right. So I'm getting accustomed to using my earbuds with the mic for making calls where the signal's low, so I can hold the phone in either hand.

I was in the heart of rural Norfolk last week, which is as flat as an airstrip, and found a place where I got full signal if I was standing to the east of an oak tree, and lost 2 bars standing the other side of it. Wiccans, discuss...

That sorta makes sense I guess.

Since if you hold the phone with your left hand, that would mean that the antenna is in your palm, the thick side of your hand, right hand would mean the finger side so yes better reception. Something Apple needs to work on, maybe throw more power to that antenna?

[sardonic grynn]

That's funny as hell.

If you use your left hand use the western grip. Problem solved and ______________________!

Fill in the blank.


FYI: it is water, no glow that makes the difference. Water, the oxygen and two hydrogens is the best barrier for cell phone and wifi signals. Rain, Trees that are wet attenuate the signal but your big fat wet hand full of water so close to the weak signal end of the transfer does most of the damage.

Consumer Reports is calling it a design flaw and not an OS or AT&T failure. Also

Oh, it would probably be called a design flaw if your meaty hand full of water comes in contact or is wrapped around the antenna.

...and then there's this:

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/12/apple-drops-consumer-reports-discussion-threads-down-memory-hole/

pretty much. my wife has the iPhone 4 and she doesn't even know there is a big hubbub going on over the reception of her phone. she hasn't experienced it yet and the bumper she ordered arrived yesterday so i suspect she'll never know that her phone is defective. ;~)

I find it hard to believe that nobody has yet written a signal strength meter for the phone antenna showing the signal in decibels updated in real time?

Would give you a much better view of what your signal is actually doing, instead of the silly bars, which themselves are only updated every few seconds or so.

**edit - ha, I found it, someone give this a try!

Dial *3001#12345#* to bring up the iPhone's Field Test tool, which will give you information about towers and signal strength, EDGE network, and more.

That won't dial on my 3Gs. But if I get rid of the last asterisk... then i get a spinning circle and then the message "USSD Test response. Hi!"
and the option to dismiss.


Well, for one thing it's a programming code for CDMA and TDMA
>> >handsets. If you have a GSM handset it won't do anything for you.
>> >

http://www.gsmhacks.com/forums/nokia/14905-3001-12345-a.html

The “Death Grip” that drops bars when you wrap your fingers around the lower antenna is real, but it may not have much effect on performance. It’s not the number of bars that count, says tech expert Ted Landau, but the decibels per milliwatt (dBm). “FWIW, the number of bars on my iPhone vary a lot — depending on how I hold phone — but actually dbms stay within about 10 unit range,” he said on Twitter. (To see dBm on older iPhones — it doesn’t work in iOS 4 — type *3001#12345#* in the Phone app’s Keypad screen and tap Call button. The dBm appears where bars were. Tap to toggle.)


http://www.cultofmac.com/iphone-4-lives-up-to-the-hype-review/48326