update:  Apple addressed the “antennagate” issue today, pretty much refuting that it is a serious issue, but confirming their desire to be considered special by their customer base.  All iPhone 4 owners can get a free rubber “bumper” for the phone, and those that bought one with their phone will get a refund.  The bumper (or other case of your choosing) resolves all issues for the few that are experiencing problems.  For me the bigger issue is the proximity sensor (and I think many dropped calls are actually related to this, not the antenna.) This will be resolved in the next software update.

Seems like Apple has a PR nightmare on their hands.

Yep, you heard me right.  PR nightmare.  The fact is the phone isn’t anything as bad as all those writing negative things about it, and while the phone might have some small issues it’s all about bad press  ... PR nightmare.  This is just a great example of the power of negative press and the frantic blogging and reporting people do in order to drive “hits”.  While there is little doubt that a few buyers may have experienced issues with their phones, there are a lot of “facts” that are being left out to make the problem look worse than it is, because that drives controversy, lathers people up and gets them posting on blogs, and drives hits (which in turn increase click-throughs to sites advertisers.)  In other words, it’s more about money than it is about truth.

Why do I say this?  A couple of reasons.  First, most of those “testing” the phones and the so called “death grip” are doing so anecdotally.  The fact is any cell phones signal level will change depending on how you hold it ... it is a radio and not really a phone.  But we don’t like antennas hanging out of our phones, so we make cell phone makers hide the antennas, which is a compromise in design ... form over function.  The end result is holding any cell phone will provide insulation from the radio waves and reduce it’s signal.  Despite this they work well enough, but just holding the phone and noticing bars changing doesn’t tell anyone anything, and in fact most cell phones exhibit the same issue.

Then you have Consumer Reports, which also makes money by driving hits to their site reporting their “scientific” test results.  It all sounds so “scientific” and “official” ... until you read things written by engineers that understand antennas.  Here’s a quote from one of those articles (here’s the whole article, worth reading if this subject interests you ... www.antennasys.com/antennasys-blog/)

“But, hey, Consumer Reports guys: you don't do radiated tests in a shield room. That's like measuring the light output of a desk lamp in a house of mirrors. It's amateur hour.”

And despite the fact they confirm you can vary the signal by how you hold the phone they also said this

“The iPhone 4 data rates still beat the iPhone 3GS data rates under all grip conditions.”

I’ve had my iPhone 4 for a few days now.  It’s a marvelous piece of hardware.  Beautiful to eye and wonderful to hold.  I was nervous about the signal problem, so of course I tried to duplicate what others claim by holding it in numerous ways.  Nothing.  Signal never changes any more or differently than if the phone is laying on its back untouched.  Sure there are variations, but none of the “instant” drops like so many claim.  So I tried the “spit” test.  Yep, licked my fingers and shorted across the antennas.  This is about as conductive as skin can get.  Nothing.  I even tried a paper clip and various metal objects ... no change.

The problem is the bars aren’t too reliable.  In the article above they talk about this, so I tried their idea, and used the Speedtest app to check signal.  I was surprised that my highest bandwidth was when I was shorting across the 2 bottom black spacers.  Holding the phone by the front and back glass only was slower, as was laying it down on the desk and moving away from it.

So what’s the deal?

As far as dropped calls ... not one so for.  Nada.  In fact, on my way to Pixels each day one particular spot always drops my calls ... so reliably so that when talking I tell people I’m going to lose them and will call them back.  This is even using a bluetooth headset with my iPhone 3gs, so I’m not even holding the phone.  Much to my surprise, on 3 occasions now, after warning people I would lose them I haven’t yet.  Once I lost their voice for a couple of seconds, but then everything was normal when I got through the dead spot.  And since I don’t have the bluetooth set up, I was holding the phone.

I guess I just don’t have the death grip thing down ... maybe I need a lesson from Spock.

When I went to the AT&T store to pick up my phone, I asked the salesperson if things were problematic.  He said only 1 person so far had brought the phone back.  They did a restore on the phone, and since then no problems.

I’m sure there are those where this is an issue.  AT&T seems pretty reliable in Salt Lake City, and perhaps other cities where coverage isn’t as reliable the phone might be problematic.  In fact there were issues with the iPhone 3G when it came out with similar hype.  It didn’t get to the extent of this one, since there is no physical item to “connect” the problem to.

Despite all the hype, the new iPhone seems to deliver the best quality I’ve had.  Voices are clearer, others say I sound clearer, especially when talking in a noisy environment, and data seems faster most of the time.

As far as the phone itself, it’s well worth the upgrade.  The camera upgrade is nice, the video capture is great, the battery lasts longer, the little LED “flash” is bright enough to be useful and doubles as a terrific flashlight.  The front facing camera will be useful for many things, such as traveling spouses wanting to talk to the kids at home.

The display is fantastic.  Sharp, crisp, great contrast and easy to see even in bright light. 

I only have two minor complaints so far.  First, while the phone is “thinner” it feels fatter.  No more sleek edge, the boxy edge makes it feel fatter.  No big deal until you put it in a case ... then it feels bulky.  So no case for me ... hopefully I don’t shatter my screen or the phones back which is made of the same material as the front now when I drop it (when is the operative word here, not if). 

The other is the proximity sensor seems different ... the thing that senses when the phone is near your face and turns off the touch screen.  I hung up on someone today while trying to hold the phone under my chin.  I’ve done this with the other iPhones, but somehow the sensor didn’t work right and my face touch the end call button.  Another time I found the other person couldn’t hear me, which happens many times right before a call drops.  Just before they hung up to call me back (assuming the call was dropped) I looked at the phone and somehow I had touched the mute button.  The call as fine, the phone was just muted.  Had I waited a couple of more seconds I would have assumed the call had dropped because the other person hung up.  Wondering if some of the “dropped” calls being complained about may be from this issue.

No regrets though ...  a very cool phone.