Anyone NOT having antenna reception issues?

No issues here.. great phone

hot_spur wrote:
iZian, at the moment I'm at my office, I have three bars. A paperclip has no noticeable effect - no drop in bars.

I'll try it when I get home. I usually only have one or two bars there.

I assume its not a laminated paperclip 😉
That is weird... Do you notice any lamination to the antenna? (Doesn't feel like a metal contact?)
This is weird because many people see their signal drop out with this technique.
Do you have a 3G signal or standard?
Maybe it only affects a 3G service...
Maybe there is only a percentage of phones seeing this; but I don't understand because normally that would mean a low number; and this stuff is on news station and in the press and everywhere like the plague.

If there are only a few phone like this; this will be more hyped up than when the US thought Iraq had WMD in their toilet factories.

Not only have I not had the problem, I can now get a signal and make calls in a couple of places where I couldn't use my 3G at all. For me the reception has definitely improved.

I do not use a case, btw, and gripping the phone does not cause a problem for me. I had picked up a Bumper case just to use for basic protection, but the stupid thing is designed so the dock opening is too small to fit any existing cables, including Apple's own AV cables. Stupid, stupid, stupid, but I digress.

I gather Apple is going to update the baseband so the bars are more indicative of actual signal strength. So 5 bars should really mean a good signal, which as many can tell you now, it often doesn't. That said, with 1 bar on the new iPhone 4 I can actually make a good phone call, something that was all but impossible on my 3G.

I tried to do the death grip but can't repeat it. I have had dropped calls. About 50% of my calls in last two days. However I don't think it's a grip issue for me. My sensor is lighting up the phone when I adjust it on my ear. Then I either hit mute or end call with my face. I have done a restore and will see if it works now.

i tried the paperclip test and not a single bar went down either... I had 5 bars on a 3G signal in Miami...

iZian, steel paperclip.

The antenna is metal, no coating of any kind, at least nothing I can detect.

I'm not saying it's not a problem for many people, it's just not a problem for me, and evidently several others that have posted here.

KBeat wrote:
That said, with 1 bar on the new iPhone 4 I can actually make a good phone call, something that was all but impossible on my 3G.

I find that, often, 1 bar on my 3G seems quite alright.
I'm starting to question how there is such a divide between people who see this issue and people who don't
There are so many on either side it's almost like Apple got the devices made in 2 factories; and one spewed out the iPhone 4 without an ultra thin laminate coating on the antenna... (This is just a speculative thought on how there could be a divide of this magnitude)

Obviously some cannot get this problem. I still believe that if you connectively bridge the wifi antenna and the gsm antenna you will see the issue; but maybe there are alot of people who are unable to bridge this gap conductively because of a very thin coating of some sort...

Is it pure metal on the rim/sides of your device? You know what I mean?

hot_spur wrote:
iZian, steel paperclip.

The antenna is metal, no coating of any kind, at least nothing I can detect.

I'm not saying it's not a problem for many people, it's just not a problem for me, and evidently several others that have posted here.

Yeah; I agree... Fair enough then. I've not (until now) come across anyone who could tell me that they can't see any coating and used a metal paperclip and saw no drop from 4 or lower bars to anything less...

Dang... Perhaps it's something internal (like a small piece of internal insulation) that is missing on a lot of handsets that makes a really bad attenuation when the antennae are bridged on the outside...

Arg; i give up. Apple will doubtless make me pay this restocking fee of 10% or something if I wanna send it back so I guess I be stuck.

My understanding from reading the [Anandtech|http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2] article on the issue is that covering that portion of the iPhone with the "death grip" causes a loss of about 15-16 db of reception. This is opposed to a loss of about 11 db on a Nexus One with a similar grip and a loss of 10 db holding the iPhone "naturally."

So, if you have a signal that's more than 15-16db above the 5 bar limit, you simply won't see the issue no matter how you hold the iPhone. It's really dependent on signal strength. I can't vouch for any of this, but it seems well researched.

I would wait if I was you give time to see what happens with it. I really think most people are having problems with the sensor but just assume it's the death grip. Not that the death grip is not happening. I though I had it until I walked by a mirror while on the phone and noticed my sensor light flickering.

KBeat wrote:
My understanding from reading the [Anandtech| http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 ] article on the issue is that covering that portion of the iPhone with the "death grip" causes a loss of about 15-16 db of reception. This is opposed to a loss of about 11 db on a Nexus One with a similar grip and a loss of 10 db holding the iPhone "naturally."

So, if you have a signal that's more than 15-16db above the 5 bar limit, you simply won't see the issue no matter how you hold the iPhone. It's really dependent on signal strength. I can't vouch for any of this, but it seems well researched.

That website you link actually states that the drop on the iPhone 4 while holding naturally is a loss of 19.8; compared to the iPhone 3Gs which is 1.9

The problem is the site focuses on a slightly misapprehension in my opinion. I think they should have tested a simple conduction between the antennae and see if that attenuates the signal more...

The still highlight the issue perfectly though...

I guess that the software fix will mean the issue goes away in that you only drop 1 bar at most; current 5 bar users are unlikely to drop at all.

Tonybabo wrote:
I would wait if I was you give time to see what happens with it. I really think most people are having problems with the sensor but just assume it's the death grip. Not that the death grip is not happening. I though I had it until I walked by a mirror while on the phone and noticed my sensor light flickering.

Death grip affects the signal even if you are not on a call; maybe just sending sms or doing emails.
The sensor issue is different.
This really does look like a hardware fault as Apple are outright replacing units that show the issue. (So I guess that means hardware). This means you hang up on someone or mute yourself in a call.
Different issue all together mate sorry.

Yeah, I was comparing loss of death grip and natural grip to "open palm". iPhone 4 & Nexus One. I'm sorry my numbers weren't clear, but I wasn't really trying to sum it up. It's really worthwhile to read the entire article and look at the charts.

They confirm 2 things.

1. iPhone 4 has the best reception of any iPhone Apple's ever made. Apple is correct in this assessment.
2. The iPhone's unique external antenna is definitely more susceptible to body interference than other phones, although all suffer from it to some extent. They recommend a case, like the bumper, for this reason.

Message was edited by: KBeat

I have had no issues though I can sometimes replicate the diminishing bars, but as far as dropping calls, I haven't dropped any because of this design. So for me it is a non-issue. It does however appear to me that the reception if anything is better then on the 3GS. Just looking for a resolution with the proximity sensory issue, otherwise I am really liking the new design.

FWIW, [Consumer Reports says|http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple-iphone-4-antenn a-problems-dropped-calls-att-signals-bars-os-software-bugs-glitches-os-os4-iphon e4-reception-problems-in.html] they've been unable to reproduce the issue in a meaningful way and state despite the internet hysteria that such problems aren't unique to the iPhone and very likely aren't serious.