For those contemplating purchasing an Iphone4

Question

In an attempt to help all those who are contemplating purchasing an Iphone4, and reading all the information increasingly available about both it's good and it's bad qualities, I will attempt a short, but honest and hopefully helpful comment. One opinion, one fact.
1) Opinion: Aside from the antenna issue, and for those who are having the second most common issue, the proximity sensor not working properly issue, the Iphone4 is a beautiful, elegant, state of the art smart phone device. It's display is as good as any, and better than most. Video and pictures are excellent, even in low light. It feels sold, even though both sides are glass. It is thin, and feels very good in the hand. It works nearly flawlessly surfing the web, emailing, messages, and the rest, despite the fact that it still lacks many basic feature that other much lessor priced smart phones have, such as saving and emailing any attachment. In short, it is really an amazing device that most everyone would be extremely happy with using everyday, and in most every way.
2) Fact: The Ihone4 has a basic electrical hardware design flaw in that all the antennas are on the outside rim of the phone, and thus in contact with the human body regardless of how it is held. When an antenna is touched by the human body the body interacts with the antenna's capability to act as an antenna which is tuned to a particular frequency of desire. This is true of any and all radiated electronic signals, regardless of their frequency, although frequency among many other variables will play a role in how this interference of the human body affects the functionallity of the receiver. Although many things can be done in software to alleviate this issue to some degree, the issue is basic and fundamentally hardware related, and can only be properly fixed in hardware.
Making the issue worse, is the fact that different antennas are along the outside edge which allows them to effectively be shorted together by the human hand. This is why the bottom left corner is the spot that affects the signal quality the most. Shorting two differently tuned antennas together (even through an high impedance), will negatively affect both antennas, although possibly one more so than the other.
As the issues root cause is fundamental, so is it's fix. All antennas must be isolated from direct (or even very close) contact with the human body. All other cell phones on the market have some sort of isolation between their antennas and the human body. Even with isolation, the human body will still have some affect if it is in close proximity to the antenna. So, all phones do have this issue, but none to the extreme of the Iphone4.
Many people have this issue, many do not, others have it only sometimes, others only when a certain person holds the phone, and so forth. All these symptoms are in line with such an human body interference root cause. The human body will have a different affect on a signal that is different to start with, and even will act differently at different times of the day, or night. The only valid test for this issue is testing in a chamber, such as the one that Consumer Reports used, that isolates all the variables to include only those one wishes to study. No real conclusion can be made without such scientific testing.
The question on everyone's mind is - can/will Apple fix this, how, and when? I will not answer the last two, but as to if it can be fixed, the answer is yes - but with qualifications. You cannot, some comments saying otherwise notwithstanding, fix the hardware without changing the hardware. The fix must be a hardware one, so something will have to compromise. Either the look, the feel, the size, or the functionallity (technical functional specs), will have to change to "fix" this issue 100%. Note that with 100% it is meant that it works at least as well as the 3GS, preferably better as Apple has said it is better, and touching or holding the phone anywhere will have little to no affect on it's signal quality or quantity.
I don't know how helpful this will be, but I believe it is important for people to know just where they stand when they are trying to determine if to purchase a product they will end up paying thousands of dollars for, and use for years to come.
The best way for people to make informed decisions is to be informed. Everybody's experiences with their Iphone4 can and are very helpful to others.
What are your experiences, good and bad, with the Iphone4?
Omega

Answer 1

I have the antenna issue with mine, and until the 4.0.1 update, the proximity sensor issue. Aside from a small inconvenience dealing with the placement of my hand, it is still the best smartphone I've used. It is also the most frustrating. It's not perfect by a long shot, however just yesterday I was two stories below the street in a steel cage surrounded by 150 servers and I had a 5 bar signal; could make calls and check email. I was the only one down there who could. I'm also the only one with an iPhone 4. When it works, it's wonderful. I can't wait until it's consistently awesome.
The fixes are coming. This won't be ignored. Apple has a horrible track record of getting in front of PR nonsense as evidenced by any of the last dozen or more screw ups, but they always fix them.