iPhone 3G reception just fine say curious Swedes with engineering degrees
By Thomas Ricker 
posted August 25th 2008 5:40AM
posted August 25th 2008 5:40AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted August 25th 2008 5:40AM
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Finally! This article proves it ---- wait a minute, never mind this is a really stupid thing to post, Engadget. If you are going to target an article towards users in the US, which this is the US version I am reading AFAIK, maybe show a test comparing the iPhone to phones that A US CARRIER SELLS. I can't remember the last time I walked into an ATT store and picked up a N73 or P1. Oh, and maybe have the test take place on the carrier that sells it in the country that sells it. No, you're right Engadget, all of these people complaining about reception issues are MAKING IT UP. Most people that read this site are aware of the fact that 3G overseas beats the shit out of US HSDPA coverage-wise. NEXT.
This test occurred and was reporting on. We don't exactly get to pick which phones were tested. Nor are there simply dozens of similar tests for us to all to chose from, one of which compares the US-market phones you'd like to see.
I can't speak for anyone else that's having problems with the iPhone 3G, but in my case (in the Chicago suburbs) the problem hasn't been reception so much as 3G to 2G handdown. There are places where the 3G coverage is great, four or five bars, and the phone performs excellently.
The bigger problems I've seen is that when there is only one bar of 3G service, the phone will sit there and grind trying to set up a data connection or fail to make a voice call, when I know full well there's plenty of 2G available. I've even seen the phone say "No Service" when I know there's a 2G network there. I can then go turn off the 3G in the settings, and the phone will work.
Maybe there are other people who have defective phones that have poor reception because of some hardware or software issue. In my case, it seems like my "unreliability" is caused by an unwillingness of the phone to hand down to 2G. It means that when I only have one bar, I never know whether the darned thing is going to work or not, and that, in a word, is maddening.
>>Of course, who's going to let a few facts stand in the way of contrary opinion and litigation, eh?
What fact??
I think people need to get over it and remember that this isnt the Jesus Phone, its the iphone.
Its funny how EVERY little thing is scrutinized when its the iphone, but every other device...no one cares.
If everyone would stop whining and remember its just a friggin phone, we could all get back to life.
American carriers are known for having poor 3G networks, so have a whinge at the people who can actually FIX the problem..AT&T.
I cant wait till i get my HTC Touch Cruise. An iPhone would of been nice, but the risk of it getting stolen and gawked at in my area is too high.
Engadget do have a Mac bias, that much is obvious, but so what, this is a blog, not a newspaper, heck even newspapers have bias.
I can tell you that Verizon Wireless drops calls all over my neighborhood and yet, they deny it and when pressed they tell me that they honestly dont care.
If anyone thinks that these companies have any other interest other than getting your dollars, on a recurring basis, then you're all on dope. They care ZERO about you, me, the customer. Want to send THEM a message, one that doesnt drop? FIRE THEM.
I agree completely with w00t. I've heard endless reports coming from the USA on how poorly 3G coverage is. With an ounce of luck, a full moon and if you all hop on one leg, I expect the US operators will slowly get round to implementing decent 3G coverage.
Here in Australia, as well as most European countries, 3G has been around for years. In 2004, 3G coverage here in Melbourne was pitifull and people complained to no end about how patheic it was. Coverage is now excellent and I've found 3G works brilliantly on the iPhone (and my Nokia... pretty much anywhere in the city or suburbs.
Its pretty simple, I have an iphone 3g, and I drop calls ALL THE TIME. Its pathetic. I love EVERYTHING else about the phone, but the dropped calls is rediculous@!
I just don't get it. I'm in New York City with full bars and 3G and I can't load the simplest website unless I'm on wifi. I've reset and updated and it just doesn't help. Maybe mine is defective, but how would I know? Email and everything else seems to work just fine. (except that some of my MP3 won't play - which is very strange as they play just fine on my iPod).
I wouldn't say the phone got "worse" with 2.0.2, but certainly it seems more honest about switching to edge or loosing connectivity.
I stood in the Nokia store on day 29 playing with the E71 for hours, but finally just went home. I hope they (At&T, Apple, the Yankees?) fix this, because I'd hate to be stuck with an internet phone that can't use the internet for the next two years.
It sounds like the real issue is the handdown to 2G, and not the 3G reception itself (I concur with the notes by many that how many bars your phone shows as compared to some other phone is completely irrelevant, since the other phone may simply show more bars for a weaker signal than the iPhone 3G does, or vice versa). The good news is the hand down is the problem then a firmware update should be able to fix it - just hand off to 2G sooner. Perhaps have the threshold as as settings option. They need to get such an update out the door ASAP.
I live in Hong Kong, and I've never had a dropped call on my iPhone 3G... It does switch to 2G sometimes, but that's normal for wherever it drops to 2G. For example, in some of the MTR (subway) tunnels, it drops to 2G, which is normal for other phones too.
Nobody I know here is having any sort of connection or signal problems.
I work for another mobile company, and I test 3g all over the US, and
I can say easily that 3G coverage is really not that bad in the US..
Maybe 20 miles outside a metro city it can get spotty, but on our
phones, the 3g coverage is just fine. I'm talking tethered ftp
downloads of 500 MB while driving all around the city, and not a
hiccup.. I was beginning to wonder how apple was cramming so many
antenna's into one, I guess they had to make a few sacrifices..
Oh and not to mention just looking at those pictures there seems to be a few problems with their anechoic chamber.
Test all over the city all over the US, eh? 500 MB tethered downloads? Here's the only test I need: does it work for me?
I was a happy Verizon customer for 6 years, but my love for Apple is the only reason I switched to the new iPhone 3G. What a freakin' disaster that was.
I'm a real estate agent in the Washington, DC metro area. I live and work 10 minutes outside DC in Virginia. There was not a single bar of service at my office, and no 3G service at my place, despite the AT&T Coverage Map showing that I'd get 5 bars. I only have one friend who has AT&T (now I know why!); he lives in Baltimore -- he brought his Treo 680 and his girlfriend's BlackBerry Curve. Neither one got signal at my office. Do you know how much that sucks? I had clients calling me, and I had to either call my voicemail or drive to the McDonald's down the street just to make some calls from my cell phone. AND I LIVE IN DC!
I travel a lot throughout the suburbs and the city since I show houses all over the place; with Verizon, I never had an issue with signal. I never saw the "No Service" signal on my phone, not even on the Metrorail. With AT&T, I only saw full coverage once. There were times where I was actually in crowded parts of the city and I had no signal -- again, I'm not in the middle of nowhere...I'm in the nation's capital. It was incredibly disappointing.
Don't get me wrong -- the iPhone is a sweet device. It's probably the greatest PDA phone I've ever used. But it's like having the greatest cell phone in the history of mankind...that only works in Japan. Am I going to move to Japan to use it? No, I'm going to switch back to Verizon.
And I'm happy with my spotless 3G EV-DO coverage.
Verizon works for me. Would I like more phone selection? Sure! But what good is a phone if gets no signal in your town? I don't know what works for you, but that's the only thing you should ask yourself: does it work for me?
I guess everyone dropping calls is just making it up then, huh?
Seriously, could you sound any whinier?
The test they conducted just says the 3G antenna doesn't seem to be the culprit. They didn't claim there wasn't an issue, and they didn't claim you were "making it up". Just that the antenna performed similar to two other phones.
Judging from the comments so far, it's sounding like the problem might not be entirely the iPhone's fault. It sounds like AT&T's 3G network is causing the iPhone to flip out. From a programming perceptive, this is a definite possibility because if you design your product to except one thing and you get that one thing plus all these other unexpected things there will be issues. So the patch that fixes the problems might not change how the iPhone works but takes into account the things AT&T's 3G network is not doing right.
Maybe Apple uses the same test chamber.
I just love these "perfect world" tests that people preform & then they expect us to take it as fact. This reminds me of the M$ “Navajo” test where people were exposed to "Vista" in a perfect world. Do people really think we're going to change our mind just because of a controlled environment test..
Really world variables / influences is what a true test should involve.
You fail. The test was done to determine WHERE the problem is, not IF there's a problem at all. And the test results showed that the iPhone's reception was as good as the other 2 3G phones they tested it with in the same controlled environment. This is troubleshooting 101, it eliminates possible causes of reception issues, and it appears to have shown that the iPhone itself is not the cause of the reception issues people are complaining about. Barring any hardware malfunctions, obviously.
I bet it's real hard to keep a 3G connection going if you keep going in and out of a 3G region, people seem to forget 3G isn't nationwide at this moment
My iPhone 3g reception & speed blows! It's the only drawback I see with the phone. My Sprint PPC-6800 with the EVDO Rev A was twice as fast, literally(not to mention I had bluetooth tethering support). My message to ATT, stop bragging about your 3g rollout until you can back it up, playa! Verizon & Sprint are slapping you silly...
Im happy to report that today I'm returning my Crappy 3G Iphone
I got tired of the:
- Dropped calls
- Horrible 3G signal here in the silicon valley ( their own backyard )
- Slow keyboard
- Stupid predictive texting that YOU CANT turn off ( Very annoying )
- Crashing apps
- Get "CALL FAILED " Errors and have to redial up to 4 times before the call goes through
- GPS is slow to pick up the blue dot with your location.
- Contacts list gets stuck for like 4 seconds before you can even scroll.
I love apple products. And have a mac book pro and almost every generation Ipod but this phone has got to be the worst phone and the phone with the most problems that I've ever had.
GOOD RIDDANCE !!!!
I had high hopes for the Iphone 3G but stupid apple really needs to work out the bugs!!
2.0.1 and 2.0.2 took care of most of those problems for me. Except the predictive text thing which works fine for most users.
sorry to break it you but switching to another phone won't improve 3G coverage, failed calls or make GPS faster. the crashed apps issue has been fixed, or so i hear, and an on-screen keyboard will always be slower than a physical one. if you want to get even slower, try a WinMo phone (i should know, i have one).
@ tonicboy - apparently not everything is fixed. Check out the posts around the 2.02 update. Still major issues.
Here's my WM experience:
-- Couple dropped calls (I blame Sprint's coverage in my area for this)
-- Great HSI connection speed when hooked up to EVDO-A
-- Virtual keyboard loads up fine
-- I turn off predictive text
-- Don't experience call failure issues
-- GPS locks to at least 6 sats within 10 seconds (works nice with TT7)
-- Contacts works just fine without any lag
You should definitely consider WM. I should know, I have one.
Apple has test chambers too. The issue isn't performance in test chambers. The issue is performance in real life.
I know people who know people who work on the iPhone, and even they say it drops calls too often. Whether Cingular, Apple or Infineon is at fault, it amounts to a poor user experience and that's not good for iPhone users or Apple.
Interesting survey results on the iPhone 3G at Wired - they surmise network issues moreso than the device.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/global-iphone-3.html
At least someone is starting to do actual quantitative testing to get to the bottom of the problems, instead of just endless reporting based solely on rumors and speculation. (*cough* Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities *cough* )
but where is it the scientific method?.
i put in the chamber a good iphone 3g, a nokia and a sony ericssons. All phones show no troubles with the signal.
Next, i put in the same chamber a cat (called Mittens) and a dog.
Conclusion:
Any iphone 3g have good reception and all cats are called Mittens.
Bad analogy. The study wasn't trying to prove that 100% of iPhones are problem free (because nothing is 100% problem free - nothing). What it was trying to prove (and succeeded in proving) is that the iPhone's reception is as good as other 3G iPhones. That's it. No extrapolation needed.
Therefore if your iPhone reception is bad, that means one of two things:
1. Your iPhone is faulty, maybe one of the 2% Jobs mentioned, or for some other reason
2. The problem is with the carrier, and not the iPhone.
It's really not any more complicated than that.
Never had a reception problem with mine. Maybe it is a Spokane, WA thing but all of my friends and customers I talk to have awesome reception here.
I dislike my iPhone for several reasons, reception not being one of them.
Thank god for eBay.
I would be very interested to see another 3G iPhone speed survey, similar to Wired.com's, that also included:
- Week of build (5th & 6th digit of serial number)
- Time of day
This would address 3G chip manufacturing defects and to what extent the number of users is affecting service.
I think the problem is a combination of both hardware and 3G service implementation. That's why the debate will always bounce back and forth. And to make matters even more difficult to troubleshoot, suppose it is a chip defect - a type of defect that causes intermittent problems? Here in Las Vegas NV, on average I get 400 kbps with 5-6 bars of 3G service showing on my week 28 build. HOWEVER, I travel a large part of the city everyday. I've used testmyiphone.com and got results up to 1300 Kbps in the late evenings. But I've read posts from Vegas users who get on AVERAGE, 1500 Kbps. WTF? At my place of work I get 1-2 bars with speeds averaging 45 Kbps to 300 Kbps - no matter the time of day. If 2.1 doesn't remedy my situation, it's back to Verizon for me.