Thaindian News

July 13 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The engineers from Consumer Reports has stated that they do not recommend the flawed iPhone4 from Apple, even if it is considered the “must have” gadget of the season. The signal issues which the iPhone4 is having can effect all users, but is especially troublesome for left handed customers.

Mike Gikas, who writes on the Consumer Report’s website posted the following concerning the iPhone4, “Consumer Reports’ engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side — an easy thing, especially for lefties — the signal can significantly degrade.”

He went on to explain that users can have calls to drop, and you can “lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal.” The experts made the decision following extensive research of the iPhone4 after buying three of the devices at three different locations, and testing them in an environment which was controlled, a radio frequency isolation chamber, which would keep out random radio signals.

After testing the iPhone4, the Palm Pri, the iPhone 3gs, and others, Gikas stated, “None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4.” Apple claimed the problem was with the display and not the phone in their statement, “Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong,” Apple stated in the letter. “Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.” They say that the trouble is not with the antennae design.

But Consumer Reports did not agree. “The tests also indicate that AT&T’s network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4’s much-reported signal woes.” Gikas went on to tell of a possible solution, “Cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material. It may not be pretty, but it works. We also expect that using a case would remedy the problem. We’ll test a few cases this week and report back.”