iPhone 4 Antenna Issues Detected

UPDATE 25/06: after some more extensive testing, we did notice a loss in reception when holding the iPhone 4 firmly in our left hand, with the palm resting on the lower corner of the handset. For around 40 seconds nothing happens, then the bars start to slowly drop out one after another.

The hottest news on the web yesterday was perhaps not the release of the iPhone 4, but reports featured on sites including Gizmodo, ThenextWeb and the Guardian that the iPhone 4 seems to lose reception when held with your hand around the phone!

Basically, the problem seems to be linked to the fact that the phone's antennae are housed in the metal band surrounding the main body of the handset. Some users have found that when they grip the phone with their hand around this band, network connectivity suddenly drops. One bar, two bars, gone ... some users have even reported a total loss of their 3G connection! Check out some of the videos people have posted on YouTube.



We've had an iPhone 4 since yesterday lunchtime. We've made calls with it, we've been surfing the web and playing around with apps, and we didn't really notice any problems with reception. We tried holding the handset in all kinds of different ways: with one hand, with two hands, even with four hands, but our network reception didn't budge a bit, no matter how hard we tried ... until, that is, we tried holding it in our left hand and for more than 40 seconds (see update, above).

It may seem a little strange to be reporting on a bug we found to be non-existent, but given that the web is buzzing with hype about the fault, we thought it'd be good to balance things out a bit by letting you know that our iPhone 4 is working just fine!


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