There’s been a lot of talk and discussions centered around the loss of signal depending on how you hold the iPhone 4 in your hand. In iPhone 3G the antenna used to be in the base of the device which meant shielding it was a little difficult to reduce signal bars. In the iPhone 4 the antenna is now built into the metal ring around the case which makes it more susceptible to signal loss whilst holding in the hand whilst talking on the phone.
Although I can see this being a problem, most phone have blackspot areas. If you take a look at the video below, this shows that if you cover the top part of the HTC Evo Android phone that you get a similar loss of signal. The problem all stemmed from the design and want for perfectly looking symmetrical eye candy for phones. Consumers don’t want pull up or flip up antennas anymore, so antennas need to be built into the phone and have been for the last 3-4 years. The danger from this is that there’s more of an issue with signal loss depending on the design.
For me most of the time when I’m on the phone sitting in my office I try to use a hands-free speaker device (I use the Linx) that I reviewed here.
If I’m about and about I have no option other than to hold the phone, although if I wanted to use a Bluetooth headset then I could leave the phone in my pocket and that would be just as good as the Linx speaker I use at home for hands-free calls.
I think really people need to bring things into perspective a little. It’s not ideal to lose signal whilst talking but each phone does. Did Apple make a wise choice in placing the antenna into the outside metal bezel of the phone? In theory it sounds a very good choice and wow’d the media at WWDC, but in practice it might not have been the best choice. Although it’s ideal to put the antenna as far away from the head as possible when you’re talking, many companies still place the antenna at the top of the phone because in most cases they know that no object (e.g. hand) will obscure it in anyway whilst you’re talking.
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