Some early iPhone 4 shipments have defective screens, missing bars - Page 2

Okay, so basically, if you hold a bare iPhone 4 (every last one of them) in your bare hand you won't be able to download anything. And again, all the engineers, employees, Steve Jobs, et al, failed to notice this epic fail during testing? Ever hear of Ocam's Razor?

Everyone seems to have latched onto the reception problem, but what about the yellow screens? How do you explain that.

You are mistaken. See above posts.

The poster said he rebooted his phone and the dots went away. Interesting!

Two posters on the Apple forums said the issue subsided with a simple reboot of the phone.

I'm connected via wifi and posting this via my iPhone 4. I've tried to replicate this issue by forming a circuit with my finger just like in the YouTube video. The bars do not drop on my phone, regardless if I do it with just my finger like in the video or if I wrap my whole hand around the steel band of the phone.

Also, no yellow screen here. Very happy so far.

Seriously why do you need to shout? You behave like a child "Oh! look, ma....".

Ok, just because there was not an issue during testing doesn't mean that there isn't possibly:
a) a software error in the mass produced units
OR
b) a hardware error in the mass produced units

No one knows how widespread or prevalent it is, but it DOES exist. And I'm basing this off of user provided information.

http://gizmodo.com/5571171/iphone-4-...yline=true&s=i

When it comes to mass-production, are you expecting a 100% perfect product batch in order to consider Apple having "quality" products? So far, nothing has given me an indication that it is not more widespread than a few enthusiasts that have posted them online.

You're unrealistic and borderline trolling. I'll bet that you'll still scream if it turns out to be a few hundred out of 600,000 units that are defective. Why hold Apple to such a high degree of perfection?

I recommend you add an extra layer of tin foil to that hat of yours... signal's still getting through.. \

Life in my world is fine. It's your world that has problems. You fail to explain how the engineers, Steve Jobs, Apple employees, and every swinging appendage who was using the iPhone 4 during development and testing, didn't notice this. It's like the proverbial conspiracy theory. The only reasonable explanation is that they knew about it, chose not to fix it, and then released the device hoping no one would notice. That's what you MUST believe if this is as pervasive as the "videos" suggest.

I'm waiting for your explanation of how this got into production. Take your time to formulate your theory. back at you.

LIES!!! ALL LIES!!!! Apple products just work. All negative posts are Microsoft or Google Fanboys!!!

So basically the guy should get a replacement? And people screamed their heads off in this thread...

Everything working just fine on my phone. Screen and call quality are great.

I hope that the people experiencing the issues get everything worked out.

Yes, it's far more likely that dozens of customers are taking the time to fake videos than it is that there's some sort of issue on the production line or with the latest OS build.

It's all AT&T fault

Right out of the box today I have the yellowish blotches in both lower corners of the screen. I called Apple and they were more than willing to setup a return but I have to send it in and wait for a replacement. Apple suggested to go back to AT&T first and see if they could swap it more quickly and if not to call back and they would send a pre-paid box so I can ship it to them and in a week or so I would either get mine back repaired or a new one.

Calling AT&T in the A.M.

Actually, it does affect calls. The other end can't hear what you're saying when you have 1 bar.

Read the reports.

If it's any comfort, I'm 4 for 4 today for iPhones not doing this. I'm just not cool enough to know how to use YouTube.

-Chris

I just read three reports... all said it didn't affect calls.

I LOL'd.

1) You're now crossing into irrational troll territory. If I didn't know you here for so long and like your mockups I probably wouldn't have questioned your "sky is falling" comments here.

2) Enough with the #5 font and all caps. Calm down and express your concerned in a mature manner and you're more likely to be taken seriously and get some real answers.

3) You have seen a phone showing a drop in cellular connectivity. There are many things to consider here:

• Does this one device represent all the devices? Of course not, but more on that later.
  
• Even if Apple, for example, has lowered their failure rate by half, if they sell more than double the devices there will be more total issues. You need to consider this in relation to the internet before you comment because this will get more prolific each year.
  
• Does the issue have to do with AT&T —aren't you on O2 in Ireland? — or his specific location?
  
• Does this "customer" have a reason to lie? I could very easily make a video that shows carrier signal increasing everytime he touches the device. You can mimic this if you position something to block the signal off-camera at the appropriate time.

4) I have a friend whose phone is DOA. Meaning, it won't even turn on. If he did a video showing that it won't turn on would you then post to that with massive links and an all caps condemnation jumping to conclusions that all iPhone 4's are DOA? Of course not, so why do this here, you're above this?

5) My iPhone 4 is flawless. The carrier signal does fluctuate as it always does with a carrier in certain places. I am getting 2Mbps down but only 0.5Mbps up on 3G. On 802.11n I get 16Mbps down and 0.6Mbps up. Both were single tests on one network.

6) My display is perfect according to my white test. Most impressively is the comparison next to my 3GS. The resolution is great, but the backlight is much brighter, the whites are much whiter, and blacks are much blacker. It's easy to read in sunlight and no matter where I place the display from my eyes I can't discern any pixels. In fact, anything closer than 6 to 8 inches just gets extra blurry as Melgross had proposed a couple weeks ago.

I call BS. Not only does it affect it at 1 bar, you won't be able to dial out when it's searching for service.

Reports all say the same thing about this.

Thanks for posting... Mine can't get here fast enough.

Anyone who rushes out and buys a product on Day One has to expect some issues. My guess is for the first big initial production run QA standards are lowered a bit just to get the units out the door. Anyone who has to rush out and get it Day One does the QA testing. The alternative is slower production which means the 95% (or whatever) of people who get their devices have to wait longer for no good reason. Over time QA can be ramped up as inventory builds and there's no longer the time constraints of building 1-2 million iPhone 4s in a couple of months.

Looking at the Apple support forums, they are claiming the blobs disappear on their own.

Hopefully not a big deal, but no unexpected. Every new piece of hardware is going to have issues. It happens with every new release.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....rt=45&tstart=0

In any case, the blobs appear to be fading.

That's funny, but it doesn't work. As demoed by a YouTubian. The connection is still made.

Yes..

If your in doubt.......then DON'T buy it on thurs. Wait till the issue is resolved.

If you don't care if it works or not then buy it on thurs


There's no right or wrong answer, Nobody can possibly know how widespread these problems are.

It's not just Day One. This is consumer electronics. Issues are vetted before hand and the next major change will be next year. There will always be issues with assembly line devices made from components from dozens of other companies all producing on an assembly line. If only 0.1% of the rumoured 3 million iPhones to be sold this weekend have issues that it 3, 000 devices with some issue. I bet that is very, very low for CE.

Mis-applied glue?

I remember having the same yellow spots on my TV. It turn out my son was placing magnets on the screen. Turning the tv off for few hours fixed the problem. This could be caused by the same thing if it actually went away after shutting the iPhone down for few hours.

Or it could be a defective display. It does happen.

Does anyone know what the typical HW issue rate is among CE?

Hi...

I'm just reporting what I'm seeing.

I got my iPhone 4 yesterday... and can report that I'm experiencing the same signal-drop problem. Specifically, holding the phone so that my hand/palm touches and connects the left side edge and bottom edge segment will make the signal drop. It's not instantaneous, there is a short lag before it happens... but yes, it drops... about a bar every 3 or 4 seconds... all the way... every time.

And yes (for me) doing this will also drop a call. Yes, it drops data if you are just holding the phone and using safari, etc. It will switch from 3G to Edge to no data before it starts searching for a signal.

If I hold the phone at the top... or by the glass... or set it on a desk... the signal stays constant. No problems.

Oddly, there is no apparent effect on WiFi -- which does make me wonder if it's a software problem. Wouldn't grounding/blocking/etc the antenna also affect WiFi? But speedtests show no change in WiFi signal.

The issue is very easy to test and replicate, I have zero doubt there *is* a problem with *this* phone. I've been troubleshooting the issue for a few hours now. Nothing has changed. The idea that this problem is being made up by trolls or whatever... is wishful thinking. However, I have no idea how wide spread it could be. I have no indication that it's happening will *all* of the phones. I just know what I'm seeing and that it matches what others are reporting.

On the plus side...

A friend of mine just got her phone this evening and is telling me she can *not* replicate the problem. So maybe this is not a larger design flaw, but a defect with the first few that shipped out. I've not seen her phone in person yet, but I will go over and test her phone later tonight to see. Although, if her phone is fine then it doesn't seem like it can be a software problem.

I can say that watching the signal drop *feels* like a hardware issue. It feels common sense that my hand is connecting and blocking the antenna parts in some way. It's very tactile and physical to grab the phone and watch the signal bleed out. But sure, maybe it's just software reacting to some sort of data/feedback it gets from the antenna or signal. I have no idea. I read one report where a 'restore' did seem make a difference. I tried a restore, and nothing changed.

Also, I probably should note... I love Apple products. I love the way this new iPhone looks and feels... the new camera is impressive... FaceTime is cool if not a little creepy. Except for this one issue with the signal (which admittedly is kind of a big problem) it's a better phone than the first-gen, 3G, and 3GS.

Overall, I'm not upset. Not yet. My years of buying (and occasionally repairing) Apple products tells me that there will be a fix or I'll have a replacement soon. And since I live near an Apple Store it's fast and painless. My expectation is all will be fine. My iPhone is still usable (at least in a short-term sense) and I won't get angry about it unless I'm told to go buy the bumper as a fix.

I do think if turns out that this is a wide-spread issue Apple is going to suffer a serious PR blow... and that's kind of depressing.

Again, just my observations.

That's what I'm thinking, too. And that's what Steve Jobs says, although who knows whether or not that's the truth. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a 4.0.1 software update as early as tomorrow, the "official" launch day for the iPhone 4.

I have heard of software updates actually fixing hardware issues before, so let's hope it can remedy any real screen issues people are facing.

There will always be defective units. It's like with TVs... For every 10,000, maybe 100 of them might have a large number of dead pixels. Same thing here... For every 1,000 iPhone 4 models made, a few might have some faulty displays.

Well i have to agree i got my phone today, when holding the phone in my hand the person on the other end hears static, i actually used my hand placing fingers over all three attennas and the person on the other end says they heard almost nothing. Having spent time with electronics and having a backround in their build i worry that a simple program patch may not be able to fix this. The phone is elligant in design great voice reception when it works. Im planning on an invisa-shield so hopefully it will fix the problem.

So I'M the one that's irrational - because I want numbers instead of anecdotal complaints?

They've sold 600,000 of these, a large portion of which are in consumers' hands. Let's say that 50 screens are defective - which is far more than the number that have been reported. That's a tiny, tiny percentage of the screens.

Here's some news for you since you apparently live on a different planet. Anything sold by the thousands will have some defects. For cars, the average car has one defect per car. For computers, it's around 10%. For phones, it's a few percent.

Now, if the frequency of failure is greater than the industry average - or even the iPhone average, then go ahead and get worked up. But at this point, the phone could still be the most reliable phone on the planet and people are whining endlessly.

More importantly, let's see if the defects are fixed with a software update or a new phone from Apple before you have a tantrum.

Base decisions on facts, not nonsense stirred up by click-bait bloggers.

Oh, and btw, anything from Gizmodo is highly suspect at this point. They've proven beyond any doubt that they never even heard the term 'journalistic integrity', much less practice it.

If I recall, there are two antennae...one to control wifi and one for GSM.

It seems the key here is the two antennas are shorting each other with the conductive hand. I'm curious to see what happens if you turn off the wifi antenna, if there'd still be a short. All the videos I've seen so far have wifi on. Using a non-conductive case would solve this problem. OH!!!! Remember, when the engineers were testing in the field they had the phone in a case to hide it! DOH!

When you turn off WiFi there is no change in the problem. You see the display go from 3G to Edge to nothing. It bleeds off at the same rate as the bars.

The problem does not affect the WiFi signal.

That's what I'm seeing on mine.

I thought of all those things. I have sense tested it every way I can and I can't reproduce the results in the videos. I also went one step further, think that maybe I'm not conductive enough as I do watch my sodium intake *so I used a piece of metal to connect the frame pieces. No change.

It's a fluke or hoax, but it's certainly not a design flaw. I have no reason to think the videos are indeed faked despite the ease in which it could be done, but at this point I'll just choke it up to a poor AT&T signal, possible defective device and/or firmware issue.