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I got the iPhone 4 for my wife Saturday. And we definitely have some issues in our house. But let me backtrack a moment…
We updated our 3Gs iPhones to 4.01 before this, and were expecting to see the bars change. We normally get 4-5 bars, so all this time I'm thinking "We have great service here." Heh… well! Now we get 2-3 bars, sometimes 1 (in the living room in particular). My wife had said sometimes she doesn't hear me call, and in the living room, we do get a bar, sometimes 2, with the update. So it makes more sense now… our service was spottier than we had been led to believe.
So now… flash forward to the iPhone 4. I naturally tested it out pronto. No matter how I hold it, I end up losing the signal. If I leave it on the table, it's 1-2 bars. I pick it up, no matter how, I lose it after a few seconds. So… we don't have a case for it yet (waiting on Incase to release theirs), but I took the existing one off her 3Gs and slid it on. It was a snug fit, though the cutouts aren't quite right (for obvious reasons), but it was enough to test out what to expect with a fitted case. Holding it with that case on it, and I never was able to get the signal to drop. It consistently stayed at 2 bars, sometimes dipping to 1, but never a loss.
Now in all fairness to the iPhone 4, the 3Gs has always been in a case, so I can't say it wouldn't have lost a signal without it. I suspect it would have to be perfectly honest. Perhaps not so easily, but it's reasonably certain given what we know now. It apparently is more prone to missing calls in our living room in particular as it was.
Anywho…. I decided to do some tests over 3G with the SpeedTest app, on her new iP4 and my 3Gs, over 3G. I disabled the wi-fi on both and repeatedly ran the tests. The download speeds varied a bit, but ultimately were about the same in their peak speeds. But the upload speed… holy moley! The iPhone 4 consistently was about 5x faster than the 3Gs was. Very nice!
A couple other notes… the screen and photos are amazing! Outdoor photos are as good as we could ever ask for. The interior photos are overly yellowish, due to what's been widely reported as difficulties with the camera adjusting the white balance for some lighting conditions. Hopefully this really will get addressed in the upcoming software update. If not, this will be a downer. It's probably the only real flaw I can complain of.
The antenna thing is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned since it's more a reflection of the quality of our service in our home. City-wide, we still get 4-5 bars, so case or no case, the iPhone 4 will not be losing service regularly. And since it was destined to get a case anyway, and since judging from the reviews by Anandtech and AntennaSys, we can expect an improvement in the ability to hold on to a call in poor areas (like our living room!) with a case on it, we're both happy with it all.
We updated our 3Gs iPhones to 4.01 before this, and were expecting to see the bars change. We normally get 4-5 bars, so all this time I'm thinking "We have great service here." Heh… well! Now we get 2-3 bars, sometimes 1 (in the living room in particular). My wife had said sometimes she doesn't hear me call, and in the living room, we do get a bar, sometimes 2, with the update. So it makes more sense now… our service was spottier than we had been led to believe.
So now… flash forward to the iPhone 4. I naturally tested it out pronto. No matter how I hold it, I end up losing the signal. If I leave it on the table, it's 1-2 bars. I pick it up, no matter how, I lose it after a few seconds. So… we don't have a case for it yet (waiting on Incase to release theirs), but I took the existing one off her 3Gs and slid it on. It was a snug fit, though the cutouts aren't quite right (for obvious reasons), but it was enough to test out what to expect with a fitted case. Holding it with that case on it, and I never was able to get the signal to drop. It consistently stayed at 2 bars, sometimes dipping to 1, but never a loss.
Now in all fairness to the iPhone 4, the 3Gs has always been in a case, so I can't say it wouldn't have lost a signal without it. I suspect it would have to be perfectly honest. Perhaps not so easily, but it's reasonably certain given what we know now. It apparently is more prone to missing calls in our living room in particular as it was.
Anywho…. I decided to do some tests over 3G with the SpeedTest app, on her new iP4 and my 3Gs, over 3G. I disabled the wi-fi on both and repeatedly ran the tests. The download speeds varied a bit, but ultimately were about the same in their peak speeds. But the upload speed… holy moley! The iPhone 4 consistently was about 5x faster than the 3Gs was. Very nice!
A couple other notes… the screen and photos are amazing! Outdoor photos are as good as we could ever ask for. The interior photos are overly yellowish, due to what's been widely reported as difficulties with the camera adjusting the white balance for some lighting conditions. Hopefully this really will get addressed in the upcoming software update. If not, this will be a downer. It's probably the only real flaw I can complain of.
The antenna thing is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned since it's more a reflection of the quality of our service in our home. City-wide, we still get 4-5 bars, so case or no case, the iPhone 4 will not be losing service regularly. And since it was destined to get a case anyway, and since judging from the reviews by Anandtech and AntennaSys, we can expect an improvement in the ability to hold on to a call in poor areas (like our living room!) with a case on it, we're both happy with it all.