iPhone 4 Antenna Design Spoofs and Comments from an Antenna Design Company
Tags: antenna, antennasys, iphone4, jokes, reception, spencerweb, spoofs
There have been many reports of issues with the iPhone 4 Antenna, even some jokes surround it all.
Engadget - The Jimmy Fallon Test: is the iPhone 4 dropping fewer calls?
Engadget - Hey Apple, you’re holding it wrong!
Gizmodo – Steve Jobs Shows Cool Antenna Trick to Russian President
There is even an email from Steve Job’s from a customer who just bough an iPhone where Job’s responds with “Just avoid holding it that way”. Source
I ran into this blog post by Spencer Webb who works for AntennaSys Inc, that talks about the design of the iPhone 4 Antenna. You can read his article “iPhone 4 Antenna”, I’ve included some quotes of his article. It’s an awesome read and concludes the reasons behind their choice and how almost all Cell Phones have issues with reception based on their design and how the users holds them.
I saw the photo of the frame of the iPhone in the slideshow at the end of Steve Job’s keynote address at the Developer’s Conference. There are three gaps in the stainless steel band which are allegedly part of the antenna system. I have not had alot of time to analyze their structure, nor do I have one in my hands yet. So, either it is public relations hokum, or those slots are really part of the antenna structure. They do appear to be active, based on observations.
In the first generation iPhone (which I am currently using), the antennas were on the back of the phone, near the bottom. There was a piece of plastic on the bottom covering the antennas, so you knew where they were. I developed a way to hold the phone which avoided covering this area with my hand, similar to the Gizmodo article linked above. It is worth stepping back a moment and asking the question, “Why are the antennas placed where my hand is MOST likely to cover it?” It’s a fair question.
The FCC puts strict limits on the amount of energy from a handheld device that may be absorbed by the body. We call this Specific Absorbtion Rate, or SAR. In the olden days, when I walked ten miles to school in three feet of snow, uphill in both directions, cell phones had pull-up antennas. This allowed the designer to use a half-wave antenna variant, and put the point of maximum radiation somewhat away from the users cranium. Of course, most people did not think it was necessary and kept the antenna stowed. Motorola’s flip phone acutally had a second helical antenna that was switched into place when this was the case. But, more importantly, SAR rules were not yet in effect.
Flip phones became yesterday’s style, and phones were becoming more monolithic. Some phones, like the early Treo, kept the antenna in the traditional location at the top of the phone, near one edge, but reduced it to a short stub. Whips became stubs, stubs became bumps, and finally antennas were embedded into the rectangular volume of the phone. The trouble was SAR; if you left the antenna at the top, the user was now pressing it into their head, insuring lots of tissue heating. Enter the bottom-located cellphone antenna.
Just about every cell phone in current production has the antenna located at the bottom. This insures that the radiating portion of the antenna is furthest from the head. Apple was not the first to locate the antenna on the bottom, and certainly won’t be the last. The problem is that humans have their hands below their ears, so the most natural position for the hand is covering the antenna. This can’t be a good design decision, can it? How can we be stuck with this conundrum? It’s the FCC’s fault.
You see, when the FCC tests are run, the head is required to be in the vicinity of the phone. But, the hand is not!! And the FCC’s tests are not the only tests that must be passed by a candidate product. AT&T has their own requirements for devices put on their network, and antenna efficiency is one of them. I know because I have designed quad-band GSM antennas for the AT&T network. The AT&T test similarly does not require the hand to be on the phone.
So it makes sense what Apple was trying to do, however why wasn’t any of these problems brought up when the iPhone 4 was designed and tested. I mean they must have left handed employees testing these devices. Furthermore why not disclose that it needs a bumper or include one? It all seems to be rather strange. Anyways, the closing statement tops it off.
So, what’s an iPhone lover to do? Well, I voted with my dollars. I ordered my iPhone 4 to replace my Original. I already know how to do the Vulcan Antenna Grip on the iPhone, and I am wearing out my current model.
And sometimes an antenna that’s not great, but good enough, is good enough.
At this point I’m still debating my purchase of an iPhone 4, I will see how everything pans out. I might buy a iPhone 4, I might not. I shall see what occurs down in a months time.
Source: antennasys.com – Apple iPhone 4 Antennas…