Consumer Reports: Don't buy the iPhone 4
The magazine cited the iPhone 4's reception issues due to antenna placement as the primary reason for the negative writeup
Consumer Reports magazine today said it won't recommend Apple's iPhone 4 because of major reception issues when users touch the external antenna.
One analyst called the publication's conclusion a "black eye" for Apple.
[ Get the best iPhone and iPad apps for pros with our business iPhone and iPad apps finder. | Keep up on mobile developments with InfoWorld's Mobilize newsletter. ]
"When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side -- an easy thing, especially for lefties -- the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal," said Mike Gikas, the publication's senior electronics editor in a blog post Monday.
Consumer Reports non-recommendation -- "Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4," Gikas said -- is the latest in a series of knocks against the iPhone 4 over reception problems.
Complaints from consumers about the iPhone 4 dropping calls surfaced within hours of the smartphone 's launch last month. Apple quickly acknowledged that holding the iPhone 4 can diminish the signal but offered only generic advice, telling users to "avoid gripping it in the lower left corner" or "use one of the many available cases."
A week later, Apple admitted that the iPhone 4's signal strength formula was flawed and promised to update the software.
Consumer Reports's Gikas dismissed that explanation as a red herring. "Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software," he said.
The magazine tested three iPhone 4s in its radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber, where a cell tower emulator was used to simulate real-world signals. Gikas said that the publication's engineers also tested several other AT&T phones in the chamber, including the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. "None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4," he said.
Gikas said that the tests hinted that "AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect" in the iPhone 4 woes, quashing talk by some that the U.S. carrier is largely at fault.
"Consumer Reports carries some weight," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. "But I'm not sure how many people are actually reading it. Certainly, not many 20-somethings are."
Still, the magazine's testing and conclusion is bad for Apple on several levels. "This is a black eye for Apple," Gold said. "Now people can say, 'See, we told you it has reception problems.'"
