To buy or not to buy...volume and signal strength problems

I've been reading all the posts here and paying particular attention to those that have the highest "reads" since that is probably correlated to 'real' issues with the iPhone. The two that seem to have the highest 'hits' both before the new update and since are "volume" and "signal strenght" - both are pretty significant issues if they don't work well. The number of posts and comments tend to suggest there are some very geniune and serrious issues with the iPhone. I suspect there are some real Apple supporters out there (I am one myself) that wouldn't say anything bad about the phone even if they were privately throwing it against the wall all day. I would buy one but the updates don't seem to have ended the cries of problems with these two important issues. What say those who have had other phones and aren't Apple nuts or stockholders?