News - Bristol Uni confirms 'death grip' is universal

[HEXUS]

Problem affects lots of smartphones, says research.

Read more.

[Andeh13]

Groundbreaking.


Who'd have thunk it, covering the exact location of an antenna may dampen the signal!

[mikerr]

The apple iphone4 problem was that

a) it only required a light touch at a position commonly touched (lower left) to drop calls

b) apple were "misreporting" signal strength on the display

c) they made such a song and dance of it being a revolutionary antenna at launch

d) it was the hot new wildy expensive phone - which should have been flawless at that price

[TheAnimus]

My understanding from other places was this was not the case at all.

Its when you have it so exposed some of the cases don't cure it.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03...grip_research/
'el reg admittedly.

[cheesemp]

But isn't this missing the point? I've never had a signal issue with any smart phone of mine (NGage, N73, N96 or X10) with normal holding patterns. The problem with the iphone as I understand it is that it could be significantly effected by normal holding patterns?

[Rob_B]

Well, you probably DID have the issue but the signal bars on your Nokia never dropped. Obviously the iPhone was worse due to you physically shorting the antenna as well as it showing a massive drop in 'bars' (the universally undefined measure of signal)

[mikerr]

Yep its a "measurable drop" on all phones, only ip4 had the problem of making it drop calls,
as that article says, due to the finger bridging the 2 antennas.

[[GSV]Trig]

I've never had an issue similiar to what Iphone4 users get when I have used any of my smartphones, from the SE-P900, XDA MiniS, Touch HD, HD2, and my Desire HD, while I believe that and device that uses an antenna will be effected if your touching said antenna, most manufacturers have the brains to put those antenna points where your not going to be holding it during day to day use, you know, rather than saying its a none-issue and trying to cover up the problem with a software "update" that lies about how much signal you have.
Seeing as Apple do nothing but get old technology and put it in a newer shiney box you;d of thought that someone in the shiney box department would of spoken to someone in the make stuff work department and work out that antenna's where fingers go would be a bad idea..

[capt_cornflake]

Agree with TheAnimus here, and that headline is ratehr misleading

As I understand it (from other reports, I've not read the original paper) the "issue" here is that a mobile phone attenna can become de-tuned in close proximity to a human thumb (or synthetic material with a similar dielectric). This is an issue which is common to all phones, and I thought was actually fairly well documented already.

This has very little bearing on the issue with the iPhone 4 "death grip". This was because the 2 seperate antennas were on the exterior with a small gap between then which could be bridged by holding it "wrong".