Another interesting point can be derived from Anand's iPhone4 reception test, the dB range per bar: 1 bar is 6 dB, 2 bars is 4 dB, 3 bars is 2 db, 4 bars is 2 dB, 5 bars is 48 dB.
(The bar chart displayed in the test report is actually wrong because the text states "..4 bars begins at around -99 to -101 dBm. " but the bar chart displays -91 to -101.)
Apples claim that it displays up to 2 bars to many could be verified by making a bar chart for other phones. If for example each bar (except the fifth) should have a range of 6 bars and you include a rounding error Apples claim could be true.
What I find most interesting is why the other phones attenuation is so hight when cupped tightly, especially the Nexus One, and why a case would help the Nexus One if it's already shrouded in plastic?
You're not using the Nexus One to make excuses for the iPhone 4, I hope?
It seems that AI didn't noticed that it was a blog entry from one of the Consumer Reports journalists, really NOT some kind of review from their testing labs, meanwhile it is not surprising that they didn't updated their story with the day-after findings of this same CR journalist ...
Haha. Let's wait to see this article get updated. Although we "know" it won't, because it would be a negative update against Apple. And the venerable shareholding reporter couldn't have that.
It seems that AI didn't noticed that it was a blog entry from one of the Consumer Reports journalists, really NOT some kind of review from their testing labs, meanwhile it is not surprising that they didn't updated their story with the day-after findings of this same CR journalist ...
Current: Senior Editor at Consumer Reports Past:Managing Editor at The National Herald, Editorial Director, Purchase Office at Brodeur Worldwide, Home Electronics Editor at Times Mirror Magazin... Education: City University of New York City College
I don't believe that CR just picks up an independent journalist for their reports without due diligence. These blogs are not somebodies opinion that does not reflect the findings or observations coming out of CR's laboratory protocols and review processes.
[QUOTE=AppleInsider;1667741]"There's no reason, at least yet, to forgo buying an iPhone 4 over its reception concerns," writes Consumer Reports
I have a reason for forgoing the purchase of an iPhone 4. Service. In my experience, AT&T offers service that is inferior to its competitors. I have had too many instances of "No Service" where Verizon is full bars, t-Mobile is marginal to full; same with Sprint .
Yes, it matters where you live and travel. In my circumstances, AT&T is not offering service that meets my requirements. Folks I work with are also migrating from AT&T to other services due to dropped calls and inferior coverage.
For the record: I had an iPhone 3G. I liked the phone. Quite a bit in fact. But as a telephone, lashed to AT&T, it was not meeting my needs. I sold it, and now have an Android phone through t-Mo. It may not have the cachet of an iPhone, but it does what I need for it to do: place and receive phone calls, handle email, and allow some web surfing. I am also paying quite a bit less, and customer service has been superb.
Still no update to this AppleInsider piece and 2 new articles from them since CR updated the story. WTF AppleInsider!!
To quote again the current info at this site-
""Underplayed in the discussion is the fact that all phones are subject to interference from the human who is using them," writes Mike Gikas. "And even if the alleged signal loss is real, there's an absence of hard evidence that iPhone 4 reception is problematic compared to past iPhones; indeed, there's evidence of just the opposite."
The group adds, "most of the web sites reporting dropped signals and even dropped calls have demonstrated several techniques, or 'death grips' for recreating the problem (which we've yet been able to reproduce in a meaningful way). But those almost always require squeezing the phone hard, in an unnatural way. Those grips may also produce sweaty palms from exertion, with the sweat increasing conductivity—and possibly the degree of signal loss.""
Still no update to this AppleInsider piece and 2 new articles from them since CR updated the story. WTF AppleInsider!!
To quote again the current info at this site-
""Underplayed in the discussion is the fact that all phones are subject to interference from the human who is using them," writes Mike Gikas. "And even if the alleged signal loss is real, there's an absence of hard evidence that iPhone 4 reception is problematic compared to past iPhones; indeed, there's evidence of just the opposite."
The group adds, "most of the web sites reporting dropped signals and even dropped calls have demonstrated several techniques, or 'death grips' for recreating the problem (which we've yet been able to reproduce in a meaningful way). But those almost always require squeezing the phone hard, in an unnatural way. Those grips may also produce sweaty palms from exertion, with the sweat increasing conductivity?and possibly the degree of signal loss.""
I guess they're happy here sticking to this. \
Are you really surprised at this [AI's reluctance to update the piece]?
I have a reason for forgoing the purchase of an iPhone 4. Service. In my experience, AT&T offers service that is inferior to its competitors. I have had too many instances of "No Service" where Verizon is full bars, t-Mobile is marginal to full; same with Sprint .
Yes, it matters where you live and travel. In my circumstances, AT&T is not offering service that meets my requirements. Folks I work with are also migrating from AT&T to other services due to dropped calls and inferior coverage.
For the record: I had an iPhone 3G. I liked the phone. Quite a bit in fact. But as a telephone, lashed to AT&T, it was not meeting my needs. I sold it, and now have an Android phone through t-Mo. It may not have the cachet of an iPhone, but it does what I need for it to do: place and receive phone calls, handle email, and allow some web surfing. I am also paying quite a bit less, and customer service has been superb.
There are a couple things I don't understand here. If you wanted the widest coverage, wouldn't you have chosen Verizon instead? I thought T-Mobile had the smallest coverage range of the four major US carriers. Did you try to jailbreak the iPhone to go with T-Mobile? I know it's frowned upon, but I also understand that it works.
Considering who wrote it and what you want him to put in the update - don't expect that, ever.
I haven't been aware of who writes the articles here, though I know he did the iPhone 4 review, that I thought was compelling and accurate.
There's no good reason not to include a CR update or a follow up article or both. If you're right and that doesn't happen I think, even here, most people aren't going to like it.
There are a couple things I don't understand here. If you wanted the widest coverage, wouldn't you have chosen Verizon instead? I thought T-Mobile had the smallest coverage range of the four major US carriers. Did you try to jailbreak the iPhone to go with T-Mobile? I know it's frowned upon, but I also understand that it works.
Verizon would have been the best choice for range, yes. But their plans are overpriced, their customer service is dismal, and they play too many games.
t-Mobile, on the surface, does indeed have a smaller coverage area. But, they also have enough sharing agreements with other GSM companies that, when out of range of a t-Mo tower, I still get coverage just about everywhere I want it. Often the annunciator will show the same of some oddball phone company (Mamma Margolis' Activated Kosher Food and Cell Phone, Billie-Bob's Bait, Tackle & Telephone, etc), but it IS coverage. And best of all, t-Mo does not charge extra for this.
The few times over the years that I needed customer service help at t-Mo, they were friendly, polite, and fixed things every time. AT&T is still the company on which Lilly Tomlin based her routines. (I won't even get into my experiences with their landline/DSL/U-Verse idiocies).
Different plans and companies work for different people. I was a t-Mo customer in the past, gave AT&T a try, found them wanting, and moved back to t-Mo. So far, I am pleased as can be. If Verizon ever gets realistic about their pricing, stops crippling features, and stops putting odd-ball "gee we're sorry, we'll take that off your bill!" charges on their monthly statements* I may consider them.
* they do this on landline bills, not sure about cell.
There are a couple things I don't understand here. If you wanted the widest coverage, wouldn't you have chosen Verizon instead? I thought T-Mobile had the smallest coverage range of the four major US carriers. Did you try to jailbreak the iPhone to go with T-Mobile? I know it's frowned upon, but I also understand that it works.
I apologize for not responding to your jailbreak question: I thought about getting someone to unlock it so it would work on t-Mo. But I also had someone at work willing to buy it, so I said what the heck and bought a new phone.
One last thing: note I said I bought the phone. t-Mobile has two ways of getting service: the usual two year contract with a subsidy on the handset, or buy a phone, then they set you up month to month right out the gate. I did the latter, and they have already unlocked the handset for me.
Contrast this with AT&T/Apple, who will not unlock a phone even after the contract is up. Nuts to both of 'em.
If Verizon ever gets realistic about their pricing, stops crippling features, and stops putting odd-ball "gee we're sorry, we'll take that off your bill!" charges on their monthly statements* I may consider them.
* they do this on landline bills, not sure about cell.
David Pogue has been blowing the whistle on this with Verizon's wireless service, so I would say they probably do this with cellular customers.
Comments
How do you know that the fault was in your phone. There are tons of variables involved.
Please!
(The bar chart displayed in the test report is actually wrong because the text states "..4 bars begins at around -99 to -101 dBm. " but the bar chart displays -91 to -101.)
Apples claim that it displays up to 2 bars to many could be verified by making a bar chart for other phones. If for example each bar (except the fifth) should have a range of 6 bars and you include a rounding error Apples claim could be true.
J
What I find most interesting is why the other phones attenuation is so hight when cupped tightly, especially the Nexus One, and why a case would help the Nexus One if it's already shrouded in plastic?
You're not using the Nexus One to make excuses for the iPhone 4, I hope?
It seems that AI didn't noticed that it was a blog entry from one of the Consumer Reports journalists, really NOT some kind of review from their testing labs, meanwhile it is not surprising that they didn't updated their story with the day-after findings of this same CR journalist ...
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/ele...reports-s.html
Haha. Let's wait to see this article get updated. Although we "know" it won't, because it would be a negative update against Apple. And the venerable shareholding reporter couldn't have that.
It seems that AI didn't noticed that it was a blog entry from one of the Consumer Reports journalists, really NOT some kind of review from their testing labs, meanwhile it is not surprising that they didn't updated their story with the day-after findings of this same CR journalist ...
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/ele...reports-s.html
This journalist?I don't believe that CR just picks up an independent journalist for their reports without due diligence. These blogs are not somebodies opinion that does not reflect the findings or observations coming out of CR's laboratory protocols and review processes.
I have a reason for forgoing the purchase of an iPhone 4. Service. In my experience, AT&T offers service that is inferior to its competitors. I have had too many instances of "No Service" where Verizon is full bars, t-Mobile is marginal to full; same with Sprint .
Yes, it matters where you live and travel. In my circumstances, AT&T is not offering service that meets my requirements. Folks I work with are also migrating from AT&T to other services due to dropped calls and inferior coverage.
For the record: I had an iPhone 3G. I liked the phone. Quite a bit in fact. But as a telephone, lashed to AT&T, it was not meeting my needs. I sold it, and now have an Android phone through t-Mo. It may not have the cachet of an iPhone, but it does what I need for it to do: place and receive phone calls, handle email, and allow some web surfing. I am also paying quite a bit less, and customer service has been superb.
To quote again the current info at this site-
""Underplayed in the discussion is the fact that all phones are subject to interference from the human who is using them," writes Mike Gikas. "And even if the alleged signal loss is real, there's an absence of hard evidence that iPhone 4 reception is problematic compared to past iPhones; indeed, there's evidence of just the opposite."
The group adds, "most of the web sites reporting dropped signals and even dropped calls have demonstrated several techniques, or 'death grips' for recreating the problem (which we've yet been able to reproduce in a meaningful way). But those almost always require squeezing the phone hard, in an unnatural way. Those grips may also produce sweaty palms from exertion, with the sweat increasing conductivity—and possibly the degree of signal loss.""
I guess they're happy here sticking to this.
Still no update to this AppleInsider piece and 2 new articles from them since CR updated the story. WTF AppleInsider!!
To quote again the current info at this site-
""Underplayed in the discussion is the fact that all phones are subject to interference from the human who is using them," writes Mike Gikas. "And even if the alleged signal loss is real, there's an absence of hard evidence that iPhone 4 reception is problematic compared to past iPhones; indeed, there's evidence of just the opposite."
The group adds, "most of the web sites reporting dropped signals and even dropped calls have demonstrated several techniques, or 'death grips' for recreating the problem (which we've yet been able to reproduce in a meaningful way). But those almost always require squeezing the phone hard, in an unnatural way. Those grips may also produce sweaty palms from exertion, with the sweat increasing conductivity?and possibly the degree of signal loss.""
I guess they're happy here sticking to this.
Are you really surprised at this [AI's reluctance to update the piece]?
Are you really surprised at this [AI's reluctance to update the piece]?
Maybe it's naive of me but yes I really am surprised.
I have a reason for forgoing the purchase of an iPhone 4. Service. In my experience, AT&T offers service that is inferior to its competitors. I have had too many instances of "No Service" where Verizon is full bars, t-Mobile is marginal to full; same with Sprint .
Yes, it matters where you live and travel. In my circumstances, AT&T is not offering service that meets my requirements. Folks I work with are also migrating from AT&T to other services due to dropped calls and inferior coverage.
For the record: I had an iPhone 3G. I liked the phone. Quite a bit in fact. But as a telephone, lashed to AT&T, it was not meeting my needs. I sold it, and now have an Android phone through t-Mo. It may not have the cachet of an iPhone, but it does what I need for it to do: place and receive phone calls, handle email, and allow some web surfing. I am also paying quite a bit less, and customer service has been superb.
There are a couple things I don't understand here. If you wanted the widest coverage, wouldn't you have chosen Verizon instead? I thought T-Mobile had the smallest coverage range of the four major US carriers. Did you try to jailbreak the iPhone to go with T-Mobile? I know it's frowned upon, but I also understand that it works.
Still no update to this AppleInsider piece and 2 new articles from them since CR updated the story. WTF AppleInsider!!
(snip)
I guess they're happy here sticking to this.
I don't know what is going on, but you can email the author and ask him. Every article author gets an email address.
Also, it's still a holiday weekend, they often have 10 stories a day during the week, about one story a day during the weekend.
I don't know what is going on, but you can email the author and ask him. Every article author gets an email address.
Also, it's still a holiday weekend, they often have 10 stories a day during the week, about one story a day during the weekend.
That's true. He may not even know. I emailed him.
And I am old enough to remember when Consumer Reports was above paid reviews (blogging in today's vernacular).
They used to only review a category of products and impartially evaluate them, this blog entry just reeks.
Yes, who IS watching the watchdog? Stephen Colbert, that's who:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...liam-mccormack
Yes, who IS watching the watchdog? Stephen Colbert, that's who:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...liam-mccormack
Yes, Billy Connolly.
Maybe it's naive of me but yes I really am surprised.
Considering who wrote it and what you want him to put in the update - don't expect that, ever.
Considering who wrote it and what you want him to put in the update - don't expect that, ever.
I haven't been aware of who writes the articles here, though I know he did the iPhone 4 review, that I thought was compelling and accurate.
There's no good reason not to include a CR update or a follow up article or both. If you're right and that doesn't happen I think, even here, most people aren't going to like it.
There are a couple things I don't understand here. If you wanted the widest coverage, wouldn't you have chosen Verizon instead? I thought T-Mobile had the smallest coverage range of the four major US carriers. Did you try to jailbreak the iPhone to go with T-Mobile? I know it's frowned upon, but I also understand that it works.
Verizon would have been the best choice for range, yes. But their plans are overpriced, their customer service is dismal, and they play too many games.
t-Mobile, on the surface, does indeed have a smaller coverage area. But, they also have enough sharing agreements with other GSM companies that, when out of range of a t-Mo tower, I still get coverage just about everywhere I want it. Often the annunciator will show the same of some oddball phone company (Mamma Margolis' Activated Kosher Food and Cell Phone, Billie-Bob's Bait, Tackle & Telephone, etc), but it IS coverage. And best of all, t-Mo does not charge extra for this.
The few times over the years that I needed customer service help at t-Mo, they were friendly, polite, and fixed things every time. AT&T is still the company on which Lilly Tomlin based her routines. (I won't even get into my experiences with their landline/DSL/U-Verse idiocies).
Different plans and companies work for different people. I was a t-Mo customer in the past, gave AT&T a try, found them wanting, and moved back to t-Mo. So far, I am pleased as can be. If Verizon ever gets realistic about their pricing, stops crippling features, and stops putting odd-ball "gee we're sorry, we'll take that off your bill!" charges on their monthly statements* I may consider them.
* they do this on landline bills, not sure about cell.
There are a couple things I don't understand here. If you wanted the widest coverage, wouldn't you have chosen Verizon instead? I thought T-Mobile had the smallest coverage range of the four major US carriers. Did you try to jailbreak the iPhone to go with T-Mobile? I know it's frowned upon, but I also understand that it works.
I apologize for not responding to your jailbreak question: I thought about getting someone to unlock it so it would work on t-Mo. But I also had someone at work willing to buy it, so I said what the heck and bought a new phone.
One last thing: note I said I bought the phone. t-Mobile has two ways of getting service: the usual two year contract with a subsidy on the handset, or buy a phone, then they set you up month to month right out the gate. I did the latter, and they have already unlocked the handset for me.
Contrast this with AT&T/Apple, who will not unlock a phone even after the contract is up. Nuts to both of 'em.
If Verizon ever gets realistic about their pricing, stops crippling features, and stops putting odd-ball "gee we're sorry, we'll take that off your bill!" charges on their monthly statements* I may consider them.
* they do this on landline bills, not sure about cell.
David Pogue has been blowing the whistle on this with Verizon's wireless service, so I would say they probably do this with cellular customers.