Gadget analysis group AnandTech, which was the first to diagnose the iPhone 4 antenna issue, ran a thorough test of the new Verizon iPhone 4 and found that the “death grip“ problem has been mitigated.
“Apple fixed the problem,“ said Brian Klug, author of AnandTech’s report. “You can use the Verizon Wireless iPhone with no case without any concern for losing signal because of how it’s held.“
That runs contrary to the Consumer Reports test. The magazine last week found that the Verizon iPhone, like the AT&T iPhone, “has a problem that could cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions“ when held in a “specific but quite natural way.“
AnandTech founder Anand Shimpi criticized the Consumer Reports study for failing to provide data to support its findings. Consumer Reports spokeswoman Melissa Valentino declined to offer the group’s test results, only saying that the Verizon iPhone and the AT&T iPhone performed “similarly“ in tests.
The AnandTech study, however, showed that the Verizon iPhone performed roughly on par with its non-iPhone peers — and far better than the AT&T version — in terms of cell signal attenuation (a fancy word for the reception loss experienced when your hand covers the antenna).
Verizon’s device lost 16.5 decibels of signal reception when cupped tightly in the “death grip,“ compared to 24.6 dB for the AT&T iPhone 4.
The average signal loss of seven other smartphones that AnandTech tested was 14.4 dB. That means the Verizon device has 15% more signal loss than average when held tightly — but the AT&T version has 71% more signal loss.
When held naturally, the Verizon device fared worse than non-iPhones, but it still beat the AT&T iPhone by a fairly wide margin. Verizon’s iPhone 4 was about twice as bad as the average smartphone, with a 15.5 dB loss when held naturally, and the AT&T device was three times worse, with a loss of 19.8 dB. The average device lost just 7.4 dB.
AnandTech noted that the “held naturally“ average was skewed much lower by the excellent performance of the Motorola Droid 2 and the Droid X. The Verizon iPhone actually fared very similarly to the HTC Nexus One and the LG Optimus 2X. Klug said that its performance was within the normal range.
So why does Verizon’s iPhone fare better than its AT&T cousin? A key difference lies in its antenna architecture.
A teardown analysis performed by IHS iSuppli revealed that the Verizon iPhone kept the same integrated antenna design of the AT&T iPhone, but Apple made several improvements to fix the signal problems that the earlier model. The Verizon antenna employs a “dual-antenna design that takes advantage of antenna diversity to improve reception,“ iSuppli said in its analysis.
Unlike its competition, Verizon requires that all of its smartphones have multiple antennas that can be switched depending on which one has a better signal. That so-called antenna diversity also allows the phone to average out the two antennas to get a better signal.
That function is what Motorola referred to its in ads for the Droid X, when the company said you could “hold your phone however you want“. The Droid X debuted about two weeks after AT&T’s iPhone 4 launched (right when “Antennagate“ dominating in the news).
Klug said he expects Apple to employ that design on future versions of the iPhone. Apple is expected to debut its new smartphone in June.
The AnandTech analysis provides a balanced perspective, while Consumer Reports rehashed old news in a very unscientific and unsubstantiated manner. CR should be ashamed of it’s bias and failure to provide any data in its report and recommendation.
The Verizon iphone has been a tremendous dud so far, especially when you factor in the amount of money its costing them to carry it. They should have just stuck with the droid, a superior phone in every way anyway. The only winner in any of this is apple, they never bare the brunt of any of their own engineering failures, the carriers do.
Everyone should just BOYCOTT VERIZON FOR LIES, PRICE INCREASES, and IT’S ALL ABOUT PROFIT TREATMENT OF CONSUMERS.
1. Verizon PROMISED and stated by their CEO that smart phones would not go over $199.00 on a 2 year upgrade. New phones now up to $299.00. A VERIZON LIE!!!
2. Verizon told new customers when they signed up that they would get the new every 2 plan as long as they were customers. NOW VERIZON TAKES THAT AWAY, AND IN THEIR OWN WORDS, TO INCREASE PROFITS. Another Verizon Lie.
3. Verizon only offers customers one unlimited data plan, even to those that use very little data. THIS MEANS VERIZON CUSTOMERS THAT USE LITTLE DATA *** PAY *** FOR HEAVY USERS. Verizon did this in an effort to draw AT&T customers to Verizon. BUT WERE WILLING TO SCREW EXISTING VERIZON CUSTOMERS TO DO THIS.
4. Verizon has LIED TO ITS CUSTOMERS ON A REGULAR BASIS. Promises made and broken. CUSTOMERS SERVICE LEVELS HAVE STEADILY DROPPED OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS FOR THE SAKE OF INCREASING PROFITS. I have been a customer over 10 Years and watched more and more of their Customer Service taken away to increase PROFITS.
Bottomline, I have both Verizon and AT&T service and VERIZON HAS GONE FROM THE SERVICE PROVIDER YOU WANT TO THE CELL PHONE PROVIDER YOU SHOULD RUN FROM.
AT&T now beats Verizon on all levels of customer service and pricing.
SEND A MESSAGE TO VERIZON AND WHEN YOUR NEXT CONTRACT IS UP, SWITCH TO ANOTHER PROVIDER.
DOESN’T MATTER WHICH PROVIDER, JUST SWITCH AND DON’T COME BACK UNTIL VERIZON STOPS LYING TO THEIR CUSTOMERS AND MILKING THEIR CUSTOMERS FOR AS MUCH MONEY FOR PROFITS AS THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH.
Losing YOUR MONEY is the only thing VERIZON UNDERSTANDS OR WILL RESPOND TO.
TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO BOYCOTT VERIZON!!!
BOYCOTT LINDSAY UNTIL SHE TAKES HER MEDS!
“Verizon’s device lost 16.5 decibels of signal reception when cupped tightly in the “death grip,“ compared to 24.6 dB for the AT&T iPhone 4.
The average signal loss of seven other smartphones that AnandTech tested was 14.4 dB. That means the Verizon device has 15% more signal loss than average when held tightly — but the AT&T version has 71% more signal loss”
So what it means is that the problem is not “fixed” on the Verizon iPhone. It’s simply just not as bad as with the case of the AT&T iPhone. So in the land of the blinds, the one-eye man is king.
How is it “fixed” if it is WORSE than all the Motorola Android products? Liberals kills me – start playing apple pop song for new commercial of an unemployed liberal dancing around.
I have had my Verizon Iphone4 for 2 weeks and it keeps dropping calls, stops loading the internet for no reason, while everyone with a Droid is happily chatting…arrghhh!!!