It was a huge ordeal in the States, prompting Steve Jobs himself to cut short a Hawaiian vacation to address the media. But here in Australia, we’re getting mixed reports on whether Antennagate is even an issue on the Australian networks.
If you’ve already got your iPhone 4, are you suffering from antenna reception issues when you place your hand over the bottom left-hand side of the phone? Or is the whole thing indicative of the poor performance from the AT&T network and not so relevant down under?
Anthony Hawwa
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:35 PMIt’s hit and miss really, sometimes it might drop a bar, other times it has no effect at all. It has not really affected me to be honest. I am having issues with Verifying Payment Info though everytime I used the wireless in the office. It prompts me every time when updating an app or purchasing one. It’s bloody annoying.
Cheyne
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:42 PMI can make the bars drop after about 2 mins of gripping the phone in the right place but it never interrupts connection, it looks worse than it is.
I think of it as more of a party trick.
Dave
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:45 PMThe Grip of Death is no match for the mighty Telstra bars
eldar
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:49 PMSampson, is that you?
X
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:56 PMYou should have an iPhone 4 specific app for this poll. Apple lovers will post that they don’t have issues, and Apple haters will post that they did have issues.
Ben Collins
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:12 PMThe exact thing happened on Whirlpool. The anonymous votes were overwhelmingly negative, yet none of the actual posters reported such issues.
matt
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 6:01 PMI was thinking of suggesting an “I’m an A.D.D struck Apple hater who just *has* to click on everything interactive in sight” option, specifically for myself. but really, what’s the point of rigging this…
also you’d have to pay apple $120, wait a week for them to approve the app. which they wouldn’t, because it is against their “business practices” (allowing free speech about their products)
on the other hand, making a poll that excluded apple users is easy, just make it in flash :D
Simon Reidy
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:29 PMSo true!
Piers
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 8:46 PMApple haters who….went out and bought an iPhone 4 on day one…..uh-huh
Bouncy B
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 9:26 PMI don’t have an iPhone. Also no love for Apple or their products but in order to respond to the survey in a fair manner; I responded that I have had no problems with the grip of death.
dan
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:57 PMI bought two 16BG handsets…and I cannot recreate antenna gate at all.
On my old LG U990 and Sony Ericsson W610i I could.
Troy Kassabian
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:44 PMyou wanna give me one of those?
Alvin
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:01 PMi’m on the 3 network, in full reception area the deathgrip doesnt work, but in areas with 4 bars or less the bar drops when i do the deathgrip for a minute or so. but still unable to make it lose service completely.
MikeC
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 6:30 PMhaving heaps of signal issues on 3 mobile even going into searching mode then going into full 4-5 bars not sure if it’s the phone or 3 mobile, don’t have bumper as yet however if this persists with bumper it’s going back for a refund and I will use my 3G iPhone for sure!!
richard
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:06 PMnope
no issue with mine. i dare say i have tried to make it happen but doesnt drop a single bar. i must admit i am with telstra and the network is super strong so maybe that has something to do with it. nonetheless i still think the antenna issue was over hyped and think apple were in their rights to say so
cheers
Aaron Divitini
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:06 PMNot a single prob with my phone, cant even get it to lose one bar
Jack
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:06 PMNot at all, no issues whatsoever. Maybe I can lose a bar or two in some areas but most of the time it hasn’t affected me AT ALL :)
Michael Davis
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:07 PMHave 32GB Model … It’s faultless, just like my previous 3GS.
Andy
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 9:38 AMIf I “Death Grip” my 32gig 3GS (in Canberra, great coverage) I can reduce it full service still to one bar and I am with Telstra. I can do the same with my friends iphone 4 32gig.
I am going to give this generation a miss.
beau
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:10 PMcan’t replicate. Only a drop of one or two bars in death grip after a few mins. found the same signal drop on the 3gs when held where the antenna is on that phone. No call interruption. no problems.
Not to mention I get full bars all the time almost anywhere on the Gold Coast on Telstra.
Al
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:18 PMPerhaps this would be more informative then, if you expand the selections in the poll to also include carrier?
Ganesh
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 10:38 AMVery yes
Peter Santone
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:25 PMI don’t really notice antenna issues *with a bumper*. If I deathgrip the phone, sure I can lose up to 2 bars – even with a bumper. But in the city, who cares! If I lived rural, then yea, I would use Telstra, or stick with the 3GS. But the new features of this phone was enough for me to adopt the iPhone 4!
I do believe there is a design flaw with the antenna, but at the end of the day, it’s minimal compared to all the media hype to slam this phone. So far, I am enjoying it!
/looks back at glorious screen!!
Sam
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:26 PMI spend a lot of time in WA foothills. Reception is shocking.
With my 3GS I got a max of 1 bar in certain areas of the house.
With a Bold 9000 and a Pearl it’s the same story, 1 bar max in certain areas.
I have had my iPhone 4 since Friday. 1-3 bars minimum on the same network. No dropped calls. It is amazing how great the antenna is.
Thomas Tran
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:40 PMTest have shown that if the signal in your area is strong, you won’t get drop outs even if you do give it the Grip of Death. This ‘trick’ only works if you’re in an area with so so or bad signal strength…
Steve M.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:41 PMI can replicate the issue if I try, but it’s never happened in normal usage and a few times I’ve actually gained a bar when trying to replicate it. When it does happen, it’s never more than two bars and often takes a while to get there, so it’s hardly going to be catastrophic if it does happen in normal use.
I do think that Apple should have been up front about this – that spiel about most phones having a “death grip” would have sounded a lot less snarky if it had come as a brief explanation in the iPhone 4 announcement – but I also think that it’s been blown WAY out of proportion. If it is as big an issue in the US as the media has made it out to be, the problem lies more with AT&T than the hardware.
Tom
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:46 PMI can make bars drop in low signal areas (being on 3 this is a lot of places) but I still don’t have tangible evidence of it affecting data or calls. I need some free time to give it a scientific once over.
Chris M
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:51 PMThere aren’t any real apple haters, there are just the people who can think for themselves and realise that there are actually far better products out there. As for the antenna issue, Australia’s cellular network is far superior to ANYTHING available in america, I seriously doubt that the antenna issue was ever going to be a problem over here. As for the phone itself, well, the HTC desire is a few months old now and is STILL light-years ahead of the iphone 4. That’s not hating, that’s fact.
Ricky
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:55 PMI work at a telstra store and i can say very confidentally if i put my fingers all over the side of our display iphone it drops from 5 bars to 3 until i release my fingers. To me i can handle this on the telstra network, not so sure for other carriers.
Matt
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 6:13 PMI’m in Adelaide near the city on the three network, using speedtest I get the following speeds:
Deathgrip: 5-10kBs
Open hand, finger on g-spot: 50-100kBs
Open hand no fingering: 100-250kBs
Speeds do vary quite a lot, i’ve done this at least 5 times each way and these are the averages so it seems pretty conclusive to me that there’s an issue here. Just now I was dropping from a steady 4 bars in an open hand, 3 touching the spot, 1 with deathgrip. I’ve had a few moments of “hold on, what? you’re breaking up” but about the same frequency as on any other phone i’ve used (ie not often) and the rest of the time the clarity is excellent.
I’m considering talking to Apple about this but I’ll give it more than 4 days. Other than this issue I’m very impressed, the screen, overall speed and quality of pics & vids my stand-outs.
The Flash
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 6:22 PMNo problem with the antenna, the phone on the other hand kept reseting after every 3 minutes… Needless to say I am quite angry… then there’s the carrier I bought it off and the shortage of stock in the country…. grrr…
Adam Dumicich
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 6:43 PMIt’s hit and miss for me too. Sometimes it can drop 4-5 bars (not often though) and sometimes it can gain bars. I’ve also had it fail to connect (I think, no conclusive tests). FWIW I’m on Telstra too.
I got an invisible shield cover for it and that seems to have fixed it as far as I can tell.
Blake
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 6:54 PMI lined up at the Ballarat Store, I was 13th in line and have not had one issue with Iphone 4. It is an incredible device and basically the US just has a crappy A & T network. Telstra is one of the leading networks in the world, even if you have to pay a little more for the quality!
Nick T
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:02 PMSo far so good! I’m out in regional NSW, and coverage is much the same as it was on my iPhone 3G. I don’t really look at the signal strength unless I run into call problems, which I haven’t experienced yet.
Nathan Adams
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:20 PMI think the real issue here is Lackofstockgate. 4 week wait because I was 1 person too far back in the line. Cheers.