iPhone 4 bars to signal strength mapped, antenna issue partially explained

By on Jun 30, 2010 at 8:33 PM
General June 30, 2010

bars-signal-iphone4

The folks at AnandTech just published their review of the iPhone 4 and took a close look at the antenna issue that is plaguing the handset. In true geek style, they mapped the bar representation of the signal strength from -51dB (perfect signal strength) to -131dB (bare minimum to maintain a connection) and measured the iPhone 4 signal strength attenuation in terms of  decibels. The result of the mapping show that over 40% of the signal strength range is represented by 5 bars which means your signal has to drop significantly (over 40dB) to go from 4 to 5 bars and only 10db to go from 4 bars to 3. Pretty big difference. They also found that the iPhone 4 on average loses 24.6dB when tightly held in your hand and 19.8 when held naturally due to the positioning of the antenna and the fact that it lacks insulative coating. These two above factors combined explain why those in strong coverage areas do not see any perceptible drop in bars while those in marginal areas do. If you are sitting pretty at -60dB you can easily absorb a 24dB loss to -84dB and not see any change in bars. But if you are at -91dB and lose 25dB, you will drop from four bars to almost none in a heartbeat. Interestingly enough, they find that the iPhone 4 antenna is significantly improved over the 3GS but is hampered by Apple’s choice not to shield the now famous metal band.

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  • Zenn~Coach

    @AlanS~ These Types of Vulgar & Highly Inappropriate
    Comments, Just Don’t Fly, Very Well~Any More…infact..
    If You Would Have Just Not Written The First Sentence,
    Ur Comment, Would Have Passed The Cool~Aid~Acid
    Test..Very Well…lol
    Please Utilize, Ur Creativity w/in the Context of The Subject
    Matter & Have Fun With it…
    FYI~Other~Wise, I Know, That The Monitors of This Site, Have Very Little Tolerance For This Kind of Behavior…
    Take Good Care..Z.

    • ruben

      what ever you said inspector gadget!!!!!!haaaahahaaa***ZZZZZZ>/

  • Zenn~Coach

    @AlanS~ These Types of Vulgar & Highly Inappropriate
    Comments, Just Don’t Fly, Very Well~Any More…infact..
    If You Would Have Just Not Written The First Sentence,
    Ur Comment, Would Have Passed The Cool~Aid~Acid
    Test..Very Well…lol
    Please Utilize, Ur Creativity w/in the Context of The Subject
    Matter & Have Fun With it…
    FYI~Other~Wise, I Know, That The Monitors of This Site, Have Very Little Tolerance For This Kind of Behavior…
    Take Good Care..Z.

  • Sprinter

    Why do you have that thing on your phone?

    • ehhh

      Oh, it’s a bumper. It makes it so that my signal doesn’t fade when I hold my phone wrong.

      • Sprinter

        Oh. When you hold your phone wrong? Okay…

        What does it look like without the rubber thingy?

      • ehh

        *Takes bumper off iPhone.*

      • Sprinter

        Ooooh! That’s a nice looking phone. Can I watch Youtube on it? Where can I get one?

      • Sprinter

        Alternate Ending:

        …Where can I get one?

        *AT&T appears and fucks Sprinter so hard up the ass that Sprinter’s intestines get pierced. He dies shortly after of a septic infection.

  • Sprinter

    Ooooh! That’s a nice looking phone. Can I watch Youtube on it? Where can I get one?

  • Scott

    I’ve had my iPhone 4 one day. I have the antena issue :( It’s a great phone besides that. I’m right handed, so it really doesn’t effect me and I’ve yet to drop a call. What’s even more interesting is that when I’m at work, I can’t get it to happen, but at my house I can. As much as I like it, it’s probably going back in 30days. It just isn’t right. I didn’t have this problem on my 3G. I didn’t pay $300+100a month for an iPod steve!

  • Jb

    With small 3g coverage in the first place, most users are screwed. We may see a recall on this phone or at least new housing swaps.

  • Amber Lamps

    I don’t care.

  • ruben

    the reason you only get 4 bars!!! is because it is iphone g4,next year w the iphone g5 you will get 5 bars !!! and the year after that,iphone g6 you will get 6 bars !!!!!!CAPICHE!!!!!!!****.

  • Baller

    Has anyone in the UK (specifically O2) had these problems? From what I read AT&T coverage in the US is no-where near what the UK’s network is like. Both in terms of signal and lots of users affecting bandwidth.

    anyone?

  • http://freenintendopointscards.weebly.com/ justin

    thanks for the info =D

  • truman

    I do not really want to get involved but I will add my observations. I have had the iPhone 4 since day one and i live in a sub basement apartment complex. With my old 3GS I had no service with my new 4 I have service not great but it is there even while I grip the left side. So that is just a observation I have had.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • http://unlockiPhone4os.com Frizzzz

    Through this site I managed to unlock my iPhone 3GS 4.0

  • zxc

    I hope somebody gets ‘steved’ over this

  • Mark

    how about free bumpers ?

    • BlkBear

      The likelihood of getting anything free from Apple, other than a Hello Kitty sticker, left over from someone’s b-day party on the Apple campus, is nil to none.Let’s see here, .02 cents per Iphone 4, times the number of them reported sold… not happening in my lifetime or anyone graduating from first grade this year.

    • Steve

      So you would be happy to have to install a rubber band after you pay hundreds of dollars for your new phone?

      If I was and Iphone4 owner, I would vote for a recall of the phone! Fix the hardware then sell a proper phone. The iphone4 has what it takes to be a great phone but its plagged with issues…

  • Seabass

    Someone dropped a ball on this at Apple over a million phones sold that you cant hold like you would hold a normal phone lol. If people are too stupid and are keeping a phone they can’t use the deserve it haha

  • Sampson

    I hate APPLE. The company is always eager to ship out flawed devices. Remember the Iphone 3G and the more recently the Ipad? All those devices had some sort of underlying problem which SHOULD’VE been there to began with. Come on Apple! You make billions of the Iphone and you still ship it without proper testing. Luckily, according to this article published on TechBNS, there should be an update within a few weeks which resolve this issue.

  • jm

    So, in order for Apple to hide that they have been selling
    a pretty good media player coupled with a mediocre cell phone they had to jack up the signal bars for the phone.
    In other words, they lied to everyone of us. Why are they able to do that-because the fawning press allows them to and because that is their corporate culture. The tech blogosphere continues to allow the polished Apple pseudo-deco aesthetics and a very good media player confuse and hipnotize them into thinking that the device comes with a useable cell phone. Apple is an arrogant company and they think that we are all idiot. All that you have to do is listen to their explanation.

  • http://alghienkad06.student.ipb.ac.id thea

    cool

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