VZW iPhone4 Signal Strength Indicator
Yesterday my roommate replaced his 3-year old VerizonWireless Motorola flip phone for an iPhone4. I have to give him credit for waiting so long - the online order process was easy and he received it yesterday.
His Motorola flip phone would always hold a full bar signal throughout the house. I don’t think he ever experienced a dropped call using it, with the exception of talking to someone on an ATT iPhone.
When he completed the (easy) activation process, the iPhone showed Verizon 3G and displayed 4 signal strength bars (out of 5). The 4 bars displayed while the iPhone was hooked up to an iMac via the 30-pin/USB cable. Upon removing the iPhone from the 30-pin cable, the signal bars dropped to 2, then 1 bar (while always maintaining a 3G icon). Initially I thought this odd, and figured the whole “death-grip” controversy that plagued the ATT version was resolved. (I also have an iPhone 4 through ATT, and use an in-home MicroCell tower.)
Upon further testing, the VZW iPhone would fluctuate between 1 and 2 bars throughout the house. The phone was able to make a call, but when I called the phone, about 7 times out of 10 the iPhone would not ring and the call went to voicemail.
We did notice if the phone was placed down on a flat surface, the bars would go up to 3 and sometimes peak at 4. This was also the case when the iPhone was plugged into the AC/USB/30-pin charging cable. But as soon as you touched it and/or unplugged it from charging, the phone would dip down to 1 to 2 bars of signal strength.
Ok, I told him to try this at work, located in Northern NJ (Verizon’s backyard). He confirmed while the phone does pull in 4-bars of signal strength while it’s laying flat on a surface (desk/table), the bars drop to 1 and/or 2 upon picking the phone up. This dip is evident if the phone is held by the metal band or just holding it using the glass (front and/or back).
I’m picking up a universal bumper today to see if this might affect the signal indicator issue.
Couple of questions - has anyone else noticed this fluctuation in signal indicator? And could their be a defect in this specific phone that could be responsible for this?
I think it all odd as I use a VZW Mi-Fi 2200 in the same house and always lock into a full signal indicator. The Mi-Fi must be using the same VZ wireless tower nearby.
His Motorola flip phone would always hold a full bar signal throughout the house. I don’t think he ever experienced a dropped call using it, with the exception of talking to someone on an ATT iPhone.
When he completed the (easy) activation process, the iPhone showed Verizon 3G and displayed 4 signal strength bars (out of 5). The 4 bars displayed while the iPhone was hooked up to an iMac via the 30-pin/USB cable. Upon removing the iPhone from the 30-pin cable, the signal bars dropped to 2, then 1 bar (while always maintaining a 3G icon). Initially I thought this odd, and figured the whole “death-grip” controversy that plagued the ATT version was resolved. (I also have an iPhone 4 through ATT, and use an in-home MicroCell tower.)
Upon further testing, the VZW iPhone would fluctuate between 1 and 2 bars throughout the house. The phone was able to make a call, but when I called the phone, about 7 times out of 10 the iPhone would not ring and the call went to voicemail.
We did notice if the phone was placed down on a flat surface, the bars would go up to 3 and sometimes peak at 4. This was also the case when the iPhone was plugged into the AC/USB/30-pin charging cable. But as soon as you touched it and/or unplugged it from charging, the phone would dip down to 1 to 2 bars of signal strength.
Ok, I told him to try this at work, located in Northern NJ (Verizon’s backyard). He confirmed while the phone does pull in 4-bars of signal strength while it’s laying flat on a surface (desk/table), the bars drop to 1 and/or 2 upon picking the phone up. This dip is evident if the phone is held by the metal band or just holding it using the glass (front and/or back).
I’m picking up a universal bumper today to see if this might affect the signal indicator issue.
Couple of questions - has anyone else noticed this fluctuation in signal indicator? And could their be a defect in this specific phone that could be responsible for this?
I think it all odd as I use a VZW Mi-Fi 2200 in the same house and always lock into a full signal indicator. The Mi-Fi must be using the same VZ wireless tower nearby.
24" Aluminum iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.10)
