Does adjusting or trimming the iPhone 4's micro SIM fix the antenna issue? Probably not.
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 30th 2010 12:32AM
posted June 30th 2010 12:32AM
So does all this hocus pocus actually work? In a word, no. We tried it on a few of our particularly bad iPhone 4s -- the ones that consistently demonstrate the issue -- and achieved no meaningful results. We even went so far as to line the edge of one of our trimmed micro SIMs in electrical tape (pictured above) to ensure that no contact was being made, and we were still able to flatline the phone using the "death grip." Sorry folks -- we wanted this to work too, but it looks like people are just being hopefully optimistic. We'd say the real fix is going to have to come from Apple -- and given the growing discontent over this relatively severe issue, the sooner the better.
This just gets more pathetic by the day...
@kapanak
You mean how far Engadget will reach to keep making up iPhone news? Or how they automatically feature anything to do with Apple?
@kapanak
"Even we have limits, after all."
Yeah, pretty flexible ones... :P
@kapanak
Hmm... I'm beginning to think people in big cities with already-sketchy 3G coverage are the only ones having this issue. Neither myself or my friends can get our signal to go down more than a bar when covering the antennas. When I was in an area with bad 3G already, I was able to get it to go to zero signal, but it didn't even drop the call I was on (to test the issue). *shrug*
@Roisen I bought an Iphone 4 from ATT today. (21% plan discount).
Why wouldn't you buy a case anyway, the phone is made out of glass. You drop it, your phone is done. Ive already had my 3gs crack.
Moar Iphone coverage please : D
@kapanak
wow, people are going to such extremes to fix the damn problem themselves as if there are no other options out there. Is iphone really that necessary?
@beast101 Not entirely made out of glass...blah you get what im saying
@coolkams03
When the best way to fix it probably is to return it!
@kapanak
On second thought at least they are giving Apple some bad press, unlike in the old days.
Still though they are reaching way too far for Apple news. A 13 page thread on another forum is what inspired this article? I can point you to a handful of threads over at PreCentral with 100+ pages that you've never mentioned.
@kapanak
I bet they did this to lower the amount of data traffic on the networks. Since att can't handle all the data users.. so what do you do? make the iphones antenna drop signal when touched..
regardless if it was a design flaw (I believe it was) or not.. Apple products are extremely overrated. Most of the people that buy apple products are stupid and I don't want to look stupid using one in public.. it was embarrassing enough pulling out my macbook in class, thank god I have a Thinkpad now
The FIX was easy for me, I took my iPhone 4 back to Best Buy and got a full refund. While there they switched my service back to my iPhone 3G and everything is working great again.
Thank you Steve Jobs for NOTHING!
@ruby Your probably a dweeb. Thats why people were starring at you like you were stupid
@beast101
why would I buy a case for my phone.. I've never purchased a case in all the years I've owned phones.. and I've never had signal loss when touching any phone I've ever owned. The only case I have ever had and use is a leather holster for my blackberry 9630, which came with the phone for free.
It's a bunch of BS was Jobs said about all phones lose reception when touched.. that's just not true at all.
@Roisen Considering there are over 1.7 million people with the phone, and a potentially interesting(depending on the person) story about a possible fix for a serious problem surfaces, it's completely relevant, and not forced, as you seem to imply.
This issue is a hot one, and includes great coverage points of interest for a post: large company that everyone knows (and has a strong opinion on), coupled with a serious elementary problem on what should be their most advanced phone.
Having these types of posts on Engadget are usually the hottest ones, and for good reason.
And, if you don't like hearing about Apple products, I believe Engadget has a feature to disable viewing Apple stories.
Finally, if you want incessant, constant posts and news about Apple, Engadget is not the place to go. There are quite a few dedicated Apple only sites which I'm sure you'd enjoy visiting. I contend that Engadget does a swell job of balancing in Apple and non-Apple articles, which seems to be a debate of fierce contention, and unjustly so. Apple just happens to be one of the most popular companies in tech right now, what do you expect?
On another note; This is completely ridiculous. Apple has to get their shit together.
@kapanak I think I found a solution.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/03/ctia2010cell-matemain.jpg
@kuzaak I think this course of action makes the most sense. If you are not happy with your iPhone 4, you should return it and roll back to your old phone. The only way Apple will get this message is when a significant number of phones start coming back. A returned phone costs them a LOT of pain. Whining only gets you so far. Corporations, and Steve Jobs, listen to the money. That's not a bad thing. Your "voting dollars" have real impact.
@beast101
far from it actually.. I don't like the stereotypes that are associated with apple users and I don't need a laptop to show off how much money I have. In most peoples cases they buy them to feel special and get attention,, I don't want to be a part of that crowd. So you are right though.. I'm not cool enough to own one... fine with me
@kapanak
I've narrowed it down to not being so much of s hardware issue. By now we have all seen a million videos of the iPhone Antenna Issue so I decided to post my experience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAt8H110kSk
Based on points shown in the vid, I have come up with a somewhat plausible theory...please place your Mythbuster Caps on and agree or disagree w/ me.
Over the past day or two, I am almost convinced that it's much more complicated than just covering touching the left antenna. I believe that the phones endless quest to find an optimal tower based on a number of factors, Antenna Interference being one, may be the culprit.
When the Antenna is completely covered the iP4 immediately goes into a frantic state of "WTF, something's all screwy, I must find the next best tower". The problem is that in certain areas, "the next best tower" is no where to be found, and bars start to drastically dissipate.
Luckily, in some areas, like my office building, "the next best tower" is ready to be touched by my iP4's lovin' and the bars stay at an all time high.
I didn't get into too much detail in the video but am thinking about making a follow up if anybody can back up my theory.
@BrandonHarris
"When the Antenna is completely covered the iP4 immediately goes into a frantic state of "WTF, something's all screwy, I must find the next best tower". The problem is that in certain areas, "the next best tower" is no where to be found, and bars start to drastically dissipate."
No. It's a hardware problem. As that professor has stated, it's a physical issue with the fact that by bridging the two antennae, you're detuning the antenna, making it useless. The reason it says "Something is screwy" is because it IS screwy. The iPhone is rightly finding that it can no longer tune into the channel that it's on or any other further away channels.
Didn't we hear about a patch that was being released on Monday? That didn't happen.
@kapanak ...desperation creeps in...
These solutions are only limited by an Apple fanboy's imagination. Totally pathetic.
@Mike10010100
If it is completely hardware related, please explain to me how I cannot replicate this in my office building no matter how hard I try. I should be able to make the bars drop on on all corners of the earth if it were simply hardware related. Well, guess what. I can't.
I await your response good sir.
@Roisen -- "Still though they are reaching way too far for Apple news. A 13 page thread on another forum is what inspired this article? I can point you to a handful of threads over at PreCentral with 100+ pages that you've never mentioned."
A quick check of tonight's "The daily roundup: here's what you might've missed" on Engadget right now shows 4 iPhone stories in red and one iPhone story in orange.
These numbers are based on comments.... like these. Clearly, people like commenting on Apple news... but they don't really care for the Palm Pre.
As long as Engadget likes to make money... the Apple stories will continue... even if they are non-stories.
No problems with my iPhone at all.
It's amazing the reception problems you can uncover when you get a million people *intentionally trying to make a device lose signal* by gripping it in every possible contortion, squeezing, and staring down the signal bars.
Personally I'd like to see *every* mobile device subjected to the same test and see how they fare. My guess: probably not well.
@HotFuzz considering you cant directly touch the antenna of any other phone id say theyd do a hell of a lot better than this phone... and you dont have to hold it awkwardly... just lightly grip with your left hand and watch the bars disappear... like MAGIC
@HotFuzz
yeah i tend to agree with you. if you look online there are videos and reports of the same issue happening now with plenty of other phones... but only after people are now trying to reproduce it. i'm certainly more conscious of how i hold the phone now, but it's not nearly as big a deal as people are making it out to be.
@BrandonHarris
There's a logical limit. You say that your office is on top of a transmitter. My point is that detuning the antennae severely limits the range of the phone. In an Apple store, where there usually isn't much reception, I was able to make all the available iPhones go from 5 bars to one just by holding it in the "wrong" position. This is due to the fact that the iPhones were limited by my touching them as to how far they could "see" the network.
@kapanak when you hold an iphone 4 in the "death grip", you are essentially cutting off the wireless transfer of magic from Apple's headquarters.
The Apple Information Minister...
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/1757/iphonejobs.jpg
@Edobe If that one doesn't work out for you, maybe this one will
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TaLDQuLWL30/TCqYnR71-xI/AAAAAAAAIQg/lCpcOaHMi6s/s1600-h/photo[4].jpg
@Roisen
They have a freaking Apple-less version of engadget if you don't like apple go hear tp://www.engadget.com/exclude/apple/ and never come back.
@kapanak I know... it's just sad, but it keeps me laughing while I chat and phone away on my Android.
@ruby Youre an idiot. Apple products are overpriced, yes, but not overated. To have an apple product is to have a personal preference just like you and your thinkpad (which my personal preference is thinkpads are crap)
@BrandonHarris
I am starting to think your theory is starting to hold truth. Normally when I'm at home (30 miles away from work), I can complete the bridge between the two antennae and it will completely cut down my bars. I have done this around my hometown as well as I have shown my girlfriend what the issue was while we had dinner at a restaurant and went back to her place.
When I go to work (I work in SLC), I have tried to complete the bridge with just my finger and.......nothing! I have used my whole palm and nothing! I used two palms covering both sides of the phone and nothing! Had full five bars throughout the test. I will admit that previously to this, I took my sim tray out and took out the sim card. I didn't do anything to the sim card or tray itself. I did not bother to test it here at work before I took the card out.
@HotFuzz
I'm an anti-Apple guy, so the first thing I did was to go the Apple Store and try to replicate the signal loss and make fun of it.
All 16 of the display phones couldn't drop the signal. They stayed at 5 bars the whole time. I live in Arizona so my hands were plenty clammy. Maybe they chose the ones that wouldn't drop signal O_O.
@Roisen Go away. Just go away.
"OMG Engadget are featuring iPhone news"
"OMG Engadget *didn't* feature iPhone news - conspiracy!"
Do you see where I'm going with this?
@kuzaak dude that's so not cool. What's going on with Apple these days!
HEY MR JOBS.....Apple WAS the Titanic and you, YOURSELF. ARE the iceberg.
The interesting thing is that if the Pre has a screen issue, people return them and get an iPhone. When the iPhone has an issue, 1.7 million people try and help Apple find a fix for it.
That's not a fail for Apple but a fail for humanity.
@SEscobedo
I have another theory. Because Apple is so awesome, aliens are using the towers to transmit their highly encrypted msgs to the mothership because on july 4th, they will destruct every major city. Only Will Smith can save us and then the bad reception when holding it the wrong way will go away because we all know its not the hardware. Its the software i tell ya!
@Roisen
um hello, there
http://fortunebrainstormtech.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/picture-132.png
Palm has 3% of the market compared with iphones 69% so that might be a reason no one cares about a 100 page thread when only 3% of America is using your phone, and we can imagine that an (even smaller number knows wtf a pre is). Hope that helps you understand why engadget is posting relevant stories about America's top consumer product company
@ruby
Trying to be a non conformist? Your no different, your not special, there are millions of other people that feel the same way as you do.... Your just conforming to a sub group of people. Your nothing special.
If this was anyone but Apple they'd already be crucified.
@kapanak The problem is I have not been able to replicate this issue on my iPhone 4 after several attempts, and it looks like the majority of people here don't even own iPhone 4s. The problem then arises, how many people will then start to freak out over this based upon rumor and speculation, when in reality their phones are in fact perfectly fine? It's so easy to blur the line between fact and fiction when a good majority of the "highest ranked" commenters here merely speculate based on rumor, and not on personal experience.
@chrisrottan That's the best theory i've heard, you must be a genius.
I was also wondering if it is a 3g signal issue? I live in the boonies sans 3g and i have not had any reception issues.
@coolkams03
Yes
@kapanak
Why on earth would this work ? It worries me that you guys even tryed it !
Your SIM is either read by the phone or it isn't there is no half way.
The iPhone is a lovely touch based iPod but it sure sucks at actually being a phone ! And people are still waiting in line for it, there is a sucker born every minute.
@BrandonHarris thats a good theory. because that is what the i4 does, if the phone keeps with one tower it could be ok, but its trying to find the less conjested tower, and if that isnt there then theres nothing to connect to and it has already disconnected from the first tower
@blitzkrieg
Hey bud, I'm [one of] the 'insane' one[s] that suggested clear nail polish. No Apple fanboy here but I do LOVE my sexy, commando DROOIIID with Froyo-
And engadget, if you have some good working i4's wouldn't you just swap sim cards to check this fix?