5 ms·

Of course this was brought up. Apple generally does a 10-3-1 design process - 10 different fully working prototypes are made and they let the designers go crazy

by hop 16y ago

Of course this was brought up. Apple generally does a 10-3-1 design process - 10 different fully working prototypes are made and they let the designers go crazy. From that they further develop 3, then go with the best one. I've been in some of these meetings as an external contractor and no detail is left out - we made custom screws for them and did about 50 different design iterations for one application. Surely they had different antenna designs in the process - internal and external. I think the pros outweighed the cons in the decision: Higher reception signal than any internal antenna and a dual use, high strength steel case exterior. The one caveat being that if you cover the lower left, the signal will drop a bit, 10-20dB max. I agree with that logic and as a consumer, if Apple offered both an internal and external antenna iPhone, I sure as hell would go with the external - iPhone 4 reception (unscientifically) is far better in my office than my old 3G and the steel won't dent or crack like 2 black plastic ones I returned. Now putting glass on the back... the jury is still out on that one.

glhaynes 16y ago
That's what's so frustrating about this whole situation... most people seem to be getting much better wireless performance from the 4 than any previous iPhone. But, Apple's a company selling devices to the public, and they have to factor in the way "the public" works. And the public knows all about this issue at this point (that the issue exists, that is — not the details of the issue)... and that could have been foreseen. So even if the design is "the best" according to Apple's particularly chosen set of engineering tradeoffs, it still seems apparent they should've used some sort of coating or something.
- melling 16y ago
  Can anyone provide technical articles discussing the iPhone 4's antenna? How it compares to other phones, for example. There are too many anecdotal stories. Personally, I'd like to see the issue quantified.
  - scotje 16y ago
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 Edit: Here's a pertinent quote from that article... "So, an entire day and more than a quarter tank of gas later, here are the results. Holding the iPhone 4 without a case, in your left hand, crossing the black strip can result in a worst case drop of 24 dB in signal. As we'll show in a second, how you hold the phone makes a huge difference across every smartphone - and we've tested thoroughly in 5 different positions. Now, there are two vastly different possibilities for what happens to the bar visualization after you drop 24 dB. I happen to live less than one block from an AT&T UMTS tower (it's across the street, literally), and have exceptionally strong signal in all of my house - it's part of why I chose to live here, actually. Signal is above -65 dBm in every single room, in most cases it's at -51 dBm. When I incur that worst case drop of 24 dB from squeezing the phone, I fall down to -83 dBm, which is still visualized as 5 bars. However, in locales that have less signal, but where iOS still displays 5 bars, the drop of 24 dB is visualized much differently. For example, at another test location, signal without holding the phone is -89 dBm, which is still displayed as 5 bars. Cup the phone, and you'll fall all the way to -113 dBm. All the bars dramatically disappear one after the other, people think they've dramatically lost all the signal, and you know the rest."
    - wisty 16y ago
      The problem isn't that the signal drops. The problem is that Apple fudged the bars, to make "5 bars" show in more locations. This fudging means that in a few cases, squeezing the phone will lose all the bars, not just 1 or 2. Now, they don't deserve to be beat up over their antenna design - they get better signals than the old iPhones, even if you hold them wrong. They do deserve to be beat up for fudging the bar calculations. I guess that's karma - dishonest behavior highlighted a minor design flaw, and now everyone is hung-up over the minor design flaw.
      - Tamerlin 16y ago
        "I guess that's karma - dishonest behavior highlighted a minor design flaw, and now everyone is hung-up over the minor design flaw." The same thing happened to Intel with the Pentium 5 FDIV bug. By denying it, Intel turned a trivial bug into a major PR fiasco. Don't forget, it required a floating point division with TWELVE significant digits to trigger the bug. The only reason that it became a huge PR fiasco is that when a scientific researcher ran into it, Intel tried to hide it.
- joe_the_user 16y ago
  most people seem to be getting much better wireless performance from the 4 than any previous iPhone.. The thing is that the left-corner problem can be exactly specified. People are used-to but still frustrated-by random problems in cell phones. But this is one problem you can literally and metaphorically put your finger on. So people will focus their attention and ire on this one. It may be a presentation problem and not a serious reception problem - but Apple has previously been the king of presentation and so it seems like the kind of thing they should have stopped even if it's not serious. And indeed, everyone with some of kind of grudge against Apple is not-so-secretly happy they failed to stop it. And I'm among those happy with the somewhat-unfair presentation of this situation. If an over-blown reception problem is what it takes to ding the progress of Apple's totalitarian walled garden, then then hurrah for an over-blown reception problem.
ars 16y ago
The thing I never understood is why put the gap on the lower left corner? Why not put it at the top? The lower left corner seems the worst possible of all possible places to put it.
- samlittlewood 16y ago
  FCC regs about how much radiation is absorbed by the user's head when holding the handset up to their ear - apparently most phones have the antenna at the base. There was an article talking about this when the phone first came out.

by hop 16y ago

glhaynes 16y ago

That's what's so frustrating about this whole situation... most people seem to be getting much better wireless performance from the 4 than any previous iPhone. But, Apple's a company selling devices to the public, and they have to factor in the way "the public" works. And the public knows all about this issue at this point (that the issue exists, that is — not the details of the issue)... and that could have been foreseen. So even if the design is "the best" according to Apple's particularly chosen set of engineering tradeoffs, it still seems apparent they should've used some sort of coating or something.

melling 16y ago
Can anyone provide technical articles discussing the iPhone 4's antenna? How it compares to other phones, for example. There are too many anecdotal stories. Personally, I'd like to see the issue quantified.
- scotje 16y ago
  http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 Edit: Here's a pertinent quote from that article... "So, an entire day and more than a quarter tank of gas later, here are the results. Holding the iPhone 4 without a case, in your left hand, crossing the black strip can result in a worst case drop of 24 dB in signal. As we'll show in a second, how you hold the phone makes a huge difference across every smartphone - and we've tested thoroughly in 5 different positions. Now, there are two vastly different possibilities for what happens to the bar visualization after you drop 24 dB. I happen to live less than one block from an AT&T UMTS tower (it's across the street, literally), and have exceptionally strong signal in all of my house - it's part of why I chose to live here, actually. Signal is above -65 dBm in every single room, in most cases it's at -51 dBm. When I incur that worst case drop of 24 dB from squeezing the phone, I fall down to -83 dBm, which is still visualized as 5 bars. However, in locales that have less signal, but where iOS still displays 5 bars, the drop of 24 dB is visualized much differently. For example, at another test location, signal without holding the phone is -89 dBm, which is still displayed as 5 bars. Cup the phone, and you'll fall all the way to -113 dBm. All the bars dramatically disappear one after the other, people think they've dramatically lost all the signal, and you know the rest."
  - wisty 16y ago
    The problem isn't that the signal drops. The problem is that Apple fudged the bars, to make "5 bars" show in more locations. This fudging means that in a few cases, squeezing the phone will lose all the bars, not just 1 or 2. Now, they don't deserve to be beat up over their antenna design - they get better signals than the old iPhones, even if you hold them wrong. They do deserve to be beat up for fudging the bar calculations. I guess that's karma - dishonest behavior highlighted a minor design flaw, and now everyone is hung-up over the minor design flaw.
    - Tamerlin 16y ago
      "I guess that's karma - dishonest behavior highlighted a minor design flaw, and now everyone is hung-up over the minor design flaw." The same thing happened to Intel with the Pentium 5 FDIV bug. By denying it, Intel turned a trivial bug into a major PR fiasco. Don't forget, it required a floating point division with TWELVE significant digits to trigger the bug. The only reason that it became a huge PR fiasco is that when a scientific researcher ran into it, Intel tried to hide it.
joe_the_user 16y ago
most people seem to be getting much better wireless performance from the 4 than any previous iPhone.. The thing is that the left-corner problem can be exactly specified. People are used-to but still frustrated-by random problems in cell phones. But this is one problem you can literally and metaphorically put your finger on. So people will focus their attention and ire on this one. It may be a presentation problem and not a serious reception problem - but Apple has previously been the king of presentation and so it seems like the kind of thing they should have stopped even if it's not serious. And indeed, everyone with some of kind of grudge against Apple is not-so-secretly happy they failed to stop it. And I'm among those happy with the somewhat-unfair presentation of this situation. If an over-blown reception problem is what it takes to ding the progress of Apple's totalitarian walled garden, then then hurrah for an over-blown reception problem.

ars 16y ago

The thing I never understood is why put the gap on the lower left corner? Why not put it at the top? The lower left corner seems the worst possible of all possible places to put it.

samlittlewood 16y ago
FCC regs about how much radiation is absorbed by the user's head when holding the handset up to their ear - apparently most phones have the antenna at the base. There was an article talking about this when the phone first came out.