Uh Oh… There’s Trouble In the Apple Orchard- Consumer Reports “Can’t Recommend the iPhone 4 “

The summer’s not the only thing turning up the heat on Apple right now as Consumer Reports states, “we can’t recommend the iPhone 4”. Talk about reversing positions…

When the iPhone 4 first came out CR took a look and determined that “There’s no reason, at least yet, to forgo buying an iPhone 4 over its reception concerns.”

Phew… sigh of relief. Not so fast however…

After being able to replicate reception issues out in the real world CR has changed their tune. Actually it is a complete reversal as today CR emailed us and said–

Consumer Reports engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4 and established that if your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing to do, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection completely.

Unsurprisingly a bumper or tape placed strategically over the offending point on the left side where the two external antenna meet removed the problem.

Uhm Apple, maybe you should have been giving out Bumpers all along rather than playing the denial game? Now it may be too late.

We’ll be watching closely to see how this plays out. In the meantime… are you having any issues with your iPhone 4? We want to know.

About the Author

Dan Cohen

Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.

5 Comments on "Uh Oh… There’s Trouble In the Apple Orchard- Consumer Reports “Can’t Recommend the iPhone 4 “"

Julius Adams | July 12, 2010 at 4:06 pm |

You forgot about use on the iPhone and other devices similarly. When it comes to the iPhone B&N wins hands down thanks to their partnership with Fictionwise/EReader. iBooks comes in 2nd. SO THERE EBOOK MARKET! TAKE THAT!
Apple Core: News! | July 12, 2010 at 5:38 pm |

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dino | July 12, 2010 at 5:45 pm |

RT @GearDiarySite: Uh Oh… There’s Trouble In The Apple Orchard- Consumer Reports “Can’t Recommend the iPhone 4 “ http://goo.gl/fb/jeHSD
Deni Tako | July 12, 2010 at 11:10 pm |

Problems with the iPhone 4 – you bet. I’ve already had to replace it once due to the proximity sensor, and I’m nearly ready to give up on it entirely. I think I have had only 3 calls complete from beginning to end without having my face initiate another function, from muting to editing contacts to starting a game. It’s driving me up a freakin wall!

Another issue, is in my car. CA is a hands free state, and I have a Belkin charger mount with AUX, so I can speak and hear through the car radio. It’s completely useless with the iPhone 4. All callers can hear is static and a garbled mess. (Although it sounds crystal clear on my end – go figure!) I had to leave messages for myself on another phone just to try to hear for myself what people are hearing – or not as the case may be.

I suppose I could live with getting a BT speakerphone in my car, but not being able to make or complete calls is really a deal breaker.
Giant Gizmo | July 13, 2010 at 6:00 am |

Uh Oh… There’s Trouble In the Apple Orchard- Consumer Reports “Can’t Recommend the iPhone 4 “ http://bit.ly/dmWJKE

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