With the external antenna a lot of people are having signal issues. If you hold the phone in a way that, your hand covers or touches all three sections of the band, the signal just falls almost instantly. It's terrible and probably the reason for the bumpers.
I mean, why would you really need to protect stainless steel!?
I have a cell tower literally yards away from my house and can destroy all 5 bars by holding it a certain way.
i can touch my iphone4 where ever i want with no reception problem. I just tested what you said a touched all sides with my hand and perfect reception.
I don't have this issue since my phone isn't due until tomorrow. But APPLE has an issue here. This is going to be big news. And very bad news for a brand new product with this high a profile.
I concede that some of have this problem, but as others have stated here, I was unable to reproduce this issue with my iPhone 4. I have full signal in rural Pennsylvania, no matter how I hold my new phone.
I have no clue how to resolve this, but maybe the solution is somewhere else?
Obviously this
IS a widespread issue. Apple
SHOULD respond and acknowledge it. And it's
not something where people SHOULD have to buy a case simply to use their device.
I live in PA and I know that rural PA doesn't have 3G on the iPhone (only Edge). It's already been reported that this doesn't seem to effect phones that are on the Edge network, but it cripples 3G.
1. Clear tape and an "exacto" razor knife (scalpel) as a temp (or longer) fix. Cover the lower, cell antenna with tape and trim the excess for an invisible repair.
2. Apple offers their "bumper" case for the iPhone4. Same result for more money
I'm calling hogwash on the 3GS supposedly having the same problem. I still have a 3GS as my work phone and I can hold that thing any way I like with 0 problems. My new iPhone 4... well that is basically worthless if I'm not on wifi and am holding it in my hand.
It was/is an issue for quite a few 3GS owners including me.
It only seems to happen in poor reception areas. I can have my phone on a table with 2 bars, pick it up, hold it in a certain way, and watch the bars go from 2 to 1 to 0 to 'searching' to 'no signal'. Then put it back down on the table and watch the process happen in reverse!
I just ignore the problem as I kept on being told it was a network issue here.