In areas where Verizon customers encounter weak signals, the slightly-revised antenna design for the CDMA iPhone does not mitigate against the so-called "death grip" signal-degradation phenomenon any more than the AT&T version, a video posted on YouTube from iLounge has found. Though the host expresses surprise that the issue hasn't been "fixed," Apple has never actually claimed that a "fix" was necessary, consistently maintaining that the "problem" wasn't really an issue in the first place.
In the video, the Verizon iPhone 4 is shown to lose signal strength and much of its 3G or Wi-Fi speed when gripped very tightly in a particular way in either portrait (tends to slow down 3G and drop cellular "bars") or landscape (tends to affect Wi-Fi reception) mode. Other YouTube videos and numerous demonstrations elsewhere have shown that the same problem affects many other smartphones regardless of manufacturer, and that the "death grip" has to be unnaturally tight for the full effect to be observed. At the end of the video, it is again demonstrated that simply putting a case or bumper over the antenna entirely negates the phenomena and restores full performance. As others have demonstrated, even "bare" iPhones are less affected by the issue in areas where signal is strong.
Apple has consistently maintained that all phone antennas attenuate to some degree when covered by conducive material such as skin. The company's own testing found that the issue affected a minimal number of customers, and launched a limited-time free "bumper" case promotion to address concerns. Since the end of the promotion in September, the phenomena has not been seen by retailers or consumers as a significant issue and sales of the AT&T iPhone were not materially affected by it.
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