Apple's efforts to describe the antenna problems associated with iPhone 4 as an engineering issue facing all phone makers is getting a little help from Motorola, which has released Droid 2 to a series of complaints from users regarding poor signal.
A report by TechCrunch says "a good number of reports" from users of Verizon's new Android-based Droid 2, built by Motorola, are complaining about signal problems even without touching the phone.
The report also noted that all four of the Droid 2 phones tested by Engadgetin its review of the phone demonstrated "endlessly fluctuating bar counts," in addition to problems reported by two other reviewers.
Most of the Droid 2 users commenting on the report said they had also experienced signal problems with the new phone, which just shipped days ago, although a couple users said they hadn't seen any problems. Others reported a problem with low battery life.
Not holding it wrong
Motorola's problem differs from the issue related to iPhone 4; users can attenuate their signal on Apple's latest phone only by holding the bare phone in such a way that the lower left corner is covered up.
Using iPhone 4 within a case, or holding the phone in a more open grip, have both been reported to solve the issue, branded as "Antennagate" by the media after Gizmodo first published videos of a user demonstrating how the phone's signal could be manipulated at will.
With Droid 2, users who are experiencing the problem report that it happens even while sitting idle and "without holding it wrong," according to the report.