Consumer Reports Does Not Recommend iPhone 4

[dannyaa]

This is a major blow to Apple and needs to be addressed. It is also very blown out of proportion. It shouldn't be a problem - no doubt. But it is more of an unexcuseable annoyance than a fatal flaw.

With a case, which MOST people use, it is a non issue. Without a case, it affects lefties. Otherwise, you have to hold the phone with a "death grip." Neither my roomate or I have a case on our phone and haven't had any antenna issues.

Anandtech has the fairest and most intelligent breakdown on the phone with solid technical detail. Bottom line: the bad press is a bigger problem than the actual design. This should be addressed, but it's far from the end of the world.

It's just too bad Apple hasn't responded better/faster and offered free bumper cases for all. I think that is inevitable at this point.

 

[Clintonio]

[citation][nom]ceejer[/nom]It should be pointed out that, while they didn't recommend it, they still gave it the highest overall rating of available smartphones. I'm not saying that makes it a good phone, but that's a relevant fact to this story that was overlooked by Tom's.[/citation]
I'd say that, coming from Marcus, the point of this article was obviously to focus on the 'not recommended' part. I've seen Marcus post overly-praising articles about Apple many times, happy to see a neutral one.

 

[Guest]

People pay a premium to apple for simplicity, a phone that can not phone is simpler than a phone that can phone. People are getting premium simplicity with apple and yet they still complain!!!

 

[welshmousepk]

wait... people use smarphones to make calls?

 

[redgarl]

A phone that can't call... well, that's a relief you can browse facebook and youtube with it... >

 

[sseyler]

[citation][nom]MrHectorEric[/nom]CR is now just one of many to confirm the already confirmed antenna issues (they're a little late to the party). Of course you always have to really scrutinize the results CR puts out, especially electronics and vehicles. Anyone remember the CR article that praised the $1000+ Mac computers, when only compared to $500-750 Windows computers; what a completely dishonest comparison that was.[/citation]

There were multiple CR articles that did that. But, you have to keep in mind that since CR was dividing the comparison between relevant operating systems, MACs were destined to be in their own class (and, of course, their own price range). I also recall these articles praising MACs for their build quality, versus the many problems from terrible PC vendors. Nevertheless, I haven't seen CR give a MAC a "best buy." I hope this puts your bias in perspective.

 

[applegotmelaid]

God bless us, Everyone! - Tiny Tim

 

[eddieroolz]

Too bad most of the tech crowd is oblivious, while mass media will continue to rain praises upon that failed piece of engineering when in fact - its simply an amalgamation of things that's been done elsewhere, some years ago.

 

[Tamz_msc]

Nobody will recommend an iPhone 4!

 

[Clintonio]

I'm going to say something obvious; Apple was once a high quality mobile producer. They had a brand new OS which was probably done all in one cycle, so the codebase was probably consistent. Then as time went on, Apple had to resort to patches, hacks, quick fixes. Over time the codebase obviously declined in quality. just like any new piece of software, as it is revised, the quality drops. Now people who felt the benefits of it are seeing the age. From here, Apple will end up being very little more than it is now! Symbian suffered that fate, Android may one day too.