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Level 2

415 points

iPhone 4 reception IS better then 3GS

My wife & I are in Wisconsin. Her 3GS says no service. My iPhone 4 has 1 bar and I'm sending and receiving texts. I love my iPhone 4 and would never go back. It does everything better then the previous iPhones. The the display is just awesome.

Quad 8gb ECC, 30" Display, Mac OS X (10.5.6), 20" iMac G5, 19 & 20" Intel iMac, & 2 MacMini's

Posted on Jul 22, 2010 8:52 PM

26 replies

shap2010

Level 1

0 points

Jul 24, 2010 5:19 PM in response to klopus2

That's cause ATT added massive amount of new towers in NYC.

Jul 24, 2010 5:47 PM in response to Pappasbike

I went to the ATT store and they actually showed me that the reception is much worse on the iPhone 4, compared to other phones including the old iPhone. The problem is worse when you are touching the outside of the phone. They recommended turning off 3G which seems to help a bit.

ed2020

Level 1

69 points

Jul 24, 2010 6:07 PM in response to David Selevan

gypsydave wrote:
I went to the ATT store and they actually showed me that the reception is much worse on the iPhone 4, compared to other phones including the old iPhone. The problem is worse when you are touching the outside of the phone. They recommended turning off 3G which seems to help a bit.

And how did they demonstrate this?

Jul 24, 2010 6:33 PM in response to ed2020

Basically they showed me that their phones get a strong 3G signal in that location. The AT&T employee who uses an iPhone told me she gets dropped calls all the time, and has resorted to turning off 3G. This makes the phone calls work better, but the internet speed is very slow. The guy at the AT&T store explained that the problem is because the antenna is on the outside of the phone. I never really believed this, but after setting my phone down on the counter and switching to speakerphone, my bars went from 1 to 4. The guy was right! I'm right handed and holding the phone an a typical manner, not a death grip. Maybe there is something wrong with my phone, but the AT&T people were telling me that all the iPhone 4s are like that, so I'm not sure.

Jul 24, 2010 6:41 PM in response to David Selevan

I bought mine from an AT&T store and was told to not block the antenna when holding it because it could interfere with the signal. I found that if I'm in an area with a strong signal such as my house it makes no difference how I hold it. The signal remains strong. In a weaker area I do see the bars drop but have never lost a call. I've only checked this a few times because I have always used a case but I was curious. Again for me, I can't speak for others, this is a nonissue.

Jul 24, 2010 6:46 PM in response to Pappasbike

Yes, I would love to try the case. I like cases. It just seems like the aren't available, I looked all over for that case. I actually tried holding it many different ways, I'm not one of those people who was intentionally trying to cover up the antenna or anything. The man at the store said touching the phone anywhere on the antenna would interfere with the signal. This appeared to be the case. I haven't had a dropped call using speakerphone, so I'm pretty much convinced that touching the metal band will cause a dropped call, regardless of where you touch it. I wanted to buy one of those micro tower cell phone boosters, but they didn't have those either. The Apple Care person suggested I get a new SIM card, but they didn't have the SIM card for this iphone at the AT&T store either. It's getting a little annoying, every time someone at Apple suggests a fix for my problem, there is no product available to support that fix. And I live in Los Angeles, so it's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere..Maybe it's just my phone that has a defective antenna, I'm planning on returning it on Monday for a replacement phone. Worth a shot, and that would get me a fresh SIM card also.

Jul 24, 2010 7:45 PM in response to David Selevan

Oh I reset my phone and now it's not dropping my call!

ed2020

Level 1

69 points

Jul 25, 2010 1:08 AM in response to David Selevan

Counting bars on two handsets from two manufacturers does not tell you which has the better reception because we have no idea how they both choose to calculate the number of bars to display.

Jul 25, 2010 8:22 AM in response to David Selevan

gypsydave wrote:
I went to the ATT store and they actually showed me that the reception is much worse on the iPhone 4, compared to other phones including the old iPhone. The problem is worse when you are touching the outside of the phone. They recommended turning off 3G which seems to help a bit.

Assuming this is true, it sounds like they want you to buy another phone that they have in stock, not wait for one they don't.

daddave2

Level 1

129 points

Jul 25, 2010 8:24 AM in response to ray mazeika

I agree. Are you near LaCross?

Apr 21, 2012 2:39 PM in response to ray mazeika

I strongly disagree with this statement. With my 3GS I was able to do hour-long conference calls from my office with no sound quality or reception issues. With the 4S I got a month ago I cannot even do 5 min calls and have to tell people to call my land line. I am in the same room and nothing else has changed except the phone itself. Of course, I am holding it right and I have the case; as a matter of fact, most of the time I put the phone on my desk and use the speaker. The calls start normally but after a minute the voice on the other side starts degrading like if they were driving, but they call from the land line and the problem is on my side! I did not have such reception fluctuations with the 3GS, and it really hurts my business day as I cannot reliably conduct my phone conversations anymore. I do like everything else about the 4S, but this is a huge problem for me. I was wondering if there is something wrong with my phone, but looking on the web it sounds like a flaw with all 4S phones. I still have my 3GS, I wonder if I can switch back to it.

iPhone 4 reception IS better then 3GS