Sam OliverDaily Telegraph: No reception issues
Stephen French, national technology writer for Australia's The Daily Telegraph, gave a glowing review to Apple's iPhone 4 on Friday. Using it for nearly a week, he has not dropped calls or noticed any impact on the device's performance.
The writer managed to replicate some of the signal issues experienced by users when covering the bottom left of the iPhone 4. However, it was not enough to hamper his experience with the smartphone.
French tested the Australian version of the iPhone 4 without a case on all of the country's four carriers that offer Apple's handset. The device was used on the Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and 3 networks in parts of Sydney with varying signal strengths.
"I tried the 'death grip' on the bottom left while making test calls in areas I knew to have weaker reception and the times I did manage to reduce the signal bars... my calls were still not affected," he wrote. "The worst thing that happened was a web page I was loading timed out but after refreshing it came up fine. I even managed to watch a YouTube video over 3G while in the 'death grip.'"
French said that call quality was improved over the iPhone 3GS, and he found that holding the handset in the "death grip" manner was unnatural.
"The iPhone 4 is not just a slight improvement over the iPhone 3GS, it is a massive jump," he said. "There are so many great enhancements across the board it will be hard for existing iPhone owners to resist and a great place to start for users who are new to the smartphone market."
New Zealand launch hits snag
iPhone 4 buyers who lined up overnight in New Zealandto purchase Apple's latest handset came away disappointed on Friday, as the launch was delayed a few hours. According to stuff.co.nz, the handset was eventually available through select Vodafone stores by midday.
The carrier would not comment on what caused an apparent delay of the launch, though some speculated it was caused by a shipping delay.
Though the morning launch was delayed, about 100 people lined up outside the Vodafone Lambton Quay store in Wellington about 4 hours later to purchase the iPhone 4. One customer reportedly referred to the launch as an "epic fail."
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132 Comments
Since one customer said that, it must be true!
I guess we can all go back to blaming AT&T for the reception problems here?
You do have to remember when referring to The Daily Telegraph's report that the mobile cell towers have a much better coverage in Australia than they do in the States. Australian telecommunications technology is around 4 years ahead of the US, and our coverage with 3G is basically ubiquitous.
The signals received by an iPhone 4 in Australia will generally be extremely high quality - well into the "5-bar spectrum", and so no amount of touching to that antenna will cause an iPhone to lose even a bar. Say it drops from -51 to -66. It still won't cause even a bar to drop, here in Australia, due to the high quality of our mobile networks.
I personally handled an iPhone 4 today at its release in Australia. I'm on the waiting list for one currently, as they were sold out hours before I got there. (I'm in the Royal Australian Navy and was on duty during the launch) Impeccable quality, and brilliant screen. I attempted to attenuate the signal of the display device, and I had no effect no matter how many times and ways I touched it. But our signals are better here. I can understand and appreciate that this may not be the case in a place such as the US, and I think its fair to state the differences between those two different locales as a factor.
You do have to remember when referring to The Daily Telegraph's report that the mobile cell towers have a much better coverage in Australia than they do in the States. Australian telecommunications technology is around 4 years ahead of the US, and our coverage with 3G is basically ubiquitous.
The signals received by an iPhone 4 in Australia will generally be extremely high quality - well into the "5-bar spectrum", and so no amount of touching to that antenna will cause an iPhone to lose even a bar. Say it drops from -51 to -66. It still won't cause even a bar to drop, here in Australia, due to the high quality of our mobile networks.
I personally handled an iPhone 4 today at its release in Australia. I'm on the waiting list for one currently, as they were sold out hours before I got there. (I'm in the Royal Australian Navy and was on duty during the launch) Impeccable quality, and brilliant screen. I attempted to attenuate the signal of the display device, and I had no effect no matter how many times and ways I touched it. But our signals are better here. I can understand and appreciate that this may not be the case in a place such as the US, and I think its fair to state the differences between those two different locales as a factor.
Total BS.
Australia had the SLOWEST 3G iphone speed in the wired.com survey.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/08/global-iphone-3/
Just ordered iPhone 4 (32GB) from Apple Australia (web order) soon after the site started accepting web orders. Delivery 27 August! Another four week wait!?