iPhone 4 Reception Issue: Does it effect you?

[mebsers]

hoping it's a bad unit

my reception is ridiculous. ri-dic-u-lous. it's now a running joke with my friends and family. i can't count the number of times i've dropped a call, but i can tell you that yesterday, on ONE 40 minute call, i dropped the call about seven times. finally, i just gave up. (this is with the apple bumper on.) i was walking my dog outside at the time, and i live in a fairly urban city, so it doesn't make sense that the signal is just weak, but i dunno. additionally, the signal isn't always the issue. the proximity sensor also hangs up my calls, or hangs up and calls someone else. people try calling me back and my phone doesn't rings. the whole situation is very frustrating.

i talked to an apple specialist for the second time now. they want me to reboot the phone and set it up as a new phone. i read on TIPB that this can help, and i hope it does. right now the phone is useless as a phone, but great at everything else!

 

[rotchcrocket04]

my reception is ridiculous. ri-dic-u-lous. it's now a running joke with my friends and family. i can't count the number of times i've dropped a call, but i can tell you that yesterday, on ONE 40 minute call, i dropped the call about seven times. finally, i just gave up. (this is with the apple bumper on.) i was walking my dog outside at the time, and i live in a fairly urban city, so it doesn't make sense that the signal is just weak, but i dunno. additionally, the signal isn't always the issue. the proximity sensor also hangs up my calls, or hangs up and calls someone else. people try calling me back and my phone doesn't rings. the whole situation is very frustrating.

i talked to an apple specialist for the second time now. they want me to reboot the phone and set it up as a new phone. i read on TIPB that this can help, and i hope it does. right now the phone is useless as a phone, but great at everything else!

See my post from last page:

I just swapped my iPhone 4 yesterday at the Apple store - no questions asked.

I had over 35 dropped calls since launch day (I do a moderate amount of talking on the phone). Apple said more than likely is was a defective unit - I'd tend to agree as my 4 friends with iPhone 4's that all live within 5 miles of me (rural area) have not dropped more than 1 or 2 calls. So far, so good - though I haven't made more than 3 calls I believe.

Part of my dropped calls was because of my house - I get relatively poor service however, I dropped a reasonable amount of calls outside and around work/my local area. Before everyone jumps on the "you're admitting you have poor service in your house" thing - I'd like to note that in the year that I had my 3GS I believe I had approximately 3 dropped calls. That's it.

Like I said, so far so good - we'll see how it goes though.

On my 2nd day with the phone and haven't dropped a call yet. Apple gave me the run around at first - they wanted me to do the following:

1. Soft reset
2. Hard reset
3. Reset network settings
4. Reset All settings
5. Restore as a new iPhone (I first restored from a backup, then restored as a new iPhone)
6. Take SIM out - reinsert
7. Finally, go to AT&T and have SIM swapped

I've heard a few accounts where numbers 5 & 7 actually worked for the dropped calls issue. However, they did not work for me. After 3 calls to Apple they agreed to swap out the phone (since I told them I was going to return it if they wouldn't swap it since I thought it was a defective unit).

Try to get your phone swapped prior to your 30 day period ending. It seems as if you're having a worse problem than I was so I'd push for a replacement. Cheers and keep us updated!

Edit: I also had a number of occasions where people told me they called me right back (sometimes multiple times) and I never received missed calls or the phone even ringing. The girl I'm talking to was starting to get pissed thinking I was ignoring her lol!! Regardless, I started telling everyone to leave me voicemails if I didn't answer because half the time it wouldn't ring! Haven't ran into this problem yet with the replacement unit (that I know of).

 

[thecarrot]

I do have problems in my area, but the problem is not great enough for me to worry about....it does happen though

 

[mebsers]

thanks for the reply. it makes me feel better to know that your replacement isn't giving you the same problems as the original. maybe there is hope for me yet!

you said apple wanted you to go through the 7 steps, but did you? or did you finally just go to an apple store and speak to someone there? i didn't really know how they would handle the swap since there is still a three week wait for orders made on apple.com.

 

[rotchcrocket04]

thanks for the reply. it makes me feel better to know that your replacement isn't giving you the same problems as the original. maybe there is hope for me yet!

you said apple wanted you to go through the 7 steps, but did you? or did you finally just go to an apple store and speak to someone there? i didn't really know how they would handle the swap since there is still a three week wait for orders made on apple.com.

When I called them I told them I did every step except for getting my SIM swapped at AT&T. She wanted me to go through it and I told her honestly, I know a lot about the phone and I work in IT - I understand the troubleshooting steps and took every one that I could. She was cool about it but wanted me to go to AT&T and get my SIM swapped... so I humored her and went and had it done.

I believe they're giving refurbs for swapping out the phones. However, I do know that the majority of the refurbs they put new glass and exterior parts on so then any parts that might have gotten scuffed, would be new. I checked my new one up and down before I accepted it from the guy at Apple and it literally was flawless. Hell, I'd rather have a refurb knowing that whatever was wrong was fixed. Haha!

 

[Espo]

I picked up my 4 on the morning of release. I have YET to experience the "death grip" problem. No matter how I hold my phone I do not loose any bars (no matter if I have full bars or 1 bar). I do drop calls in the same areas all the time, but I am convinced it is a network issue (all my other iPhones would drop the calls in the same places as my 4).

Now my buddy on the other hand, if we are sitting next to each other, and we both hold the phone the same way (death grip), he drops bars and I do not. So I dont know what the deal is with mine.

 

[sandra17]

It is working fine with me - no dropped calls, who is looking at the bars all day long??

 

[LABLE]

I haven't had any problems with reception, when I touch the spot it drops to 1 bar but other than that its all good no drop calls so far.

 

[zeteo#IM]

I have a case on my iPhone, however, when I have used the phone uncased I have not noticed any loss in signal. I am able to duplicate it however is I hold the phone lower than I normally do.

 

[clarkkent]

THe worst thing is when I call a buddy with an iPhone4 the probability are multiplied by 2 !

 

[Watcher]

I can recreate it in a bad coverage area but we have to be perfectly clear on what we can actually "recreate". Can we see bars drop? It depends upon the aforementioned good or bad coverage area that we're in. The real question should be does call quality noticeably drop and do calls fail whilst recreating said antenna "death grip" or "spock touch"? The answer to that is also, "It depends." I have an area in my house that is EDGE and I can make calls drop by holding the phone in my left hand with out even using the "death grip", per se, but this is a problem area to begin with as I frequently had calls drop with my iPhone 3G, so it's not a new problem for me. I have learned to avoid that area. What is ironic, however, is some time ago I had an Audiovox PDA on Verizon's network when I first moved in this same place, I couldn't get ANY bars or signal on my phone! How about that!?!

 

[gern blanston]

It effected my first iPhone 4 terribly: data transfer would stop. It didn't require a "death grip", either: a light touch on the area would stop data transfer. I returned the original, and the replacement iP4 doesn't have the antenna issue at all.

 

[Cleveland]

sounds like maybe you just got a bad one, things like that do happen unfortunately

 

[ladytonya]

Can I recreate the death grip drop? Yeah, if I place my hand perfectly over the exact right spot and squeeze hard, I can make it drop from 4 or 5 bars on Edge down to no service or from 1 or 2 bars on 3G down to 3 or 4 bars on Edge. Do I care? No! This behavior occurs at my house if I take the case off the phone. At my house, the signal constantly switches back and forth between 3G and Edge anyway, always has even on my 3GS At my office, I have full 3G signal and cannot make the bars drop at all. My husband's i4 is the same way.

We do sometimes drop calls, but they are in all the same places that we dropped calls on the 3GS. The dropped calls here are because of the terrible AT&T coverage, not because of the phone. Personally, I absolutely love this phone! It is probably the best piece of electronic equipment that I have owned and I wouldn't return it for anything. Do I believe that there are people out there who have real issues? Of course! But I also think that if you are having problems with the phone to the point that it doesn't work for you, you should take it back and either exchange it for a new unit or return it. I have had my phone since July 3 and absolutely love it. My only complaint is that I wish I could find a relatively inexpensive case that wouldn't peel the edges of the Zagg Invisishield off the phone! LOL!

I'm new here, just posted a few times, but I'm very glad I found this forum. So far, I have had a great experience here and I can't say that for every iPhone or Apple forum out there. Thanks!

 

[spangler07#IM]

if i have 5 bars, no death grip will change the reception. but if i have 4, it will easily go down to one.

 

[Corrina]

My 3G dropped calls constantly but I haven't had my iPhone 4 drop ONE.

 

[TampaDude]

No reception issues or dropped call issues here so far.

 

[KStewart]

The same dropped calls every once in a while I had with my 3G fallows suit with my iPhone4. I have had it for almost a week and havent really isolated if it is due to the antenna, or more at&t's stellar network. I have enjoyed the faster processing speed. Its snappy... Im overall happy so far with the phone, and no...Im not drinking Job's koolaid.

 

[killthelights32]

If I have five bars it sometimes will go down do four and if I have four it can go to either three or two.

Overall I think this whole death-grip/death-touch is way over hyped.

 

[pilsbury]

Ive had mine for 5 weeks today. I have not encountered one dropped call. Personally, I believe that if this had been any other phone manufacturer besides Apple, it would have been a total non-issue.