the real reason for bad reception.

Everyone is going on about the bars going down but I'm wondering if any one has tested it with actual calls. I know on my current iPhone that the bars can be way down but I still get good reception, etc.

I guess I'll test it tomorrow for myself.

Take care all.

Very interesting...

Yes it does affect the call itself. I tested this 2x and each time the call was eventually dropped while holding the phone in the palm of my hand. Holding it with two fingers on the sides eliminated the call from dropping and a loss of signal strength. It is NOT cosmetic or a software issue.

You know, why not wait until tomorrow or the next day. See if things improve. Launch date is tomorrow, you're all using yours the day before launch date.

I pick mine up in the morning. I hope I don't have the issues, but we'll see! 🙂

I'm hoping this is a software flaw or everyone who bought one of these, myself included, is in big trouble. I received two iPhone 4's today - a 16 and 32GB model. When you fully cup the phone in your hand, the signal eventually drops completely and thus your cell connection. Every. single. time. I have seen Apple make mistakes before on launches - the 3G launch OS was particularly bad for example. But this ia a flaw so bad it makes the fundamental use of the device - as a phone - potentially useless.

I'm an apple fanatic and I was absolutely shocked to see that the "nonsense" I read about simply "holding your phone makes your calls drop" is actually true.

Go ahead, try it out for yourself. What a mess.

I have been using my new phone since 1230 this afternoon and even with some long phone calls, I haven't had any dropped calls. And yes, I'm positive I cover the black lines on the bottom of the phone with the way I hold the phone.

In addition, I was showing my father the new phone tonight and I brought up the design of the antennas. I wanted to get his opinion since he is an engineer in the radio frequency industry. He said it is very unlikely that people will get dropped calls and connections with the antennas on the outside of the phone. You would have to be pushing really hard on those lines for the signal to be completely blocked. I think I will trust his expert opinion.

I can reproduce this exact same thing on my iPhone 4. Set the phone on the table, lightly touch the black line on the left side (enough to bridge the gap between the two steel pieces) and the signal goes from 5 to 0 in just about 20 seconds. Removing my finger slowly brings the signal back up to 5 bars.

A disaster.

JesP130 wrote:
I have been using my new phone since 1230 this afternoon and even with some long phone calls, I haven't had any dropped calls. And yes, I'm positive I cover the black lines on the bottom of the phone with the way I hold the phone.

In addition, I was showing my father the new phone tonight and I brought up the design of the antennas. I wanted to get his opinion since he is an engineer in the radio frequency industry. He said it is very unlikely that people will get dropped calls and connections with the antennas on the outside of the phone. You would have to be pushing really hard on those lines for the signal to be completely blocked. I think I will trust his expert opinion.

I've been able to reproduce it, and it has caused call quality to degrade and calls to drop.

In addition, your father seems to have missed the point, or you have misunderstood his explanation. No one is claiming that "blocking the gap" between the metal bands somehow blocks the signal. Rather, it appears that connecting them to each other with your skin causes them to either interfere with each other, or ground/short each other out so that reception is lost.

I mean seriously. This is like a new car that stalls after 3 miles of driving. It useless. This is an absolutely horrible oversite that has to be fixed now not when they decided to get around to it. Its a cell phone for god sake and its purpose is to make calles. If you cant do that what the heck am I paying all this money for a Brick?

Message was edited by: kenm2474

I think we understood each other just fine, but ok.

I have been able to reproduce the signal drop, but I literally have to cup the phone with both hands and all my might for anything to happen.

I haven't been able to reproduce that no matter how my hold my phone. Weird. Maybe it's a location thing.

I hadn't noticed this while using the phone today, but I was able replicate it this evening. I didn't lose the signal completely, but I did lose two or three bars every time I covered the lines with my hand(s). Scary. I hope there's a quick fix for this.

Until a case can be procured, couldn't this just be solved with a sliver of electrical tape over the line? I mean, this is a pretty dumb error that could have been found, but a solution doesn't seem that difficult either.

I know that this won't deter me from picking up the new iPhone I reserved at Best Buy (First one to pre-order - pretty miraculous considering the 'meltdown' pre-order day. I guess no one in Salem/Roanoke knew Best Buy would be offering pre-orders).

This is an embarrassing gaffe, but it doesn't diminish the rest of the package that is iPhone 4, IMHO.

Wow.. never thought I'd have to put a rubber band around my $200+ phone in order to get enough service to make phone calls. Good job Apple.