Nokia’s looking to ride the mojo of any negative fallout from today’s Apple press conference, slipping out a rather fascinating statement this afternoon. The gist of it is that Espoo’s keen on letting everyone know how much blood, sweat, and tears they’ve poured into perfecting their antenna design strategy over the years, going so far as to say that they “prioritize” it over the physical design of the phone if they need to in order to optimize its call performance — an opinion moderately different from the “we want to have our cake and eat it too” philosophy espoused by Jobs today. In closing, Nokia acknowledges that a “tight grip” can mess with the performance, though they say they’ve done a bunch of research on the ways their phones are typically held so that the antennas are placed optimally. Interestingly, there was a stink not long ago about the severe signal degradation some E71 users were seeing when they placed their hands on the lower rear of the phone — but you can’t win ‘em all, we suppose. Follow the break for the full statement.
Headline says it all folks. Obviously the company is going to be getting out in front of this antenna drama (finally). We’ve been invited and we’ll be there, reporting live! It all happens at 10AM PT, Friday the 16th.
If you haven’t caught up on the story (and if that’s the case, where have you been?), here’s a little background on the issue in reverse chronological order:
Can’t find an official iPhone 4 bumper? Driving yourself mad trying to give your new smartphone white glove treatment? Fret not, as a couple of case makers have outed new iPhone 4 clothing that’s meant to specifically dodge those naughty reception issues that seem to occur whenever your sweaty palm makes contact with that now infamous metal band. Element Case — the same folks responsible for the downright lust-worthy Joule stand for iPad — has just revealed their first iPhone 4 case, the Vapor (shown above). The company claims that its $79.95 enclosure provides an aircraft-grade, CNC’d aluminum frame lined with a shock-absorbent material, the latter of which “addresses iPhone 4 reception issues caused by direct hand to phone cradling.” For now, it’s up for pre-order (shipments are expected to start next week) in black / black and black / pink, with more colors to become available in the future. As for Ivyskin? It’s stepping things up even further by naming its product the “iPhone 4 Reception Case.” No need for subtly, we see. Hailed as the “world’s thinnest polycarbonate shell” for Apple’s latest iDevice, this here sleeve is the one to get if you’re look to minimize added bulk and not cover up any of Cupertino’s design cues. Best of all, this one retails for just $14.99 and ships with both front and back scratch-free body armors. Crazy that it has come to this, you know?
The world of corporate cheap shots has today been enriched in its number with one supersized ad for one supersized phone. BGR reports that Motorola took out a full-page spread in the New York Times on this final day of June, which was ostensibly dedicated to promoting the positives of its mighty Droid X. But Moto has also followed in the footsteps of Nokia in making a not so subtle jab at the latest king of the smartphone realm. According to the ad, one of the most important things about the Droid X is that:
“It comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls.”
Glad we got that established — next Moto will be telling us the alarm clock on its phones works just fine too. Skip past the break for the untrimmed ad.
The iPhone 4‘s antenna issues have sparked off a firestorm of debate as to the root cause — Apple says holding the phone differently or buying a case are the best answers, while other are going down a more voodoo path — but our friends at AnandTech have done some more scientific testing of the problem and come up with a few interesting results. Turns out the iPhone 4 actually performs slightly better inside a case than a phone like the Nexus One, which has had similar issues crop up, but it’s slightly worse when held in the hand, reporting an average signal drop of 20dB. Here’s where it gets a little wacky, though: the signal meter in iOS 4 is logarithmic, so that 20dB drop can either leave you looking steady at five bars or drop you all the way to zero, depending on what the actual signal level in the area is like. Take a look at the chart above and you’ll get it: the range of values between one bar and four spans just 23dB, while the range for five bars is 40dB. That means holding the phone in an area with a strong five-bar signal will have no apparent effect — you can lose 20dB at full signal and still see five bars — but holding the phone in an area with weaker coverage will easily drop the meter to one bar, since the 20dB signal drop covers almost the entirety of the remaining 23dB scale. Oops.
Of course, that’s just the on-screen display, which Apple can and likely will tweak in a future iOS update. The real question is whether the reported signal has anything to do with performance, and Anandtech agrees with our general experience, saying that the iPhone 4′s improved signal to noise ratio means it actually does a better job of hanging onto calls and using data when there’s low signal than the iPhone 3GS. In their words, “this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS.” However, there’s no getting around the fact that we’ve definitely dropped a couple calls with the iPhone 4 by holding it the wrong way, and Anandtech says the only real solution to the antenna issue will be for Apple to either subsidize free bumpers or add an insulative coating to the antenna band. We’ll see what happens — we’ve got a feeling an iOS update is on the way, but we’d definitely love to see Apple pursue a more aggressive solution to this problem.
Three Apple job postings for iPhone / iPad antenna engineers to “Define and implement antenna system architecture to optimize the radiation performance for wireless portable devices.” All three were posted on June 23rd, the same day that we started seeing widespread reporting of the left-handed reception issues. Coincidence?
Ever since Apple decided to do little about the iPhone 4′s pronounced reception issues except suggest that users hold the thing differently and / or buy a nice case, the voodoo engineering remedies have been flying in full force — sure, we’ll admit we tried sticking some tape over the side of our phone (no dice), but we stopped short when people suggested we try a couple coats of nail polish (insanity). Even we have limits, after all. But the latest snake oil fix is definitely the craziest we’ve heard so far: according to a 13-page (and growing) thread at MacRumors, the iPhone 4′s reception issue can be fixed by adjusting or even trimming the micro SIM so the contacts don’t touch the metal tray. The popular belief is that touching the side of the phone somehow shorts across the micro SIM, causing (mumble mumble) and leading to dropped signal. Making things more interesting, Apple and AT&T are apparently using several different types of micro SIMs, including one with a significantly larger contact area — you can check a shot of two of our iPhone 4 micro SIMs side-by-side after the break.
So does all this hocus pocus actually work? In a word, no. We tried it on a few of our particularly bad iPhone 4s — the ones that consistently demonstrate the issue — and achieved no meaningful results. We even went so far as to line the edge of one of our trimmed micro SIMs in electrical tape (pictured above) to ensure that no contact was being made, and we were still able to flatline the phone using the “death grip.” Sorry folks — we wanted this to work too, but it looks like people are just being hopefully optimistic. We’d say the real fix is going to have to come from Apple — and given the growing discontent over this relatively severe issue, the sooner the better.
BGR appears to have nabbed a document being distributed by Apple corporate to AppleCare reps tasked with handling iPhone 4 customers miffed with the antenna performance fiasco — and for the time being, the recommendations are focusing on managing expectations, not fixing the problem. In a nutshell, reps are being instructed to pass on a more politically correct version of Steve’s email by telling customers that they should “avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.” Interestingly, they agree that bumpers might fix the problem, but they’re emphatic in saying that they “ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON’T promise a free bumper to customers.” And yes, that statement is complete with caps and bold in the source document, so they mean business, it would seem. If it’s any consolation, Apple says that “the iPhone 4′s wireless performance is the best [they] have ever shipped,” but let’s be honest: for those zapping their calls into the afterlife every time they brush their phone the wrong way, it’s not much consolation at all.
Well, this must be one of the most epic “I told you so” moments in the history of consumer electronics. Professor Gert Frølund Pedersen, an antenna expert over at Denmark’s Aalborg University, managed to get his concerns about the iPhone 4′s external antennae on the record a cool two weeks before the phone was even released. In an interview on June 10, the Danish brainbox explained that he wasn’t impressed by Steve Jobs’ promises of better reception, describing external antennas as “old news,” and suggested that contact with fleshlings could result in undesirable consequences to the handset’s reception:
“The human tissue will in any event have an inhibitory effect on the antenna. Touch means that a larger portion of antenna energy becomes heat and lost.”
Machine-translated that may be, but you get the point. Researchers at Gert’s university have already shown that over 90 percent of any phone’s antenna signal can be stifled by holding it in the right place, but he’s highlighting the specific exposure to skin contact as a separate issue to be mindful of. Good to know we’ve got sharp minds out there, and as to his suggested solution, Gert says phones should ideally have two antennae that act in a sort of redundant array, so that when one is blocked, the other can pick up the slack. So, what are we going to do now, Apple?
