Just a quick post since I see that some people are freaking out over signal bars disappearing when the iPhone 4 is held with the hands. It took me a while to notice this myself. I tested it a couple times with mixed results. However, I can now reproduce this the majority of the time. Basically, if one holds the iPhone 4 in a way that contacts the side-band, which itself is an antenna (multiple antennae rather, for different signals: wifi, cell, gps, etc.), after a few seconds, the bars begin to disappear. And let’s be honest, it’s pretty difficult to hold it any other way haha.
I quickly jumped to conclusions and started concocting possible scenarios in which Apple, too far into the development process of the iPhone 4, realized this ‘problem’ and decided to release it anyways alongside the Bumper case, which would supposedly fix this problem by removing any contact between the user and the side-band. A few other people considered this a possibility, recognizing the peculiarity at Apple releasing an official case itself which only ‘protects’ the side-band of the iPhone 4.
But then I read David Pogue’s review of the iPhone 4 for The New York Times that Apple claimed (second page, first paragraph) to have switched its cell tower choosing algorithm. It no longer goes for the tower with the strongest signal, but instead, it goes for the cell tower with the highest quality. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, as I always figured that signal strength determined signal quality but I know next to nothing about those things.
The new phone is also better at choosing the best channel for connecting with the cell tower, even if’s not technically the strongest one. (Ever had four bars, but a miserable connection? Then you get it.)
Although this is most likely true (the press gets access to Apple for questions, etc.), I didn’t believe that Apple would give up those “visual bars” for the sake of call quality. Reason being that most people associate bars with cell reception and consequently call quality, and Apple wouldn’t do anything to confuse the user, even if it ultimately resulted in better cell reliability for the user.
Then I read Walter Mossberg’s review of the iPhone 4 in the Wall Street Journal, in which he says that Apple told him this was actually a bug in how the iPhone 4 displays the bars, as he was still able to place calls just fine.
Yet, in some places where the signal was relatively weak, the iPhone 4 showed no bars, or fewer bars than its predecessor. Apple says that this is a bug it plans to fix, and that it has to do with the way the bars are presented, not the actual ability to make a call. And, in fact, in nearly all of these cases, the iPhone 4 was able to place calls despite the lack of bars.
So, assuming that the issue Walter encountered was the same as those which most people are experiencing, we can expect an iOS update with a bug fix to be released soon. I am sure Apple would be inclined to release an update as soon as possible in order to prevent any possible unnecessary and confused negative press which would claim the iPhone 4 to have inferior reception to previous models, a claim which would contradict Apple’s claims of engineering ingenuity by using the iPhone 4′s side-band as an antenna system for better reception.
This potential explanation for the issue many people are experiencing is not completely out of question yet. Although some people have posted anecdotal and video evidence of this ‘issue’ occurring, I’ve yet to see anyone claim that the call quality itself is actually affected when this happens.
If anyone posts evidence of the call quality consistently diminishing alongside bars disappearing when one holds the phone, then that would be something else entirely, and an issue Apple would be hard pressed to publicly confront urgently.