iPhone 4 Death Grip Doesn’t Appear in Norway; They Must Be Using Gloves [Norwegian Paper Says iPhone 4 Antennagate Is Strictly U.S.-based; We Say It Isn’t]

Posted on TFTS by Chris Smith on Thursday, 29. July 2010 under: Mobile/Cell Phones

It looks like we have a better fix for the iPhone Death Grip than a simply free bumper or case. Those experiencing it can go to Norway where the problem hasn’t been spotted so far. Before we’ll want to disagree to those claims we’ll tell you the whole story.

Apparently the Norwegian Verdens Gang is most important online and printed newspaper in the country and it went on record to say that the iPhone 4, when compared with HTC and Nokia rivals like the Wildfire and the E71, respectively, or with predecessors, like the iPhone 3GS, will act the same way when the Death Grip is applied. Moreover they suggest that the Antennagate is a U.S. problem, when in fact it clearly isn’t.

By now we all know that all smartphones are affected by attenuation but not all of them have the antenna on the outside.

We’ll remind the guys in Norway that the Death Grip has been replicated in other areas too: UK, Germany, France (by yours truly and we have a video to prove it) so it clearly isn’t just an U.S.-based problem. And yeah, the video we made was just before Apple rolled out the iOS update that corrected the way the iPhone 4 displays signal bars. Which raises one very logical question, have the guys from Verdens Gang tested the iPhone 4 with iOS 4.0.1 on board? I assume so as the iPhone will only go on sale starting tomorrow in Norway, so they must have gotten their test units recently. In which case the bars will not drop as significantly as before, or so we hear the iOS update will do for you.

Sure the USA might have a poorer mobile network, especially for the iPhone 4 (that’s where you, AT&T, come in) and that’s probably why the guys at Apple decided to put the antenna on the outside. But to go and say that the antenna placement is not a problem, like these Norwegian guys are suggesting, is pure Apple fanboyism (and they call me an Apple fanboy!)

No matter how strong the Norwegian mobile networks are, the Death Grip problem exists and that’s undeniable and unforgettable. Again, we don’t contest the fact that other smartphone come with the same problem and don’t defend Nokia, RIM, Motorola, HTC, or any other smartphone manufacturer in front of Apple. The problem here is not about the actual Death Grip occurrences anymore either as users will learn to deal with them no matter what country they live in, but the fact that Apple is still in denial over the true source of the problem, the placement of the antenna. And that’s weird considering that using a bumper or a case will put that outer antenna inside a thing that can make calls and can be called a phone. So why didn’t Apple just do that from the beginning?

Okay, so if you’re buying the iPhone 4 in Norway these days, please tell us how your device is treating you!

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