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Consumer Reports: iPhone 4 Defect Confirmed

Use another phone or get some duct tape.

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Consumer Reports have corroborated what AnandTech already demonstrated: there's a fundamental deal-breaking design flaw in iPhone 4.

'It's official', they write. 'Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4 and have confirmed 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 enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4.'

'Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.'

'The tests also indicate that AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4's much-reported signal woes. Signal strength drops so much that calls are lost in weaker areas.'

The video clip clearly shows where and what the issue is. And it appears to be rather straightforward to understand - and rather incomprehensible Apple could let the flaw slip. (Then again Apple are hardly known for quality control.)

Consumer Reports did however come upon an affordable yet rather ugly solution: cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or other thick non-conductive material. They also expect using a case would remedy the problem.

Comments (Apple Fanboys Gone Wild)

The comments section at the Consumer Reports article is hilarious - you'll find a generous mixture of enraged iPhone 4 customers together with humanoids guzzling Kool-Aid™ and frothing rabies.

not a case of stockholm syndrome, but rather a case of a fine product, with flaws, being picked on because of its popularity. [sic]

Why do people stand in line for hours to purchase an iPhone 4 when they most likely have a perfectly functional iPhone in their pocket already? Why do those people become SO inflamed when someone even suggests their iPhone may be defective?

I am canceling my subscription to your magazine. This is one of the most inconsistent and biased bunch of nonsense you have ever published.

This is amazing. Apparently, 75% of all commenters here are Apple fanboys, who have apparently not bothered to read the test conditions or results. And Consumer Reports are just Apple-hating communists.