Conspiracies, kittens, applesauce, and AT&amp;T SIMs

Yesterday, Steve Sande posted about his experiences testing iPhone 3GS signal attenuation. In his post, he showed a picture I had snapped during our morning experimentation showing my 3GS and my 4 competing head to head with the same carrier. My 3GS appeared to have better signal strength than my 4 throughout our testing.

I used a Best Buy O2 SIM for that test. It's basically a re-branded AT&T SIM. Because of that it works in any 3G or later iPhone, just by dropping it into the unit. (Unfortunately, no such luck for 1st generation iPhones, which must be jailbroken and hacktivated to take advantage of the SIM.)
The O2 SIM is a great deal for developers. It was first introduced to me by Kai Cherry. (Thanks, Kai!) You can buy a $10 SIM that lasts for 3 months (although it is advertised only for 1), with 5 cent SMS texts (10 cents for the first text of the day), approximately 14 cents per minute, and international calling that goes live within an hour or so after activation. You can also buy recharger cards at Big Lots or just keep switching to new SIMs if you don't care what number you're dealing with (Thank you, Google Voice!).

It's all great stuff. They're even adding data plans at the end of this Summer, according to customer support. No details are yet available but customers will be texted when the plan comes on-line.

Unfortunately, several of our readers had kittens when they saw that the screen shot said "O2" instead of "AT&T." So this morning, I got my hands on a standard, branded AT&T iPhone SIM and re-did the tests using that SIM instead of the O2 one. Results? The same. The 3GS (the leftmost of the two phones shown above) continued to have better signal strength, both raw and graded, as shown in the screen shot above. You can see the O2 SIM in the picture, just to the left of my 3GS.

Other readers asked that we do a side-by-side kung-fu-grip-of-doom-head-to-head. The two side-by-side pictures included in the gallery below the results. In order to mano-a-mano that deathgrip, one of the phones needed to be upside down in my right hand. To keep things fair, I did the shot twice -- once with the 4 upside down, once with the 3GS. As you can see, once again, the 3GS prevailed. It consistently maintained a functional signal strength despite kung fu gripification. It also taught me exactly how hard it is to hold two phones at once while taking a snap shot on a third -- had to use a stand and my nose.

So there you have it. Any more questions or concerns? Let us know in the comments.

3GS vs 4 Smackdown

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/07/tuaw-presents-iphone-3gs-deat…

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iPhone

Yesterday, Steve Sande posted about his experiences testing iPhone 3GS signal attenuation. In his post, he showed a picture I had snapped...

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Alan

Uhh... heard of a self-timer? Sorry... just had to say it.

July 30 2010 at 1:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

K Bear

Erica, is there anywhere we can download the app you created?

July 13 2010 at 7:40 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bgibson72

Turns out this only happens to left-handed people. OK, media/journalists, you read it on the interwebs, so it must be true--REPORT!

On the serious side, I'm sick of all the whining about signal issues and the iPhone 4 too. Mine's on backorder since 7/3 and the longer it stays there the more I'm thinking, "meh."

July 09 2010 at 2:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom

How about addressing the plethora of additional concerns over your previous two videos instead of just cherry-picking one and acting as if you've addressed all the issues with your test?

It's clear you are not an rf engineer and lack understanding of the factors at play here. Worse, you appear to be hell-bent on convincing others of your opinions rather than reporting truthfully and fairly.

Perhaps Fox News would make a better home for your blog.

July 09 2010 at 8:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Arnan de Gans

And how many people outside the US are having this issue? Any french or UK customers having the same problems?

July 09 2010 at 2:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Economist

How about an app store version of the app with an improved display layout?

July 08 2010 at 11:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

oz_paulb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

July 08 2010 at 10:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

redban

im actually sick of all thes iphone antenna videos..

this one does iphone 3gs, iphone 1, iphone 4 and even palm pre...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGgZlsIgKms

I send it to anyone that talks about it..

July 08 2010 at 9:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

redban

ok now turn off bluetooth on the one phone, while its not connected its still searching, while it might not be a huge deal, might as well make it completely fair.

July 08 2010 at 8:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

oz_paulb

Erica -

It's hard to tell from the new photo, but it appears the phone on the right (iPhone 4?) has bluetooth enabled, where the one on the left does not.

Someone else pointed out in the last thread that the bluetooth icon isn't 'blue', so nothing is 'connected', so it doesn't/can't affect signal strength measurements.

But, I'd argue that having it enabled leaves the bluetooth radio 'on' (looking for new devices), so it *could* cause interference. I have no idea if it would, but if you want 'apples to apples', it seems that both should have bluetooth disabled.

I also notice that both have WiFi signal strength meters displayed. Again, since I think the WiFi radio is different on the iPhone 4, it seems it could cause different interference. It's a perfectly valid test (to see if iPhone 4's WiFi interferes with the cell radio more than the 3G(s)), but if you are just looking at cell radio strength, I think a better test would be to disable WiFi on both.

Before doing the tests, I think a 'reset network settings' should be done, followed by a reboot. As a matter of fact, to really do a apples-to-apples test, I think they should both be 'restored' to factory state (configured as a 'new iphone' in itunes, then activated - but don't install any new apps) before any testing is done.

If you/TUAW are serious about doing a comparison of the cell radios, then it seems that basic steps like these need to be performed. Until you do, people will continue to question the results. (even if you do, I'm sure people will still question them - but the questions are definitely valid if you aren't comparing apples-to-apples).

Just my opinion.