Iphone 4 Signal Loss Explained

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How bad is the iPhone 4's signal loss?

Posted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt June 30, 2010 2:23 PM <br clear="all"> Pretty bad, say engineers who have measured the effect of the "death grip." But it's not fatal.

The lower left-hand corner gap. Photo: Apple Inc.

It's been nearly a week since Steve Jobs famously told a new iPhone owner with reception issues to "stay tuned," but Apple (AAPL) still hasn't solved the new device's Death Grip problem -- its tendency to lose signal strength rapidly when gripped across the gap on the left-hand corner where its two external antennas meet.

But thanks to some clever work by a pair of engineers at Anandtech, we now have a pretty good idea what's going on when those signal indicator bars start to disappear.

Full article at:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/30/how-bad-is-the-iphone-4s-signal-loss/

The article is worth a read as it explains signal loss in all mobile devices and gives you an idea how much it may affect you. If you live and stay in areas where you already have a strong signal most of the time, you might not even notice, but those who spend any amount of time in areas with marginal coverage might find the iPhone4 to be completely useless.

One positive that came out of the article was how it showed the 3gs to have excellent reception. That in itself may be part of the problem as it's superior reception makes it's newer counterpart look all the worse.