Antennagate on iPhone 4
When the iPhone 4 was announced I (like pretty much everyone else) couldn’t wait to get my hands on one, until one day the news hit that there was an issue with the antenna. I’ll admit I was worried, what would i do now? Would this affect me? And then after reading about it for months and seeing Steve Jobs’ response I settled down and decide it probably wasn’t going to be an issue. I won’t go into all the details of AntennaGate but just in case you’ve been on holiday to the moon or mars for the past few months and haven’t heard about it then have a read here.
I thought I’d show you how the antenna issue may affect you if you are here in New Zealand (well, Christchurch anyway). Hit the ‘read more’ for the video of the ‘Death Grip’ in action.
The Death Grip!
As I have said before, and as I say in the video below, my belief is that it is a non-issue unless it affects you during day-to-day use of your iPhone. Apple have offered a fix (that works) at no cost to you, and have even offered your money back if you really can’t live with it. They’ve really put their money where their mouth is and you can’t fault them for that.
Yes, I can make it happen, and yes the signal does drop, but at no stage have I managed to get ‘No Service’ to show and at no stage during normal use has it affected me.
So: on to the video. The video was shot in a Christchurch suburb where I normally get 4 or 5 bars on XT, 4 bars on 2degrees and 3 bars on Vodafone. You will see the signal drop on all of the carriers but as I say at no stage could I get ‘No Service’ to show.
To sum up, if you are getting an iPhone 4 you need to be aware that this could happen to you. But you also need to know not to worry about it. If it has a real affect on you, get a bumper or case or, as ridiculous as Steve Jobs may have sounded, simply don’t hold the phone that way for extended periods. And if it really is an issue which you can’t bare, and don’t want to resolve with your free case then you will have 30 days to return it to Apple.
If you’ve already got your iPhone 4 why not share you experience with others in the comments below, after all you know it was the first thing you tried to replicate when you got it 
its really a non issues as you say, every XT phone in our household goes to “No Service” when held in a certain way. hasn’t deterred me one bit
(Joe Bunting has made 69 comments)
I have managed to get ‘No service’ a couple of times on Vodafone’s network in Auckland.
(pknz has made 92 comments)
If you have a jailbroken iphone you can set the cell signal to be displayed numerically. I can get a consistent -20dB change with the death grip. But you’re right that it doesn’t affect me in real usage. I didn’t even notice the drop before I did the numeric tweak.
(miguelwrang has made 7 comments)
Well that’s no good that it seem to be a slight issue no matter what carrier you are on, at least it does not go all the way down. On a side note I just received an email from apple which says : Dear Apple iPhone Customer:
Thank you for your purchase of the Apple iPhone. We would like to ask you a few questions about your experience with your new phone.
We have retained Medallia, Inc to host this survey and collect your responses. We hope you will take a few minutes to take our survey.
Now I have not received my iPhone 4 yet and they should know that, I was tring to forget that I bought it so time would pass faster and I would be more surprised when it showed up. Shame on apple I say.
(Tazmad has made 47 comments)
Another good write up. I can confirm same that it's a non issue for me as no dropped calls and bars decrease but have no effect to service.
Only death grip of any substance is the strangle hold Vodafone have over new zealanders lol
(camtab has made 464 comments)
If you are a techo have a look at the following article, tis quite interesting. I have a feeling apple knew there might be an issue and removed the 'field test' facility from iOS4
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-r…
(leStar has made 63 comments)
Havent had that much of an issue with reception (well, no more than on my 3gs) so not really enough to make me want to give back my iPhone 4. On another note though, I’m having a hard time picking which free case to get, suggestions?
(incubus has made 32 comments)
incubus wrote:
Pick which ever one you feel would suit you best, I just went to look at the option’s but can’t find them now. If all else fails there are quite a few on trademe if you don’t like the free ones on offer, I even have some on trademe with the same user name as on here.
(Tazmad has made 47 comments)
Tazmad wrote:
I got the same email. Hilarious, given that our iPhones are three weeks away …
(suburban_ennui has made 74 comments)
I haven't experieced much of this issue at all. My signal seems to jump from 2-5 bars ever so often REGARDLESS of the way i hold my phone.
(5linging5lasher has made 16 comments)
You know what, its not like apple to have 'issues' with their products. So in fact, because is it a non issue and doesn't affect everyday usage, you could say its just another FANTASTIC apple marketing campaign. Huh you say?
Well not only does every person already know about the new iPhone, now every magazine, every blog every newspaper and now most people are talking about the iPhone 4. Suddenly everyone is walking around with an iPhone 4… MARKETING GENIUSES.
(Kyle has made 6 comments)
I got mine on friday and after setting up and trimming my XT sim i have NOT had any issues!
Held my finger on the “spot” for 5 mins and dropped to 1 bar at worse, actually went up a bar in this time also.
But ive still ordered my free Belkin Case as saves me buying one.
Thanks Apple/Media
(clintnz has made 6 comments)
Thanks for giving us NZ-Kiwis a perspective about the antenna issues of the iPhone-4. I guess you got to be verrrrrry pick to return your iPhone for that kind of an issue.
Gone are the days you could buy any phone with an antenna protruding out of the phone. I remember my first "Nokia" phone it had a kind of a telescopic antenna. At that time Apple was not into phones. I'm sure that if they were they would have had something outstanding then as well.
I will still stick to my 3Gs and wait for the next Gen iPhone to come out before I decide to upgrade, the one i have is only 11months old.
(alopes has made 70 comments)
I got mine from the UK, and if I squeeze it really hard (in a manner no one would never hold it) I can occasionally get a drop of one bar. Other times, it actually increases! Trying it all over Christchurch, and 90% of the time, the signal remains the same.
Maybe I just got lucky, but I haven’t noticed a single issue so far, either in terms of reception, or proximity sensor.
(SDunn has made 2 comments)
Havn’t had any problems with reception and have been talking a lot more on my iPhone 4 over the last week. I’m on crap arse vodafone, whereas I used to be on XT with my 3GS, I’m still undecided whether I’ll go back to XT… XT data download is 2-4 times faster than vodafone in the Hamilton/Waikato region.
(nathstar has made 13 comments)
No issue whatsoever with calls on my iPhone 4. The bars drop and rise depending on where I am and how good the actual signal is. I made long calls holding the phone ‘the wrong way’ unintentionally, and when I realized how I was holding it I was happy
The only issue which I noticed, but have not tested extensively, is that when I hold it the ‘wrong way’, although I may have full bar signal, the 3g internet data may stall or slow down… but I’m not sure if that was the case only in that one place, didn’t really bother going out of my way to try it everywhere else lol
(Yaman_NZ has made 184 comments)
Is anyone having proximity sensor issues?
(ignite has made 26 comments)
@ Tazmad:
Went with the incase snap, looks like it doesn’t completely cover top and bottom so I don’t need to pull my iphone 4 out of the case when I’m using it in my tomtom cradle and it’ll add enough bulk to work with my cradle without needing padding on the bottom to help push the dock connector in, now we play the waiting game…
(incubus has made 32 comments)
ignite wrote:
I've had mine press some phone numbers with it up to my ear, and it also put someone on hold for a few seconds without me realising.
Strangely, I can have times where the reception seems to cut out even if it is showing 4-5 bars.
(B Gallagher has made 71 comments)
no issues for me, never had ‘no service’. although bars drop to 1 in certain places, call quality is still excellent. some places where i had poor reception on the 3g before seemed to have improved:)
(bengerman has made 3 comments)