

AnandTech: The Real Story on iPhone 4's Antenna - ars
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2

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ars
This is a link to page two of the article, which talks about the antenna.

Summary:

* The bars display is _EXTREMELY_ misleading.

* Holding the phone can result in a drop of 24 dB

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jesseendahl
That's only half the story. Other important bits:

* Improved iPhone 4 baseband hardware performs significantly better than iPhone 3GS in areas with very low dBm. The 3GS dropped or failed to place calls at -113dBm, whereas iPhone 4 works fine. Quote: “There's no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS.”

* Signal quality should be measured in terms of Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), which “is essentially a measure of how much of the signal is compromised by noise or interference” instead of dBm, which is merely a measure of power. This distinction is important because, since “the iPhone 4 works almost perfectly fine at -113 dBm, it has much better sensitivity.”

* “The drop in signal from holding the phone with your left hand arguably remains a problem. Changing the bars visualization may indeed help mask it, and to be fair the phone works fine all the way down to -113 dBm, but it will persist - software updates can change physics as much as they can change hardware design. At the end of the day, Apple should add an insulative coating to the stainless steel band, or subsidize bumper cases. It's that simple.”

