Samsung Vibrant And Captivate Suffer 'Death Grip' Too

[AMDZen]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225900042

Samsung held a huge launch event for its Galaxy S line of Android handsets in New York City a few weeks ago. During the event, Samsung's media relations staff was sure to take some pot shots at the iPhone 4, and told me, "You can hold the Galaxy S any way you want."

Um, not true.

I have both a Samsung Vibrant and Captivate on hand for testing purposes. In both phones, the internal antenna is apparently located on the back of the phone, towards the very bottom edge. When gripped around the bottom of the phone (with either hand) the signal strength drops almost immediately. The Vibrant went from three bars to zero bars in about five seconds, and the Captivate went from four bars to zero bars in about six seconds. When I let go, the signal returns immediately.

I replicated a similar signal drop with the Microsoft KIN devices a couple of weeks ago. I turned the KIN on, waited for it to connect to Verizon's network and register four bars of service. I then covered it up with both hands. Guess what happened? The signal dropped to two bars.

I don't hear KIN and Samsung Vibrant customers screaming about the "death grip" problem.

What these examples illustrate is how silly and overblown the reaction to the iPhone 4's "death grip" antenna problem really is. Many of the phones I review come with stickers on them. Those stickers often warn users of certain things. One of the stickers I've seen on many phones is one which warns users to avoid touching certain parts of the cell phone in order to not block the antenna. Covering the antenna of just about any cell phone made can result in a drop in signal strength.

Even when the Vibrant and Captivate lost signal strength, neither phone dropped a call, and I was still able to send text messages and surf the mobile web. With the iPhone 4, I never dropped a call or lost a data connection when it was suffering from the "death grip" phenomenon, either.

What's the bottom line here? Cell phones are complicated and complex devices. They have lots of radios (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS), lots of antennas, and rely on innumerable external factors to work correctly. How far away is the nearest cell tower, is it over a hill, what's standing in the way, are you in a building, are you in an area with overlapping coverage, are you in a moving vehicle, and (yes) how are you holding it? Expecting perfect performance and service 100% of the time is simply not realistic.

I am in no way excusing Apple's behavior and response to this particular issue (so far). I am simply pointing out that Apple isn't the only company on earth to make a phone that experiences signal attenuation when the antenna is obscured.

Hopefully Apple will set everything straight this afternoon so we can all forget about it and move on.

(By the way, Samsung, I have some crow for you to eat.)

 

[mosco]

Here is the Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BolQ9o_-Q68

And the Incredible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4zbQ3f7H0U

These videos are showing up all over youtube now for all major phones.

 

[Strk]

Here is the Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BolQ9o_-Q68

And the Incredible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4zbQ3f7H0U

These videos are showing up all over youtube now for all major phones.

The only problem is the iphone doesn't require anything special for the signal loss to happen. Some of the videos, people are literally trying to crush the phones to get it to happen.

That Samsung video is pretty funny too. Hold the phone is the least natural way possible? Yep!

 

[preslove]

The iphone doesn't require a "death grip" to attenuate the signal. You just need to cover the antenna, which is idiotically placed in an area that is easily covered when holding the phone normally. The "death grip" concept is just PR.

The design flaw is the placement of the antenna in an area you regularly put your hand.

 

[Slick5150]

Yeah, one is a design flaw, the other is someone purposefully trying to create an effect (nearly ANY phone with an internal antenna can produce this effect to some degree).

 

[Bateluer]

Tried various 'death grips' on my Droid to get the signal to drop. Never was able to get the voice signal to cut, but I was able to get the 3G data connection to drop by griping the top and bottom of the phone with both hands and applying enough force to crush an orange.

With the iPhone 4, simply covering the antenna causes the signal to drop.

 

[AMDZen]

The iphone doesn't require a "death grip" to attenuate the signal. You just need to cover the antenna, which is idiotically placed in an area that is easily covered when holding the phone normally. The "death grip" concept is just PR.

The design flaw is the placement of the antenna in an area you regularly put your hand.

Oh and you know this because you actually own the phone? No you don't, so get over it.

 

[preslove]

Oh and you know this because you actually own the phone? No you don't, so get over it.

I know it because I read Consumer Reports in depth analysis.

Oh, and you're the one who made this ridiculous thread.

Edit, here is a good explanation of how Steve Jobs shifted the conversation away from their design flaw and created the "death grip" stupidity:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/19/how-steve-jobs-turned-a-finger-spot-into-a-death-grip/

 

[abaez]

You can easily see it happening in the many videos on youtube.

 

[Bateluer]

Oh and you know this because you actually own the phone? No you don't, so get over it.

Every reputable review of the iPhone 4 demonstrates the behavior, as do many Youtube videos. You can also demonstrate the behavior yourself with demo models.

Would you like help extracting your head from Job's behind or can you manage?

 

[dougp]

I "experience" the phenomenon on my Captivate in a sense, that I'd have to AWKWARDLY hold the phone to force it to do the signal drops. On the other hand, I compared my signal strength to the iOS 4.1 meters and it scales along those lines, not the false way iOS 4 was reading it.

 

[Patranus]

I "experience" the phenomenon on my Captivate in a sense, that I'd have to AWKWARDLY hold the phone to force it to do the signal drops. On the other hand, I compared my signal strength to the iOS 4.1 meters and it scales along those lines, not the false way iOS 4 was reading it.

I would have to "awkwardly" hold an iPhone 4 to experience signal drops in normal use.

And considering what, .5% of users have found this "antenna issue" to be a problem I would have to say the vast majority of consumers agree.

Whats your point?

 

[preslove]

I would have to "awkwardly" hold an iPhone 4 to experience signal drops in normal use.

And considering what, .5% of users have found this "antenna issue" to be a problem I would have to say the vast majority of consumers agree.

Whats your point?

I regularly hold my phone in a way that would cover the iPhone 4 antenna.

Again, it takes ONE FINGER to cause the iPhone problem: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/19/how-steve-jobs-turned-a-finger-spot-into-a-death-grip/

I was able to momentarily take my vibrant to no bars by using both hands to cover all the sides and the entire back of the phone. The thing is, it was pretty uncomfortable to just hold it in that place and had to shift my hands slightly, which quickly took it back to full bars.

Here's Samsung's response:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/samsung-joins-the-crowd-rejects-apples-omnia-2-antenna-claims/

The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone, while iPhone's antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna. We have fully conducted field tests before the rollout of smartphones. Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future.

 

[AMDZen]

I know it because I read Consumer Reports in depth analysis.

Oh, and you're the one who made this ridiculous thread.

Edit, here is a good explanation of how Steve Jobs shifted the conversation away from their design flaw and created the "death grip" stupidity:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/19/how-steve-jobs-turned-a-finger-spot-into-a-death-grip/

Every reputable review of the iPhone 4 demonstrates the behavior, as do many Youtube videos. You can also demonstrate the behavior yourself with demo models.

Would you like help extracting your head from Job's behind or can you manage?

People who actually own the phone disagree. I made the thread since there are very few articles that show what a massive blowup the iPhone 4 thing is.

I'm willing to wager that most people wouldn't have ever even realized an issue existed if it wasn't for the media blowing it up. CR didn't notice it either, until they first reports came out about it - then CR went back and tested it and were like "oh, theres the issue".

Nobody cares what CR says anyway. Anyone who wanted one before wants one now, and it will sell in record numbers.

 

[mosco]

I regularly hold my phone in a way that would cover the iPhone 4 antenna.

Again, it takes ONE FINGER to cause the iPhone problem: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/19/how-steve-jobs-turned-a-finger-spot-into-a-death-grip/

I was able to momentarily take my vibrant to no bars by using both hands to cover all the sides and the entire back of the phone. The thing is, it was pretty uncomfortable to just hold it in that place and had to shift my hands slightly, which quickly took it back to full bars.

Here's Samsung's response:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/samsung-joins-the-crowd-rejects-apples-omnia-2-antenna-claims/

I don't hold my phone in a way that causes it on the iphone 4. If I was left handed I would be pissed though haha.

 

[preslove]

People who actually own the phone disagree. I made the thread since there are very few articles that show what a massive blowup the iPhone 4 thing is.

I'm willing to wager that most people wouldn't have ever even realized an issue existed if it wasn't for the media blowing it up. CR didn't notice it either, until they first reports came out about it - then CR went back and tested it and were like "oh, theres the issue".

Nobody cares what CR says anyway. Anyone who wanted one before wants one now, and it will sell in record numbers.

Did you really need to make a new thread to repeat Steve Jobs' talking points?

One finger |= deathgrip

 

[JD50]

Why is it so hard for some people to admit that Apple made a mistake? It's really not that big of a deal.

 

[AMDZen]

Did you really need to make a new thread to repeat Steve Jobs' talking points?

One finger |= deathgrip

Must affect some phones more then others - I can't do that with mine. I was only able to recreate the issue on my phone by holding it very tightly

 

[AMDZen]

Why is it so hard for some people to admit that Apple made a mistake? It's really not that big of a deal.

You see it as a mistake, most of the actual users see it as a non-issue.

 

[JD50]

You see it as a mistake, most of the actual users see it as a non-issue.

It's a pretty obvious design flaw. Apple is not perfect, now you know. Time to move on.

 

[preslove]

You see it as a mistake, most of the actual users see it as a non-issue.

Then why did you make a new thread about it? Just let it go.

 

[AMDZen]

Then why did you make a new thread about it? Just let it go.

Why are you still commenting in my thread? Just let it go

 

[Bateluer]

You see it as a mistake, most of the actual users see it as a non-issue.

Most of those people would also have bought the iPhone regardless of any flaw or limitation. Its an Apple product, after all, reality doesn't matter so long as it has style and that Apple logo. Most of the individuals who buy iPhones seem perfectly willing to ignore its flaws and problems. Its perfectly fine for them to do so, its their money. Its most of these people claiming that iPhone is the greatest device in the world, even with these well documented problems, that irritate me.

I'm not a fAndroid, but that blatant denial of reality irritates me.

 

[preslove]

Why are you still commenting in my thread? Just let it go

Idiots like you make this place worse than P&N sometimes. Just go away.

 

[QueBert]

Why is it so hard for some people to admit that Apple made a mistake? It's really not that big of a deal.

.5 of people experience calls dropped, while there is a flaw, it's nothing that people are making it out to be. A .5% failure rate on any other product would go un noticed. I have 4 friends with iPhone 4's, not a single one has had a single dropped call. 2 of them bitched because they could look at the phone and see the bars drop. If they were blind they wouldn't notice shit. .5% does not = the problem everyone is ragging on about. I held one of my friends, and I literally couldn't get it to drop a call, I tried everything, the worst I could do was make it look like it has no signal, but I was still talking so it was just a cosmetic issue. My 2 friends who get bars fading with no actual usage problems represent the majority of the owners who are upset here, and for them the software fix to display bars different has apparently made them happy (ironic) the majority of people I talk to who are upset over this don't even own an iPhone 4 and never will.