Apple iPhone 4 – dropped calls, signal issues, yellow cast on screens

So you’ve queued up for hours on end outside the Apple Store – perhaps you’ve even been stupid enough to fly in from Dubai to London for the privilege – and you’ve got that lovely, shiny new iPhone 4 in your mitts.

It looks great, the screen is fantastic – so everything in your world must be going swimmingly, right?

Well, for some iPhone 4 users, the answer is, “not exactly.”

Calls dropped

Tech site insanely-great Mac has uncovered what looks like a serious issue with the new design in that holding it in a certain way causes it to drop calls.

Here’s how they describe the problem (with a video to follow):

This is weird. Touching the lower left corner of the iPhone 4 consistently drops calls. I’ve been testing this all night and here’s a replication on video. The test was performed four times, but it could have been 40. Whether the palm of the and, should, neck, or any body part results in quickly dropping the call. This does not appear to affect the iPhone 3GS, which was tested with the iPhone 4.

Signal strength issues

The same site has also picked up on what appears to be “significantly worse” reception issues when comparing the iPhone 4 with the 3GS, commenting:

Observing the signal bars, it seemed that the iPhone 4 had some odd signal issues, but when comparing with the iPhone 3GS, it too seemed to exhibit odd behavior. Is this an unnoticed iPhone issue? An issue with iOS 4? AT&T?

And it was all yellow

Elsewhere, Engadget is reporting that several users have reported seeing yellow colouration in the bottom right corner of their new iPhone 4.

They’ve set up a poll to see who else is experiencing these problems, and the voting so far would suggest that a substantial amount of users are experiencing both the dropped calls and screen colouration (although internet polls are, of course, notoriously unreliable).

Drop us a line if you’re suffering any of the above – or if your new iPhone is working perfectly for you, drop us a line and tell us all about it!

Smash it up

Perhaps of most concern to slippery-fingered new iPhone owners is the drop test conducted by repair firm, ifixyouri.

They found the iPhone 4’s glass covering unnervingly easy to break, as their site commented:

Land it flat on the ground, and it will smash. We have evidence. Before i show you the evidence, I am going to point out a design flaw that will bite them in the future. On the new iPhone, the glass basically sits on top of the aluminium frame. On the old iphone, it was recessed and protected by a chrome bezel.

See the photographic evidence here.

UPDATE: Apple acknowledge reception problems – and it’s the users fault!

Engadget are now reporting that one of their readers received this official response from Apple. It seems that the company are blaming the users for holding their phones the wrong way!

Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

Comically, it seems that Apple’s own advertising includes plentiful examples of people holding their iPhones the ‘wrong’ way.